That is great, Photomancer. You had about 100 lbs with the gas and motor. If we use the right electric motor and battery pack I bet we could stay near that weight. Weight distribution would be better, without that outboard hanging off the back.
We can work out a motor mount, with a drive shaft going through the boat bottom.
What would a 18-20 HP electric motor cost? If we could select a motor we could work out the physical location, given the weight.
I was thinking the Space cart, i.e. the Brandon Death Trap would just evolve into different projects as they are completed, played with and then moved on. The motor, controllers,and batteries are where the cost are.
I do have an extra new ME0708 motor (same as used in drift kart) sitting here that I either need to sell or use for another project, they are rated 7 - 20hp (peak, would overheat in 30 seconds at that output rate) @ 48 volts. It weighs 30 pounds, a small capacity lipo battery pack is less than 10 pounds
Maybe we could put both motors in, both driving one prop shaft with short chains (like the chain in the kart). Could each motor make 12HP for a sustained period of time? 24HP would be nice.
Would we need another motor controller?
Combine the boat and car idea into a small amphibian:wink:.
Speaking of electric boats, ran across this
I would like to know where he found a 72v 40ah lifepo battery pack for only $1,500 in 2012, apparently Iām looking in the wrong places.
Why donāt we just look for a junkyard engine?
Perhaps that was the firesale price from that electric car company he got the motor from.
Home Depot is selling the 18V 4AH (72 W-H) Ryobi packs 2/$99 right now - thatās $0.69 / watt-hour for decent high-rate packs.
I like the electric bike idea, the hovercraft feels like it will be a flop.
Or if someone needs a carbād Chevy V8 350 converted to EFI and electronic ignition with a Megasquirt, that would be a fun project as well.
If you settle on something needing sprockets and chains and axles and such this might be a good grab.
Or for anyone looking for those things otherwise:
http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/zip/5360170552.html
This would be the race to run if we made ourselves a cheap off road truck.
Expensive hobby right there. I have a lot of friends that are into that & trophy trucks
In my experience, the cheapest car racing is about $300/hr incl. transportation costs and doing all the work yourself, though this heavily depends on the platform chosen. I consider my Miata very cheap to race, but itās still silly amounts of dough.
Any idea how truck racing compares? I would guess weāre probably in the $400/hr range minimum due to increased tire and suspension costs. Is there anything cheaper on an off road truck vs racecar? Not sure if transportation costs would be higher or not.
I like all things fast, and would love to get involved mechanically, but I probably couldnt afford to drive.
Throwing out a question for the auto group.
This would be a project in the future, not anytime in the next few months, Iām just gauging interest levels.
Friend of mine has an old VW van in storage. No engine, and would probably need a new transmission
as well. Sheād like to do a full interior restore as well as mechanical work. She would have no objections
to it being used as a group project, to be used for classes, etc. She obviously would become a member
of the space, and would be paying for the parts, etc. Is this something that Automotive would be interested in?
[quote=ābreckenedge, post:37, topic:6444ā] Is there anything cheaper on an off road truck vs racecar? Not sure if transportation costs would be higher or not.
[/quote]
I used to do motorcycle Roadracing, now I do an occasional cross country race on dirt bikes. These organizations also run UTE and ATV races on separate tracks, you may want to look at those:
http://www.tornracing.com/indexatv.html
Hovercraft would be fun. I have used air-skates to move heavy equipment in a shop. Stirs up alot of dust.
An open source truck would be easy, scaleable & somewhat practical. Just has to haul crap and ram stuff to be a winner. No hi-perf costs and breakage. Or I have some big baldor 3ph motors Iāll donate if you want to make it electric and rob a forklift battery.
Mini skidsteer? I might could donate the hydraulics. Could be electro-hydraulic. Lead-acid is cheap and good ballast. Use it in the shop for a forklift.
I am building an electric sports car based on a C5 Corvette. I know I could use some help with finishing the body and a lot of help with the electronics. I contacted the president of the National Electric Drag Race Association (NEDRA http://www.nedra.com ) and priced out the DC drivetrain components. One big challenge will be packaging, mounting and wiring the multiple battery packs required. My prototype will be very similar to the Zombie 222 project http://zombie222.com. Here are the basics of the build: http://www.nedra.com/build.html. Unfortunately the donor car has an automatic transmission and the transmission and rear end are combined on the C5. This requires that some means needs to be devised to control the transmission. Aftermarket transmission controllers are less than $1500 so that is one option. Iām sure there must be some DIY setups that cost significantly less. The second donor car is planned to be a convertible with a manual transmission but I have to work with what I have. The cost to convert a C5 from an automatic to a manual transmission is prohibitively expensive, The eventual plan is to build a business selling cars with a custom tube frame chassis that can accept multiple custom body designs made from carbon fiber.
Anyone interested in this project? At this point I have spent over 18 month so far on the body conversion and the prototype fiberglass body is about 75% complete. The car currently still has the stock Corvette LS1 engine and drivetrain. Most of the EV components can be bought off the shelf and will need to be custom mounted, installed and wired up.
I vote for another electric project. We could start an inter-makerspace competitive league: Formula EMP - (Electric Maker Propulsion). We could then challenge other Makerspaces to drag races, lap times, and efficiency (via endurance events). We could invent whole new categories of how to cheat in motorsports!