Hello everybody,
My name is Jesse, I live in Kansas and I just finished building my first sailcar (Is sailcar an acceptable term?) I haven't sailed it a whole lot but overall it works great. I bent the mast a couple times so I'm going to stiffen that, and I'm going to replace my plastic bike wheels with metal spoked ones. Also various rig improvements are being planned for the future. I did this as my final project for welding school.
Now I have a couple questions,
First, Is there anybody else in Kansas that landsails? It's relatively flat and windy, but I haven't found anyone yet
Second, I haven't had much success on even the shortest grass. Are there different wheels that work better on grass? I know bike wheels won't work on sand but I don't see why grass is a problem other than the increased drag. Do I simply need more sail area to power it through grass?
Finally, I have cable operated steering and it's a little wacky. will just a single pushrod from the foot bar to the wheel work better? would my 45 degree tilt on the steering axis be a problem in that situation?
It's good to be here, and thanks in advance if you can answer any of my questions.
Hi Jesse, good looking build there. I'm a novice also and in the same boat you are yuk yuk. So I'll leave the terminology determinations for others but I want to call mine a sand sailer, because that's what it will be doing, and it sounds good.
I like your brake setup.
As far as the tires, I have gone with Wheel Eez balloon wheels , you may want to check out my thread here to see them. I have not used them yet but I will report on them after use. They could be an answer for the rougher and loose terrain. They seem to roll easily and should float like crazy although the bearings may be a weak point.
I suspect that rod based steering will usually have less play. That's what I have and the angle is pretty large and I don't even have ball joints. I think I have a bolt and some tape or something. With ball joints I don't think the angle is a problem. But again, I'm a novice here so don't listen to me. :)
thanks on the brakes, they seem to work pretty good, but the handles aren't quite in the most intuitive spot. one issue on installing non bicycle wheels is that the brakes will need to be taken off, because they won't fit fat tires. my steering doesn't have ball joints, it's just a cheap bicycle front wheel fork. And I have been sailing on pavement but if I can get it moving on grass I'll have much larger areas to sail in
