6-wheeler discovery...

Austin, you obviously have way, way too much free time these days........

-- Badger. B.H.Engineering, Rover V8 engine specialists.

now live but still under construction,

On or around Fri, 3 Sep 2004 20:15:37 +0100, "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

hehe. I'd love to have a go at a real one, though.

I did this digital corruption a while back, as I quite fancy the idea.

Alex

thusly:

days........

Now you have a flying lamp post. ; )

What you *really* want to do is get an old Stalwart and put a tilt over the load bed and fit 3-4 rows of forward facing seats with integrated belts (RRC seats would seem ideal for that). Should be able to get 12-16 seats in with through-access.

P.

I would have thought more than 16, but no through access. Tilt came as standard but a bit dark inside. 3mpg might prove a tad expensive.

AJH

In message , Austin Shackles writes

Can I put in an order for the second one please Austin, it looks perfect for my job?

In message , Alex writes

I like the road safety conscious lamp post!

In message , Paul S. Brown writes

Christ!! Access to the running gear is bad enough without putting more seats in the bloody thing?

On or around Sun, 05 Sep 2004 00:49:35 GMT, Graham Jones enlightened us thusly:

depends... Actually, I do seriously reckon it's possible - however, I'm not sure how much it'd cost. If you make it out of 1 decent disco and one broken one, not all that much, perhaps. a front-end shunted one with a half-decent rear chassis ought to do it, although you'd want a usable front axle for the rear-wheel steering. Of course, there'd be no point in doing one that was too old or dodgy condition, as it's inevitably going to cost a fair amount (compared with an ordinary disco, say) and you'd want it to go for long enough to recoup the cost.

The pickup-back-end one would be easier, too, in the matter of bodywork, as you'd not have to match the roof lines and create a satisfactory smooth, and more to the point, waterproof, joint.

My plan was to keep the centre axle rigid and have a counter-steering rear one, which would keep the turning circle the same. However, you could set up a same-steer middle axle and accept the turning circle that comes with a

135" (ish) wheelbase. The main point about steering the third axle is to get rid of the tyre scrub, which would be, I reckon, unacceptable. Tyre scrub also puts heavy side loads on everything else.

Would this be like a castor or would it be actually steered by some means?

Hehehe. I never noticed that untill now!

Alex

Easier to do it with hydraulics than linkages. A master cylinder on the front steering, piping down the vehicle to a slave cylinder on the rear set. easier than faffing about with bloody great long track rods.

Alex

On or around Sun, 05 Sep 2004 17:40:26 GMT, Alex enlightened us thusly:

maybe. I like mechanical links, though - easier to bodge when they break or bend. I've been known to put the jack under a track rod before now...

What about a small sprocket on the input to the front steering box, a chain to connect to a larger sprocket inputting into a flexible driveshaft (tubed teleflex or similar?) running to rear (LHD) steering box, where again you have a small sprocket on the shaft and a chain to a larger sprocket on the steering box. This should give the necessary down-gearing as it were of the rear steer system, indeed it would be a doddle to alter the ratios to fine-tune it. Just remember to have all the panhard rods (if that's how you wish to locate the axles) connecting to the chassis on the same side otherwise strange things happen going over bumps!!

-- Badger. B.H.Engineering, Rover V8 engine specialists.

now live but still under construction,

On or around Sun, 5 Sep 2004 22:09:40 +0100, "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

a bit fiddly, I'd've thought. and probably prone to have too much slack in it. Rod with trackrod style ends was what I had in mind, though in practice it might have to be more than one rod.

good point. The middle axle will have an A frame as normal, I hadn't decided whether to do a second A frame for the rear one or a Panhard rod. Panhard rod would doubtless be easier to set up on a front axle, as it has the fittings for it.

I can let you have the name of a man who will build you one!

He has built 6 wheelers before so this is just another challenge.

Look for Malcolm Whitbread. He is up in mid Wales. Builds trialers and racers donw to 60" wheel base.

Usually at Old Sodbury in October.

On or around Sat, 11 Sep 2004 14:04:02 GMT, "j_kaye" enlightened us thusly:

that's no fun though. I want to build it meself!

That's not a trialer - it's a motorised wheel barrow :-)

cheers

Dave W.