Electric Kart?

[the thnikkaman]

My freind was thinking about building an electric kart using a couple of motors from "insinkerators"(the thing in your sink that you put food in and it cuts it up). The motors are each 1/2 horsepower. Would two of these motors power a small kart, and how would He provide electricity to the Motors (without hanging a Extension cord off the kart). This is just an idea that he is trying out and I thought you guys could help. Thanks in advance for any replies.:)

[robertdjung]

find some golf-cart motors, or something that runs on DC power would be my suggestion. You'll need 120 volts AC power for those motors.

[the thnikkaman]

Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. Do you know where to get a golf cart motor and how powerful would a cheap one would be?

[robertdjung]

i don't know how much they would cost. that's a good question. but i'll bet with a lot of phone calls you can track down a salvage place, or a place that fixes golf carts that has junked ones.

[mikeandike]

electric go karts can be way more expensive because if you wat variable speeds you'll have 2 buy a controller $$. as far as motors go i recomend using dc as all batteries are dc and to change to ac requires an inverter or sumthing of the sort $$. Also batteries take way longer to charge than engines do. Normally several hours. Gas engines charge as fast as you can put gas in them. I'd stick with gas. But I've seen electric go karts before so its not impossible

[robertdjung]

one cool thing about electric motors is that they produce maximum torque at all speeds -- whereas a gas engine has a power band -- and only produces max torque at the optimum RPM, which is in the 3000 RPMS... Meaning that an electric motor has max power off the line than a gas one would. So it's nice for those reasons.

[mikeandike]

true.......

[robertdjung]

i think electric would be cool for a bar stool racer that you'd just use around the race pits or maybe if you lived downtown. kinda like a homebrewed Segway.