after much thought have decided to build a new craft that can take advantage of the best winds available in my area, have access to a grass airstrip and plenty of farm ground with bean stubble, and a frozen lake with 6" snow (not very good for ice yachting). all within a minute from door. tired of driving ($$) to asphalt venues in area, poor quality winds because of shadowing. will be in the open and hopefully have some kick a@% wind. have ordered some 10" aluminum atv rims, atv front sand tires (ams whipsnake) and hubs with 3/4" tapered roller bearings. if info i found on net is accurate should beat bigfoot tire weight, plus larger rolling diameter. want machine to measure close to lefroy specs, maybe plus 10%. wheel diameter 22x8. 6 sq meter sail.
wondering what difficulties will i encounter using this large of a wheel for steering? hoping to use 30 degree layover setup. any experience out there?

I sail a lot on a local football field (grass). The area has two or three football fields marked out when they have a big meeting.

My LLF Mini sails well on it with the 8" trolley type wheels as does my blokart with 6" wheels.

I think the atv rims with tapered roller bearings will end up being too heavy.

Wayhay! You moving to Mongolia and going into Mongolian Archery???? Looks Like it would serve well as a Bow
It will be interesting to see how that works under rough conditions.. Don't spend roo much time being fired across that Bean patch.[}:)]
Ron

oldMXer said...

rear axle constructed from leaf spring off toyota pickup truck. has 2" deflection with my full weight on it. can add another leaf to fine tune action if needed

My Ski axle mini deflects 1" with my weight on it your 2" might be good on rough ground

oldMXer said...

funny you said that Ron. within in seconds of bolting together it was held in the archer's position, short discussion followed on stringing it up!! decided didn't have strength (or energy) to pull it back. thought crossbow also.
on your rig hiko, how much flex do you get to the leeward side in a gust/strong wind? trying to imagine how this will feel loaded, wondering if it will/can lift a wheel?

If you think you're not strong enough, turn it into a compound bow. You know, the type with pulleys at each end [}:)]

my experience with fat front tyres is that they develop a speed wobble.
the OD was much smaller, so you will now be the one to do the experiment. given tthe type of tyres you will be using , i dont think you will need any suspension, as the tyres are the suspension(IMHO)

Me too, I never got round to building one.
I found the plans when I was young in a heap of books my uncle gave me.
A lot of work to build and I had push bikes to ride!!!
Looks interesting though!!!!!
www.vintageprojects.com/archery/crossbow-leaf-spring.pdf

That old site has some great stuff on it maybe not about land yachts but some very interesting projects
Cheers
aus230

www.vintageprojects.com/

front suspension idea, mono fork. action could be tuned with bolt tension, density or thickness of bushe. mounted top, front ,bottom of steering tee.

Here is a front suspension fork I built a few years ago for my class 5
It worked ok using sections of carbon sail battens for the springs

oldMXer said...

front suspension idea, mono fork. action could be tuned with bolt tension, density or thickness of bushe. mounted top, front ,bottom of steering tee.

Nice drawing

What stops the fork from twisting around, rotating around the grade 8 1/2" bolt?
(up and out of the page in the drawing)

How difficult was it to drill through the leaf spring?

Hi all. Long time reader, first post. I found this old thread a week or two ago and it has some good info along a similar use of spring steel. www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/My-design-for-a-C5-with-swept-forward-axles/
Might be worth a read, even has some advice for drilling spring steel with a cobalt bit.
Andrew