4-seat Pedal-Car Conversion

4-seat Pedal-Car Conversion

Ever since my 86 Honda CRX coughed out its last quart of oil, I've been toying with the idea of making it pedal powered. It is the perfect platform: 1,800 lbs, manual steering and a small footprint. I know it would take more than two people pedaling to keep it cruising. Plus, the more the merrier. I want to remove the rear tailgate and have two people sitting upright in the rear of the car, with a nice view of the road ahead over the driver and passenger. Sort of a wacky rickshaw.

The goal is to minimize the complexity of the fabrication since we have limited time and resources. Maintaining the cars original "rolling chassis," we can take advantage of the existing steering, braking, suspension and seats. Some of the electrical system will be kept intact, since the stereo still works (cassette only.)

The drivetrain presents the biggest challenge. Integrating 4 separate cranks to power the original front axles will require a substantial amount of creativity. Will it need a differential? Should I try to modify the existing transmission? Where could I get a cheap or free motorcycle transmission and drive chain? Is a bike chain strong enough?

Would one-wheel drive be feasible? Maybe the left people power the left front wheel and the right two people power the right front wheel. This technique would be better than one-wheel-drive. Bike hardware and gears can handle the power of two people pedaling, but not four.

There is also the issue of transportation. It is going to need to be able to be towed. While I've seen a lot of people use car-dolly's to transport their artcars, I think it will be light enough to be towed with an RV style bumper mount. My preliminary pricing found that a pre-fab DOT approved bumper to trailer hitch mount would cost around the same as renting a tow-dolly for the week.