baldwin1968
FNG
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2015
- Messages
- 61
I had found some threads on here (or somewhere) of folks trying to add a motor to a pack wheel but never saw the final outcome. I even emailed Pack Wheel and they said to their knowledge, nobody had done it. I think I got it figured out, haven't been out in the field with it yet but seems fairly solid and works fine walking around the neighborhood. Wanted to share this info in case anyone else had an older Pack Wheel and didn't want to spend $2K to upgrade to the motorized version.
My wife and I have e-bikes, mine is 48V and hers is 36v. One of the tricks was finding a motor that would spin with a low enough RPM to maximize torque and keep about walking speed. This is tough! I did find one that rotates at around 300 RPM that was 36V, so I went with that and just used the battery off of my wife's bike.
The real trick was getting a sprocket made. Luckily I have a Hobby CNC that can cut aluminum so I was able to make a 96T sprocket which puts me about 4MPH at max, but keeping it about half power gives me about 2mph which is walking speed.
Here's my parts list:
1 1" Rear Hub Adapter
1 16x16 3mm 6061 aluminum sheet
1 350 watt motor
1 Motor controller
1 Freewheel Sprocket
1 E-Bike Throttle
4x Wire Connectors (Xt60)
1 Battery holder (matched to the battery I have)
1 .75"x.75 Steel square tube (.125 thick)
1 3" x 4" .125 steel plate
1 3/8 Wire lock pin
1 136 link bike chain (12.7 pitch)
1 Chain Tensioner
3D Printed Cover
I can put links to items if there's interest, right now just throwing this out there to see if anyone cares or is interested.
It is possible to get a 96T sprocket cut from suppliers for about $99 is the quote I got.
For my purposes, This cost me about $375 for everything considering I already had the battery.
Everything comes off so it can run normally if I want, the .75 steel tube slides inside the end of the pack wheel where their aluminum tube is open and stays put with the wire lock pin. Wire lock pin comes out, chain comes off, motor mount slides out, and battery pack comes off the top and I have a normal packwheel again (except I have a sprocket on it, but that shouldn't cause any issues, weighs very little.
Had fun doing this, I'll be testing this season and will likely throw some cement bags in my panniers and give it a go before I get out in the field!
My wife and I have e-bikes, mine is 48V and hers is 36v. One of the tricks was finding a motor that would spin with a low enough RPM to maximize torque and keep about walking speed. This is tough! I did find one that rotates at around 300 RPM that was 36V, so I went with that and just used the battery off of my wife's bike.
The real trick was getting a sprocket made. Luckily I have a Hobby CNC that can cut aluminum so I was able to make a 96T sprocket which puts me about 4MPH at max, but keeping it about half power gives me about 2mph which is walking speed.
Here's my parts list:
1 1" Rear Hub Adapter
1 16x16 3mm 6061 aluminum sheet
1 350 watt motor
1 Motor controller
1 Freewheel Sprocket
1 E-Bike Throttle
4x Wire Connectors (Xt60)
1 Battery holder (matched to the battery I have)
1 .75"x.75 Steel square tube (.125 thick)
1 3" x 4" .125 steel plate
1 3/8 Wire lock pin
1 136 link bike chain (12.7 pitch)
1 Chain Tensioner
3D Printed Cover
I can put links to items if there's interest, right now just throwing this out there to see if anyone cares or is interested.
It is possible to get a 96T sprocket cut from suppliers for about $99 is the quote I got.
For my purposes, This cost me about $375 for everything considering I already had the battery.
Everything comes off so it can run normally if I want, the .75 steel tube slides inside the end of the pack wheel where their aluminum tube is open and stays put with the wire lock pin. Wire lock pin comes out, chain comes off, motor mount slides out, and battery pack comes off the top and I have a normal packwheel again (except I have a sprocket on it, but that shouldn't cause any issues, weighs very little.
Had fun doing this, I'll be testing this season and will likely throw some cement bags in my panniers and give it a go before I get out in the field!
