Electric Go Cart

consider a battery/solar powered d.c. motor to drive your go cart. reseach the web for the latest technology.

air and hydraulic systems are ineffiencent.

I found the answer ..

wow amaizing

http://www.krankboomclank.com/gallery.html

The things you are going to struggle with are power-per-unit-weight and range-per-unit-weight. Increasing the required range increases the energy storage requirements, which increases the weight, which reduces the performance; it's a juggling act.

Lucas Chloride Electric Vehicles are, or were in the 1980s, ahead of the game in this respect. Maybe the Japanese have overtaken them (pun intended).

High energy density storage media include the sodium-sulphur [NaS] battery and ultra-high-speed flywheels. Each has its problems: the NaS isn't a battery until it is over 300degC, and one doesn't want either the Na or the S exposed to the atmosphere or moisture at those temperatures in the event of a collision. Flywheels need a contra-rotating mass otherwise when the vehicle meets a bend, it will fall over.

And to cap it all, the vehicle needs to be road-legal: Suspension? Lights? Seat-belts? Collision protection? Etc., etc.

One of the options is to say, forget about road technology and design one for rail instead, where the considerably less rolling friction between wheel and rolling surface and gentler gradients and curves can contribute to a more efficient vehicle design. After all, both locations are connected with a railway line, aren't they? Is it in "the rules"?

Good luck!

My advice is to go with a design that has worked, and modify the proportions to work...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_vehicle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_car_teams

This is a MAJOR project to undertake.

Lets have a reality check before you go any further.

First the distance of around 1500km in two days or less would require you average 31km an hour driving continuously day and night. This is difficult in itself for a first time project with a single person let alone the extra weight of a 4 person team.

Don't even waste your time with compressed air storage, it won't work. I don't think Hydraulic is a viable option either. The only way to practically attempt this is electric with a combination of solar, and that is assuming the terrain is mostly flat - hills make this much, much more difficult. Weight reduction is as important (if not more) as energy storage.

If this is for a solar racer event (solar racing) you are going to need a good team and a lot of time and money to even reach the finish line in the time required (if at all).

I won't tell you how much a project with your goals is going to cost yet (but it is going to likely be much more than you think).

Can you provide more information please, if this is for solar racing we may be able to offer you some pointers, but we would need to know more about the race rules and what level of competition this is.

If this is a personal project let us know also.

_{Jack - Helping electric go-cart individuals and teams since 2007}

Hello friend..Read your question.If you have source to manage the parts I will make it for you.Electric or hydraulic/air one.Can be operated by foot pumping.Can try it if you really need.Not expensive.

Earth is a basket of will n wish where you can find anything you want.Just you should have idea..knowledge and ability to get it.

Don't write-off air powered systems. Energy density of liquefied air is very high. Since you are able to plan for a single, long-distance journey it is possible that an air motor fed from a liquefied air storage vessel may be competitive:

See here

http://www.airproducts.com/industries/Energy/Power/Power-Technologies/product-list.aspx?itemId={7D677622-F274-40B1-8EC9-F6D33CC19C5E}

and here:

http://www.liquidairenergy.com/faqs.html

Mark Bingham
Relativity PL

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa

The only way to pass a roadworthy is to use an existing vehicle and modify it.

Getting that sort of distance will be almost impossible using batteries or air, can you use another fuel like gas, after all it's not petrol or diesel, and just put a bigger tank in?

As already mentioned, this would be a major project, even for a large well resourced team of experienced engineers.

Another reality check Even the best commercial electric vehicles have a range of about 300km's. Yours is not likely to be as efficient. So how do you plan to keep it moving. Solar is not a reality unless you can get it fast enough to do the distance in daylight. Also even then I'm not sure that you could get the batteries charged and drive this mass of vehicle, at the speeds you will need, with the amount of cells you could fit. I know some makers are fitting small petrol engines to drive an alternator which recharges the batteries on the go. So drive is all electric, is that an option. If not how about fuel cell charging

The OP seems very vague as to the requirements of the vehicle for the event.

Here is a link for the South African Solar Challenge 2012 http://www.solarchallenge.org.za/

Also the regulations are in pdf's here

http://www.solarchallenge.org.za/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&download=1:general-regulations-section-1&id=2:sasc-2012-regulations&Itemid=114

http://www.solarchallenge.org.za/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&download=2:technical-regulations-section-2&id=2:sasc-2012-regulations&Itemid=114

http://www.solarchallenge.org.za/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&download=3:technology-demos-section-3&id=2:sasc-2012-regulations&Itemid=114

The regulations are quite complex as you would imagine.

