I want to build a vehicle capable of driving 1.5 miles to get me to work and back without using my car. The top and sides of the vehicle will be made of thin plexiglass to keep me dry if it rains. The vehicle will be powered by an electric motor. It will have rear wheel drive, front wheel steering, and all wheel brakes. The motor will be powered by a 3000W/2000Wh power station that I bought on black friday for $800. If I need more power, I can connect a second identical power station. I think I can build the vehicle with roughly an additional $800 of materials (mainly for the motor and brakes). Altogether this would be significantly cheaper than getting a used golf cart and it can be driven in light rain unlike an e-bike or e-scooter.
My questions:
1) Has anyone here made something like this?
2) How feasible is this build?
3) Is there a vehicle on the market that can achieve the same goal for a similar price? I'm not looking for a cheap old car because I don't want to pay insurance on it and I don't want it taking up a lot of space in my parking.
4) How envious will normies be when they see me rolling around on this bad boy?
Your best bet is to modify a trike and fashion it into some kind of bike-based Reliant Robin. If it has 4 wheels it may be considered a car by the police. You want to enclose this contraption, so you will probably be required to include a full set of lights and signals
as neat as a reliant would be to drive, the thought of all the trucks driven by subhuman americans bearing down on you is frightening
>1.5 miles
fricking walk
For 1.5 miles, I'd honestly just be using a covered trike.
That being said, I've been fantasizing about a small, hyper-efficient (150MPG+ equivalent) personal vehicle for around-town commuting. I have significant fabricating ability, but, honestly, my biggest hurdle (and I suspect yours might be, too) is the fricking state.
I live in California, and pretty much anything with 4-wheels that's powered by a motor of any kind qualifies as a car. Getting the DMV to acknowledge something scratch-built as "roadworthy" is near impossible. The normal route is to cannibalize another vehicle, put some trivial part from that vehicle on your build, and just claim it's the same original vehicle you took the VIN from. Just "modified". Even if California is one of the most anti-DIY states in the USA (might be #1 if not for New York), the story is apparently similar in most other states, as far as I've read.
>Altogether this would be significantly cheaper than getting a used golf cart
I don't think this is true. I window shop industrial/commercial auction yards a lot. A lot of golf/utility carts show up (I even saw one of pic related in the last one, what the frick). They're way cheaper there than they are on vehicle-specific marketplaces. A couple carts in excellent condition were being loaded up on the trailer next to me at the last auction I went to. IIRC, the cheaper one sold for less than $1,500.
Even if you really wanted to do it the budget way, I'd strongly suggest not starting from scratch. A junker cart that's been stripped of its batteries (but still has the controller/motor) and looks like shit can be had for a few hundred if you look. Using that as a starting point would save you a huge amount of work. It would also be cheaper, as a junk cart will often sell for less than the value of the motor alone, never even mind everything else. Having something that already looks professionally made will make things easier with the DMV, too.
(cont'd.)
Having to pay for insurance is currently the dealbreaker that's preventing me from actually making something like a bootleg Smart Car. Insurance and registration rates, even though I have a perfect driving record, am over 30, and hardly go anywhere (<3,000 miles/year), are stupid in CA. I wouldn't actually save any money over just keeping my 7,000lb, 11mpg pain in the ass of a pickup truck as my only vehicle.
Your only hope for not paying for insurance is to have the thing registered as something that doesn't require it. Problem is, that's usually extremely limiting. As far as I'm aware, every state in the US requires insurance for almost anything on the road that isn't some kind of bicycle, motorized bicycle (either gas or electric), or, in some places, a scooter. You'll need to check definitions and laws applicable to where you live specifically to determine what you can get away with. Expect disappointment, IMO.
>How envious will normies be when they see me rolling around on this bad boy?
You will get zero b***hes unless the thing literally looks like a piece of plywood with a plexiglass box on it. In that case, you will get some b***hes who think it's funny (because it would be), but the quality of said b***hes will be on either extreme of the scale; there will be no in-between.
What you want is a boomer buggy. They're legally classified as mobility scooters so you dont need insurance.
They're like $6000+ though
How fast can that thing go? Ebikes can get up to 30mph just on battery power but they're generally street legal as any other bicycle, since it's considered pedal assist.
OP just needs that + some enclosure to keep it dry. If there's no good enclosure on the market, making one is still gonna be easier than making an entire vehicle.
please post dashcam vids from your autistic popemobile
My state's definition of motor vehicle: "A vehicle which is self-propelled except an electric personal assistive mobility device or a vehicle which is propelled solely by human power."
Technically if you had an electric car but you claimed that you charged the battery through a hand operated crank slowly over many days, doesn't that mean the vehicle is propelled solely by human power? Would a prosecutor have to prove that you didn't spend 50 days cranking your hand crank to charge your unregistered uninsured Tesla that you were driving without a license on the sidewalk?
