eta: super efficient 3 wheeled car (project thread)

[DAN]

carte4rs dop wasted a lot of money doing teck tests on 3 wheelers and disd a report. ever gerl head knew what it would say. you must keep the whells far apart. more so than on a 4 wheeler. hi po ones are on sale in eurp some have been imported. its something i was going to do when i was to old to ride. never did.

[DAN]

thats jimmycarter son.

[Geo Lorraine]

[QUOTE=eta;3460]Hi, I'm new. "eta" is the Greek letter for efficiency; I want to build a very efficient, super lightweight 3 wheeled car. My design: a side by side 2 seater using the Suzuki 3 cylinder 5 spd drive train.

2 powered wheels in front and a single rear wheel, using as many OEM pieces as possible, front struts, brakes, steering, with a fabricated swing arm rear suspension with a coil-over shock. A steel tube space frame with bonded-on ("stressed") honeycomb aluminum body panels.

I want to make a "bare-bones" running prototype first, with minimal body panels and just a lexan windshield, no doors or other windows. Later I intend to add aerodynamic body panels and weather protection, removable "gullwing" doors, etc.

This will legally be a motorcycle, which makes all the government hassles more manageable; it will have a full roll cage and 4 point racing harnesses, helmets will be worn.

I hope to keep the curb weight down near 800 lbs and so it should be fun to drive, have excellent performance with truly outstanding economy. This 3 wheel layout gives fantastic aerodynamics, a perfect teardrop shape, less weight, rolling resistance, etc.

Your first question, will it tip over? A 3 wheeler of this "tadpole" 2F, 1R layout can be just as stable as a good 4 wheeler, if it has a wider front track, low cg, and proper weight distribution. I plan to use the right-side axles from the 4 cylinder manual trans Suzuki on both sides, as they are longer, to increase the front track from 52.3" up to 60-66".

I also want to experiment with propane. It burns cleaner, the equipment is simpler and I can use an 11:1 compression ratio possible with the 100+ octane rating to get very good efficiency. Yes propane doesn't have the energy/gal of gasoline, but it has HIGHER energy/lb.

I hope eventually this will be a universal frame design that can utilize different drive trains such as VW diesel, or electric, or even hydrogen. I have some rough drawings and notes, including a static stability calculation I can post here if there is interest.

At this point I need feed back and a real engineer to help finish the design. I have shown my sketches to Dave Norton, see his Shrike design online. So, any comments about my little project?

I HAVE A SIMILIAR PROJECT THAT TOOK ME 5 YEARS TO BUILD AN I STILL NOT DONE, I HAVE A OLDER STYLE OF THE CAR ON A YOUTUBE VIDEO OF IT, I WILL UPDATE THE VIDEO LATER WITH A DIFFERENT LOOK TO MY CAR. THE CAR'S NAME IS "GEO LORRAINE 3WLR", TO SEE THE VIDEO JUST GOOGLE, GEO LORRAINE. HAVE ANY QUESTIONS EMAIL I'D BE HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT IT.

[Christopher Jordan]

At a certain point building a 3-wheeler seems to be a vehicle "phase". Welcome Geo Lorraine! My "phase" began in 1979 starting out innocently enough; went from a home-built delta trike to tadpole, motorized trike, factory electric trike (enclosed motorcycle: no helmet), enclosed velomobile, convertible velomobile, back to a motorized trike I cannot get to now, and a smaller trike with no motor which I cannot get to either. My garage power is off- so I am going through trike withdrawal.

[Christopher Jordan]

WOW! This link is still working! Really bad fraud reports about this one. I don't know who to believe. This side-by-side never appeared. I thought it is "vapor-ware"-
ECO Motor Company Home Page - Welcome to EMC3 - The Shape of the Future - 60+ MPG EMC3 Commuter
AC, PW,PB,cruise,stereo with only 650 cc. I was looking forward to that.

[xpedro01]

Geo Lorraine -I am also playing with a 3 wheeler, but it is of the less popular shape; that is one wheel in front and 2 in the back, like Honda and Harley use a lot. I am 87, so I really need to get in gear. I purchased a Chinese 300cc trike with v belt automatic transmission with reverse box attached. When stock they claim 60-70 Mpg but I cannot verify that. The first modification was to change the final drive driving sprocket from a 19 tooth to a 29 tooth, which gives an overdrive of 1.52 or allows the engine to run at
.65 of stock. Acelleration was still acceptable for my purposes-economy. The body l built of .063 aluminum and 1/16th" lexan, which is a very friendly plastic. Try breaking a DVD disk.
The body is the shape of a vertical very fat symetrical airfoil. My first attempt worked ok but was too tall. I was concerned that a super Kansas crosswind could topple it. It is now in phase 2 where it was lowered 14 inches. This is requiring monstrous rewiring and frame reworking to get the operator down to a decent level. I will attempt to get photos on. If I fail, they can be seen by going to the Google search on eco-modder and asking for "xpedro01". There is an album for 3 wheeler.

[Xist]

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - xpedro01's Album: ENCLOSED 3 WHEELER

[Christopher Jordan]

Originally Posted by Christopher Jordan

WOW! This link is still working! Really bad fraud reports about this one. I don't know who to believe. This side-by-side never appeared. I thought it is "vapor-ware"-
[url=http://www.ecomotorcompany.com/default_home.htm]ECO Motor Company Home Page - Welcome to EMC3.

Sorry, but no, that link is not working. 2 years later and {page not found} I don't know if ECO made more than 1 really good rendering.

[xpedro01]

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1392484521

[Xist]

XPedro, if you want to include pictures, here is how I do it.

Right-click on your attachment and select "Copy shortcut:"


or, if you already attached it:


and then click on the image button:


Then you paste it and should be set.