Electric 6 wheeler?

[philipatmaxfour]

Sounds as if you need a larger machine than a 6 wheel AATV.

3 feet of snow-3more coming-2 and a half miles of gravel road- 600 feet of elevation change-Yes, what JRP3 says

[Jedon]

3 feet of snow-3more coming-2 and a half miles of gravel road- 600 feet of elevation change-Yes, what JRP3 says

Yes I should and will get a larger, heavier, more powerful piece of equipment in a couple years but right now I don't have the money.

It's probably silly to even contemplate heavily modifying my Max or making something from scratch but I'm a dreamer :-)

Thanks for the tips about synchronizing the motors and the step down, I wasn't quite thinking that through. I am a software engineer though, perhaps I could use my Android phone to control the motors

[JRP3]

The motor controllers need to handle hundreds of amps, mine is a 400 amp controller running at 48 volts, and the throttle input to the controller needs a 0-5K Ohm potentiometer to vary the motor speed. I use a trigger throttle from an electric scooter. If money is an issue you probably can't afford to do the build you are suggesting. Mine cost me about $2K in parts for a single motor, single controller, single contactor, 48 volt setup. You can expect to more than double that for your potential project.

[Jedon]

Yeah I had figured it would cost about $5K, but that's still $30K less than an ASV. For me time is probably even more of an issue, I already have jobs and hobbies!

[mike454]

That is cool, i ran across your original post back in 08 while surfing,I give you credit. it turned out great.
I had agreed with mike,when thinking about the idea originally,that day you posed the original question.WOULD IT WORK?
Way to follow thru on your idea.......sweet

[JRP3]

AMPhibian gets a new skin

The ABS was hittin the "crack" pipe way too hard and needed an intervention so I put the old AMPhibian in for some major rehab. Stripped it, flipped it, and hit it with 24 grit to rough up the surface for epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth. Glued up the cracks with some SEM epoxy bumper repair goo and some two part methacrylate glue, both seemed to work fairly well as long as I "V'd" out the cracks really well, then applied the cloth and epoxy laminating resin. Feels pretty tough so far but I haven't beaten on it with a hammer or anything, I'll wait and see what happens naturally during use. I had planned to put a HDPE skid plate over that but it didn't exactly come out the way I had hoped. I had a space heater, heat lamp, heat gun, and a small propane torch with a flame spreader but could not apply enough heat over a large enough area to get smooth compound bends. I ended up with warping and lumps and probably a ruined 4x6 piece of HDPE So for now I'll just see how the fiberglass holds up alone. I'll put up some pics but the glass and resin don't really show up unless you look closely. I'm hoping to have it all back together by this weekend for some testing, I might actually be able to see if this thing floats.

[LarryW]

Wow cool, your still alive. Nice to see you back with some updates!

[JRP3]

Yeah I'm still kickin', they haven't gotten me yet

[JRP3]

Some pics of the process.DSC01190.jpgDSC01176.jpgDSC01197.jpgDSC01177.jpg

[JRP3]

Failed skid plate forming

[Beeman]

Failed skid plate forming

Must be from all the lead. :P I like the OSB.. I did the same in my shop.

[JRP3]

AMPhibian gets wet

Since I've finally fixed all the leaks I decided to see if this thing really floats or not. It does, sort of
I don't know if they ever swam the original electric Attex's, this might be the first.
I've had it in my stream before but it was never deep enough to do more than bounce off of the bottom, this was the first full float test. 240 lbs of batteries and 60 lbs of motor in the back don't do much for the trim. I've got some ideas to improve things but I don't see myself going deep very often. I could attach a float to the trailer hitch, and/or make some foam inserts for the wheels.

[JRP3]

Some video action. Can you tell it feels a bit sketchy?

[amphibious drew]

Haha I like the paddle next to you. It shows your confidence level. Looks pretty good. Any way to shift some weight from the back tonthe front. Maybe put a battery or two where the gas tank used to be. She sits mighty high up front and low in the rear.

[JRP3]

Yeah that's a possibility I've considered, but there isn't much structure up there and those batteries weigh a lot more than a full gas tank. As stated, I don't really intend to take this swimming much, I have a jet ski and a boat for that.