Tilting Quad Velomobile

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Feb 10, 2021
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I remember now both hand and feet powered.



Seems you an accomplished artist to !

The body alone is going to take some hours ,

Do you expect your head to be about where the word ' slides ' is ?

I suspect in practice the piece labeled tinted will have to be clear to see where the front wheel is and is going ?

Paul
Hi Paul
I am planning to start on the body once it warms up a bit(no heat in my garage )
I will make moulds for the cabin roof and the very rear part of the tail section to achieve the rounded look. Otherwise, I plan to use coroplast for the sides ( below the windows ) as coroplast worked quite well for the sides of my previous model.
My head is close to the up-arrow behind the word "slides". The top of my head is about 10cm below the cabin roof. The frame tubing separating the tail section from the cabin is pretty much inline with my shoulder.
The tinted piece on my previous model did not really hinder my view. However , I did notice that my confidence was greater on narrow cycle lanes when I could see the ground and curb next to the front wheel ( riding without the shell ). I'm hoping the little window below the tinted piece provides some of that visibility.
 
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The interesting wheels, the all alloy frame that looks complex, the neat hand drawings, the blue background peices to make the photos better.. wow this is really some project going on here. Nice work.
Thanks "locksmith" The posting of this project has been made possible thanks to Paul.
 
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Before I resume posting my build I want to thank those who responded to my "chat" section post concerning "Embedded Video Help!". Plus a huge thank you to Paul for inserting all the previous photos and then coaching me on the PM column. Thanks for your patient support and feedback on my 2 successful embeds piloted within the PM.
My wife keeps suggesting that it's time for me to put on my "big boy pants" and just jump into posting & embedding, but I'm hesitant to assume anything , so, as a trial run, I'll limit this post to 1 photo and 1 video.
 
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Before I resume posting my build I want to thank those who responded to my "chat- section" post concerning "Embedded Video Help!". Plus a huge thank you to Paul for inserting all the previous photos and then coaching me on the PM column. Thanks for your patient support and feedback on my 2 successful embeds piloted within the PM.
My wife keeps suggesting that it's time for me to put on my "big boy pants" and just jump into posting & embedding, but I'm hesitant to assume anything , so, as a trial run, I'll limit this post to 1 photo and 1 video.
The photo shows the two components of the Direct Tilt Control apparatus. In this photo the lever handles appear distorted in length. The short spurs ( pointing towards the seat bottom ) provide each lever's pivotal connection with a rear swingarm as do the rods sticking out from under the seat.
The levers and seat add 2.1 Kg to vehicle weight. I tried to calculate the extra weight this apparatus adds compared to a free tilter, but it's difficult to isolate each component as most free tilters embody a seat and steering handles and many have rear swingarms ( although not nearly as heavy ) .
 
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Can I ask why the seat has been fixed to the tilt control mechanism and not the chassis. By fixing it so, the seat tilts more than the wheels and I can't see that being a desirable characteristic.
 
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Can I ask why the seat has been fixed to the tilt control mechanism and not the chassis. By fixing it so, the seat tilts more than the wheels and I can't see that being a desirable characteristic.
Guilty as charged ' Your Honour ' must be catching

Paul
 
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Yes, the seat tilts more than the wheels/frame, but only a comfortable amount more. Let me explain my pathway to this particular design.
Throughout this project I have kept looking for the maximum amount of primary force to actuate the apparatus as well as the maximum mechanical advantage within the apparatus. In terms of primary force, approx 55 Kg of my weight can be shifted from one side of the seat to the other, while a comfortable 15 Kg of pull on one lever combined with 10 Kg of push on the other lever results in 25 Kg.
Although each component has a different M. A. which translates into a different actual force acting on the pivoting rear swingarms, I found the tilt control to be more robust with both components combined. I also like the way I can apply a balancing of force/counter force between the actions of the seat & levers which provides a stabilizing feel to the ride.
The degree of acceptable comfort was established in my previous vehicles by moving the seat linkage back and forth along the front pivoting portion of the swingarms. I settled on the point of attachment with the most M. A. while the extra tilt of the seat relative to the tilting frame/wheels was hardly noticeable when riding and tilting in corners. I say hardly noticeable because I adopted the technique of shifting my weight onto the high side of the seat ( the outside of the curved path ) which provides the stabilizing balance of force/counter force previously mentioned. This approach is quite comfortable at speed in corners and bends when the dynamic forces are involved, but it's a bit of a different story for static tilting when gravity is in full force, One of the videos will cover static tilting.
Cheers
 
