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Even cooler is I took it in trade on a $150 parts bill for repairing a lawn tractor and garden tiller. Palmer is still in business and sells pretty much the same trike for almost $6,000! :-)
My folks,74 and 69 years old, figure they can use it to run around town, to the grocery store, McDonalds, Bi-Mart, hardware store etc. instead of taking the Mountaineer or Dakota.
Shouldn't be a problem, there are some other seniors running around town on golf carts and something the size of a GEM car, but it's not a GEM car. All warm weather rigs.
Watching some videos of the current Palmer Twosome, it appears to have a different drivetrain, the motor is farther forward and it doesn't have the shift lever that moves up and down.
This old one has a 5 speed Tecumseh transaxle, most likely the 800/801 series. It has a horizontal input shaft at one side and a short belt from the motor to that shaft.
If the axle shafts have their own bearings mounted to the frame, shouldn't be too hard to make changes to the drivetrain. Smaller, lighter, more powerful. We have the technology, we can rebuild it!
If the axles are just extensions from the transaxle and supported by it, then the easiest course will be just replacing the motor with a more efficient brushless DC and electronic control system. Not as efficient as a pair of motors and direct drive/reduction belts, but easier to do.
Palmer boasts that the Twosome can climb a 40% grade with a 150 pound load. They don't say at what speed it can do that. 'Course there's no 40% grades in this town but my folks aren't the sort of senior citizens that look like they've been left in the sun to dry. ;-) People frequently assume they're 10~20 years younger than they are.
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