SOME TECHY STUFF
The base of the pod, to which the axle and front and rear electric hub motored wheels are attached, is reinforced 50mm aluminium tube and 100 x 25mm aluminium box section.
The concept is that the pod is constructed in sandwiched sheets of bonded 0.9mm and 1.6mm aluminium (25 mm celotex is the centre).
So the pod consists of the reinforced floor, two sides (one with a door in), the curved roof and the stepped shelves (sandwich of 0.9mm aluminium sheet and 4mm corex) for the "kitchen" at the rear of the pod. I think this makes it a "monococ" pod!
The floor contains 4 "wells" with lift off tops. These wells house an 11.2 KwHr battery pack, water tank and the eletronics and controlers for the motor wheels, and a clothes storage area.
The mattress sits on that floor. On the inside of the structural kitchen shelves there is a little shelving and storage, some led strip lights, and some power outlets both 13amp and usb, so, I am able to lie in bed with my tablet in front of me skyping away to my hearts content!
The roof houses a pop up perspex vent with inbuilt electric fan for ventilation, and two solar panels.
The kitchen is accessed from outside the pod at the rear, a curved roof profile door that is supported on 2 gas struts. The kitchen will house a small chiller box area, stowage areas for folding seat, table, pop up "loo/changing room tent" and for wash bowl, pots, pans, crockery, cutlery etc as well as the obligatory spice rack. The door will house led strips for lighting.
The outer skin of the roof and the kitchen door will be covered by solar panels linked to the battery bank in the floor compartment.
Our target weight including battery, solar, etc etc is 210kg, which is going to be tough to achieve.
The battery bank will be lithium ion and hold around 11kWh. This will be trickle charged at around 1-300w by the solar array, and can also be charged via a plug port on the side wall at camp sites etc. from any 13amp supply. This way spare bike and hub wheel batteries can be being charged up whilst I am on the go from the power outlets in the "bedroom" that are running via an inverter from the Pod's main battery bank.
The pod dimensions will be 2200mm long, 1250mm high (1450mm AFL including wheels) and 1050mm wide
The initial pencil sketch designs were mine, but the real work at this stage is being done by Clean Classics Ltd, founded recently by my eldest son Ollie who spent the last 10 years being a motorsport design engineer at the top levels of Endurance racing (Le Mans) and before that winning the GT1 world championships!