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Velcoupe

My similar[ish] mechanism has similar traits.
The tilter feels most stable when cornering and there are dynamic forces involved , it was reassuring to find the amount of tilt applied by me could vary considerable without there appearing to be any concern
Thinking of the standard stability drawing of a triangle and a moving CofG line from the riders navel , whilst everyone concerns themselves with the tip over situation where the line has wandered out of the stability triangle , no one spots the line has traveled an awful great distance where the trike has been stable and safe.
Statically mine is fine it sits up without a tilt lock , even with me on it as long as there are no sudden movements of the CofG I do not need my hands on the bars to hold it upright.
traveling in a straight line where tilt may be required is a different story if the rear wheels are different heights you have to try and remain upright [ not always possible ] by brain hand control not always possible , it is not unsafe I think more unnerving.
I have tilt limit stops built in as my thighs contact the vertical portion of the handle bars at maximum tilt this stop feels very safe and when I had the bars to wide and it disappeared I though I had screwed the tilting up in some way.
Keep up the description of your unique machine , I am sure there is lot's for us to learn

Paul
 
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My objective for the first video is to illustrate the impact of the tilting seat on the the rear swingarms as well as the frame and wheels. I place a broom handle down onto each side of the seat to simulate the rider's weight shifting.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is the video I piloted with Paul. I labelled it "Tilting Seat" but I like Paul's more dramatic "Stick of God" title.
I taped a flat bar at 90 degrees to the frame to show that the seat does tilt more than the parallel tilting of the frame and wheel. As mentioned in the previous reply, at greater tilt angles I shift my weight to the high side of the seat to provide a force to counter any tendency of tilting too much to the inside of the curved path and to assist with the forces required to return the vehicle to upright. As I mentioned, this technique is quite comfortable to perform at higher speeds when the dynamic forces are in play.
In the next post I plan to show the combined action of the tilting seat and the reciprocating levers (without a seated rider) as well as static tilting (with the seated rider) using both seat and levers to tilt to the lean limit and then return to upright.
 
Joined
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Messages
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Location
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Velcoupe

My similar[ish] mechanism has similar traits.
The tilter feels most stable when cornering and there are dynamic forces involved , it was reassuring to find the amount of tilt applied by me could vary considerable without there appearing to be any concern
Thinking of the standard stability drawing of a triangle and a moving CofG line from the riders navel , whilst everyone concerns themselves with the tip over situation where the line has wandered out of the stability triangle , no one spots the line has traveled an awful great distance where the trike has been stable and safe.
Statically mine is fine it sits up without a tilt lock , even with me on it as long as there are no sudden movements of the CofG I do not need my hands on the bars to hold it upright.
traveling in a straight line where tilt may be required is a different story if the rear wheels are different heights you have to try and remain upright [ not always possible ] by brain hand control not always possible , it is not unsafe I think more unnerving.
I have tilt limit stops built in as my thighs contact the vertical portion of the handle bars at maximum tilt this stop feels very safe and when I had the bars to wide and it disappeared I though I had screwed the tilting up in some way.
Keep up the description of your unique machine , I am sure there is lot's for us to learn

Paul
Interesting. I had similar riding experiences. Initially I had thought that my biggest challenge would be to remain stable in corners at speed. But I also experienced just the opposite.
In my previous vehicle the pivoting seat was at times the single controller of tilt. When I unexpectedly tilted too far, and, without the force of the tilt levers to quickly correct the lean, it's an unnerving experience - especially along a narrow cycle lane.
Cheers
 
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TILTING and SUSPENSION cont:
In the next video I try to show how the combined movements of the seat bottom & tilt levers affect the rear swingarms to camber the vehicle. To provide a clear view of the tilt apparatus, instead of sitting on the seat and actuating the levers, I decided to tilt the mainframe from side to side to demonstrate how the side to side tilting of the seat is matched by the fore and aft movements of the tilt levers.
When I'm operating the vehicle, and actuating the tilt apparatus, the swingarms pivot up and down which translates into a parallel tilting of the mainframe and wheels.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In the above video, it looks like each swingarm is directly connected to the spur of a tilt lever, but a short flat bar (with 2 pivot points ) is inserted between each spur and swingarm to make the articulation possible.

Oops. I can't manage to embed more than one video per post. I'll try again tomorrow.








]
 
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TILTING / SUSPENSION cont:
I nailed wooden strips into the shape of a V at a 40 degree angle and placed it on the floor behind the back of the seat to delineate a 20 degree lean-limit from vertical. In each of these "V" videos I am sitting on the seat with my feet on the foot pedals to avoid touching the floor.
In the first instance, my hands are grasping the rods behind the seat-back. I then shift my weight to demonstrate that the force on the tilting seat is sufficient to tilt the vehicle and rider back to upright.
 
