Need to find wheels for rocket car.......

[R500POP]

Building a rocket car for a race that's taking place at my kids school.

The rules say....

1. Must have four wheels.

2. Must be built, not bought.

3. Must be self propelled.

Been talking in the playground with the other parents who are planning rubber band & balloon powered cars from card & balsa..........

So I'm building a carbon chassied, Estes C6-0 rocket fuelled car as per attached.



The main tube is cut from a section of old carbon fishing pole I have, the axle housings are 12mm carbon tube with ballrace bearings pressed in, within which run 5mm carbon tube axles. Where the holes for the axle carrier are I'm sleeving over with short sections from the afforementioned carbon pole.

The car will run along a guide wire for safety.

My problem is I need to find some wheels, arong 40-50mm o/d, nice & thin. Can anybody suggest something?

Edited by R500POP on Friday 13th April 12:09

Edited by R500POP on Friday 13th April 12:28

Edited by R500POP on Friday 13th April 12:39

[mcdjl]

next year the rules will also say
Must not be powered by a real rocket.

Ace plan though...how do you plan on stopping it?

[R500POP]

mcdjl said:

next year the rules will also say
Must not be powered by a real rocket.

My wife runs the competition........

mcdjl said:

next year the rules will also say
Must not be powered by a real rocket.

Ace plan though...how do you plan on stopping it?

The elastic section from the fishing pole, tied to a house brick at one end, with a swivel on the other end that has the guide wire fed through it, when the car reaches it hopefully it'll have a deccelerative effect.

[mcdjl]

R500POP said:

My wife runs the competition........

In that case expect the rules to be clarified as soon as she realises what you're planning!

[dr_gn]

R500POP said:

The rules say....

1. Must have four wheels.

You could save some weight by having 3 main running wheels and a tiny plastic model car wheel randomly glued somewhere.

[blueg33]

RC motorbike wheels?. Or get 4 billet aluminium wheels made up

What is your power? D or E size rocket motor?

[rhinochopig]

blueg33 said:

RC motorbike wheels?. Or get 4 billet aluminium wheels made up

What is your power? D or E size rocket motor?

This is PH - needs to be a minimum of a JATO.

[R500POP]

mcdjl said:

In that case expect the rules to be clarified as soon as she realises what you're planning!

She knows. She said given my job I'd better not turn up & get shown up....

[R500POP]

blueg33 said:

What is your power? D or E size rocket motor?

Just a C6-0, given the results of yesterdays rocket test , that should be plenty.......

[rhinochopig]

R500POP said:

mcdjl said:

In that case expect the rules to be clarified as soon as she realises what you're planning!

She knows. She said given my job I'd better not turn up & get shown up....

Just checked your profile This is the equivalent of me turning up to the parents race at school and finding Usain Bolt stood next to me in the 100m.

For your sake, I hope you win

[blueg33]

have you got local salt pans to run it on?

[R500POP]

blueg33 said:

have you got local salt pans to run it on?

Just a large playground (test runs to be carried out on Weston-S-Mare Beach).

[R500POP]

Just looking at 44mm tail wheels for RC planes, they have aluminium hubs so can be drilled to suit the axle.

[BarnatosGhost]

rollerblade wheels. Perfect.


ETA: you could mill them to whatever profile you wanted to reduce rotational inertia and rolling resistance...

Edited by BarnatosGhost on Friday 13th April 13:59

[rhinochopig]

What about bigger gauge model railway wheel. Looks the part and has very very low RR due to material and size.

[R500POP]

rhinochopig said:

What about bigger gauge model railway wheel. Looks the part and has very very low RR due to material and size.

Inertia could be quite large, resulting in underspeeding wheels & possibly spectacular sparks!!!!! Good call.

[mattmoxon]

Madness, I will be keeping an eye on this thread, I assume you have a wing and canards to keep it on the ground?

[R500POP]

mattmoxon said:

Madness, I will be keeping an eye on this thread, I assume you have a wing and canards to keep it on the ground?

No, they.add weight. A 1deg nose down attitude should do it.

[mattmoxon]

R500POP said:

No, they.add weight. A 1deg nose down attitude should do it.

fair enough - good luck

[blueg33]

We need vids and pics.

Got me thinking about fitting wheels to my D powered multi stage rocket