Pedal Car construction help -- have you built one?

Emerald · Post by **Emerald** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:05 am

Greetings all,

We are building a pedal car for transportation this year, from http://www.americanspeedster.com/index.htm.

There are at least two of their models pictured on the playa.

Have any of you built one, and do you have any recommedations for modifications to increase the chances of successful driving on the playa?

Thanks.

Emerald

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:57 am

From reading their site, I have ONE bit of advice....If you're building anything with a PVC frame (!) make sure that you bring spare parts and cement. Playa sun and hard, jarring surface can be cruel on things that are glued together. I'm bringing a wacky prototype vehicle, myself, and MY toolkit even includes....a backup bicycle.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:20 am

pvc?!

how do you mount the front and rear pedal/sprokets?

edit: nvrmnd, i see the metal plates and mounting rings.

Tiara · Post by **Tiara** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:49 pm

What would happen if you followed those plans, but used metal instead of pvc to build the frame? Would it be too heavy? Cost prohibitive? Just wondering. . .

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:17 am

The problem with just switching to EMT is that the PVC has nifty couplers and connectors readymade, while the metal DOESN'T. Unless you use copper, of course. And there are several major reasons why NOT to do THAT. If you're up for some more intensive fabricating, check out what's going on over at the "Tracked Vehicles Thread", notably Dragonfly Jafe's nice bent-and-welded EMT tank chasis.
It's getting a little late in the game to start a scratchbuilt vehicle, unless you've got a chunk o' freetime ahead...you might consider a field trip to a scrapyard, looking for "readymade chasis" like display fixtures, reinforced storage tanks or other unlikely things. Or the old standby....wood. A plywood shape, reinforced with 2x2 and polyurethane glue (great stuff!) can be mighty tough, and easy to modify. The UFO that I'm bringing is a junkpile of ply, 2x4s, extruded aluminum tubing, PVC and "assorted kitchen components".

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:21 am

Tiara wrote:What would happen if you followed those plans, but used metal instead of pvc to build the frame? Would it be too heavy? Cost prohibitive? Just wondering. . .

roboman has it right. its also a lot harder and expensive when you have to bend tubing and weld stuff up - buying a welder is usually not cheap (even though i just found a cheap flux-core mig).