Sperry Rand Tricub

[racerone3]

great find. i must say i'm incredibly jealous! a tricart and tricub are 2 machines i'd love to add to my fleet. just a note on baloon tires, they did come in 2 sizes that i know of. measured in circumfrence, i think there were 63" and 65". if you get tires from 2 different people, make sure they are both the same size.

[Mike]

Very cool. I love that you can now go out triking with your family.

[Don]

great find. i must say i'm incredibly jealous! a tricart and tricub are 2 machines i'd love to add to my fleet. just a note on baloon tires, they did come in 2 sizes that i know of. measured in circumfrence, i think there were 63" and 65". if you get tires from 2 different people, make sure they are both the same size.

Uniroyal made 61" balloons for Attex, and then under their own name as well. The tread was a little different along the sidewall. I'd like to find a full set of them for an Attex.

[Rick vanmeel]

I to own a tri-cub, it's a blast to drive. my 5 year old daughter, who is autistic can't get enough of tri-cub rides. you can still purchase original (balloon) tires from Richards Relics in Indiana. I would like to purchase a tri-cart if you know of any for sale?

[wildman]

Welcome fellow Tricubber! I've been really enjoying my Tricub this summer and it was a big hit during my July 4th gathering. Check out my Tricub and Tricart galleries on this site. I really need to get serious about about finding some new rear meats for this one since they're down to holding air for only a few hours now. I haven't tried RR yet... still hoping that I'll stumble across some others first. These are definitely the smaller diameter balloons. The sidewalls say to inflate to 58" circumference, but the Tricub manual says to inflate to 61".
Tire pressure.JPG

Tricarts are getting hard to find... especially ones that aren't basket cases. There was one sold on ebay this week for $102RARE! 60's Tri Cart Go Cart 3 Wheeler Go Kart Quad RARE: eBay Motors (item 120593708443 end time Jul-18-10 18:28:25 PDT) ... not a complete basket case, but rough around the edges and no engine. There was definitely $100 worth of parts there. This listing started with a $1500 buy-it-now price, which seemed pretty optimistic to me.

[steveohio]

What a tricart without an engine and clutch worth? Fiberglass is good no cracks or pieces gone, seat needs recovered has good tires.

[wildman]

What a tricart without an engine and clutch worth? Fiberglass is good no cracks or pieces gone, seat needs recovered has good tires.

If you use ebay as gauge... probably $100-$200. Sadly, they're usually worth more in parts than as a whole. Most of the ones I've seen for sale have been pretty tired and some didn't even make $100. If the tires are truly good, they should be worth $100 alone. If somebody is trying to restore one with a hacked body, a decent body could be valuable to him. What you got? Send or post photos.

[steveohio]

Thanks for the reply, I guess i paid top dollar for it then. I auctualy thought it would be worth a little more. Should have asked before buying! I gave $202.50 for it on ebay last night. That was my top bid and i firuged someone else would give a little more. But I was wrong((
Think we'll look it over when it gets to us and then decide if we want to fix or resell it?

[dkesonset]

Wildman,

Did you ever find a place to get a new seat cushion reproduced? I recall an earlier post you were looking. I just purchased a tri cart and tri cub together. Need two seat cushions for them. Also need a new tricart fiberglass seat shell. The existing one is pretty well shot with a lot of repair attemps and soft spots.

DKESONSET

[wildman]

Wildman,

Did you ever find a place to get a new seat cushion reproduced? I recall an earlier post you were looking. I just purchased a tri cart and tri cub together. Need two seat cushions for them. Also need a new tricart fiberglass seat shell. The existing one is pretty well shot with a lot of repair attemps and soft spots.

DKESONSET

DK ... Sorry for delayed reply... I've been away from this board for a while. I had a seat cushion made for one of my Tricarts at a local upholstery shop. They did ok job but took forever. I have since found out that another local shop made all the original prototype and early production seats for SPD. One of the old SPD enginneers in the area recently bought a Wedge and has approached them about making new cushion for that. The shop thought that they may even still have the patterns (same cushion on Wedges and Tricarts). Anyway I'm waiting to see how his comes out before get anymore made.

The Tricart seat shells are tough to come by. I've never seen one for sale alone and most with units are already trashed. I was lucky with my 2 units with the shells both being in decent shape. I had thought that I could probably make a mold for fiberglass using an original as a pattern if I ever needed one for a future project.

The Tricub seat is different design, plus there are a couple of different styles. Mine has smooth cover sewn directly onto a plastic shell. The shell snaps onto the body. I've seen photos of other Tricubs with the pleated seats (similar to the Tricart/Wedge seat), but not sure if these had the under shell or not.

I would like to see some photos of your trikes.

[dkesonset]

I'll snap some pics and get them on here. The other day, I saw some "spray on" bed liner that when applied and cured, was like 3/16" thick and hard as a rock. I was thinking I could get the seat sprayed with that stuff on the outside which would leave a nice finish, still fit in the machine, and provide the strength of a new seat?
Thanks for the info on the seat cushion. I'll contact an upholstry shop in Milwaukee this week and inquire.

dke

[wildman]

Interesting idea with the bed liner. I'm not sure about the strength of that stuff on it's own, but it might work. If you could coat the seat with some kind of release material first then separate, the liner material might make a decent mold for a new fiberglass shell. I had another Tricart owner with an original cushion make me some full-scale paper patterns. I should be able to copy them. PM me your mailing address and I'll send copies. These patterns should be helpful in getting reproduction made, if you don't have anything else to go on.

[wildman]

Tricub with ski

Finally got just enough snow to install the ski and try out the Tricub... What a blast!

wildboy putting it thru the paces... enjoy.

[Mike]

Wildboy got a couple of good slides in. It was funny, when he was far away from the camera, you couldn't see the ski as well, and it looked like the front end was just floating in the air.

[dkesonset]

Tri Cub Video

Cool Video Wildman. We have about the same amount of snow here in Milwaukee. Looking for temps in the high 40's this weekend, so goodbye snow.

Attached are pics of my new toys, yet to be worked on.

Sonset

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