Motorizing my Trike

[MikeVDS]

I've been bringing along a 3 wheeler for the last few years and now I'm looking to add an electric motor. I'm looking for advice or things that have worked for others.

It's a two-seater trike and some times someone hops on the back too so I'm looking to add a 1HP motor. I like minimal and efficient so I wanted to avoid gear boxes and with the gears and tires I currently have on my trike that would mean I could not go much over 200 RPM to stay around the 5MPH mark. In hub motors do not look like the best option for the trike because the way it is set up; not enough weight to put it in the front, and the rear has separate drive trains for each side and would require someone pushing on the pedals on that side (would be nice to be able to cruise occasionally without pedaling). Anyone found anything that worked great for them?

[Meat Hunter]

I opted for a front wheel drive electric kit for my Schwinn trike that is Nevada and DMV legal without having to be registered. Fully outfitted, with two people and ice chest, my motor is pulling 350+ lbs. with no problem at all.

Although not for the shallow pocket book, my off-the-shelf system was plug and play with just a few basic wrenches. If you are interested, e-mail me and I will give you the details.

[trilobyte]

Since anything more powerful than an electric assist motor is going to potentially have some DMV requirements whose deadlines have long since passed, I'd recommend checking around online for places that make hub motor kits. Something like this may work for you - but I highly recommend calling or writing the guy before you order to make sure that what you're looking for is in stock. When my gf and I got hub motor kits for our trikes a couple years ago the things were on backorder, and took months to finally get the order filled.

[MikeVDS]

1HP ( about 750 watts) is still considered "electric assist" even though at playa speeds (5mph) it can run for short periods without the actual assistance from a person, though if you pedal you'll get a lot more battery life. As far as I know it should't matter if it's in the hub or not. It would be the easiest to just use a front wheel assist but I am concerned that it will just spin in the sand.