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Old 07-18-2012, 07:10 PM   #30 (permalink)
Ryland
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
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honda cb125 - '74 Honda CB 125 S1
90 day: 79.71 mpg (US)

green wedge - '81 Commuter Vehicles Inc. Commuti-Car

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70% of your breaking power is at the front wheels, because as you slow the vehicle the weight shifts to the front, it keeps the vehicle more stable.

I personally like the idea of a 4 wheeled vehicle, a big part of that is living in an area that gets snow, with three wheels you end up with three tire tracks, with 4 wheels you end up with 2 tire tracks, I've also driven a 3 wheeled electric car in the summer on clean dry roads as well as on some dirt road and on well worn roads the rear wheel being in the center gave a less stable feeling.

Have you looked in to the Sunrise EV2? the trouble is that the design is nearly 20 years old so the vehicle that you stripped down for the doors and sub frame is also over 20 years old now and getting harder to find.

Using a unibody vehicle makes the project a little harder to a point but it also means that the body should have some stiffness to it, so cutting a whole side off of a unibody car to make use of the doors should not be a problem, a lot of new cars now glue body panels on instead of welding, spot welds create a weak point because they are a single spot of contact while two panels glued together end up being much stiffer, auto part stores sell to body shops so any auto part store should stock or be able to order these glues for gluing panels together, I see this option as being much cheaper then learning to spot weld.
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