Building a 100mpg consumer vehicle

[Grant-53]

We had a saying at the pneumatics bench. "Never let the fact you don't know what you are doing keep you from doing a good job." My late father-in-law never went to college but ended up being a senior product engineer at an aerospace firm and had four patents.

Hey, somebody asked.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Grant-53

A single rear wheel suspension that allows for camber change would likely have four links and some means to allow the drive train to twist. A cog belt might be the most flexible.

Don't know why camber-changing geometry on the single wheel end of a trike is coming up now; including the leaning trikes (single wheel camber change is incidental to the lean controlled by the multi-wheeled end) no trike I'm aware of has that and they even manage to handle well too.

[sheepdog 44]

Haven't read this thread in a while. Can someone link to the thread post that shows the latest development pictures? I read DOT coming over and thought it must be coming along nicely but must of missed it skimming back 20 pages looking for it.

[drmiller100]

the windshield fell over and broke. need to make another one.

so i cancelled the DOT until next week.

I was asked to quit posting updates on this site, so I did.

[ecomodded]

Murphy's Law strikes again.
Good thing you can chop the windshield yourself, Paying a shop to make it up again would really suck.
miller you got to put your cackles down.
People post up what they think, doesn't mean they seriously expect you to follow their advice, they are thinking out loud, basically,mostly off the mark, but trying to be helpful.
I bet everyone who has posted in this thread is pulling for you and your project.

[JackMcCornack]

What ecomodded said, drmiller, and even if it's not everyone, just keep posting for those of us (I expect it's the vast majority) who -are- pulling for you and are following your build with interest. Those who don't care for what you're doing can stop clicking onto this thread, nobody's forcing them to read it.

Regarding the rear wheel camber, I think one reason the Morgans were such winners (on the race tracks at least) was because the rear camber and the front camber -did- match at all angles of lean, as do all the VW front axle trikes, though they did not achieve this synchronicity with sophisticated rear suspension, but instead with primitive front suspension.

[divedaddy03]

Damn Glass!

Please don't stop posting...I agree with the two posts above!

Wayne
SC

Originally Posted by drmiller100

the windshield fell over and broke. need to make another one.

so i cancelled the DOT until next week.

I was asked to quit posting updates on this site, so I did.

[JethroBodine]

I'm looking forward to seeing it on the salt. Even if you don't run, I'd be honored to have a pic of our cars together

[drmiller100]

I'll be at bonneville with it.

Absolute, positive worse case I can throw the windshiedl in, weld a few odds and ends, and take it as is.

I'd LIKE to have it painted and a bunch of body work done.

Cutting windshield. Cutting windshields is actually really easy. A local glass shop is selling me the windshield at cost (60 bucks) and cutting it for free. There is some trades involved as I send them some business, but they are being VERY nice to me.

I'll probably throw a sticker for advertising for them on it when it runs and looks good.

As for the feedback, thanks.

For a while there, this site really bummed me out.

When building something like this there are a BUNCH of challenges to overcome. So many problems, so much time, so much frustration.

Then I'd come post here, and all I would get is a bunch of dumbasses telling me I did it wrong and how it can't be done and how it will never work.

Of course it will work. But I don't need the negativity from a bunch of bar stool tail gunners. It makes it all seem worthless, and to keep my enthusiasm, I quit sharing any of the problems and solutions.

People are just flat rude on the internet anymore. People wouldn't say the stupid **** they do in person they do on the 'net.

And apparently, if you are popular on this site, you can say anything you want and the mods will punish you if you complain.

'tis what 'tis, so i quit sharing here.

A reminder. This is my thread, so I can say pretty much any opinion I have. And the tailegunners can say whatever they want.

But, nice to hear some postiive feedback.

Thank you.

[Grant-53]

The rear wheel discussion came in, I believe, with skyking at #227 on 6/17. I had forgotten this project is FWD. Most trikes are rear wheel drive with motorcycle swing arms. Rear steer is tricky since it is speed sensitive and the HPV folks have had trouble with this. A motorcyle tire is designed to lean but usually wears much faster than a car tire. In this case I would suggest making the rear swing arm a single side, angle section piece. The lean angle could be tuned by changing the length and thickness of plates on the verticle portion of the swing arm as well as the rates on twin spring/shocks.
Without knowing particulars I imagine the front tires might be 65 series 13 in. The rear tire could be a 15 inch to give a longer tire patch.

Thanks for your patience.