The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

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Grandad
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by Grandad »

A bit of an update:

I may have found the source of the moisture inside the van.

It bucketed down here day before yesterday for just a short while. Approx 10mm in 10 minutes. I had to duck outside to grab something I'd left out and happened to glance inside The Pumpkin as I walked past. There was quite a large area of water slowly working it's way from the back to the front along the floor. I ducked inside and the ceiling, walls and windows were all bone dry. Just the floor was wet, and it was all coming from the rear of the van.

Looking outside and under the following day I came up with a possible explanation.

I figured water was rolling down the cladding and ending up at a point where the timber floor started. Although you can't see the floor edge at all from underneath and the cladding actually abuts part of the chassis I hadn't bothered to seal that joint when I built it, because it's upside down, under the van. How could water get in? No need. Or so I thought.
IMG_1976 (Medium).JPG
So, I ran a large bead of sealer along that edge. Once it had set, I tested it by running a hose all along the top of this panel. Dry inside.

Now, once again, with the brilliant powers of hindsight, what I should have done was do the hose thing first to see if my theory was right. But I didn't.
So I THINK I may have solved a problem. I won't know for sure until the next rain. It wouldn't be the first time that using a hose looked fine but rain was a different matter.

Finger crossed.

Oh, and I realised there is a separate but relevant project going on as well.
IMG_1972 (Medium).JPG
I'm building myself a bike to take with me. It started when I found a nice mountain bike with an all alloy frame at the recycling centre. 10 bucks!
So, I bought it and have been slowly building it into a hybrid style bike. Everything is alloy. I do at bit more on it whenever the mood strikes me.
I intend to make it electric with a motorised rear wheel from eBay.
I thought it might be useful to peddle into town for groceries etc. Thus the panier bags. And electric cause I ain't getting no younger.
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T1 Terry
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by T1 Terry »

Add an electric front wheel and it will become a hill climber as well. The rear wheel for speed and the front wheel for low speed high torque so it will climb gutters and over rough tracks rather than the rear wheel ramming it into things to make it climb over. A left thumb type throttle for the front wheel and the normal twist grip on the right for the rear wheel. Using both to take off really stuns the car drivers :lol:
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Grandad
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

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I think I'll just avoid rough tracks. And curbs. Too old for that stuff. :-)
In all seriousness. Did a bit of research into electric bikes. It appears there are 3 different systems. Front wheel, rear wheel or centre drive where the pedals are.
Front wheel is the cheapest, centre drive apparently the easiest to use and most efficient and rear wheel a compromise between the two.
Conversions kits are not that expensive either. That realisation was the motivation actually. I thought, "Why not?"

Jim
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T1 Terry
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by T1 Terry »

Front wheel takes some getting acquainted with, the direction change is slower and any potholes etc as felt a lot more through the wrists and shoulders, especially if your riding style is leaning forward on your arms. More suited to the relaxed riding position of sitting upright with the arms relaxed rather than weight bearing and also requires the "tractor seat" rather than those things that try to fracture your butt bones and disappear up your butt if your not real careful :lol:
The rear wheel better suits the leaning forward riding style and enables riding on electric only better than the front wheel drive that can skid out from under the bike on loose dirt if you aren't real careful. The centre crank idea does balance the bike well, but if you don't pedal then you get no assistance and the riding can be a bit jerky on the cheaper setups. The mega $$ units of course are the ants pants, the pedal ratio automatically changes with the speed so you don't have to pedal like a maniac once you get a bit of speed up, yet riding up a steep grade or on sand is just as easy as riding down a slight slope on a well sealed road.
Where the battery mounts on the cheaper bikes is important, best either on or behind the seat down leg so positioned above the pedal crank, on the forward rail works well for rear wheel drive units and along the top support rail for extended capacity. On the rear rack for a rear wheel drive often results in a buckled back wheel, the front wheel rolls over the pothole but the weight on the rear wheel causes it to thump in hard.

Lots of Sydney to 'gong rides till the knee gave out, then battery assist bikes for travelling around sight seeing has resulted in lots of experience in what works well and what barely works at all. The fold up small wheel "travel bikes" fit into the barely works at all category once you add the weight of a battery pack and electric drive hub.

