Electric Mini-quad build for m(e)y son

[imthanick_a]

Cool, I'm a little lucky because of the size of the motor needed when it comes to a battery. A Dewalt 6ah will be plenty for what I need and will allow me to do the entire house in one charge.

I had a few links for websites that sell sprockets, but somehow either deleted the folder or it was in a different computer. There are dedicated sites that will have anything in any size imaginable.

Just ordered an idler sprocket from amazon - thanks for the tip! the plastic spool that I made for the current pulley is already starting to wear grooves into it (not surprisingly). Good thing about that is it gives me a perfect feature to measure to make sure I know the exact spot the idler sprocket needs to sit though!

 

[imthanick_a]

Brother in law just sent me this marketplace posting. its the same exact atv frame as mine haha. After some googling I found the make/model to be a Kazuma Meerkat 50cc

 

[imthanick_a]

Took it around the neighborhood while my wife, kid, and dog went for a walk for a full stress test run. This is the taco bell run equivalent of a car build lol. Turns out its my road thats unstable, not the quad! i got it up to its top speed of 23 mph on a flat road. After the test run I found some things that need improved upon - motor mount needs reinforced, chain needs a link removed and re-tensioned, possible re-make of the chain tensioner pulley. Also my reverse switch broke from not being protected on the back side. one of the terminals was hitting against the frame and ended up breaking off the switch so I'll need to replace that. also need to get a potentiometer wired into the controller signal so I can limit the top speed for when my nephew or neighbor kids want to ride it

For the sake of updating just for kicks, I took it for another 3 mile ride another the neighborhood last night and the night before. So now I know it at least goes 6 miles on a charge lol. Not sure when I have to charge the battery as the indicator they provided with the controller shows red bar, yellow bars, 3 green bars. When "idle" it shows 2 green bars now, but while under full throttle there is on red bar visible. I'd like to think that the idle reading would be the accurate one, but I have a feeling the under-load reading is probably the one to go off of. Wednesday I was able to hit 24.9 mph! I'm having way more fun with this thing than a 29 year old should but hey, you only have one life so might as well do the stuff you want without judgement. I get some funny looks with the goofy scooter helmet I bought for it, but its been a good conversation starter and I've met a few new friends in the neighborhood as a result of riding it around.

Originally a 50cc engine that maxed out at 20 mph so I'm not too far off manufacturers intended power level. And if I ever want to, I can buy the body kit for a little under 200 bucks

 

[imthanick_a]

Not much interesting to update on, but over the weekend I had some projects around the quad so I figured I'd let strangers on the internet know since my friends just think I'm weird for having so much fun messing around with a kids toy instead of just buying a pre-built thing.

Saturday I spent fabricating a hitch mounted cargo rack designed around the four wheeler. It is mostly intended as a luggage carrier for when we need to take the dog and the baby places, but I made sure to size it for the quad so I can take it to my families houses for my nephew to ride. Still have to grind and paint the frame, and finish the wood/secure it down, then its done

Put a little skelly-boy rider on there to get in the Halloween spirit, and Sunday spent the whole day re-wiring everything to clen it up and increase functionality. I hijacked the throttle signal and ran it through a hidden potentiometer so I can limit the max speed and make it kid-friendly without worrying if they'll figure out how to juice it up. Also wired in a kill switch and the horn thats integrated into the headlight. And I finally got the front tire to hold air! I think for now the mechanical and electrical is finished. Final items I want to do are to paint the wheels the color of the handlebars and get some fenders on it to cover up the wheels to keep feet out from them.