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TILTING / SUSPENSION cont:
I nailed wooden strips into the shape of a V at a 40 degree angle and placed it on the floor behind the back of the seat to delineate a 20 degree lean-limit from vertical. In each of these "V" videos I am sitting on the seat with my feet on the foot pedals to avoid touching the floor.
In the first instance, my hands are grasping the rods behind the seat-back. I then shift my weight to demonstrate that the force on the tilting seat is sufficient to tilt the vehicle and rider back to upright.
So far so good. I'll try another video insert.
In the next video I combine the actions of weight shifting with the tilt levers to produce a slower more controlled range of tilt to the left, then to the right, and back to upright.
In the above video I'm a little unsure as I lean towards the 20 degree mark because the lean-limiters ( which will be attached to the mounting brackets for the tail section ) are not installed.
While the lateral force is fully felt during static tilting, the apparatus provides a sufficiently robust yet sensitive arrangement allowing me to hover near the lean-limit and return back to upright under my own steam.
At higher speeds, when the dynamic forces make it easier to actuate the tilting apparatus, tilting in curves and sharp corners is undemanding , predictable, and fun.
The following video demonstrates that rapid controlled tilting is achievable. Although I have yet to experience it, I am assuming a quick-action tilt control might be useful when traction is lost on slippery surfaces.
 
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Although the following video was recorded prior to installing the pedal crank I decided to show all the Tilt Control videos of the rear swingarms and then this one of the front swingarms. For this video I place square tubing onto the frame and push down as well as tilt the frame from side to side to simulate suspension and tilting of the front swingarms.
The small compression springs at each end of the cable linking the posterior ends of the left and right swingarms ( difficult to see them in the video ) provide 4cm of suspension travel for the front wheels, while the leaf spring on the rear swingarms provides 10cm of travel for the rear wheels.
Observe how the cable pulley rotates back and forth, but the suspension and tilting action does not impact the steering. The steer angle changes only when the wheels are rotating forward and the vehicle's tilt is altered (free to caster steering ).
I will focus on Caster Steering in my next post.
 
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FREE TO CASTER
Since F to C Steering relies on the Direct Tilt Control to operate freely I more or less designed and built various tilt control mechanisms and caster steering arrangements simultaneously, and multiple times over. As I muddled through the build-test-rebuild process I began to appreciate that while F to C Steering relies on DTC, in return it also assists Tilt Control by providing a "hands free" kind of steering which allows me to actuate the tilt control levers efficiently and forcefully without any conflict between tilting and steering.
Caster Wheel and Hub.
The wheel and hub design is largely the outcome of necessity. Once I made the decision to incorporate a hub-centered wheel as detailed in " Rick Wianecki's Leaning Trike Project", I began looking for an alternative to the embodied rotating-hub because I did not have a metal lathe at the time.
My solution was to replicate a rear axle setup in which the axle shaft rotates. I located and ordered bearing-sized solid round aluminium for the axles and bearing-sized pipe for the outer casing. After a few modifications, I settled on what you can see in the previous video of the front swingarms tilting.
The pipe/casing is simply inserted laterally and fixed within a rectangular tube. The pipe and tube serve as a kind of a non-rotating hub to which the swingarms are pivotally attached creating a zero degree steering axis. And because the wheel-axle trails the steering axis, the hub and wheel function as a caster wheel.
This construct survived the test of time because it not only allows for the steering axis to be vertically aligned with the center of the tire ( as in Rick's design), but it also allows for the axle bearings to equally straddle that center-line, permitting a more shallow dished wheel to be used which facilitates the F to C action of the front wheel within the single-sided swingarm of the Delta model.
Now for the lay-up, centering, and truing of the fiberglass wheel.

WHEEL MOULD



The mould is made from MDF and covered with fiberglass+ bondo.
While this male mould produces a smooth finish on the wheel's inside, I eventually plan to put the smooth finish on the outside of the wheel using a concave /female mould.

CENTERING the WHEEL
A router is fastened to a two-way cross-slide vise. I hand-spin the wheel and mould ( bolted to the shaft of an old washing machine motor held in the vise ) to center the hole for the wheel flange.
I also used this setup to make the MDF mould.


CLOSE UP of Centering


I think this centering method will provide more precise outside-round results when I convert the present mould into a female one embodying a rim-mounting lip and use new rims of equal width.
( currently, 2 are the same width and 3 of the 4 preowned rims are slightly out of round )
 
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WHEEL FLANGE
After separating the wheel and mould, I get ready to insert the wheel flange for a snug fit.


SIX HOLE PATTERN
Here I am securing and drilling the pilot holes in preparation to bolt the wheel flange to the wheel.


TRUING the WHEEL
The wheel and axle can be rotated within the bearing sized pipe which is clamped in the vise. I spin the wheel and true the rim. Then I pop- rivet the rim to the wheel.



I'm fairly certain this truing process will be quicker and more accurate when I can just press the rim down and flat against a lip on the fiberglass wheel ( formed with the female mould ) and use epoxy to attach the rim to the wheel and lip in the manner described in Rick Wianecki's hub-centered wheel build.

In the next post I will focus on the Steering Linkage.
 
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