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
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Grandad
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by Grandad »

Thanks Terry. You answered one question for me. I was umming and ahhing on where the battery should go. I was rather leaning towards the rear rack, (Purely from an aesthetics point of view) but you're suggesting either the down tube or the seat tube may be better.
I presume it's about balancing the weights?
If so, I presume the down tube is best? Where my drink bottle is at present?

I think my bike would fall into your upright position and tractor seat category. I like that description.

How heavy is the battery and rear wheel hub anyway?
Apart from all up weight I hadn't really considered that factor. And I had assumed the battery would be removed before lifting it onto the 'A' frame or back of the panelvan or wherever it ends up travelling. But hadn't considered the weight of the hub.

Basically, I don't ride a bike very often. Seldom in fact, because although I quite enjoy it on the flat or a short hill on a nice day, a long uphill climb even down in granny gear gets the better of me.
I thought out on the road a bike might be nice to use to follow a gentle cycling track (No mountain bike stuff) or more likely to ride into town for some milk and bread instead of unhooking the van.
So, the option to kick an electric motor on may just make me more willing to take the bike instead of the car.

All the batteries I've seen all appear to be 36V and either 10 or 13 AH. There are some that are round and appear to be intended to be mounted with the drink bottle screws. And they all appear to be lithium ion the same as any cordless tool battery so fairly bullet proof.
Are my observations correct?

Jim
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T1 Terry
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by T1 Terry »

OK, lithium ion is a technology, not the actual chemistry used. LiPo is the most common type used because of the higher voltage and energy to weight ratio. 10 cells at the nominal 3.6v (halfway between charged and discharged) = 36v. These are also the cells that go up with bang and bust into flames if they get over charged, short out or dragged to a lower than acceptable voltage. these are the hand grenade batteries the model plane people use and the ones that caused all the trouble with the Chinese E Scooters catching fire just after Christmas each yr.
Quality set ups using these cells have a complex BMS (battery management system), a form of balancing to get the cells to an even voltage when charged and a cut out if a cell reaches its max design voltage and a temp sensor if the pack gets too hot, generally because a cell is about to go ballistic soon. The cheap and nasty batteries don't have near as many safe guards, the exploding E scooters probably had virtually no safe guards.
LiFeP04 chemistry is heavier, requires more cell to reach the nom. 36v because each cells nom. voltage is 3.2v (11 cells) but don't go bang if they are mis treated, but they do fail to no voltage if mistreated excessively. So these cells also need a BMS, more to get a decent cycle life than to avoid them exploding because they don't explode no matter what happens. Much safer than LiPo but heavier and less energy to weight ratio.

Voltage relates to speed and/or torque, that ability to take off on a hill and still get up there at a reasonable pace without having to near pop a knee joint can be very handy. Top speed isn't always the choice, sometimes it is better to use a higher winding ratio hub motor combined with a higher voltage battery to get the hill climbing and a sensible top speed.
There is a forum for just this sort of stuff called "The endless sphere" and the knowledge on their is mind bending.

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
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Grandad
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by Grandad »

Found my leak.

Some was indeed coming from where I suspected. Where the body rolls under the van and meets up with the edge of the floor.

But..... The next rain showed some was still getting in. Albeit, not near as much.
Turns out, I had obviously neglected to seal around the 100mm pipe I had installed earlier. Either I forgot, or felt it wasn't necessary at the time.

(I can't find the picture of where I mean. It's back on page 2 if you're interested)

A small bead of sealer = job done. Next rain? Dry floor.

Oh, except for a tiny dribble from one of the back windows. But they're just held in place with a single screw. I don't wish to install them properly just yet. They need polishing and I'd prefer to remove them when time comes to spray the outside. So, I ran some tape across the top edge for now. Seems to be working.

I've also used some spray foam to insulate on top of the fridge cabinet and used some of that square conduilt to run the 240V cable from the power point inside that cabinet across to where the switchboard will be.
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by BruceS »

Job well done!!! Let's hope you've got them all now. :idea: :idea:
Might not be a big problem in your 'modern' van but in them old plywood vans a leak was almost 'deadly' for them. :evil:
Black tar used to hold a lot together!
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Re: The rebuilding of a 1969 Franklin Mini - AKA "The Pumpkin"

Post by supersparky »

Jim, You would not have found that leak for months if you lived up here. I don't think we have had any rain since June.
Good update. Looking forward to the next one.
Cheers
David

David and Terrie with Bandit the travelling companion
2006 Winnebago Alpine
Recently retired and loving it.
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