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Trailer Experiments |
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Trike to Trailer - June 5, 2015 I've been talking for years that the way to get electric motorcycle range is to pull a trailer loaded with batteries. Well, I've had the first trike I ever designed and built hanging on the wall for a few years. I took it down to get a closer look at it tonight.   I had all the parts needed to get it rolling. I just needed to drill a few holes and add some bolts and borrow the rubber torsional axles off the Delta-12 prototype for the test ride. It weighs in at 68 lbs. so that is much better than the 144 lb. Haul Master 600 lb. Capacity 78 in. Tag-Along Trailer from Harbor Freight. Here it is ready for the first test ride with 80# of scrap steel on board in a rectangular plastic tote. It is hard to feel that the trailer is behind the bike but, it does take about an extra 25% power to pull the trailer.  |
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Trike to Trailer - July 5, 2015 Finally got the batteries all mounted and wired on the trailer.    PROBLEMS = LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES. VIBRATION: The trailer introduces vibration into the bike at speeds over 35mph that are unaccepatble for long rides (tire out of round and tire balance). EFFICIENCY: With the trailer attached the bike takes 4kW to go 45mph (compared to 3kW for same conditions without the trailer). Sources of Problems (in estimated order of worst problem first):
All these things are fixable, but will take time. I must find some quick solutions to have the bike ready before July 8th to ride to VMD. 1. Wheel Alignment - trailer takes this extra power when loaded or unloaded, with cover on and cover off, so it seems like something like wheel alignment is causing a braking effect. 2. Wheel Vibration - the tires are not round and not balanced causing a lot of energy wasted due to vibration. 3. Aerodynamic Drag - tires have wide cross section out in the wind, trailer not fully in slipstream of bike, but trailer drag is noticed loaded or unloaded. 4. Rolling Resistance - pro: these are inflated to 60psi and are tubeless, con: but they are bia plyed |
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Trailer Tire Run-Out - June 2015 Massive Vibration is being caused in motorcycle by the trailer tires having too much Total Indicator Run-Out (T.I.R.). One wheel had .100" T.I.R. Tryed to true it up on lathe. Couldn't get cross slide out far enough. Will need to try something else. Maybe a different tire? How about the larger wheels on the other trailer?  Small wheels weigh 10lbs each, Larger tires weigh 16lbs each. But the larger wheels have been spin balanced and have less T.I.R. (less than .050").  Larger tires didn't fix the vibration issue and they added too much weight, so...trailer idea put on hold for a few days. |
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Fixing Trailer Issues - July 6, 2015 Addressing trailer issue 1 and 2 - Wheel Alignment and Wheel Vibration  To fix wheel alignment: Borrowed the Axle Mounting beam from the Delta-12 prototype (it is shown clamped in the vise of the Bridgeport mill. This reduced front to back of wheel toe-in from .31" to less than .125". To fix wheel vibration: Used a belt sander and Bridgeport to true and profile the tires. Was able to true up wheels from over .075" T.I.R. down to 0" T.I.R. This fixed the vibration issue. The result was very little improvement in efficiency: Trailer as a flat bed only = 3.25 kW to go 45mph. Trailer with batteries on board and no aero covering = 4.2 kW. Would like to try packing wheel bearings with a very lightweight grease to reduce that form of rolling resistance. However, I'm out of time for VMD, quickly put 1/2 the batterys from the trailer onto the tail of the bike and the effiency of the bike went back to the normal 3 kW at 45mph. The trailer will make a great tool for hauling heavy loads, I'll put a cargo box on it and use it for that, but it's not working out as an fuel efficiency tool. It wastes half the energy it carry's. Time to share a good quote I heard recently, "Nothing is Impossible, but almost nothing is easy." |
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First Road Trip - July 9, 2015 Planning to head out for Vintage Motorcycle Days and then on down to Cinncinati with the bike. See the next page Chapter 15, Vintage Motorcycle Days 2015 for how that turned out.  Note: With stuff stacked on the trailer like this, the brake and turn signals on the bike are hidden, so the lighting on the trailer must be sufficient to warn traffic behind. |
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Inventing a better tomorrow today... Copyright 2015, Schultz Engineering, LLC, written by Kraig Schultz |