First... I'll need a snowmobile

Status
Not open for further replies.
Well when planning this project out you have to consider how much $$$ I bring in. I'm 17 and in high school. So I've got another 60 hours of work in this program in in, then hopefully the store itself will hire.
Let's assume the best happens... I do park time work until June 10th then full time until August 23rd. A chunck of that money will go into my 18th birthday present for myself.

Taking all this into consideration where would I find two electric engines that I can afford?
 
Erm...not incredibly cheap. I guess it all depends on the quality of the build you want to have. Like you said, since you wanna do a 50cc motor int he first place to avoid having to register it as a vehicle; electric motors aren't much different; you can go for a really beefy one and spend about 450 for a pair, or you can go for less beefy one, like 1/15 Horsepower and it'll go slow, but it'll be cheaper (more around 50 bucks a motor) or you can go for a 50cc engine, and try to set up tank controls using hydraulics or gearboxes, or try making it RWD. There are a ton of configurations you can set this thing into, and it's just a matter of choosing one.
 
In Illinois, at least, as long as the "scooter" is under 150ccs, all you have to do is have a license, so long as you don't plan on driving it on the road. If you wanna drive it on the road, then all you need to do is get it registered as a Scooter Vehicle, and possibly pay insurance on it, not sure. Again, all of this is based off of how you want it to drive and what not.
As far as I can tell, you can run it the following ways;
Gas Engine driving 2 front wheels, rear wheel steers
Gas Engine driving rear wheel, front wheels steer
Gas Engine driving front wheels, front wheels steer (hard, but would be your best bet, if you plan on making it gas-powered, I think) rear wheel is a freewheel fixed axle.
Gas Engine driving 2 front wheels independently (Tank-like driving mechanics. Would be hard to implement, but might be cool to drive) rear wheel is a freewheel caster (can rotate freely and roll).

For electric motors, you can do the same configurations, but in that case, tank-like steering becomes a rather viable option.

I just had another thought.

You could set it up to drive like a real ghost; where the front wheel set is powered and rotates freely 360 degrees, and the rear wheel is a spring-caster (it freewheels and can turn 360 degrees, but has a preferred direction of travel). In this kind of vehicle, you'd be sliding around like you were actually on a Ghost! It could work with both electric motors and gas engines, too. It'd also mean you wouldn't necessarily need a gear for reverse, since all you need to do is rotate the control wheel 180 degrees, though it might be a good idea to limit the travel to 90 degrees in either direction and give it the reverse gear.

I'll draw up a diagram of what I mean in a bit if it's hard to understand.
 
Drawing1.jpg


Like this.
 
I think (if I were to do this) I'll make it one electric motor on each front wheel, wheels fixed, and have the ability for reverse and the rear wheel free. So I'd end up steering it like a tank. I'd most likely give it the strongest motors I can find without going completely insane.
If I can get a decent budget for this then I'll do it next school year.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top