Tampa Trike has developed an exciting new way to make three wheel motor vehicles safer, comfortable, and more accessible for everyone.
Their innovative vehicle chassis design allows for the vehicle to autonomously lean when cornering. This three wheel vehicle is driven like a normal vehicle and requires nothing from the driver to lean at the proper angle. The various videos on the website capture the chassis in action.
Storyboard 5 shows the chassis function old school style.
The Chassis In Action
The main reason for vehicle lean is to shift the majority of the vehicle weight to the inside of the corner. This has been the great advantage of a motorcycle over a traditional four wheel vehicle, but the big leans take a lot of skill, nerve, and can be physically demanding for some riders. With this patent chassis setup, the driver will forget to notice the big leans or feel the centrifugal force.
The suspension needed for our patented design is different from designs used on other three and four wheel vehicles. If traditional “A” arms were employed, the chassis leaning would force the front wheels to lean. Some “A” arm pivot locations can cause the front wheels to lean more than the chassis. Front wheel patches would become very small, reducing their grip and wear life.
A second detrimental effect of using “A” arms with a leaning vehicle is the front wheel alignment would vary during the lean movement. Depending on which wheel has the most grip will determine the new vehicle travel direction on its own. We choose to keep the maximum rubber engagement and allow the driver to be solely in control of the steering.
Our Unique Patented Design
Unlike traditional trikes, our three-wheel chassis design allows for various power sources, including electric, gasoline, and diesel. This unique patented design provides improved stability, handling, and cornering, making it a safer and more comfortable drive. We did a lot of testing to make sure the trike was predictable time after time. An arbitrarily squirrely vehicle is not fun to drive. I am sure we enlarged some potholes, scared people running through off-camber corner dips, and mowed some grass. A fair amount of tweaking took place to get this chassis design to settle down. We are pleased with the results and are ready for other people to enjoy this new patented motor vehicle chassis design.
We believe that our patented chassis design is the future of three wheel vehicles. It has been a lot of work to get it right and we are excited to share it with the world. We also believe there are some innovative people that can take this design up a notch. We are offering our product Patent License Single Vehicle Only so that one can use the patent design as they see fit. Bring your best game. Hoo ah! That is a Double Dog Dare!