It would seem that the vehicle can only move on generated power but not from diesel or petrol generated power and that solar panels can only be uncovered 15 minutes before starting each stage of the race, no power is to be generated before this time.

What sort of project is this for the OP? The funds required to produce a vehicle to these specifications would be colossal.

Your post specifies 'at least' two days, which implies that 10 days is acceptable.

At present there is no inexpensive way of meeting your goal without supplementing the power in some way. I am suggesting peddle power. The Tour de France road race covers 3200km in 21 days riding 8-10 hours per day and that includes two rest days and several days in Alpine grade mountainous terrain. Compared to that, 1500km of rolling South African hills should be a breeze.

I would suggest that you base your design on a bicycle/tandem with one or two supplementary battery powered electric motors. A PV covered roof skin will provide shade for the passengers while adding to the battery power and provides opportunities for streamlining. Four sets of peddles clutched to a common drive shaft gives an option for resting pairs of riders/passengers, or using all four for uphill sections.

Check out recumbent tricycles for a starting point. More than 6 hours per day is a long time on a bike, recumbent riders can cat nap in rotation.

Four in line will give you better aerodynamics at the expense of stability, but two up, two behind, allows the front pair to share a common handlebar. Making a bicycle road worthy in UK is a matter of adding mudguards and front/rear battery powered lights, I don't know about SA.

The idea for a long sleek four man recumbent tandem trike with an aerodynamic skin sounds fun. Good luck.

How about steam....fuel sources can be grabbed along the road.....including dried animal dung.... in any case those are renewable, and not Diesel or Petrol.

Or is this truely limited to forms that require NO type of combustion? Internal or external.

We'd need to know far more about the challenge to make any meaningful suggestions

If quick charging is allowed, then a vehicle like the Nissan LEAF could make this trip, providing there are quick charge stations at 200 km intervals.

Air and hydraulics cannot store enough energy to be useful over this distance. As a hydridizing method, hydraulics can have some value, but only in intense stop and go driving -- it doesn't sound like there will be much of that.

Ethanol OK? Hydrogen OK?

I think we need a summary of the rules: maybe three or four paragraphs.

how about wood gas, take a light car add a trailer with wood gas converter and drive it like a normal car.

We build a car for the last race - a solar powered one. Of all the teams taking part only one made it to the finish.
Was a big learning curve and very expansive, you looking at more than R 120000.00 for a simple car, and I mean simple.
With lead acid batteries and so on. We had no chance of completing the race. The car was able to do its 40km per hour on paper and doing
so would have runn out of power on a nice sunny day within 4 to 6 hours.

But do not let my failure discourage you. If you need some help you can e-mail me *. Sorry sitting in Namibia at the moment so can not help in person.

*CR4 Admin - email address removed

From the CR4 Rules: Do not post phone numbers or email addresses. The CR4 Admin will delete all phone numbers and email addresses posted in threads or comments. You can share this information via the CR4 internal messaging system.

So you probably work for BMW in South Africa. I visited them a couple of times to help them out early in this millennium.

They were SO full of NIH, they did not want to try my "fix", they continued to use their "fix" and told me mine would never work, even though they proved to everyone (and themselves) that their "fix" did not and could not work and was simply dangerous....

Their ideas eventually caused major machine failure and very high repair costs for them and IBM.......not my/our problem.......I always say that you can lead a horse to water, but it has to drink on its own.....

Saying "how stupid" is putting it mildly......but maybe they can help you to get this idea off the ground? A hot air balloon maybe? Put two of their experts in the crew and you won't even need the gas burner!!

Best of luck.....I will be following this blog.....

Unless there are refill stations providing electricity, or pressure for pneumatics or hydraulics, you will probably want to utilize two or more power sources to make a road worthy vehicle capable of 1500km in two day (not necessarily in the sunlight).

I'd try to make use of the 4 seat requirement by first considering a human-power-hybrid arranging seating into one column with a low frontal cross section that allows for efficient pedaling.

I understand winds can be quite strong in Capetown. Have you considered deriving at least partial power by deploying a retractable kite or mounting a horizontal axis wind turbine?

A wind system might complement some other systems well,for example solar.

If you are going to utilize solar, there would be some big advantage in eschewing a battery system. Weight, aerodynamics, and conversion efficiency could all improve by skipping the battery system. Weight improvement alone would be very substantial.

LOL!!!!!

Hey, not so loud. You are going to ruin it.

Dear Brother,

Lot of suggestions collected.So better lets have a competition in this topic with briefing in design.May be one will be correct.