# My Argo-E 8x8 Project



## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Glad to see you're making some progress on this. I think you can get pretty close to your goals though your vehicle weight and extra wheels will hurt your range. If you can go with a less aggressive tire and travel on smooth, flat straight trails you can probably hit 10 miles or so, but skid steering and hill climbing with aggressive tread takes a lot of power. Run higher pressure in the tires as well for more range, but less comfort


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## Tinodesis (May 4, 2008)

Hello JRP3!

Yes, it's nice to have made some progress. It can't happen fast enough but I'm trying to avoid paying $60/hr to get it finished. Smooth roads are just about what I need given the rough ride the Argo provides.

How does LiFePO Springer sound!? 

T



JRP3 said:


> Glad to see you're making some progress on this. I think you can get pretty close to your goals though your vehicle weight and extra wheels will hurt your range. If you can go with a less aggressive tire and travel on smooth, flat straight trails you can probably hit 10 miles or so, but skid steering and hill climbing with aggressive tread takes a lot of power. Run higher pressure in the tires as well for more range, but less comfort


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Tinodesis said:


> How does LiFePO Springer sound!?


Perfect


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## Jimdear2 (Oct 12, 2008)

Tinodesis,

This is just a blind stab in the dark, but since I want a skid steer myself. I have been thinking about this stuff. I enjoy a quite walk in the woods myself but since my lungs and heart are shot I need something like this as well.

How about keeping the belt drive torque converter. Spinning the motor faster (more efficient, less Peukert [spelling], better battery life) and let the torque converter make the grunt.

Maybe re-gearing to move low gear higher or high gear lower, which ever would be better for the load you have to carry.

Maybe both.

I'm probably wrong or am missing something (meant to throw this at JRP2 oops thats 3)  anyway at a later date when I find one, after I get the tractors done.


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Proper gearing should take care of that, I'm geared 16.5:1 over all from motor shaft to the wheels and I hit 22 mph with 21 inch wheels at 48 volts. There would be some slippage with the belt and torque converter which means wasted energy, not what we want in an EV.


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## Tinodesis (May 4, 2008)

Hi Jim,

The motor would perform better with a higher gear ratio. When I bought the motor it was suggested that a 10:1 ratio would result in better performance.

I will see what different sprocket sizes on the motor and transmission will do to help.

JRP3,

I thought about your first reply last night. Staying on roads or trails that are fairly flat and smooth is good for me and the Argo.

I drive a Ford van with hand controls. When I drive on unimproved roads I have to slow down to keep control while going over bumps, around rocks etc. If I get bounced around too much, I have trouble keeping my balance.

The finished project may not keep up with other ATV's, but it will still be fun.

T


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

At 72 volts, geared 10:1, running larger diameter tires than mine, you'll end up going a lot faster than 20 mph I think. What size are the tires?


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## Tinodesis (May 4, 2008)

Tires are 22x11x8

Please let me know how fast I _could_ be going! 



JRP3 said:


> At 72 volts, geared 10:1, running larger diameter tires than mine, you'll end up going a lot faster than 20 mph I think. What size are the tires?


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

I thought you might be running 24 inch tires or bigger so it won't be as high as i thought and it sort of depends on how the motor is wound.
Assuming your motor is similar to mine, at 48 volts my motor is turning around 6000 RPM. At 72 volts yours might be turning 8000 RPM, which is probably a bit too high so you don't want to hold it there for very long at all. Using this calculator http://www.f-body.org/gears/ we put in 22 for tire diameter, 10 for your suggested over all drive ratio, 8000 for RPM, and just use 1 for first gear and leave everything else blank, you'll hit 50mph! Of course with the extra weight and rolling resistance of your setup it won't go that fast because torque will drop off with higher RPM but that's way faster than you need or want. Change the axle ratio to the 16.5 that I'm using and you're at a more realistic 30 mph top speed at 8000 RPM.
You can play with the numbers but keep in mind the motor sweet spot according to Jim is probably between 2500-4500 RPM for efficiency and cooling so try to set it so most of your driving falls in that range. With your transmission if you use a 2:1 ratio between the motor and trans that would give you about a 9:1 over all ratio in high and 17:1 low and reverse, so you've got a large range to play with.


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