Its a Rocket Ship!

[fun4now]

if your plan is to make it a multi purpose cart, maybe a few options for wheel placement is in order. this way you could move the wheels as needed by the cargo. you could possibly set up several points to attach the hole axle assembly so it would only take a few pin's to move it as needed.

looks like a great project,cant wait to see the finished rocket.

[jevchance]

That is a really excellent idea. I'll take a look into that this week.

[fendermender]

That reminds me of when I was that age, I lived in Arizona and there was a military airplane junkyard nearby.
There were neighbor kids that had a rocketship in thier yard,made from an old airplane fusalage with a baby moon hubcap pop riveted to the nose of it.
It was a two seater like that and had steering wheels in both compartments.
Cool!

[jevchance]

Hey guys,

I haven't posted in a while, have been crazy busy with other stuff.

I did get the rocket ship moving under tractor power. There's still a lot work to be done, but the first test run put a lot of smiles on faces.

Here's my buddy Dan driving the tractor with his son and my daughter in tow.




continued...

[jevchance]

I also have some first pictures of the flatbed chassis for the trailer frame.

Mocking up the frame:

Mocking up the hinge for dumping action:

Test fitting the deck boards:

Test fitting:


Still to do on rocket ship:
Paint
Install rockets (coffee cans welded to the back)
Build nose cone (still not sure how, but I'm leaning towards fiberglass)
Co-pilot control panel and lights/sounds (including battery installation/wiring)

Still to do on flatbed:
Permanently mount everything, including deck boards

Still to do on frame:
Cut off go-kart axle from front (as seen in the rocket ship pictures above)
Relocate rear axle forward about 12"

Hope everyone is having a great spring/summer!

[fun4now]

looks great, did you consider movable or multiple mount points for the axle ??
right now it looks like you have a lot of the load wait on the tung still, put anything heavy on the platform and you wont be able to lift the tung. if you do it will likely end up bending during use.
not shore but i think some one said it should b like 40/60 for axle placement ??

[jevchance]

Yup I have considered it. I think its a great idea, and have yet to make a decision on it.

At the very least, the rear axle will be moved forward. I'm weighing my options on the moveable axle. I can either fabricate a moveable carrier for the axle, or I can switch over to these other axles my dad gave me just this week. They are light trailer axles and don't require a full-width axle, similar to this:



I still need to check to see if the tires I have will work with these axles (the ones I have already have hubs mounted to them, unlike the photo). If so, it might be an easier task to use these axles.

So yeah, I think its a great idea. Now I just need to figure out the best way to implement it.

BTW, when all is said and done, I expect the maximum load capacity for the flatbed to be about 500lbs, which seems to me to be pretty good for a lawn cart, and certainly adequate for any task I'll be throwing at it.

looks great, did you consider movable or multiple mount points for the axle ??
right now it looks like you have a lot of the load wait on the tung still, put anything heavy on the platform and you wont be able to lift the tung. if you do it will likely end up bending during use.
not shore but i think some one said it should b like 40/60 for axle placement ??

[jevchance]

Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago. Not much has changed, I finished painting it and added the rivets. I'd still like to move the wheels forward, but it works pretty well as-is.





We took this rig into town a few weeks ago for our town's family festival. We drove it around a bit, got lots of looks and comments!

[jevchance]

And a shot of my girls enjoying it.

[H80N]

Very cool family oriented project...... bet the girls will remember and talk about it 40years from now!!!!!