Steering is a critical component of an EV. Not just for the obvious reason of turning around corners, but because it can effect your efficiency substantially. Get one piece out of line and your wheels can "scrub" when turning, giving the car a bad rolling resistance and thus making the car work harder. Which is why designing and constructing the steering gave us many headaches from brow frowning and head scratching. But it is now complete (pretty well) and so we braved the rain to take it for another spin.
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| The car is now fitted out with some fine steering devices |
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| Focus |
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| REEEOOOooowwww |
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| Return Of The Rope Tire! |
Last year our car used plain old billy cart steering, and even though it could cleverly lean the vehicle into turns, it still felt a bit agricultural. So this year we have decided to use ackerman steering (the type of steering all road cars use). This makes it harder as there are much more angles to consider, many distances to calculate, a lot of levers to account for and these strange things called rose joints. The reason why we have chosen to use this steering system is because its very efficient, if you get it right. So far all is looking well and with a bit of "trimming" she should turn true.
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| The steering layout with a lightweight ply-wood steering wheel |
Taking the car out for a spin with a fully operating steering system certainly was a lot more satisfying and we can now see the car really taking shape. Although we have not reached speeds of more than walking pace, we can suddenly feel the potential.
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| Guy gettin some gnarly speed! |
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| okay, so we didn't go quite as fast as this looks, but some crafty camera work helps |
Next step - to focus on the drive train. Motors and gearboxes, should be simple?
Oscar
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