This is my cousins buggy, he was really liked your tires Jay, so he went big too. Too bad it's a homebrew electric buggy.  

Sweet! Someone recently spoke to me about making an electric powered buggy. I know electric cars are nothing new, but he's got one rare ride there. Tell your cousin I love his rear tires!

Jay

Nice! If we have a little interest in electric powered buggies out there, I'd be happy to create another board specific to electric power.  I'd love to see a buggy leave a Tesla in the dust.  I hope to have a ride in a Tesla...

Sounds like a design challenge. I know electric motors make huge torque numbers, so you should be able to gear very high. I wonder if the gearing options would be taller through a Corvair running gear or the VW running gear.

Seems to me there are options out there. The other option might be to have a "GS" set up, where the electric motor was positioned so that it sat forward of the axles, thus presenting even more options for gearing. It seems like at that point, almost any modern running gear could be grafted to the VW torsion tubes and give much taller gearing.

Terry, I wonder if range could be lengthened on your cousin's buggy if the gearing were taller.

hmmmm   

Jay

Not that I'm up on dat stuff, but it seems range is all about the amp hours available in the batteries. He is running  8+1 deep cycle marine batteries. He is wanting to upgrade the batteries to a dry cell type but that is going to be even more money spent in the pursuit of freedom from gasoline.    Not to mention the electricity required to re-charge the batteries.

Here's a pic showing the motor. B.T.W. he got a little pic of it in the latest HotVW's magazine, (under reader rides maybe?).