Chapter 49: Propane free
It is April 24th 2022 and a new chapter in the saga is beginning. Originally, the Tribaker had three wheels, a very short track, and ran on propane. Great aspirations which I worked on for these many years with pretty good success considering a lack of an engineering degree. I have learned to depend on my welding, and my judgement. I set out to build something useable which would be unusual and fun. When I came to points in the build that might cause the fun to become more elusive, I had to bite the bullet and make changes to pursue my original goal….to have fun. With that in mind, I determined first that given the size of the motor and the single rear wheel configuration, I would need to go beyond the call of duty to make that set-up work well. Four wheels was fairly straightforward because I made provisions for the possibility in the original plan. Then, after looking at the “Roadster” from the side for more than a decade, I decided that I had been denying that I had a funny looking kid! So, I hacked it in half and added 10 inches to the wheelbase, which really improved the looks, handling and allowed me to add stock fenders if I desired. Ok, now I had a better looking beast, but the propane had been needling me since the beginning. I did make it work, and actually drove the car around the Studebaker test track…once. It occured to me that I really had no idea how much propane was on board, and didn’t have a reliable emergency set up if I ran up short. With that niggling me, I decided it was time to switch the engine back to pump gas and hook up a proper gas gauge. Now was also the time to finally get rid of the pickup bed and create the boat-tail I had been turning over in my mind since I was a teen.
So, now is the day when I wake up the Roadster, longer, more stylish, and on gas for the first time…..
Now, after fixing a fuel leak and an oil leak, it runs. Some carb tuning and timing need to be done yet, and then on with the road test!
Tribaker: a "reCycle" 