Thanks for keeping this going. This is all good stuff.
The only real 'problem' I see with your design is there is no flat surface on the bottom for the fuel fitting. Where are you going to have your fuel drain from?
Excellent question. The bottom was designed that way for two reasons. 1. I wanted to avoid a flat bottom because it seemed to me that a flat bottom would allow the fuel to pool at some level. That volume, however small, would be unusable. 2. I want some way to trap some of the fuel around the outlet so that during steep inclines (or declines?) and rapid acceleration some fuel is always available.
I was planning on putting the fitting on the lowest point of the front face. Picture the outlet right where that "V" is on the front. Even if the container is tipped back, there is still some fuel to drain.
Also, if your going to design it, you might as well design it to meet the 2007 IBA rules so don't forget to design in some baffles.
I'm not smart enough to figure out baffles. (Could it be I find baffles baffling?) I was planning on using foam. For some reason, I keep thinking of baffles like baffles in a waterbed. They seem complicated. If there was an inexpensive way to baffle the thing, I'm all for it.
Would you consider altering the design to use the room where the passenger seat mounts. Remove that, since most LD rides are not done with a pillion and incorporate the fuel cell to fill that area and extend to the back. (Gotta have room for my trunk, though)
Similar to the Corbin Smuggler design, but for fuel.
My mistake. That photo of the scale model resting on the back seat is a little confusing. By the time I had trasfered the paper prints to cardboard, cut them out and taped them together I was too tired to take the three extra minutes necessary to remove the rear seat and grab bar.
I included that photo to show the cardboard model at the same angle as the CAD model.
Some of the other photos were taken the next day, and the cardboard model is dropped into the space created after the rear passenger seat was removed.
The plan is to make the flat top so that your trunk will attach to the top. Here's a shot showing my Yamaha trunk Mount resting on the mock-up to show what I mean:
That Corbin Smuggler reference is useful. I wonder if I could mold a skirt out of foam and fiberglass to blend the tank into the bike. Hhmmm
Any EAA members out there with advice on how complicated (i.e. expensive) that would be?
Although minor, perhaps some "stand-offs" on the back that could accommodate some form of aftermarket brake lights (such as LED light bars for Back-Off Modules, etc.)
One cannot have too many brake lights.
Three comments.
I'd like to see the "backrest" portion (leading edge) of the design tipped backward at a 5 to 10 degree angle from vertical.
I'd also like to see the top of the unit parallel with the ground once installed. This will raise the leading edge and increase the volume slightly.
Light mounts are highly desirable as suggested, but you might want to add other tabs for antenna mounts / helmet locks. Maybe a simple flange / extension off the back would allow farklers to attach their own aluminum angle for whatever they want back there.
Very good ideas. I especially like flange off the back. Makes me think of Rob Nye's setup.
Parallel with the ground is what I meant when I wrote: "I already don't like how the flat top isn't level. I'll have to make some changes to correct that."
And, ...can you mount it on a seatpan?
Not if we want it to be IBR compliant. Gotta go right to the frame.
