Solar Powered Trike

Step 2 Drivetrain / Running Gear

The drivetrain consists of your electrical system and electric motor. The Electric Hub Motor kit was purchased from (www.Goldenmotor.com), costs $259 and consists of a front wheel with an integrated brushless 36 Volt electric motor as part of the hub, along with the necessary components such as a twist grip throttle, brake levers that are wired to cut power to the motor, battery level indicator, and the motor-speed controller, 36V battery charger and a battery pack connector. Not sure if the kit is still available but they still sell everything needed. The customer service is basically an owners forum, which did prove useful in diagnosing a bent pin in on of the electrical connections.

The motor install requires a simple front wheel change, and routing the wires back to the controller which will be mounted under the rear basket. Slack must be left in the wires around the steering tube / fork juncture so they will not be in tension even at the maximum steering angle. The grips and brake levers are replaced with the new ones, and their wires also routed back to the controller.

Choosing the right battery is a compromise between price, weight, and range vs. charge time. Lots of money can be spent on batteries, but since I was on a budget, I had to take what I could get. I took a multi-meter to a local industrial liquidation warehouse and found 3 batteries for $20 each, and have worked good so far. (3) -12 volt, 20 Amp/hour batteries are run in series to make 36 volts. 20A/hr provides long range, with the trade-off being a longer charge time. Abattery cut of switch was added so the rider does not have to unplug the battery pack to shut the electrical system off.

Comments

[matt burd]

Dpearce, we found a used trike eith a form made for 20 inch wheel. Does Golden Motors sell various motorized hub sizes? hard to tell from web site, but we are emailing them as well. Thanks for the great idea.

[solarbipolar]

Goldenmotor is in no way the only supplier out there for hub motors. And you can get no technical help from them so beware. Hub motors are available everywhere. And hub motors come already laced to a wheel and come in all sizes. You just replace your old wheel with the hubmotor/wheel.

[cruelassasins]

your motor is 36 volts right....can u please tell us the power of the motor u used...

[skymanflyer96]

can you use a car battery

[dpearce1]

You can use 3 of them in series, but due to the large capacity of the batteries the time it takes to charge them would not be practical, and it would be very heavy. The range would be extended greatly. The semester after this was finished some students built a similar project, that used 3 car batteries and seats 3-4 people, it was a 4 wheeler made of several bikes and used two hub motors in the front.

[egriff]

its a 36v motor... are you sure?

[aeneas shrike]

I had looked at golden motor before, but was unable to get an idea of how much of an issue it would be using batteries other than the ones sold on their site, as in does their hub motor come with wiring ends that are meant for their own batteries?

[jimngo]

Did you consider about mounting the drive wheel to the rear axle instead of the fork? What would be the pros/cons? I think it would make the wiring simpler.

[dpearce1]

My original plan was to mount an electric motor over the rear axle, and connect with sprockets, but then I came across these front hub motors, installing them is as simple as changing the front wheel. Rear wheel hub motors are available, but they are designed to have support on both sides of the axle, double shear, like in the rear of a bicycle. This trike does not have that in the rear, the axle is supported on one side, single shear. It could be done, but for this trike the front hub motor was simpler, and it works great.