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Electric Trikke T78 Air Conversion

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 12:10 am
by lurkinglime
I came across an oddball Trike/Trikke T78 Air "Carving" Scooter at a local fundraiser/garage sale for $40. I managed to talk them down to $25, thinking it might be fun to tinker with. After notching out the forks for the hub motor axle, I realized it was too narrow. I found a larger fork available for more than I paid for the whole scooter. So I decided to rough it together for a proof of concept, before spending anything else on it. I flattened the inside of the fork tubes in a vise with a v-block on the outside. Then spread them out the remainder with some help from a scissor jack. It was still a bit of a wrestling match, but I managed to get an M365 hub motor installed. The battery, controller and complete handle bar assembly were literally just zip-tied in place to confirm it was going to work and be worthwhile. Even in this pathetically rough state, it's kinda awesome. It rolls around like you're on a chariot, and handles phenomenally. Now I'm going to order the larger front fork and install a 10" 350w motor I have. Then I'll have to come up with something that is hopefully more elegant for battery or batteries; possibly even making them swappable. I might end up making it all wheel drive, if I can figure out a way not to have 3 throttle levers. Also, the m365 throttle only fits the slotted bar extrustion, so I will need to work around that since these are solid bars. I'd be really interested in any ideas or tips anyone else has to offer. First thing I have to do is put all these parts back on my girl's m365 before she notices.
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Re: Electric Trikke T78 Air Conversion

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:59 pm
by lurkinglime
It's starting to get a bit better. I used aluminum extrusion to create a pair of swappable battery trays that also contain the controller. I attached 2 LED strips to the outer side of each. I'm running 2 X 30 cell batteries in parallel. I upgraded the front hub motor to a 10" 350w that seems to perform well and stay cool. There are mechanical brakes on both rear wheels, and regen on the front wheel. I made a new front fork for the larger wheel, and fabricated a custom aluminum mount for dual headlights using the original cut down front fork. There has been a lot of soldering and heatshrink for all the custom cabling. Also customized a drum clamp to hold my accessory handlebar with the throttle, since it requires a slotted bar. I still have to sort out my switches for the horn and lighting.


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It folds up nice, but a bit heavy with the 2 batteries.
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Re: Electric Trikke T78 Air Conversion

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:41 pm
by lurkinglime
Used the lathe, mill, and a fair bit of file work to create the aluminum pieces for this mount, then some all-thread and coupling nuts for final assembly. The coupling nuts give me a place to mount blinkers, if I ever figure out a solution for that.
I soldered some of the juliet style quick connects for the headlights.

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Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:51 pm
by lurkinglime
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Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:00 pm
by lurkinglime
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Re: Electric Trikke T78 Air Conversion

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 8:22 pm
by Davidjkim22
Nice! Awesome project and nice craftmanship! I wish I knew someone with a lathe and just your overall knowledge that it seems you have with this stuff. What area are you from?