Ventura Kinetic Champion

OK, so this entry is late. I've been busy...

On Oct 25, co-pilot Jay and I actually won the Ventura Kinetic Sculpture Race!! We were just hoping to finally ACE a course. We finally got the water configuration dialed in, which is a siginificant portion of the Ventura race. We placed first in time, and first overall = grand champions (speed, art, and engineering combined + ACE status).

One vehicle was slightly faster, but they used 4 different pilots on a solo vehicle, so no required ACE status for them. Also, we survived (and they did not) a collision during the figure 8 portion of the race. I'm sure there will be retrobution next year :).

Well, the Tiki Bar is set up as good as it can get - and it's no good for the distance races. I'm working on a second vehicle now. This one will be chronicled on Facebook. I think I'm gonna phase out my Tribe usage.

Ready for BM2008!!

The All-Terrain Tiki Bar (ATB) is ready to go to BM2008, now with a flame thrower on board (unfortunately takes the place of where booze would be stored behind the bar). Now time to half disassemble the thing so that I can cram it into the back of my truck...

Tiki Torch unveiling

So I've been building this crazy flamethrower. Last year, at the Green Man, my wife complained that there was less fire at BM. Every time I go "does this mean I can build a flamethrower?" She never said no, not yes either. So I've taken that, and the fact that she's not going this year, as permission.

Here's a photo of the Tiki torch under pilot light with fire dancers. Look on my page for the video of the big poof!! (and sorry it's sideways, it's not a problem with still photos, and this video was taken with a digital camera, so I didn't think it would be a problem - it is apparently).

Road Rim Failure!

The two rear road rims, the ones I was so excited about a couple of months back, didn't fare so well on the Kinetic Sculpture Race. One busted off during the LeMans start around the Arcata town plaza! The other we removed around 4 miles later as it loosened and started to get skewed. Actually, that same thing happened during the start, but by rule you're prohibited from working on your sculpture until 12:32, the start is at 12:00, so we had to take it far it we could. Some fine spectator picked up the busted rim and brought it to the sand entry and handed it to us there. We'd have served him a drink, but he was around 10!! He got a Tiki Necklace.

The rims looked like they fractured in several places, started going out of round and flexing, and eventually couldn't hold the pressure of the ATV tire any more and busted loose. At first I thought this might be due to the weight of the vehicle. BTW, the All-Terrain Tiki Bar was weighed with 3 bathroom scales by Mrs Stuart's 8th grade class: 477lbs, not prepped for water, no cargo, fully decorated. On the ride home, the driver side seat back vibrated and broke - the 3/4" EMT conduit broke! So, now I'm figureing that Jay and my butts didn't bust those rims, but that the 477lbs vehicle didn't compress the springs enough on the heavy duty trailer I borrowed, and the rims got 477lbs bouncing into tarnation on them that busted 'em.

Anyhow, they didn't feel like they made that much of a different - although the front ones that survived the race certainly helped steer us down deadman's drop! They may have been better if I could have found smooth 24" tire treads. It was suggested to me (by members of Team Melvin, 2008 grand champions) that we find a flexible solution, like a flatless tire without a rim. However, as there improvement seemed marginal as it was, I didn't want to add compression of the ATV tires to the rolling resistance on the road.

I just going to go with something completely different in the next built - but first Jay and I will try to Ace the Ventura race in October!

Mission Accomplished

More or less. We did race in the race. We didn't register to ACE because we couldn't carry our water gear - in fact, a paddle wheel busted hitting the ground riding from the staging area to the water launch on day 2 - but some 5 min epoxy put us back in shape. The photo is the Tiki Bar about to climb out of Humbolt Bay. I have a video clip too that I'll try to post here.

Day 1 we pretty much ACEd, except for, of course, not carrying our pontoons and paddle wheels - which turned out to be the right decision.

Day 2, we did the water, but passed on the 18 mile road ride to Crab Point. The 10 miles on day 1, although quite succesful in the dunes, wore us out. ATV tires are no good for the long haul!! Sand, road, no difference. As a matter of fact, the 2 rear 'road rims' busted on day 1 (future blog article)! We wanted to save our energy for the glorious finish.

