Conversion for Pedicab

[Fredo]

My friend bought a cheap pedicab trike last year second hand in London (it needed a lot of work!) and we did it up and took it to a festival in northern Spain. It was loads of fun but pedalling was *very* exhausting, so we need to add some power.

A bit of background:
- The camp has 4-5 large solar panels for power, which they use to charge car batteries. It is very sunny. There is no mains electricity on site.
- This pedicab is not a well made modern pedicab - no differential, everything connected to the rear axle seems to be cobbled together.
- Typically we were going at less than 10 mph around the site which is a field - it's not very large and there are lots of people around, so we don't want to go fast.

My thinking is that the easiest thing to do would be to put in an electric front wheel (20"). Ideally 24V so we can have a couple of car batteries under the rear seat. We could go with a higher voltage but it means more batteries and more weight.

Has anyone tried anything like this, or have any ideas/suggestions?

Cheers,

Fred

P.s. photos below so you can see what it looks like

 

[flecc]

Brox when they made pedicabs offered two forms of electrification, and the simplest one would have suited you.

It was a Heinzmann 24 volt hub motor in the small front wheel, automatically giving lower speeds, in some models fed by two large 12 volt lead-acid batteries in series. Those batteries need to be capable of delivering consistent traction power, car batteries might suffer if continuously delivering high currents for long periods.

If you Google Heinzmann Motor Kits you'll see a few suppliers, be warned though they they are quite expensive, being German. You might not want their lithium battery though and prefer lead acid for your camp facility charging. Someone may be able to suggest a high torque Chinese alternative suitable for 24 volt operation.
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[Fredo]

Brox when they made pedicabs offered two forms of electrification, and the simplest one would have suited you.
.

Cheers - what you describe sounds very much like what I'm after, although those look a bit above my budget so any suggestions of cheaper reliable products would be great.