Off Road Dreaming

[JBee]

It would be great if Tesla took up this configuration. In board brakes seem like such a good idea for an electric drive train. A simple blocking park brake at the wheel would mitigate the risk of a catastrophic drive shaft failures at all four wheels.
Gives more room for 4 wheel steering and possibly reduced part count if the same components can be used front and rear.

37” tyres on 16” rims would be awesome….

Absolutely.
There's another variation of this I drew up a while ago that uses "hollow" radial flux motors and a middle mounted planetary gear. On that the wheel driveshaft passes through a fairly skinny radial flux but hollow motor, with hollow brake disc rotor, to the center of the planetary gear. That way you have the longest possible driveshaft, with the most compact motor assembly, that also forms the structure for the suspension and steering mounts. Radial flux motors and planetary gearing results in higher motor revolutions, that in in turn can use passive cooling.

The other variation of this is to have portal hubs in the wheels instead of the inboard planetary gear. That setup is similar to the Swiss Bucher Duro, which although an ICE atm, has inboard brakes as well. Remember the driveshafts on a Tesla MS Plaid experience more acceleration force than the brakes do, because it brakes slower than it can accelerate. Driveshafts can be made to match, but yes when they fail you will otherwise have a freewheeling wheel.

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[JBee]

Extra cog does increase friction though, the lift is going to hit aero efficiency hard enough. Would the benefit of increased torque loads be worth it?

Not needing to mess around with the motor polarity is possibly reason enough to go with the auxiliary cog but efficiency will be the priority when wheeling around Australia

Extra cog will add less than 1% of load. The gear will only be partially loaded whilst on highway, so range impact will be negligible. Your tyres could be 10%, the extra clearance another 10-15% in comparison. You would need to make a deployable front spoiler and skirt, of drop the air suspension down just clear of the stops and let the big tyre rubber deal with some of the bumps.

https://www.solveoffroad.com.au/portal-axles/

(PS Thinking about again, the possibly easiest most cost effective off-road mod would be just a decent set of tyres and air suspension. "If" you wanted to go to the extreme with it, then two deployable rear wheel powered flat tracks between the wheels would likely get you further with less cost)

 

[Deleted member 3316]

(PS Thinking about again, the possibly easiest most cost effective off-road mod would be just a decent set of tyres and air suspension. "If" you wanted to go to the extreme with it, then two deployable rear wheel powered flat tracks between the wheels would likely get you further with less cost)

And then we get back to the start again… tyres require custom steering knuckles… then A-Arms… if designing a new knuckle may as well include space for portal gears…

What are your thoughts on running 4 thin low rolling resistance tyres on highway, then swapping them out at a trail head for mud terrains? The 4 spares could be stored on traditional swing out arms, and used dually style on a trail if required.

 

[JBee]

And then we get back to the start again… tyres require custom steering knuckles… then A-Arms… if designing a new knuckle may as well include space for portal gears…

What are your thoughts on running 4 thin low rolling resistance tyres on highway, then swapping them out at a trail head for mud terrains? The 4 spares could be stored on traditional swing out arms, and used dually style on a trail if required.

Sorry I think I didn't describe my track idea well enough. I was thinking of only fitting tyres that fit the existing knuckle and suspension setup and just swapping out the coilover, springs and shockies.

Then instead of adding any lift mods you add my "track" idea which was to have a very low profile track assembly that attaches to the bottom of the vehicle itself, in between the front and rear wheels, like a skid plate skirt or like "conveyor belt" rock sliders.

The trick is if that track assembly can move, even if you bottom out the car and it touches something, the low profile track on either side would allow it to move backwards or forwards over the obstacle with whatever traction was available from wheels that were still touching the ground. You could also drive these tracks with a small high geared electric motor. You could do the same as "moving" bash plates through the middle too. Like that both clearance and wheel articulation aren't as important, because when the underside of the vehicle touches it still moves along easily instead of being stuck. You sort of end up with tracks for heavy and slow offroading , which also improves ramp over and attack angles, and then wheels to do light stuff and on-road.
Anyways...just an idea, would have to build one to try it out, but at least this should be a fairly straight forward bash plate add on that could even be mounted DIY, and could stay on the vehicle without adding much drag.

The other version is to put tracks on the rear of the vehicle when heading offroad. That would improve traction and flotation to the point you would likely not need any up front.

