Originally Posted by
Easyrider54
It's not that I don't have confidence in my welding skills, stacebg, I just think that it will improve my chances of passing a safety inspection if I have the frame welding done by a journeyman. Like you, I have been burning iron for 40 years. I am a farmer, or rather recently retired farmer, and while I didn't weld for pay, I do have a long history of fixing farm machinery, and fabbing a wide variety of stuff. One of the things I hope to accomplish with this project is to learn some new skills, though. I want my trike to have a sheet metal body, without too many sharp corners and angles, so I plan to make an English wheel, bead roller, and stretcher/shrinker so that I can do compound curves and bends. Stay tuned.
As for license and insurance, it's not that I haven't looked into it, I just haven't got official approval for anything yet. I live in Manitoba, Canada, about 100 miles north of the border with North Dakota. Transport Canada is the federal agency responsible for motor vehicle safety. I have read the relevant information that they make available on their website, and it appears to be fairly straight forward. As for insurance, vehicle insurance in Manitoba is provided by Manitoba Public Insurance, a provincial crown corporation, which means that it is an independent government owned corporation, with the monopoly to sell vehicle insurance. I totally understand that this will be a hellish concept for my American friends here and elsewhere, but it works for us. Anyway, I have talked to the guy responsible for home built and altered vehicles, he said that the easiest way to get a home built vehicle insured was to build it from a set of plans stamped by a Professional Engineer. He made a point of saying that is not the only way, just the easiest. We left it a that. I will talk to him again before too long, and Transport Canada as well. I posted a thread on this forum a few weeks ago, inquiring if any engineered plans exist for trike projects, but I got no responses. I have not contacted a professional engineer, but my assumption is that it will be prohibitively expensive. In the end, what I expect to hear from the insurer is that if I pass inspection, they will insure me, but the lack of engineering will be reflected in the premium. So far, all I have invested in the trike is $500, and some of my time. I have not yet spent any money on tubing, but I might, before I sort out the license/insurance issues. 1.5"X.125" DOM locally is only $1.35/foot, so for another couple of hundred bucks, I can go ahead and play some more. That's pretty cheap entertainment, in my book, even if I never finish it. This project is more about the challenge and entertainment value of building it than riding it, for the time being. Of course, I want a trike that I can ride, for sure, but that's only part of the fun, and I'm sure some of you understand. If I just wanted a trike, I'd put a kit on my Road King.
Glen
Oh, PS, thanks for the interest, folks, it is greatly appreciated, please keep it coming!