Hey all,
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this forum, hopefully you guys can steer me in the right direction. So here's my situation, I'm a hunter and my friends and I usually hike far back into the wilderness when we go elk hunting. It's about a two mile trail, some of it is uphill, and some of it is pretty steep (more steep going up than coming down).
We take a big game cart with us to haul out anything that we harvest, but the last few years have been awful trying to pull 200lbs of meat out in the blazing sun.
I had an idea to add an electric motor to the cart since it's wilderness land an no gas powered vehicles are allowed. I know I'm going to have to do a bit of reading to understand everything I'll need, but I had a few basic questions as follows:
- What is most important in a motor for handling load and climbing hills? I'm not interested in speed as we'll be walking mostly, but I don't want to burn the motor out
- Would there be an advantage to a higher voltage like 36 or even 48?
- Could I research the "push carts" I see on here and apply the same kind of logic to the construction?
Thanks all for any help!!
Brian
an unusual application, but ill do my best.
higher voltage gives you higher top speed. not particularly useful in your case.
scooter hub motors aren't going to be particularly useful, since they are all setup to to 20-30mph on a nice smooth road.
can you tell me more about your requirements.
what is the maximum weight rig you can use?
gutting an electric forklift comes to mind, though the end result may be on the heavy side.
in this application, you could consider using solar panels to reduce battery requirement.
the amount of power needed to maintain walking pace is rather low (in EV land, it would count as *very* low)
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
You would want something in a geared motor, and chain drive for that I think. Once you get it geared low enough, a pretty small motor would be able to haul a lot of weight. 1000 watt scooter motor ought to have the power, you just need a big ol sprocket to go slow. If it's wilderness though, I bet the smokey bears will not like any kind of motor whatsoever.
Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global
There are several makers of electric ATV's... such as Barefoot Motors.
BTW on my podcast recently I interviewed a gent with the Blue Ribbon Coalition about electric off-road vehicles. There are others thinking about EV's potential role in the wilderness.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Thanks all, sorry not to respond sooner, but I went camping this weekend! So my requirements are probably hauling about 200lbs of meat up and down hills (steepest is probably about 30-35 degrees of incline for about an hour and a half each way. I'd like to keep it as light as possible, I didn't want the motor and batteries taking up the majority of the hauling weight.
I had thought about something like a golf cart motor, but wasn't sure if that would work or if there was a way to get away cheaper on this.
Honestly it's the climb up the hill with our gear (maybe 50 lbs) that it would be nice to have a motor to get us through the more tiresome areas, and definitely down off the mountain with the meat (not as steep as going up), something to take the sting out(in other words, I don't mind pulling a little too, it doesn't have to do all the work). and it would only have to achieve walking speed of 5mph.
Thanks again for any ideas. In regard to gearing down a motor, can I get a gearbox to do something like that?