Bodge Charger 2: Difference between revisions

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{{Racer
{{Racer
|ProfilePic=BC_Main.jpg
|BuiltBy=Vince Williams
|BuiltBy=Vince Williams
|Theme=ACDC
|Theme=Bodge Charger 2
|FirstRace=Scrumpy Cup 2019
|FirstRace=Footfest 2024
|CurrentStatus=Active
|CurrentStatus=Active
|Motor=2kw Brushless BOMA, AliExpress
|Motor=2x 2kw Brushless BOMA, AliExpress
|ESC=1500W 48v ebike Generic controller, AliExpress
|ESC=2x 1500W 48v ebike Generic controller, AliExpress
|Battery=48V 12S LiPo (2x 6S)
|Battery=48V 12S Li-Ion module from an eGolf EV
|Gearbox=None
|Transmission=Chain
|Contact=@Bodgecharger
|Contact=@Bodgecharger
}}
}}
==Background==
Bodge Charger 2 was developed from a combination of the original Bodge Charger (circa 2020) and lessons learned from ACDC (a very successful low ground clearance racer best suited to tarmac / concrete / flat and smooth short grass circuits, but some of the tracks we race on throughout the year can be held on rougher ground such as bumpy fields or meadows with medium to long grass. So Bodge Charger 2 takes into account all the lessons learned from these two Hacky Racers and incorporates them into the new Bodge Charger 2.  These first set of pictures show the original Bodge Charger Hacky Racer as it was in 2020/21 at the very first Scrumpy cup and then at fully charged Live at Silverstone.


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==Background==
{{clear}}
[[File:Placeholder.jpg|thumb|left]]
ACDC is my second generation Hacky Racer build. I built this racer in 2020 based on all the lessons I'd learned from racing my original racer (Bodge Charger), i.e it was too tall, too narrow and too unstable.  So ACDC is built to have as low a C of G as possible with a wider track than Bodge Charger giving superior handling in corners, this means I don't need to slow down so much in the corners.  The chassis is 1500mm long (max allowed at the time of construction) and the width is determined by the widest I could possibly make it and still be able to roll it down the pathway at the side of my house.


This photo is of ACDC running at Fully Charged at Farnborough in 2022 where it did really well in all the races.
I also wanted to see what could be improved on regarding power, traction, stability, differential and batteries and have addressed each of these topics in the design. So I've now included full suspension (independent on the front, single swing arm on the rear), twin 2kw motors one on each rear wheel (split rear axle), electronic Diff, and a 48v 12s EV battery module from an eGolf.
 
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{{clear}}
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==Construction==
==Construction==
The chassis frame comes from a mobility scooter. The original front axle is kept, but the original back axle is binned and replaced with a new home made assembly consisting of two 20mm hollow axles mounted Left and Right side on 4 pillow bearings.  Each axle has a 74 tooth drive cog and a mountain bike brake disk. I kept the original steering assembly but connected a steering shaft with a UJ from a Renault Scenic to it. Originally I bolted all the bits together to the chassis, but after the first weekend's racing when all the bolts came loose I soon learned how to MIG weld!


I bought a set of used Go-Kart wheels, hubs and a set of wet track tyres. I fitted the rear wheels/tyres as close to the body as I could to keep the racer width sensible, then I elongated the front wheel axle so the wheel to wheel width of the front axle matched that of the rear axle. This turned out well and the overall proportions ended up looking right.  Because the back axle is split into two then I needed two sets of brakes, one each for the left and one for the right half axle.  
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{{clear}}


The brakes are standard Mountain Bike hydraulic brakes which work great and much better than cable brakes. The only issue is balancing them both so that the operate equally together.  
==Motors==
Bodge Charger 2 has two MY1020 motors, one fitted to each half axle as seen in the photos. These motors are one of the most common type used for Hackys, they are 2kw 48v motors primarily designed for scooters etc and work well when matched with a cheap AliExpress 1500w 48v e-bike controller. The motors have been modified to provide more cooling airflow through the core of the motors by drilling out some of the vent holes to 6mm.


The motor is mounted so that it can be rotated 180 degrees to provide drive to either the LH or RH axle depending on the track direction (clockwise or anticlockwise), this means that ACDC is configured as a single wheel drive racer.  This has its advantages and disadvantages, the advantage being that the car needs no diff and there aren't any steering issues like you typically get with a fixed rear axle configuration; the disadvantage is that there's usually one corner on the circuit where the wheel lifts, spins and you lose drive. But overall, single wheel drive works really well.  
In Bodge Charger 2 the 2 motors are used independently to provide an electronic diff capability. In normal operation only one motor is driving at any one time, the other is left idling; which motor is providing drive is determined by a combination of steering angle and lateral G force. In a LH corner the RH motor will be providing drive and vice versa for a RH corner, drive always being provided to the outside wheel (typically having the most traction) which is the opposite of what a standard diff on a car does.
 
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==Motor Drivers/Controllers==


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==Motor==
==Hacky Controller==
The motor you can see in the pictures is basically a 2kw Chinese scooter motor from AliExpress. The motor used in ACDC has been modified from the original by drilling oversize holes in the end plates to increase cooling air flow through the core of the motor; recently I've also added a wrap around heatsink that you can see in the second photo that I got from a USA eBay seller. I highly recommend getting a motor without the foot assembly if you can, or just hacksaw the foot off like I did because its made of very soft aluminium and bends when the motor is under high load, this bending ends up twisting the motor and putting it out of alignment with the drive cog and the chain will come off. Use the 4x threaded holes provided (2 in each end plate) to mount the motor securely in position.


