2017 Team Turtle: DOMNT | Friday, 1:07 p.m.

Description of the the sculpture courtesy its creator:

ART: Team Turtle “Domnt” (Dam Old Mutant Ninja Turtle). Very little Art and not much Pageantry. (You cannot expect much from an old Turtle!)

ENGINEERING: Another year, another craft. Last year’s contraption almost broke apart at the finish line. It was repaired and raced in one more race but its time is limited, it is already destined to be the parts for the 50th KGC vehicle. This year’s unit started out as three 26” bikes which have been highly modified into a 140 lb kinetic vehicle. The width is less than 8 ft, we have to make it legal! It is set up in a delta trike configuration with duals on all three sets of wheels making it a hexacycle. This will be its first race although it has been through its paces many times and has made an appearance in a Christmas Parade. With all hopes, the major bugs have been worked out. Calculated max speed is about 11 mph running a peddle speed of 60 rpm. The lowest speed with this peddle speed is less than 1 mph with everything set at the lowest gears (see the worksheet). It has been clocked doing 17 mph for a short distance on level roadway.

The drive system is set up based on two 6 speed clusters and a 7 speed cluster. The two 6 speed clusters are paired together which allows me to shift from road speed to the lowest of sand speeds with four intermediate speed in between. This gives me a 21 speed vehicle that can be set on 6 different drive ranges, giving me a unit that has 126 forward gears. This said, I will not need to use them all; I will probably use 10 of them. Speed on the water is unknown at this time. I have stayed with a paddle wheel set up. This worked good in last year’s race. I have made some changes to the wheel height adjustment system due to some electrical issues last year. I have gone to a mechanical connection to the scissor jack. This will allow me to make wheel height changes after making the transition into the water. This will make more efficient use of the paddle wheel in the water. My paddle size was shown to be large enough last year to propel me at a suitable speed. Currently I am unable to water test the craft because I would have the same speeds as on land, you cannot test floatation on thick ice. I have run my spreadsheet that calculates draft and it looks like it can be balanced on its pontoons with no problem.

This craft build was started over a year ago. I have addressed the metal fatigue issue of the frame. Hopefully new issues do not crop up. I have also changed to a solid shaft at my power transfer point of my rear axle. This is the unit that failed on the dunes last year. I am looking forward to peddling up and over June’s Dune, I hope.