scooter sidecar

[Rem]

I need ideas for a home made sidecar to mount to a 150cc scooter we got for campground patrol. This will be hauled with our ttt and be street legal.that way we can use it in the larger campgrounds and haul goodies to the pot lucks. Oh yeah! I'm not lazy I just have mobility issues. Any realistic imaginative ideas will be appreciated

[Wimperdink]

There's a few manufactured side cars out there. It would be important to see your scooter and how its made. More importantly the structural parts that you'd be able to use for attaching a side car.

Here's a site that has lots of pics for attaching a side car to a vespa. It might just spring up some ideas for you. Click!

[raprap]

Don't know about a homemade hack, but a warning--a hacked twowheeler isn't a trike. A trike at least turns right and left the same way.

Here's a webpage for hacked scooters. BTW I remember hacked Cushmans from by childhood on the Carolina Barrier Islands.

Rap

[D.J.]

I like the looks of this one . Sorry I don't have plans .

[D.J.]

This is a much more stable way to go . ... D.J.

[bve]

This is a much more stable way to go . ... D.J.

That's cool, I'll bet it's a good workout for the legs too

Why not a trailer for the scooter? A matching smaller Teardrop...

[angib]

I think a sidecar body is pretty easy - it can be constructed exactly the same way as a teardrop, though it would look much nicer if it got narrower at the front. I'd be happy to draw out a design if you want.

Building the frame for the sidecar is harder as you'll need good welding skills, probably a tube bender and maybe some machine shop work. It's finding suitable points on the scooter to attach the frame to that could be a problem and doubly so if you want to be able to sell the scooter as a solo machine afterwards (as you'll probably want to chop out bits of its plastic skin).

The sidecar wheel could be a 8" trailer wheel and you could use a light trailer half axle as the suspension, though that would be very hard. For low speed use, I think not having a sidecar wheel brake is acceptable.

For layout, if you search the web you should find some information. A few basic issues are:
- you do not want the sidecar wheel in line with the scooter rear wheel - the sidecar wheel should be 6-12" in front, called 'lead';
- you do not want the scooter vertical - it should 'lean out' (away from the sidecar) slightly, as this steers the scooter away from the sidecar, which compensates for the sidecar's drag;
- you want some toe-in on the sidecar wheel, again to steer to compensate for the sidecar's drag.

Ideally, all of these variables should be able to be changed so that you can fine tune the rig to handle neutrally, though adjusting 'lead' may be difficult.

How you would haul the scooter and sidecar with your TTT, I don't know - rigging up a towing frame wouldn't be easy, plus most modern scooters are variator belt-drive with no neutral, so flat-towing wouldn't be possible.

Andrew

PS I've just edited this to use only the word sidecar - are they also called 'chairs' in the US?

[Rem]

Here's my Scooter

[H@nk]

I just found this link for you. Looks like its easy to construct
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=h ... 0%26sa%3DN

[D.J.]

I just ran across this one . It has great cargo space . How about a teardrop shaped sidecar . .... D.J.