My Wife Kyrsten and I built the Electrobite in my shop "Form & Reform" in West Oakland.
Kyrsten and I started on this project Aug 2009 and finished it just in time for Burning Man . We took an old electric wheel chair and made it into a prehistoric creature known as a trilobite. I enjoyed working on another great project with my wife (these projects keep us on our toes, I hear building a house together works too). This is the 3rd car of 5 we have made the 1st being the SS Alpha Fox and the 2nd was the giant iron snail car The Golden Mean. The scale of this one is great and I’m really liking working with hand hammered sheet metal mixed with forged steel parts.
Following is the basic process by which we built this amazing vehicle. This is meant as a process guide for building any kind of wheelchair based vehicle and as a loose guide for building this one. There are far too many details in this project and each step could be broken into many different standalone Instructables. I hope by posting this you gather your own team and make your own dream car together. The sum of the parts makes wonderful things!
For more info see: Electrobite
Other builds
The Golden Mean a Giant Iron Snail Car
Zeppelini
There is now a fan club for the Golden Mean on Facebook
Keep track of the Boiler Bar events and news there
JOIN
My blog:
Oilpunk
Rate My Build Here-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Wheelchair
This is the 1st of 3 wheelchairs I have done and I love how much time I spend on the art part and how little time I need to work on motors, steering linkages, drive trains and general mechanics of a full car build.
After building the Electrobite I was contacted by a few people that wanted to give us wheelchairs for future projects. Larry was nice enough to give me a Quickie wheelchair and help me out with some spare parts and programmers.
I checked out Craigslist and found quite a few late models for under $500.
Make sure the batteries are good and everything works before purchasing.
Make sure to get the heavy duty ones. Most of these will hold 300-400 lbs. total including your chair. Keep this weight in mind as you design and build your vehicle. Dressed I'm 200 lb., plus the traction/batteries at 75 lb. meant I had to keep my shell weight under 125 lb.
Once you get it back to the work shop use it, play on it, take it to a party and drive it around the neighborhood. You will have a much better idea of what needs to be fixed, its range, how to drive and a very small appreciation for what it’s like to need one of these every day! It's quite an eye opener for how differently people treated me in one, even close friends.
After test driving on loose surfaces I made a few upgrades to the tires by adding lawn tractor tires to the rear and bigger foam filled ones to the front.
After building the Electrobite I was contacted by a few people that wanted to give us wheelchairs for future projects. Larry was nice enough to give me a Quickie wheelchair and help me out with some spare parts and programmers.
I checked out Craigslist and found quite a few late models for under $500.
Make sure the batteries are good and everything works before purchasing.
Make sure to get the heavy duty ones. Most of these will hold 300-400 lbs. total including your chair. Keep this weight in mind as you design and build your vehicle. Dressed I'm 200 lb., plus the traction/batteries at 75 lb. meant I had to keep my shell weight under 125 lb.
Once you get it back to the work shop use it, play on it, take it to a party and drive it around the neighborhood. You will have a much better idea of what needs to be fixed, its range, how to drive and a very small appreciation for what it’s like to need one of these every day! It's quite an eye opener for how differently people treated me in one, even close friends.
After test driving on loose surfaces I made a few upgrades to the tires by adding lawn tractor tires to the rear and bigger foam filled ones to the front.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Love your built btw!
Thanks
? or how much did it cost to make? is it street legal?
NICE Job You Guys!
Looks like something in Stargate
I had a hard time choosing which one to make. We went with small horns to keep from killing people
A well-deserved "feature".