Here is my latest DIY project

[madokie]

I"m not finished with the dump bed just yet. I'm using red oak for the flooring and the sideboards. This pic is showing a piece of plywood for that but thats only to help in visualizing what this little car is all about. It should be able to carry 300 lbs or so if I ever need that much weight capacity that is.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Cool! Did you build it from scratch? How does it steer?

[madokie]

2. Yes I built it from scratch

using the motors and controller from an invacare power chair.

[Robb]

3. LOVE it.

Needs a tractor chair. Purpose-built? For what? And are those 24V/12AH batteries?

[madokie]

5. A tractor metal pan seat with the flat spring support that looks like an S

is what I'm looking for now. I built this for my yard work. I have Peripheral Vascular Disease and its getting difficult to walk much and I needed some help in that department. I was given an older Invacare m51 power chair that had issues so I used the motors and controllers from it for this project. Yesterday I put a head and side boards on the dump bed and we used it for most of the day in carrying our garden tools, plants and dirt about as we were working in our yard and garden getting ready for the growing season. The chair I was given needed batteries and the deep cycle that it needed are expensive plus I wasn't so sure that this yard car would do what I wanted so I just purchased a couple 20 dollar lawn mower batteries to try it out with. Now that I know for sure that it will work for me I am ordering the correct type of batteries, type U1 35 AH 12V but they haven't arrived yet. With the batteries I have now it was still going strong when I finished the day yesterday so with the batteries I have ordered it should last for several days before needing recharged. The charger that came with the chair will only allow the batteries to charge up to 26.4 volts and the motor controller only lets them discharge down to 24.1 volts where it switches to a limp home to an electrical plug cycle, so the correct batteries should last a long time, possibly a lifetime for me. I also am using it for trucking my ass around out in the woods in search for morel mushrooms. A few days ago I ran the batteries down as low as the controller will allow them to go while looking for 'shrooms. Plugged it in to my Kill-A-Watt meter and it took .4 KWH to recharge. We pay .08 cents a KWH so I went all day for less than a nickels worth of electricity.

I made the bed I have on it now out of plywood and some treated boards for the side and head boards and by removing two screws and sliding it forward it easily comes off and I am building another bed out of oak for when I might want to go styling.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. What? No cup holder?

Where does one put one's beverage-in-progress?

[madokie]

6. Thats the first thing our son said

where's the damn beer holder. I have a gimbal mounted can holder that I am adding just haven't gotten there yet. For the most part I quit drinking so a holder is not too high up on my priorities list now but I'm going to put one on there for others to use.
With me I most likely need a bowl holder, :-) if you get my drift.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. A loaf of bread ... a glass of wine ....... a funnel ........ and a bowl ......

And the question is .......

[amerikat]

8. Nice work! Are you a machinist, fabricator or welder by trade?

How do you recharge the batteries?

[madokie]

9. Thanks

I've worked at most all the trades back through the years but never as a machinist or welder, finished up my working career finishing concrete of all things. I've been making my toys most all of my 61 years and I get a lot of satisfaction out of making things for myself, plus no one ever told me I couldn't do that as a kid growing up so I just keep on doing it.
I use the charger that came with the power chair that I got the motors and motor controller from. I mounted it onboard so all I have to do is find an electrical plug to plug it into.