Since installing my Velorex over a year ago, I've used lead weights and then went to sand bags for ballast. I had removed the seat bottom and had a bunch of old lead diving weights in a zippered bag padded with rubber matting sitting in the seat area. Wanting to reinstall the seat, I took out the lead and instead, put 3# 30lb. sand bags behind the seat. Of course the damned sand bags leaked and made a awful mess back there and I had to do something permanent. I finally found someone to color match paint the chair and stripped everyhing off for the painter.
After it was removed, I went to the local do all welding business and asked if they would be interested in adding some steel to the car frame. We dug around in his scrap and came up with a piece of carbon steel scrap which was 12" X 12" X 2" thick. It fit perfectly into the frame opening and adds 81 lbs. to the rig. It's supported on 3 sides with pieces of 1 1/2" angle.
I couldn't be more pleased with the results after cleaning up the welds and giving it several coats of Rustoleum paint.
If the paint turns out as well, I'll be mighty pleased.
nice job BUT in time you will find maybe, that as you get more & more familier with your rig you might want to reduce the ballast!. my thoughts are use ballast until you feel confident & then reduce it remember more weight = more fuel, each to his own but i like my rig un weighted & ride acordingly, but thats me lol. Hank
Hello
When I first started I used an old plastic beer barrel with a tap filled it with water and as I got used to it, just let the water out.
Barry
Man O man that a lot of ballest IMHO and I do beleive your going to at some point wish you didn't have that much, Lonnie mentioned gas, I'm mentioning stopping, hope you got really good brakes on the car.
The Velorex sidecar is quite lightweight at approximately 170 lbs and flies
like a kite on my 1300cc tug without ballast. I would have to slow to an idle
to make a right hand turn without ballast. I don't carry a passenger, or at
least haven't in the year I've owned the sidecar so ballast is a necessity for me.
As for braking, I don't use the mechanical sidecar brake at all as the tug has
plenty of brake capacity, big discs, front and rear. While I do understand your
concerns, I also understand each rig is different in it's characteristics and mine
does require plenty of ballast.
Basically adding ballast is just making a light sidecar heavier. Nothing wrong with that if it is well thought out.
The stock 562 velorex was said to weigh 154 pounds. THAT is quite light. We have modified quite a few velorex sidecars to adapt to larger bikes. In fact we are doing one right now. We plate the frame with 1/8" plate, get rid of the small spindle if it was an earlier model and replace it with a 1" spindle(sometimes 3/4" if we do a spoked cycle wheel) on a modified swingarm and then convert to a torsion bar suspension with manual adjustable tilt control. It turns the little velorex into a well balanced sidecar for a larger bike.
We will not just keep adding ballast without a spindle and suspension upograde as then it is not the lifting of the car that is the issue but the concern with loading in left hand turns (turns away from the sidecar).
Oh, we also modify the mounting system in various ways dependant upon the application. The clamp that goes on the sidecar frame at the rear is the fiorst thing to go. Probably have adozen of those darn things around the shop right now :-)If you keep it be sure to mount it in such a way that it cannot rotate on the sidecar frame tube , weld it or pin it in some fashion as they are notorious for moving. At least put some reference marks on it and the frame so any movement can be detected.
One more word of caution. Some later velorex models had plastic bottom halves on the body and plastic fenders. If ballast is put in the trunk area or a car batter or whatever be sure it is mountind in such a way that it will not crack the plastic. One guy had a car battery that actually broke through the plastic and fell on the road bouncing along held by the battery cables...LOL.
jUST SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
I know this is true of the 2001 model (562). This is also another good reason to make sure ballast remains relatively stationary (and over axle of course LOL). Someone, not me, had placed circular barbell weights on the floor. A quick stop, and whamo! nose damage! Uh Oh.. Duh! Thinking cap.
g
" One more word of caution. Some later velorex models had plastic bottom halves on the body and plastic fenders. If ballast is put in the trunk area or a car batter or whatever be sure it is mountind in such a way that it will not crack the plastic. One guy had a car battery that actually broke through the plastic and fell on the road bouncing along held by the battery cables...LOL."
Thanks for the tips, Claude. My Velorex model 563 Tour was purchased new last year and "supposedly has the beefed up Model 565 suspension". The bottom half of the chair looks to be molded plastic with the top half chopper gun fiberglass, pop riveted to the bottom. I'm leaning towards a car battery in the future and will be very careful to use a marine battery box with extra support to the bottom of the chair. My only negative thoughts with a Velorex are the lousy 3rd world hardware included. All the bolts for the mounts that were drilled and chamfered for cotter pins had the threads buggered up by using a dull countersink which, instead of cutting the thread, bent theads over. I had to chase each one with a die in order to get a nut started. I wound up replacing the castle nuts with plastic insert lock nuts as half of the drill holes were off center and getting the cotter pins inserted was an exercise in futility. Also the drill hole in the axle was off center and the axle castle nut had to be altered to get the cotter pin inserted.
Having installed and then tearing down the rig was a good learning experience. Getting to know each nut, bolt and component is gratifying.
Another way to 'overcome' some of the stability issues assocaited with lighter sidecars is to increase the track width. We go for a minum of 48" centerline of bike to centerline of sidecar wheel as a rule. Wider is better yet but mounts have to be sturdy enough to keep things in place.
I mentioned the lower rear sidecar bracket before and should note that the front lower mount, sometimes called a 'J-Bar' can also be an issue. It can tend to rotate a little if there are no 'opposing forces' created when the sidecar is mounted.
The lower rear link, dependant on how it is actually hooked up, can also create a double hinge point. Rotating the bike side eye nut to a horizontal position after initial setup is done is one way that can help alleviate this problem. This may or may not apply depending on how the mounts are actually setup.
I think you will end up with a decent setup Concho. You will also understand what does what which is a good thing for any sidecarist to learn. It really doesn't matter whether a person who has a lot of experience does the intial setup or if it is someone who is taking their first wack at it there is usually always room for improvement after the rig is run for a while. Knowing what does what on your own rig makes finding the best 'sweet spot' a lot easier and actually it can be part of the fun of sidecaring.
