RUMCars Forum
General Category => Sales & Auctions => Topic started by: mharrell on September 02, 2009, 05:49:12 PM
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It's got a motor (two, in fact), more than two wheels, and is intended for use on the road. It also failed to bring more than a bid of $1,175 a couple of days ago and so has been relisted. Here's an unusual micro car(?) for your inspection:
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lyman-Electric-Powered-Car-Bike-Rechargeable-Quad-Rare_W0QQitemZ180403140787 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lyman-Electric-Powered-Car-Bike-Rechargeable-Quad-Rare_W0QQitemZ180403140787)
I'm pretty sure it could be licensed as a moped in my state, but anything with more than three wheels requires a special ruling from the State Patrol.
Mike Harrell
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In UK it is illegal to drive a vehicle powered by more than one motor, but I am not sure if this applies to electric vehicles. It looks fun, and a contact of mine on the ukulelecosmos wants a pedal electric Surrey, so I have notified him. He is from UK but lives in USA.
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Dear Marcus
I know that there have been problems in the development of vehicles with two engines like the twini mini and the early Mini Moke, but I have never heard that they were illegal. However you may be right.
I do not think that two electric motors driving seperate wheels would be illegal either, as the next generation of electric vehicles will have a Lynch type electric motor in each wheel making in effect four engines. Provided they are controled by a central control unit then it has some definite advantages, the first being is no need for a differential gear or torque split. Each wheel will be monitored in the same way as the ABS system does now.
Chris Thomas
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That's exactly what I was pondering, and possibly the law does not include electric drive where wheel motors are a proven technology.
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I recently heard from the guy who purchased the Lyman back in 2009. He owns a bookstore:
(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6099/6371875575_ee09408272.jpg)
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unfortunately the link must have run out of time :(
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As I understand it you can drive a car with two engines in the UK but you cannot drive a machine with two independent engines powering the machine at one time. Thus as I understand it a 2CV Safari would require one engine be behind a cut off switch rendering it inert on the public highway at all times. What you do off road is up to you, subject to liability law. This will lean on road law weakening a defence off road in an incident with a twin engined car. I believe Locomotives can be twin engined but then that is a very limited class of vehicle. It might be noted that older type road-sweepers often had two engines with one powering scurrifyers. I think you will find for ease of use that many were classed as Locomotives as it might be argued the scurrifyer is aiding the movement of the vehicle. This was why they were a mobile chicane even when not cleaning the road. Technology has moved on a bit and road-sweepers are a bit more sophisticated now.
Electric motors have far greater capacity to be linked together for control than two independently running IC engines. Thus I can see them being allowed to be used.
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unfortunately the link must have run out of time :(
eBay listings are only accessible for 90 days.
The first post in this thread was from Sept 2009 which was about 2 years ago.
Mike was just following up on his original post with more information about the vehicle.
Hats off to Mike for keeping everything in one place!
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Mike was just following up on his original post with more information about the vehicle.
Oops. Yes, I didn't mean to mislead anyone. There's so little about the Lyman Electric Quad out there that I wanted to post this photo of it, so I figured keeping it all in one thread would be for the best.
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my mistake , as jim said makes much more sense than a new topic
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I knew Mr Lyman back in the mid 1970s in Norwalk Connecticut. He had a machine shop on Meadow St. and used to drive around town in an electric Ford Pinto he had converted. I remember about 20 years backs a guy sold that Pinto for 2 grand on eBay but I called too late to get it. He sold a few of these quads but they were too expensive at the time . He was a man ahead of his time.