The 3 Wheeler

This poor thing has undergone so many revisions, i almost feel sorry for it. Currently, it is sitting in pieces, awaiting a new life as a mover of plate steel.

It was a VW Beatle transaxle, in unknown condition, but it worked when i turned the shaft, and it held tires. From the wheel bolt pattern, i suspect it's vintage 1950's. In this pic the transaxle input is facing you, it looks shorter because i took the top off the bell housing, to allow for a 3ft wide 4ft long dump bed to sit lower on the frame. The frame nearest had a Honda 3-wheeler welded to it, by me, to give the Honda a reverse gear, a real differential, a wider stance, a really low center of gravity, weight carrying capacity, more gears, and solid traction instead of that bouncy feel of balloon tires. I even added electric start to the Honda engine. Turning the torque of the Honda's rear axle was done with chain drive to a Toyota rearend, bolting a sprocket where the tire usually goes, shortening that axle, removing the other axle, and setting it so it's pinion gear fed out into the input shaft of the transaxle.

The only things i couldn't overcome were the Honda's worn out engine wouldn't start reliably, no power steering, and when the battery died i had no brakes.

The large disk up in front is for mounting a tire. I'll cut the center out to fit the tire, run an axle thru it, bolt a gearmotor to turn the tire, another to rotate the disk to point the tire where i want the front end to go. The aim is drive-by-wire, and 360°+ rotation of the steering. Putting the same model gearmotor on the rear wheels, instead of driving the differential, will give me identical electronically controlled torque/rpm to each wheel, as well as automagic locking brakes when power is off (instead of the previously mentioned lack of brakes when power was lost).