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Skunk entry #4
Dec. 5th, 2009 11:43 amWith the dissolution of the low option, I was able to further flesh out the buggy configuration. There are a lot of variables that can influence the ultimate design, such as how tall will/should the bus be, what sitting angle would be comfortable yet give me the best view, what seat height would give me the optimal power & traction, how long can the wheel base be, etc.
I came upon the idea of running a strut from the hollow fork up to the roof, and then down to the main chassis, similar to a go-cart’s roll cage. That’ll take a lot of moment off of the main seat-to-fork (lower) strut. In order to give me some extra headroom, the returning/downward part of the overhead strut will be split into two pipes that pass over my shoulders. That’ll lend some lateral stability to the overhead strut and rotational axis of the fork. I spent (wasted) a lot of time figuring out the optimal angle of the fork, only to find out that I couldn’t finalize the angle until I had a better idea of the sitting angle and seat height. Those can only come from physical testing.
Although the overhead strut will reduce the stress on the lower strut, I still worry that the lower strut will have to be bulky to carry that load, and that means that possibly it’ll be so overbuilt that it will be too wide for me to straddle and comfortably pedal around. At about 8” wide, that’s way too big to get between my legs in the confines of the Catbus. Therefore I may have to use metal tubing instead of pvc, to slim down the lower strut. I hadn’t planned on including metal in this build, but if I only use it sparingly, it shouldn’t involve too much difficulty. The transitions will include some complications I’m assuming, but hopefully they won’t be show-stoppers. If lateral stability proves to be lacking on the fork/lower strut, I could add lateral stabilizing pvc struts to the main lower strut. Though it would be hard to find a location for them that wouldn’t interfere with pedaling.
The build won’t start till January at the earliest, but soon I need to get/fabricate a seat so that I can test the configurations and get the necessary info mentioned above. I could get a lot of designing done in the meantime if I had that.
I came upon the idea of running a strut from the hollow fork up to the roof, and then down to the main chassis, similar to a go-cart’s roll cage. That’ll take a lot of moment off of the main seat-to-fork (lower) strut. In order to give me some extra headroom, the returning/downward part of the overhead strut will be split into two pipes that pass over my shoulders. That’ll lend some lateral stability to the overhead strut and rotational axis of the fork. I spent (wasted) a lot of time figuring out the optimal angle of the fork, only to find out that I couldn’t finalize the angle until I had a better idea of the sitting angle and seat height. Those can only come from physical testing.
Although the overhead strut will reduce the stress on the lower strut, I still worry that the lower strut will have to be bulky to carry that load, and that means that possibly it’ll be so overbuilt that it will be too wide for me to straddle and comfortably pedal around. At about 8” wide, that’s way too big to get between my legs in the confines of the Catbus. Therefore I may have to use metal tubing instead of pvc, to slim down the lower strut. I hadn’t planned on including metal in this build, but if I only use it sparingly, it shouldn’t involve too much difficulty. The transitions will include some complications I’m assuming, but hopefully they won’t be show-stoppers. If lateral stability proves to be lacking on the fork/lower strut, I could add lateral stabilizing pvc struts to the main lower strut. Though it would be hard to find a location for them that wouldn’t interfere with pedaling.
The build won’t start till January at the earliest, but soon I need to get/fabricate a seat so that I can test the configurations and get the necessary info mentioned above. I could get a lot of designing done in the meantime if I had that.
