• 24th December 2009 - By greg

    In my last blog post, I asked if anyone had any ideas as to how I could position the propeller to vertical so that I could pull the drive leg up through the drive leg well. Normally this is an easy task, as all I need to do is align the a mark etched on the pedal axle with another mark on the seal of the upper gear box. However, if a gear or shaft broke inside the drive leg, there would no longer be any kind of controlable link between the pedals and the propeller, so getting the prop into a vertical position is difficult.

    Many of you came up with the same solution – that is to insert a long steel tab down the gap between the tapered chockfast block on the drive leg and the well in the torque tube to push the prop to a vertical position. Well, I built it and it works – perfectly! THANK YOU!!

    Shown below are photos of the modification. I had to cut a slot in the stainless steel flange that the upper ‘T’ gear box is mounted to. The slot also serves as a way to align the tab so that it pushes against the prop hub and blade to push it around. This solution won’t work if the prop is seized. Hopefully, I’ll never actually have to use this solution.

    Also shown in the photos is our second, backup identical drive leg. Like having spare oars aboard an ocean row boat, having this second drive leg, plus a complete set of spare gear box shafts, gears and spare props is the safe thing to do.

    We have also finished installing the two Katadyn water makers – the 40E electric unit and the 35 manual pump. They both fit into the seat back compartment and both use the same input tube and pre-filter by moving the lever on a T valve. I’ll post some photos of the installation soon. I made a tub of salt water and use both of the desalinators every couple of days to keep bacteria from growing inside the filters and membrane, and also as a test of the system.

  • 2 Comments to “drive leg removal solution”

    • steve nelson on December 24, 2009

      Very clever!

    • David Karabelnikoff on January 2, 2010

      I am sure you’ve spent a fair amount of time getting to know your equipment. I’ve been studying renewable energy and I like the boat set up very much, human society would be very different if we all pedaled around a little more.

      I know that impellers are more efficient and have been researched by NREL for application in freight transport. There are also water screw which work with vortexes and negative pressure zones – suction or lift if you will Victor Schauberger did alot in this field some russians pick up on the work as well. Just wondering how these might work to see a higher efficiency for your leg work. After this morning cycling class of only an hour, dreams of my first century I can’t really fathom 3000 miles in the water – give the guy all the tips he can get I figure.

      The boat looks nice and hope the kids enjoy the bikes.

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