Electrathon America Forum

Vic · teacher

Front Fork Design

mhodgertt · EA President

Vic
What we have done with a the few front wheeled cars we have built is to hang the motor right behind the front tire. We had a motor mount that was supported from the fork on each side so that it was stable. This was the hard part then we just bolted the motor to that. The plate was about in line with the right hand edge of the front tire with the freewheel on the right. Then on the shaft of the motor the motor sprocket was easy to align. The motor itself was about 2" off the ground and as close to the front tire as we could make it. With the eTEK motors this seemed to work well for us. I looked and I don't have any good pictures of our latest one from 4 years ago.

It is not static weight in this position so when you turn you actually have to lift the motor a little so you want to be sure you have plenty of leverage in your steering system or the driver will wear out in less than an hour.

Mike H

electrathon · administrator

A few ideas.

stan r · Veteran Member

The 3 designs shown have obviously worked for these car builders, however are these long track or short track cars ? Short track would need 57% weight on the front end. What size circle can they make? In Nebraska we must be able to turn in a 25 ft. circle. We race mostly on parking lots & build short track cars. Everybody's different

electrathon · administrator

Pictures one and two are short track cars. Car one and two are Pak-lite cars, some of the fastest cars anyplace. Car 3 is pak-lites long track car a few years back. It was very unique as it had the wheel mounted directly on the motor shaft.

That said car one and two can easily turn in less than the 25' circle. Even the long track car likely could do it (Barclay and Ben Henry, where are you guys!)

Vic · teacher

Our fork is similar to the 1st pix except the motor sits on top. One of the cars in our area is working with an aluminum design with the motor on top also. They used 6063 and it got a crack in it in a race last week. They put more bracing on it and finished the race.
The fork on our present car is steel and weighs 20lb with the e-teck r motor up high and ballast right behind the fork when needed. We have run half our races in parking lots and it has tracked very well with 20" hookworm tires.
We will try a variation of the #1 fork design and see how it will work. Our body is 6061 and will welded in a day or two.

Vic

electrathon · administrator

We don't have any single front wheel cars, but my understandingis if the motor is below the pivot it is easier to steer the car. Less tiresome durring the race.

bd64 · Senior Member

Here is one we used

Vic · teacher

Looks like a good pix. Can't get it to blow up.
Can you forward it to v_nieves@yahoo.com

Vic

-- Edited by Vic on Thursday 28th of January 2010 12:10:07 AM

Cent-ECAR-man · Member

Centennial has started on its first front steer and decided to hang the motor under the forks. Hopefully it will stabilize our vehicle at higher speeds. We dont want it gettin away from us :)

The pic on the right you can see the slots for the tire on the left and the motor mount in the mid.

-- Edited by Cent-ECAR-man on Monday 3rd of May 2010 06:41:01 PM