Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
If I was designing a super-trike from scratch, it would have three wheel drive and three wheel steering. Would that be excessive?
|
Depending on your mission, etc, 3WD could certainly be handy, although 2WD is 50% better than it is on a quad. I'm fond of velomobiles with mechanical drive to the rear wheel, and electrics up front for snowy days.
Three wheel steering is a rare requirement. There was a fad for All Wheel Steering on the road in the 80's, and I thought Honda had the most elegant system, while staying all-mechanical. For a highway lane change, your initial steering input was mimicked at the back, about 50%, so you'd slide over with less yaw than usual. Once the steering angle at the front got past about 5 deg, the back caught up and passed it, so for parking, you'd get a considerably tighter turning circle. The cost/benefit just didn't get a second generation built. In road racing, the driver would have a harder time sensing his angles of drift. Off-road, it might get you through some otherwise impossible places.
One caveat with trikes (except MC sidecar rigs) is that you want to find three smooth tracks among the potholes, not just two, and your middle wheel will be running where few others do.
BONUS: Dodge once put out a pickup truck with a removable roof. Then they went around and asked how the owners liked them. Most had never been off, and a large minority of owners were not even aware that it was removable.