Help wanted with Eccles Ryder

[rokraider]

Thanks for posting the newspaper clipping Blob, that is fantastic! It is interesting to see the differences. Mine is very similar to Jeans from what I can see. It has plywood floors covered in ribbed rubber matting, rather than chequer plate. It also has a seat frame and backrest, where the Workmaster has no backrest. Mine has a plate on top of the nose that states it is called a Ryder ( Golf connection?), otherwise everything else is the same, as far as I can see. I have come to the conclusion that they built it originally as a workhorse and then offered it for other roles by adding some simple bolt on goodies to jazz it up. My one has the deluxe seat (same as Jeans) and a couple of pouches on the dash that could possibly hold golf balls?

So far the restoration has been easy. the next stage will take longer. The fibreglass is in pretty poor shape and will require a lot of TLC. The seat frame appears to be Nickel plated and is quite badly pitted. Not sure that platers will be able to save it. The chromed steering tiller is quite badly pitted, but salvageable . Things like the peculiar little sidelights and headlamp rim all have damage. I will post a picture of the sidelights, just in case anyone has some stashed away.

This is the first attempt at a microcar, I normally build 4x4's for a living. Although I am enjoying myself doing this so much, I am interested in doing some more. I am going to negotiate for an ex military 3 wheeled electric van from the 60's that is down the road. As a family, we are involved in most things mechanical (and now electric).
When it is finished, I will see if my father wants to use it, as he lives out in the sticks down a private lane and his mobility is not good. It would be ideal for taking the dogs for a run.

My company: http://www.surreyoff-road.com

My father and brother (next door): http://www.dunsfoldcollection.co.uk

Insight, do you mean you have 2 Eccles that need doing?

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Rokraider (Chris)

Very interesting to see the Landrover collection and your workshops etc, and see that you are at Dunfold, the opposite end of Surrey to me.

No I do not have two Eccles Ryders. I have a six wheel Hustler and an Elswick Envoy, neither of which is 4x4 or working and I would love to see them in a finished state. Lack of time and skills has hampered me in this endevour.

However I am interested in electric vehicles (my main vehicle is an Insight) and I have been toying with converting the Hustler to electric as the space between the four rear wheels would be ideal for the battery location to keep the weight distribution about right. Do you fancy a challenge?

I also have a contact who is looking for a small electric vehicle with high ground clearance to get his wife to the station each morning and back again down an unmade road about a mile long. It would need to be civilised and secure, so the Eccles would be out of the question. Do you know of any electric 4x4 vehicles?

I am looking forward to seeing the finished Eccles.

Chris Thomas

[blob]

Hi Rokraider, I agree the clipping is a wonderful piece of social history, at least you get an idea of which came first, the domestic vehicle or the industrial one, but I love these eccentric machines because if sales weren't going so well, a few adjustments and hey presto, a brand new product.

[rokraider]

Dear Rokraider (Chris)

Very interesting to see the Landrover collection and your workshops etc, and see that you are at Dunfold, the opposite end of Surrey to me.

No I do not have two Eccles Ryders. I have a six wheel Hustler and an Elswick Envoy, neither of which is 4x4 or working and I would love to see them in a finished state. Lack of time and skills has hampered me in this endevour.

However I am interested in electric vehicles (my main vehicle is an Insight) and I have been toying with converting the Hustler to electric as the space between the four rear wheels would be ideal for the battery location to keep the weight distribution about right. Do you fancy a challenge?

I also have a contact who is looking for a small electric vehicle with high ground clearance to get his wife to the station each morning and back again down an unmade road about a mile long. It would need to be civilised and secure, so the Eccles would be out of the question. Do you know of any electric 4x4 vehicles?

I am looking forward to seeing the finished Eccles.

Chris Thomas

I am always looking for a challenge and enjoy building oddball stuff. Regarding the Hustler, That would be a project we could look at, biggest problem with the electric stuff is the costs of batteries etc. It would be interesting to explore the latest stuff and see if it will adapt at a sensible price.

I will have a think regarding the electric 4x4 for your contact, It might be easiest to sit an existing vehicle shell on a custom chassis/axles with electrics. Would it need to be road legal?
We have a Hybrid diesel electric Land Rover 109 in the collection. Unfortunately the batteries have had it . It will cost £3500 to replace them!

I have been out to have a look at one of these today. It might be another project to have some fun with.

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Rokraider

The converted electric milk float/van looks interesting.

Regarding the 4x4 electric vehicle. The vehicle will need to be road legal, 2 or 4 wheel drive capable of coping with a rough unmade road. I do not think they were thinking of anything as big as a Land Rover, but an all electric short wheelbase Land Rover would be unique and it may be possible to connect the electric motor directly to the transfer box as the electric motor may have sufficient torque to eliminate the need for a gearbox. These people a true Eco Warriers who can afford to do things right so oil based fuels are off limits.

