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Originally Posted by preston
I appreciate you sharing all this stuff with us Todd. Interesting design and lots of twists and turns...
...I do like your designs though.
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Thanks Preston, it's a fun project to design and work on. I'm happy that it's interesting and entertaining to others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by preston
...I would not one thing - T style roadsters and such are usually built on a lightweight theme, all of the closeups of your brackets and stuff everything seems to be made of .125-.250 thick steel ! Reminds me of the first scratch built car I put together. I wonder if you could downsize some of the thicknesses and add a little more gusseting and fabrication ? Maybe i"m off base just something I noticed...
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Your observations have merit. I am usually a fan of lighter is better, and as light as possible is golden (I actually prefer aluminum and composites over steel), but I decided to have a little fun with heavy steel for a change of pace. The final goal is to make all of these parts look like vintage cast iron, with rolled edges and blended welds, which will help them at least not "look" so heavy. All those parts are actually also much smaller, in real life, than they appear on screen.
Physically, I have also concentrated the heavy stuff in strategic areas where I also needed to build strength. I think the overall vehicle is going to be a lot lighter than it would seem. I do pay attention to how much weight I am adding with the heavy steel parts - so far, probably an extra 75-100lbs - and even being a hybrid, with two complete drivetrains, I am still shooting for around 1500lbs, max. Not too much of a pig.
If I even hit half of my ultimate power goals, and stay at or under 1500lbs, I will have a 3:1 weight-to-power ratio - that should be fun!
The electric motor is finally in place. The saddle mount is not welded yet, because I want to walk around it and stare at it for a while, then patiently position and align it, before tacking the mount in.
