Last Update 12/21/2012
'Hydrogen' Homebuilt Reverse Trike built by Marion Williamson in Chesapeake, Virginia, USA
David, I read your page titled "My Personal Reverse Trike design ideas" about your thoughts on some marketable Reverse Trike designs, and I agree with what you said. I figured that I could build an RT that would fit all of your ideas, and the following pictures show what I came up with. I am 85 years old now and a WWII aircraft pilot. Since retiring 20 years ago I've built a 3 different homebuilt airplanes besides the Cessna 172 plane I regularly fly. I also built a standard 1F2R style trike myself from a Honda 1100cc Shadow, and I heavily modified a 1995 Ford Taurus by cutting 19" out of the center and making my own fiberglass top for it. I call that my 'kit car'.
In my younger days I ran a boat factory, building high performance boats. During another part of my life I learned fabrication and welding skills from building Nascar race cars. I wanted this project to be low budget along the lines of what you stated. Instead of building the suspension, rigging all the controls, making an instrument panel and so forth, I looked at ways to shortcut the build time.
So I went out and bought a 2003 KIA 4 door Sedan that had been rolled over for $300. It had 74,000 miles on it and came with an 1800cc engine, a 5-speed manual trans, and it's FWD of course. I carefully cut off all the body leaving the firewall, front frame and suspension, computer, wiring, heater, A/C, air bags, seatbelts (with modified mounting points), and part of the floor intact. The gas tank was left as is.
The body was framed up using 1" x 1" x 1/8" angle iron. I fabricated a rear suspension using a combination of 1.5" and 2" aircraft 4130 tubing, mounting the McPherson strut inside the rear compartment. All body panels and top were fabricated from .25" plywood using epoxy on both sides (west system). The top is motorized and goes up and down by utilizing the power window motors out of the donor car. It can be unbolted and removed by 2 people. The windows are siliconed in. I can bolt on a small windscreen I made from 5/32 Lexan for summer driving. Doors are wood with boat hinges and button locks. The key is the door handle!
Fenders are 26" boat trailer fenders. Trim is boat moldings. The only wiring I had to do were the lights. Headlights came from JC Whitney and are miniature driving lights, while the turn signals were motorcycle parts. That's a tow bar mount sticking out on the front. I am adding a supplementary HHO hydrogen system and hope to boost the mileage to 70 mpg. I named it 'hydrogen trike' and my total cost to build it was only $2000! A lot less than most trikes out there today.
I will be glad to help any one interested in this type of construction.
757.420.7857 (ask for Marion)
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