so i did a search on the forums (ya...new here) to see if anyone else has ever had the crazy idea to make his three wheeler into a 3 wheel drive. glad to see i'm not the only one who lies awake @ night thinkng about these kind of things.
i actually gave it a try once and had a little bit of success. most seem to have the wrong idea of the 3 wheel drive though. you would only want to engage it when near stuck with the back wheels in mud, water, up a hill....etc.. so the problems of steering...etc are really not an issue.
forget about the hydraulic or gas motor on the front rack, or whatever. electric is the way to go. I got a 12volt motor (from a 12 volt drill), attached a rollerblad wheel to it, and mounted it tighly to the inside hub. then hooked it up to the 12 volt battery with a switch. so it would always be engaged when riding, but you just gave it 12 volts and the friction pressure from the rollerblade wheel would drive the front wheel when you wanted.
ok some notes:
if you don't have reverse, this little goody with a polarity switch will get you reverse when you want it!
my motor didn't have nearly enough power, so it wouldn't work with weight on it. well actually its not really the motor, but more gearing if you consider how small the actual motor is on a winch that moves 1000's of pounds. but more gearing will add to the complexity. proposed solution: a 12 volt starter motor will have no power problems whatsoever
there's probably a better alternative to the rollerblade wheel. i had a sprocket fastened to my wheel and was going to go the chain drive route, but lost interest soon after.
anyway, i think i'll give this a try again and see how it goes.
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not running yet. but won't be long.
