Roodesign /roopod/ roo trimble

[roodesign]

Greeetings from massachusetts! just found this forum a bit ago, and love all the wonderful info...I am building a diesel-powered 3-wheel micro car and I am always looking for more information about how to do it right!

please check out my project website/blog www.roopod.com and let me know what you think, either here, or on the site! please, any comments are good...I am not new to fabricating / machining, but I am new to making something with a motor in it, and especially a diesel!

thanks in advance for any thoughts!
Roo Trimble

[roodesign]

Hey everybody I have roopod drivable....still have to do lights and fenders before I can put her on the road! check it out at my website http://www.roopod.com cant wait!

[coachgeo]

Hwy everybody I have roopod drivable.......

much congratulations!

I'm curious. What did you use for Reverse transfer case and how did you rig it into the drive line?

[roodesign]

That's a comet f-n-r box...it is (or should say was) made to go with comet cvts...but alas no more...that being said, I am somewhat dubios of the quality and durability of the box, it has a rather flimsy feeling shift lever made out of plastic...we will see if it holds up. It is supposed to be good for 16hp, and I am running 13 with my kubota so hoping it is good...notice in my pix that the outboard side of the cvt drive pully shaft is supported by a bearing in an arm I made...comet said you had to have that...will be able to put it on the road shortly here!

roo

[albertaphil]

Awesome job, Roo. I can hardly wait to see how it goes on the road. I like your concept a lot. I think we're all honest enough here to admit that we have mixed diesel engines and motorcycles and come up with a form of transportation that is economical and fun, but many or most of us would still be into dieselbikes even if they weren't cheap to run. That is to say; motorbikes have a particular appeal to some people regardless of their fuel system. Many others are not interested at all in motorcycles, but are very interested in cheap alternative transportation, which is what you've done. Moreover, motorcycles are not aerodynamic, and as such they use quite a lot of fuel for how much weight they are moving due to wind resistance. At 13hp, I'm interested to see how the RooPod handles hills, but I bet that it will do better on flat roads than smaller, lighter bikes with equivalent engines. RooPod would be much nicer to drive in a rainstorm, too:-) Kudos!

Phil

[Crazymanneil]

I like it a lot! Some tidy looking work there, I bet it will get superb economy like others have said. Nice work.

N

[roodesign]

Roopod is Legal! Reading 170 Miles on the odo so far...gotta get the skin on her, though...getting cold around here!
check out more pics vids etc at http://www.roopod.com

Roo

[pietenpol2002]

Congrats Roo. What an accomplishment, and in a remarkably short amount of time. Your mastery of aluminum is amazing. And a sound system at that. What's next? And what do you plan to skin it with?

[Crazymanneil]

Great work!

[Sphere]

That looks awesome

[roodesign]

Hey everybody on here I thought I would give you an update...the ROOPOD is on the road and working well, Team ROOPOD was in the Green Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, NY USA on April 15th and we got 77mpgs...we were able to maintain 41 mph on a hilly 2.43 mile track, still need to tune the rear driven cvt pully to let it upshift sooner or be able to rev higher on uphills, but all in all I am very happy! please check out http://www.roopod.com for the latest pics and news...I actually got to give the photographer from the AP a ride around the track! The AP story was carried all over! http://tinyurl.com/439oago
is the story that was in the Boston Globe.

[Benzine]

Awesome stuff, thanks for posting pics!

[Sphere]

Very nice this, congratulations!

[balboa_71]

Hello Roo,
I'm interested in how you integrated the Comet drive into your power train. Would you be willing to list which drive and driven Comet units you used, what spring packs and weight packs it took to do the job, and how you mated the Comet drive unit to the Kubota engines flywheel? I have a similar interest in mating a Comet drive unit to a Kubota engine flywheel...for now I have no particulars, rather I'm more interested is the difficulity/and machining was needed to accomplish the task . I'm still having trouble getting good solid answers regarding the availability of Comet products....

Thank you,
Cris

[roodesign]

Hi there...can't tell you about avail...but I have called the "new Comet" and the same people are there and they are planing to keep making product...I used the 94c driver and 90d driven I put in six of the heaviest pucks (59g I think) I am using the standard 1-3/16" belt. Now for the 90d...I am not too happy with the "upshift" performance of the comet, and I have been told that I should adjust the 90d for more spring force. this would make the unit upshift sooner, and would balance all the additional weight in the 94c pucks...this is a bit of a procedure as you have to have a big three legged gear puller and several other special items to be able to disassemble the 90d...I will post on here when I pull it apart to say how much changing the setting helped.

as far as the mounting to the Kubota, I used a avail standard Kubota stub-shaft that bolts right to the flywheel...no machining...the 90d is mounted to a reverse gearbox made by www.novaracing.com that was ordered with a special 3/4" shaft to take it...I provided an outboard bearing to hold the end of that long 3/4" shaft.

If I had a bigger budget, I would investigate more sophisticated CVTS such as those made by http://supremetoolinc.com/cart/, they are so much more adjustable and sophisticated and $$$

good luck!
let me know if you have other questions...

-roo

[taurus66]

A very interesting concept, i like the design a lot.. And it seems to be a very nicely working design too. Well done, We definately need more peopel in the world like you..