Posted: 01:16am 23 Apr 2006

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OK, not really windmill related, or even enviromentally friendly.

I picked up a busted electric scoota from a guy at work. He bought it for his kids a few months earlier, and one of them tried to drive up a gutter at full speed. Funny enough, it didn't like that, and smashed the front wheel and forks. So I was given half a scoota, the handle bars and front wheel were missing.

I had a handle bar from another scoota, all I needed was the hand grip speed control, and front wheel. I ordered a hand grip control from Oatley electronics, but what about the front wheel. The cheapest wheel I could find was $35. But then a mate suggested I buy a trolley from Bunnings, for $25 you get the trolley and TWO pump up tyres! Sold.

I fitted the controller and new wheel, and took the scoota for a spin. Well wasn't that depressing, this thing was gutless, and I had hoped it would have enough power to get up the hill to my place. You see I wanted a scoota so I could run down to the front gate to check the mail and take out the rubish.

OK, plan B. I had a 17cc 2 stroke whipper snipper doing nothing since I bought a new 4 stroke one. It has a centrifugal clutch, so would work on the scoota. I needed to reduce the gearing ratio more, so I used a gear box from a dead angle grinder, giving me an extra 4:1 ratio on top of the existing chain ratio. While I was at it I adapted a drum brake from the bike wreckers, the original brake system left a lot to be desired. A hand throttle was fitted and a tank full of gas saw me hooning around the yard with the dog determined to bite that front wheel. 

But it still did not have enough grunt to get up the hill. I needed more power!

Plan C. A visit to the local dump came up with a 30cc whipper snipper for $25. It didn't go, but when I got it home I cleaned out the carbi, and she fired up. The new motor was fitted to the scoota with a little modification to the frame. Took it for a spin around the yard, and it sure had more power then the 17cc motor. Tried the hill, yes! It makes it up the hill, but is working darn hard.

Plan D and Plan E. I need a little more power. The whipper snippers have a terrible muffler system, very restrictive, so my next step it to build an expansion chamber exhaust system. If this still lacks power, I'll got back to electric.

A car starter motor can make 2 - 3 hp, thats more than enough power to get up the hill. But, there are problems with using starter motors. One is speed control, to control a motor that draws a couple hundred amps would take a fancy ( see: expensive ) controller, or I could just use a heavy relay to switch the motor on or off. This may make taking off a bit interresting. The other problem is starter motors usually use bronze bushes instead of bearings, meaning a short duty cycle. A couple of minutes use is about the max before you turn it off and let things cool down. But it would only take a minute to get up the hill, so this could work.

Glenn

Posted: 08:00am 23 Apr 2006

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Hey Chris

The original motor was the same as one of those Oatley motors. It came with a 200 watt motor, and I swapped that with a 300 watt motor, but was still lacking in power. OK on the flat, but couldn't make it up the hill.

Glenn

Posted: 04:22am 24 Apr 2006

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Good idea but still no where near the power I need Chris. The whipper snipper motor would be making close to 1000 watts, and it struggles with the hill, and besides, I would need to buy a 500watt motor. If I convert to a car starter motor, I have several lying around I could use.

Glenn