>dessicates human bodies and uses them to fuel the boiler in my steam engine death truck
heh...it's just human powered
Hey that'd be popular on canada.
No. No I am not watching this. It's just a chinese mini-car.
Batshit insanity. Move to AZ and apply for an experimental vehicle license.
>1.5 miles
Walk. That's a perfect distance to walk and will make you a better man by far, and far less wasteful of your resources. More balanced. Walking and observing, watching your gate, your structure, your stride. Loosening your hips, making proper mechanical movement of your body, is supremely good for you. If it hurts that much to walk that far, get some structural integration/rolfing. Proper walking is the best exercise in the world.
Everyanon inbetween had good ideas; If he seriously needed transport: a decent used golf cart. Put LFPo batteries in it. LiTime has some decent prices on what they call trolling motor batteries. They are not quite vehicle starter batteries [BMS's have trouble handling that much surge] but they can certainly start a golf cart.
emvauto - ElectraMeccanica. Yes, that is spelled correctly. A company I've never heard of. I was searching for Arizona and experimental vehicle, for this thread and found out about them. Guess what: Had 'no problems' with it's G1 (first production) but is recalling - completely buying-back - all G2 & G3, because they 'cannot solve' the above problem. Jesus, the low-quality of engineers, as they pursued DEI (aka cultural and economic self-destruction) is glaring. 100% the shutdown issue relates to an underrated chinesium component going over it's maximums, causing the motive aspect to shut down. The FAQ says the braking and other lights continue to work, so supposedly it's not the battery BMS but part of the motor controller. Should have bought parts from Mouser, Digi-Key, Arrow... or give it the 'ol 25% haircut on it's ratings if it's no-name.
>emvauto - ElectraMeccanica
Oh my god, that thing looks so frickin' weird. I had no idea how much I'd been conditioned to expect the general body shape of a typical sedan/SUV along with that front end and grill. But this abomination is practically throwing off my sense of perspective with those lines.
>you claimed that you charged the battery through a hand operated crank slowly over many days, doesn't that mean the vehicle is propelled solely by human power?
You can get as far in the weeds as you want, but "propelled by" obviously refers to what actually provides the motive force, not to that device's source of energy.
There's some frickery with that definition (such as series hybrid vehicles not always being considered electric-powered), but that's what the DMV is going to go by, even if whoever you're actually talking to is stupid enough to believe you actually charge a 20kWh battery with a crank.
It's perfectly feasible, but this is more of an issue of dodging regulation and not so much of an issue of
>can it be done?
Given the short distance, I'd go with a recumberent bike with maybe a hidden helper electric motor, or a regular bicycle with a hood converted to e-bike. The boomerbuggy also seems like a good solution, price aside, maybe you could get a broken one and replace all the electronics in it.
ebike + rain guard
>self-balancing
>wheeled device
>transport only one person
>Pennsylvania
Here's some prior art for you to get started.
Anon that is a Black folk, not a vehicle.
of these requirements, self-balancing seems the hardest to implement when the user is not standing and using his body weight to maneuver
That's achieved with circuits and sensors n shit, better learn2code
1) Has anyone here made something like this?
The Chinese basically do this with cheap mostly plastic cars for going around the city at around 50-60 Kmh
2) How feasible is this build?
For $800 depends on how much access you have to cheap resources. Do you know how to weld? Do you have the tools?
3) Is there a vehicle on the market that can achieve the same goal for a similar price? I'm not looking for a cheap old car because I don't want to pay insurance on it and I don't want it taking up a lot of space in my parking.
The chinese cars are around 2k + shipping so no not really
Honestly anon get an ebike/bike and get some decent rain gear and youll stay dry. I got some cheap chinese Gor-Tex clone rain gear + a few extra layers and a full face helmet and I get to work bone dry everyday. Plus as soon as you have 4 wheels cops start chimping out.
Bump because you're based and I want your thread to live rather than die
I'm also curious how to build something like this. It probably won't work easily unless you make custom circuit boards or shit like that. However you could try some other way of skirting the law, like making a 4-wheeled vehicle that consists of two 2-wheeled vehicles strapped together, and argue that the law doesn't say you can't drive two vehicles at the same time. It probably won't work, but it would be funny
>it would be funny
Yeah, about as funny as any other sovereign citizen when they bite the curb.
just comply with any law the israelites make for you then fricking cuck. Paper never refused ink. If they say you have to circumcise your child's wiener and nipples will you comply with that too?
Put your mask back on and get your January booster
e-scooter or e-bike and raincoat.
this guy is doing that. No built in rain cover but you can just add a canopy
legally it's an electric bike, avoids licensing and registration requirements