Tricycle Tulpar Mono Traik

I love to design various homemade wheeled vehicles. I have already made, for example, a mini tractor-loader, a stylized replica of the Lotus-7 from a VAZ-2101, and a buggy with a 1.5-liter engine. And last winter the idea came up to build a small single-seat tricycle for the season. And this way – so that there is nothing superfluous! The main concept of the project: ease of manufacture at home and low weight, which does not require the purchase of an expensive powerful engine.

I developed the car from scratch. It is based on a space frame welded from 25 mm profile pipes. The frame length is 2100 mm, the width at the front is 650 mm, at the rear is 450 mm.

The front suspension is assembled from A-shaped tubular arms with a diameter of 15 mm. A rotating tie rod end with a coupling from classic Zhiguli cars is attached to the upper arms. On the lower arms there are tie rod ends from UAZ. The silent blocks are taken from a VAZ-2109 car. The front suspension uses one shock absorber from a Ural motorcycle on each side.

The steering is rack and pinion, from a Volkswagen Golf II. The steering column is homemade. Initially, the design of the steering shaft, made of a rod with a diameter of 15 mm and installed in bearings, used a cardan from a set of socket wrenches. However, during test trips, this unit quickly fell apart and was replaced by a steering cardan from a VAZ-2107. Sports steering wheel with a diameter of 320 mm – purchased. Brakes from “classic” VAZ.

The rear suspension has only one lever. Through silent blocks it is attached to the bottom of the frame and to a homemade bevel gearbox of the rear drive wheel. The gearbox is assembled from a rod with a diameter of 20 mm, satellites and bearings of a VAZ car. A casing is used to protect the gearbox from dirt; its necessity became apparent during operation. The rear suspension has one shock absorber from the cab of a Chinese Howo truck.

The power unit of the tricycle is a 15-horsepower engine from a walk-behind tractor assembled with a clutch. The gearbox is 4-speed “Zhiguli”. The transmission of torque from the engine to the gearbox is carried out using a homemade belt transmission on pulleys. The driving cast-iron pulley was a ready-made factory one, and the driven one was a prefabricated one made from two disks cut from a steel sheet 1.2 mm thick. Torque is transmitted to the rear bevel gear through a cardan shaft with an elastic coupling.

The seat frame is welded from 20 mm rectangular profile pipes; a backrest and a cushion cut from a 20 mm thick board are attached to it with self-tapping screws. The inner seat upholstery is made of 40 mm thick foam rubber, the outside is made of leatherette. It turned out durable and cheap.

The outer body skin is also attached with self-tapping screws, and a plastic flexible mesh is installed in the front part. The wings are made of sheet iron. The tricycle is equipped with rectangular LED headlights with round optical elements (the so-called “English eyes”). At the rear there is a red marker lamp. Side mirrors from motorcycles.

Despite the simplicity of the design, the machine, called Tulpar Mono Traik, looks quite impressive. Even unusual, especially in the dark, and always attracts the attention of others. It easily accelerates to 50-60 km/h, and such a vehicle doesn’t need more. For summer “rides” – just what you need!

Tricycle Tulpar Mono Traik and its technical characteristics

Length, mm 2500
Width, mm 1600
Height, mm 1300
Wheelbase, mm 1900
Curb weight, kg 350
Engine power, hp 15
Max. speed, km/h 60

Timur MURZABEKOV, Astana (Kazakhstan)