With regard to the Hustler The cost of the motor, control system and batteries is always going to be expensive, but so again will petrol in a few weeks time.

Perhaps as this discussion is not Microcar based we should discuss this off line

tileroofconsult@btconnect.com

Chris Thomas

[Stuart Cyphus]

Perhaps as this discussion is not Microcar based we should discuss this off line

 Carry on discussing it here by all means. It's all interesting!

 Nice to see some Eccles details finally coming out of the woodwork. Again its always been one of those vehicles I like but could never find out anything about

 Lets see more of that milkfloat as well!   Number 39? Where's the other 38?   

[rokraider]

The van is apparently called a "Bushpony" . (Seems a strange name as I wouldn't think it would be any use in the bush ). It was probably used by the NAAFI in the army or in the QM stores etc. It is not huge, probably 12' long +-. It is terrible to drive and immediately gets this side to side rocking motion going on. It is front wheel drive and you have to turn the complete wheel,motor and front leg assy by means of a large curved hoop/handlebar. It is so heavy, it is just about impossible to turn it when stationary. There is a large 36 volt traction battery pack under the seat comprising of 18 x 2volt cells. The combination of all this means it is incredibly heavy on the nose! It has good size load area in the back. I think it looks great! It makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Regarding the 2 projects that Chris has flagged up, I am very interested in getting involved and am happy to discuss them on here, if the other members don't mind?

I will continue to keep you all posted of progress with the Eccles and the Bushpony if I get it. (we are negotiating on the price at the moment. Problem is the battery pack alone is worth £900! It makes this a rather pricey novelty van and doesn't have a charger either, so that will be another £400) We will have to see..

Didn't get much done on the Eccles today, just the brake rods and throttle cable. Next job is the framework that supports the seat etc. I am going to modify it to accommodate the 4 x 6 volt batteries and to beef it up a bit, it is very flimsy and is cracking in places.

[Jean]

We have a charger that came with our Eccles for use with its original enormous  batteries which could be of some use to you, if we can re-vamp the Eccles set-up.  Lets hope you can make the Open Day and have a chat.  Jean

[rokraider]

Thank you for the generous offer of the charger, Jean.  I am ok with the Eccles, it is 24 volt (I have converted it from 2 x12 volt to 4 x 6 volt) and I have a Snap-On intelligent charger that can cope with charging all 4 units at once and balancing them all in one hit.
If I get the Bushpony it is 36 volt which makes things harder. I would have to buy a new unit specifically for the Bushpony, cheapest type being IRO £400.

[rokraider]

Made some more progress. I have finished repairing and modifying the seat frame to accommodate the new battery layout. I have also stripped cleaned and tidied up the speed controller. I have included some pictures that show how it works. It is a very simple arrangement that consists of some carbon discs that are squeezed together as you open the throttle up. The tighter they are squeezed together, the better the contact, the more current reaches the motor. At full throttle there are 2 brass bolts that make contact with each other giving the motor full power from the batteries, effectively bypassing the carbon discs. Very simple and fairly elegant! There will be a fair amount of setting up to do to get it right.
Next job is to get the lock on the master / forward and reverse switch working so it can be locked & immobilised, so the kids can't nick it! Then I can fit the front seat panel back on and wire it up so it is mobile again.










 

[rokraider]

Made a little more progress. I re assembled the speed controller and rebuilt it exactly as it came apart, put everything back together as per the pictures and notes  I had made and was confident it would be silky smooth now it was all cleaned up.  Switched the master on and it promptly burst into life without me touching anything   Luckily, I had it on a jack, just in case. At least it didn't shoot off across the workshop. Spent the next few hours trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Eventually tracked the fault to one of the brass bolts for the full power setting. They bolt through using insulation washers to prevent a short. I had not taken enough care when fitting it, and it was just able to make a contact to earth, meaning the cart just wanted to go! Having sorted that out  I stuck the handlebar on and went for a trundle...Lovely!  All seems to work nicely.
I have managed to salvage the original key lock that stops the master switch being operated when locked. The key had snapped off in it. After some jiggerypoker with it, managed to get the broken part out and got the local locksmith to make me a copy that has worked! This has meant I can do away with the battery cutoff switch that was in there to immobilise it previously. I will remanufacture the front panel at some point to get rid of the holes. It is finished in a plastic texture, hopefully it is possible to purchase a sheet already textured.

The next step is to clean up and paint then reassemble the bulkhead panel work, refit the dash and wire it up. Then comes the fibreglass  . There is a fair amount of damage to put right.
Am hoping to get it over to the RUM show, but it wont be finished. It will be interesting to compare it to Jeans blue one.
Some more pics:

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Whatever happend to old rocraider here? We haven't heard from him or his Eccles for some 18 months now. Suely he must have finished it by now!