But like the swapping tyres idea and carrying them around it's fairly bulky and cumbersome, and if it was me I'd likely just try to wing it off-road with what I've got on there already. Honestly though you still need to do some body or suspension work for the ramp/attack angles and then in such a way that it stays aero somehow. Obviously with the lift kit you also get the option to run beadlockers in the tyres meaning you can get decent flotation for sand but can also get some rigidity into the tyres for better onroad consumption.

There is one other Unimog feature always liked and that is the "torque tube" setup it uses for wheel articulation. You see you don't actually have to have suspension travel for the best wheel articulation, you can actually just build in a pivot point between the front and rear axles, through which your can twist the axle and suspension assemblies so that the wheels stay on the ground. This is why the rear bed needs it's own custom frame to stay straight. It also allows the vehicle to have fairly small wheel arches whilst allowing it to "rise" when articulation is needed. Clearance is obviously through the portal axles.

 

[SwampNut]

If you want to "supercharge" your regen potential when in the mountains, simply load the bed with, for example, 15 100 lb. rocks.

I always like to think about ideas in their logical extreme. Now I'm giggling about the few citizens of Crown King AZ wondering where their mountain peak went, because I've taken all the rocks and dirt with me over time.

Cybertruck is likely capable of far more than I am comfortable with off road. I just want to have a little fun, not break the bank.

Breaking things is fun, it tells you where your limits are. But I think the CT parts will be far more expensive than Jeep parts, which are generally cheap due to volume.

 

[JBee]

I always like to think about ideas in their logical extreme. Now I'm giggling about the few citizens of Crown King AZ wondering where their mountain peak went, because I've taken all the rocks and dirt with me over time.



Breaking things is fun, it tells you where your limits are. But I think the CT parts will be far more expensive than Jeep parts, which are generally cheap due to volume.

If you're not living on the edge you're taking up to much space!

I was thinking that if all CT drivers done that we'd end up proving the flat earthers right... ?

 

[Crissa]

Side note: It's illegal to remove rocks from most park land, and there's a take limit for rocks in national forest.

Just, ya know, if you go 'rock hunting' look up the local limits. Rangers can count mud and rocks in your tires against you if you upset them. ^-^

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

Breaking things is fun, it tells you where your limits are. But I think the CT parts will be far more expensive than Jeep parts, which are generally cheap due to volume.

I look forward to the time when the reverse is true.

Usually in the cycling world I break things because the bike was designed for a 160 pound athlete, not a 200+ pound Ogre. Well that plus just mileage.

 

[FutureBoy]

Side note: It's illegal to remove rocks from most park land, and there's a take limit for rocks in national forest.

Just, ya know, if you go 'rock hunting' look up the local limits. Rangers can count mud and rocks in your tires against you if you upset them. ^-^

-Crissa

Hmmmm…. I don’t think the suggestion was to take any rocks or soil home. Just down the hill.

What’s the regulations regarding relocating rocks within the same park land?

A few years later the park is surrounded by a wall of soil deposited on the way out of the park.

Might be easier though to haul down water instead of rocks. Easier to load and unload.

Plus, at the park boundary you can stop and wash off your vehicle so there are no soil or rocks stuck in the tires or on the body. That should make the park ranger happy.

 

[Crissa]

What’s the regulations regarding relocating rocks within the same park land?

You have to put them back where you found them.

-Crissa

 

[SwampNut]

Get it back within a millimeter, or straight to jail. Turn one over? Straight to jail. Pee on one? Believe it or not, jail.

 

[FutureBoy]

You have to put them back where you found them.

-Crissa

Even more reason to relocate water instead of rocks.

 

[SwampNut]

Sloshing water could be a real danger off road. Also if you accidentally catch a fish in there...straight to jail.

 

[JBee]

Watch out guys! Fun police is doing the rounds!

I'm just happy the idea caught on.

The other version is to invite a bear into bed with a home cooked porridge, and then take him down the hill for an evening out on the town.

 

[SwampNut]

Watch out guys! Fun police is doing the rounds!

I'm just happy the idea caught on.

The other version is to invite a bear into bed with a home cooked porridge, and then take him down the hill for an evening out on the town.

View attachment 14118

Great pic. A real Kodiak moment.

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