Day 3, the road alternate route (no water) was chosen due to tide conditions. No problem, it was fun hanging out at Fernbridge with all the of machines taking over the tiny hamlet for about 90 minutes until the bridge was closed for us.

Future plans - slight adjustment to the pontoons (futher rear) and we'll go try to ACE the Venture race in October. After that, I'm thinking about what wheels I want to use and take it from there.

Almost Ready for Eureka

I've got the pontoons mounted, paddle wheels mounted and driven - gonna add more under-the-floor foam (and have to put the floor back on too) and I'm ready to go. The photo was taken last weekend. This weekend I painted the wood, reworked the paddle mount to eliminate the vulnerable wood from there, and improved/installed the front under-the-floor foam.

Oh, I got the Tiki Umbrella and bar back on too, which brings up - I'm gonna race as the All-Terrain Tiki Bar once again! The photo shows the bed frame taking shape, but I didn't have enough time to build a strong enough bed canopy to carry the pontoons and stuff over the land, or to make the matress strong and full of storage. So, I decided to make it another engineering run. Try to run the whole course, but without carrying all of stuff, so no ACE.

Remaining work: center rear foam under-the-floor pontoon; resize the paddle wheel chains since I reworked the mount; get stuff together for the road trip; final decor work; find convenient storage for water/snacks so you don't need to stop for access....cross fingers....

New Paddle Wheels Are Coming Together

In Ventura, I had 20 inch diamater paddle wheels attached to the side of 22 inch wheels. They had to be smaller than the wheel for ground clearance. Only, we floated to low and the paddles pushed in both directions - we were in last place!!

Since I'm going with outrigger pontoons, I have to move the water propulsion of the rear of the vehicle. Also, even if I'm not sunk in too deep (literally and figuratively), larger paddle wheels are more efficient that small one. I've got these two nearly 36 inch diamter 8-paddle wheels built now - one/pilot as I have independent drive trains. I still need to mount the bearings and sprocket to these. I'm still waiting on a 1-inch diameter axel to mount these things on. I don't have all of the details for the paddle wheel mount yet, but that shouldn't be too hard. I'm trying to have it be adjustable if possible.

Better Seats are here!!

I have some surplus riding mower tractor seats for this thing. For Burning Man 2007 I had them arranged in the normal configuration, not enough back support!! For Ventura I tried turning the seats around so that you sat on the low back and the large bottom acted as a back. Better, but still not perfect.

Now I've got these high-back extensions added on. One thing for sure, no matter what happens up in Eureka this year, I'll be comfortable!!

New floats conceptual layout

In an effort to improve my water performance from Ventura, I've literally dropped my two 55 gallons drums from the back of the vehicle in favor of some inflatable pontoons. Now 'good' inflatable pontoons are really expensive, like $1k. But, my base vehicle floats on it's own from just the tires, plus I'm putting some styrofoam under the floor, so I shouldn't exceed the 300lb rating of these things by much. This limit isn't from the displacement volume of the pontoons, cuz that's nearly the same as the two 55 gals drums, actually, which is 840 pounds!! The variable is how low will the pontoons be - the lower, the more weight load. I'm worried about them folding up under the force, so I'm gonna put a beam along the top of each pontoon to make it more rigid - as long as I don't blow a seam I should be OK!

Road Rims Rock!!

Since Burning Man, I've been aware of the fact that the very high rolling resistance of the ATV tires on hard pavement would pose a serious challenge for long distance races. Ventura was a short race, so this wasn't a concern there.

I've considered many options, but this is what I'm going with for now. I inflate the ATV tires inside a 26" Mtn bike rim. I've used some flexible conduit to form a low-profile rigid tube, and have installed 24" tires with the side walls cut off over the outside. The photo below shows the rims on 4 wheels, how I intend to ride it. The middle wheels are just above level pavement, and the low profile of the rims, is such that after sinking in 1/2" or less in sand will result in riding on ATV tires. There are other photos of the roadrims in the photo section.

There have been limited road testing. I need more, and to also try on sand to confirm that performance is not compromised.