Mr. Sharkey via EV wrote:
I converted a Cushman ... to electric many moons ago (in the 90s).
It has a small truck box on the back.
What you are describing is my first car, a Cushman "Mailster", retired
from the US Postal Service. It had a small cube box with front and rear
roll-up doors and instead of a steering wheel, handlebars directly
connected to the front suspension.
Here's a photo (virtually one of only a couple of photos featuring my
face on the whole of the internet) from 1967:
http://www.housetrucks.org/blogfx/cushman.jpg
45 MPH was much too fast for the amount of native stability, and I
nearly upended it a couple of times on the road. After ripping around
town and cruising the beach scene for six months, I got tapped by a
Grand Prix that was pulling out of a driveway and ended up underneath
the rig, being belt sanded by the pavement. Still have the scars and
nerve damage to remind me that four wheels are better than three, no
matter what the configuration.
A friend converted a Piaggio (Vespa) Ape into an EV. It's a very similar
vehicle, introduced in 1948 and still being produced today!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Ape
In ICE form it was indeed pretty tipsy, but became much more stable with
the batteries mounted low in back.
3-wheel vehicles are generally less stable, but good design can make
them more stable than most trucks or SUVs. There are 3-wheel *racers*,
and they don't tip over!
The big issue in the USA is that any small light vehicle has to share
the road with huge heavy vehicles.
Motorcycles have the same problem. If you feel comfortable driving a
motorcycle, then 3-wheelers such as these can be looked at as an
enclosed motorcycle to keep the wind and weather off.
Lee
--
"#3 pencils and quadrille pads." -- Seymour Cray, when asked
what CAD tools he used to design the Cray I supercomputer
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com
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