Radio controlled RC Ramp?

[Thirdgen89GTA]

This has just popped up with a few people I know. We do parades pretty often, at least the club does, I'm a little far away to do it except for the 3/4 day stuff.

One of the dangers however is the guy who pulls the ramp, often times he may find a 14lb savage with tires the size of dinner plates backflipping right as his face. A painful prospect (though the crowd seems to like it....)

So both a Cool idea, and a safe idea is to build a radio controlled ramp. I'm not very knowledgable on electric so I figured I'd come here.

A bunch of ideas were tossed around with the guys ranging from using the 12v power supply from the tow vehicle (i.e. an power lines bound to a steel cable for support). To simply using a tow line and using batteries to power a set of 1/4 scale servos simply for steering the ramp and letting the tow vehicle handle the pulling aspect. As well as using a car battery to provide power to a 12v dc motor system, most car batteries put out about 25amps @ 10.5v for about 90 minutes at least for the average battery with a reserve capacity of 90 minutes or so.

The other thought was finding a scrapped electric wheelchair system.

Realistically this RC ramp would never exceed 5mph as there would be walkers in the parade so speed isn't needed. Just the ability to pull about 20lbs of ramp for about an hour.

Places to start? I know its not the typical system but somehow i don't a high end brushless system would be the most economical way to build this.

Mucho thanks to anyone who responds as the group talked about this for almost an hour last time we were together. It was prompted because the kid who was pulling the ramp got nailed in the head with a 1/8th buggy, thankfully he was wearing a helmet which we insisted on. Good thing we did. :)

[Arct1k]

I think you hit the best idea - a power assisted wheel chair...



Just rip the seat off and mount the ramp - Add a 1/4 steering servo and maybe a servo linkage for power (rember failsafe) to and hook up a rx..

[Arct1k]

Easier still make it like a go cart with the ramp as the shell / roof and just leave a kid inside to drive it...

Or hay just use a childs go cart...

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2266863



Put a ramp/cage around this

[Metallover]

someone did that with a van for bmx biking. They got HUGE air and then died in the hospital. I'll try to find the vid on youtube..

Not the best vid, but you can see the jump. It looks pretty painful, no blood or screaming in pain or anything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJV-j...eature=related

You could also get something like a 1/5 nikko car and stick a ramp on that.

[Patrick]

Maybe one of the rc golf buggies.

[gimpygolden]

Why not pick up a kids "Power Wheels" jeep or something at a yard sale and build ramp on it like mentioned above.

[Thirdgen89GTA]

God did I forget about this post!

LoL!

We went with the easiest long term solution. Tow rope, 12v car battery and a 2ch receiver powering 1/4 scale servos for steering. No actual drive platform. It worked well. One of the guys hooked up a small winch to the ramp so we could control the distance from the vehicle. For turns he'd winch it close, then as the road straightened out he'd let out the line.

This was the best solution because the ramp came in at nearly 35lbs. It was a heavy duty ramp designed to take abuse from 16lb aluminized, extended savages.

I think the R/C ramp is cooler though.

[coolhandcountry]

Since only need very slow speed the barbie jeep system would work.
Only runs on some 550 size motors as well.
Gear low and let it drive itself.
Remember they pull a 50 lb kid around pretty good.
Some even do the 2 kids in one jeep.
Just info if you decide to change layout.