Heavy Trike setup?

Getting in the Air
#1

I was wondering if anyone was doing a heavier setup on a trike or quad frame with additional battery packs for longer flights. The Ozone Triox wing is rated for up to over 800lbs. You can be up to 254lbs for a 103 ultralite. That gives you around 500 plus pounds worth of people/stuff you can take off with.

I figure a trike frame of around 40 pounds, the new SP140 is 31 pounds, so that leaves around 180 pounds for batteries. Each 4kwh battery pack is 40 pounds, so you could have 4 of them on the trike.

Is anyone doing something like this already? Or am I missing something that makes this not work? Obviously that much battery is kind of expensive, but other than cost.

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#2

there have been some trikes for years that fly with lots of batteries. also 2 seater with electric motor. as an example my trike from 2018.

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#3

Wow that’s bad ass are those all batteries under the seat. 3hr flight time?

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#4

here you can see a flight with the basic battery. I can expand below. but to be legal I need another wing dr more total weight allowed. the maximum is around 90 minutes if you don’t fly too high.

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#5

Wow, How much did this setup cost you? Is it for sale?

#6

Bratwurst builds very high end paramotors. In other words, It is a lot of money, not the comparatively low price that OpenPPG has many of us accustomed to. I will also say that comparing his unit to an sp140 is like comparing a Rolls Royce and a Honda.

#7

It is rather a one of build vs. serial production.
Also cost appeared to be less of consideration than finish. The result looks great, but will definitely not be for everybody.

When my SP140 has been delivered, I plan to put it to a test on a light trike from Airone.pro. I have been flying both the AirOne Unique Single and the Tandem with petrol. They are both great products: slim / light, stable and great quality!
Based on the way they are build it should be rather easy to swap them to the SP140 and add an additional SP140 battery.

#8

Its not just the number built. Most of the major components like the battery cells, motor, and ESC for either of the paramotors can be bought by anyone. So for me to buy those three major components for the SP140 would cost about $4k. For me to buy the same major components for Bratwurst´s trike would be closer to $10k. I know that some people don´t like me comparing price, but I am just trying to show the level that bratwurst is going to build the best possible e-trike.

Keep us posted. I will be fun to see what people do with their SP140.

#9

In that video the telemetry reported almost 6kwh used for the flight. A set of 4 Bonkas for the X4 is about 2kwh rated. I don’t want to use more that 80% of that. He’s probably carrying four times as much battery. I’d guess that’s about $5kUSD for the pack with BMS ready to fly. And it’ll weigh about 35-40kg.

#10

@ daniel,
yes it would be great if you did a report in europe about the sp 140.

#11

hi, 9500.- euros : Trike komplette , Motor, ESC,Telemetrie, Propeller, 600 Sony VTC 5 cells, Material for Seat, Motormount GFK plate, Parts for the Throttle units, connectors, cables all total. and 70 h work time in my freetime total.

sorry no, it is not for sale.

optional batterie under the seat = 450 cells samsung 40 T = 1900.- euros and 20 h work time.

#12

Oop, I was basing my costs off of his latest trike with the ~12kWh battery pack.

#13

maybe a hint why i decided on this heavy trike type: i have seen serious accidents myself with other pilots with trikes. most of them cause serious injuries to the cervical spine if you roll over, as you have to bear the entire weight of the trike with your head. with my trike you can do several overturns. you always sit securely strapped in the seat like in a car with a roll bar. i know especially the young inexperienced people will now say nonsense, you never have an accident. that will be true in most cases. i love my life so much that i gladly accept to have a few kilos more on the trike, but always knowing technically i have used all safety devices that are feasible. I’ve never fallen on my head while flying ppg after more than 800 starts. I will still wear a helmet for the rest of my life :slight_smile:

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#14

For sure! I wasn’t disputing the $10k estimate if the battery is already half of that. 12kwh would be $7000* maybe more USD just for the batteries.
Nearly $10euro all in plus 70 hours of skilled labour. Not unreasonable at all.

*edit - quick and really high estimate.

#15

it’s always fun to read your postings!

#16

Probably looking at our postings and seeing how much of amateurs we all are😄

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#17

bob, I understand your numbers and postings. I don’t understand what grejen711 wants to say, so I always find his numbers funny. :slight_smile:

#18

In the same context of safety, what are your thoughts regarding BRS or similar whole aircraft recovery products?

#19

I use hand-RS for all eppg and e-trikes that can tow around 20 kilograms more than everything weighs. example. the pilot and eppg weighs a total of 127 kg then i use a system that is approved for up to 150 kg or 160 kg. i mostly use anular evo 24 or 30 and other brands. I use 2 RS for the termik flight system. 1 on the side of the container and 1 in the front container. you don’t need that. i do it because i feel better in strong thermals. I use 1 front container RS for several eppg and ppg as well as in the mountains for pg. The big RS is only permanently mounted on the trike because of the v-line.

#20

Actually, I am not sure where you are getting your numbers. I know Bratwurst has used a lot of Molicel P42A cells in the past so I did the math based on a DIY battery pack with those cells, but I believe he may have found places to buy complete to buy complete batteries.

Anyway, 12kWh with P42A cells comes out to be about 840 cells and in that quantity they would cost about $4.50 USD. After taxes and shipping it comes out to be around $4k in battery cells. Then, a while back Bratwurst was looking for a specific model of MGM motor controller for his latest trike. In my research that specific model appeared to be an average of about $3,500 USD. Finally the motor, I haven’t found any specific price on the Hacker Q240, but knowing the value of the smaller Hacker Q150 is $1,890 USD, I estimated the Q240 would be in the $2500 range. Add everything up and that is about $10,000 give or take.

For a comparison to the SP140, The Mad M50 motor is $1100, 264x Molicel P42A cells are about $1200, and The 24s 300A APD esc is $1500 for a total of about $4,000 after taxes and shipping.