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==Controller==
==Brakes==
ACDC uses a generic 1.5kw E-bike controller from AliExpress.  These Chinese E-bike controllers are bullet proof, powerful and cheap.  There's no reason to use anything else to drive the 2kw BOMA motor.


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==Batteries==
==Batteries==
ACDC uses 2x 6S 10ah Multistar LiPos from Hobbyking for races.  I did try some custom 20ah EIG Li Ion cell packs in a 12s configuration, but these felt less powerful overall and the voltage sagged more than the LiPo packs.  Batteries are housed in an old Ammo box mounter on the chassis, this that can quickly be removed after each race to charge the batteries up again between races.  I have 2 sets of battery packs for ACDC so that one set can be ready to go and fully charged at all times while the other set is charging after a race.


I use a 2x 6s LiPo charger to charge my batteries between races.  I always balance charge these LiPo packs to keep them in tip top condition.
The battery module is a single 12s pack originally from an eGolf EV.  As you can see from the photos I've removed the original BMS board and split the pack into two 6s configurations. The battery as it comes is made up of 12 standard 4.1v Li-Ion cells housed in a sturdy metal container with a BMS PCB fitted on top. But seeing as I already have a powerful Dual 6S balance charger, then it made sense to split the pack into 2x 6S modules and get rid of the redundant BMS PCB and just charge the pack in balance mode as I normally do with my old 6S LiPo packs. So I wired up the pack as 2x 6S modules and connected balance leads to all the cells so that it would connect to my charger.  To use the pack in its 48v 12S mode then all I needed to do was to connect the two 6S sub-packs in series again for racing with an XT90 adapter I made up.
 
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After my first round of testing at Footfest 24 I discovered that the Li-Ion EV module voltage sagged drastically during race conditions and after only a few minutes racing the voltage under load dropped low enough to brownout (power down) my ESP32 controller.  After that I replaced the battery pack with the standard 2x 6S Multistar LiPo's I had as spares and all my voltage sag issues went away. Bodge Charger seemed to have more punch and power after swapping the batteries over to the old LiPo's, so the only conclusion I can draw from this is that the Li-Ion EV pack is no good for racing.  Well, that's what testing is for!!
 
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==Drivetrain==
==Drivetrain==
ACDC has a split rear axle, so has two independent half axles, each with its own drive cog. The gearing ratio between motor cog and drive cog depends on the drive wheel diameter and the speed you wish to achieve.  Top speed isn't the most important thing in a Hacky Racer, acceleration out of the corners and torque are the main factors.  I have geared ACDC to run a top speed of 20 mph, this is plenty fast enough for the short tracks we tend to use for races and is a good balance that gives decent torque and acceleration. With my Go-Kart wheels and tyres I use an 11 tooth cog on the motor and a 74 tooth cog on the drive axle to achieve a calculated top speed around 20 mph.


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==Race Results==
{{VehicleResultsTable}}
{{clear}}
{{clear}}


==Awards==
==Awards==
*Loads!
*Not Raced yet, just testing!


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{| class="wikitable"  
{| class="wikitable"  
|-
|-
! Item
! Bodge Charger 2 BOM
! BOM Price
! BOM
! Notes
! Notes
|-
|-
| Mobility scooter chassis/bodywork
| Chassis frame
| £35.00
| £20.00
| £25 for mobility scooter chassis and £10 for bodywork
| Bed frame
|-
|-
| Pillow bearings
| Donor Vehicle
| £30.64
| £22.50
|  
| eBay, original Bodge Charger
|-
|-
| Axle shaft 25mm
| Tyres
| £20.02
| £-
|  
| included with Donor Vehicle
|-
|-
| Pair of front wheel hubs
| Wheels
| £29.99
| £-
|  
| included with Donor Vehicle
|-
|-
| Pair of rear wheel hubs 25mm
| Seat
| £34.00
| £-
|  
| included with Donor Vehicle
|-
|-
| Shaft collar 25mm (sprocket)
| Bodywork
| £3.12
| £25.00
|  
| Googly Eyes, plastic pipe, carboard, stickers.
|-
|-
| Shaft collar 25mm (brake disk)
| Brakes
| £-
| £-
| Brake Component - Free
| MTB Hydraulic brakes
|-
|-
| Shaft collar 40mm (sprocket)
| Steering Rack
| £6.72
| £23.78
|  
| Ali Express Rack and Pinion
|-
|-
| Shaft collar 40mm (brake disk)
| Steering Wheel
| £-
| £-
| Brake Component - Free
| included with Donor Vehicle
|-
|-
| Pair of Brake Disks
| Steering Wheel Shaft
| £-
| £-
| Brake Component - Free
| included with Donor Vehicle
|-
|-
| Pair of rear sprockets
| Front Suspension
| £9.99
| £13.00
|  
| 2 Shocks from Mobility Scooter
|-
| Rear suspension
| £13.00
| 2 Shocks from Mobility Scooter
|-
|-
| 8mm T8F chain
| Motor
| £4.25
| £106.78
|  
| 2x 48v 2kw Brushless motors
|-
|-
| Ammo box
| Motor Controller
| £-
| £31.80
| Free for BoM
| 2x 1500w Brushless motor controller
|-
|-
| Brushless 2Kw motor
| Axle
| £79.99
| £16.24
| AliExpress, bought in 2020
| 20mm hollow shaft
|-
|-
| Motor controller
| Axle bearings
| £15.84
| £24.44
| AliExpress, bought in 2020
| Pillow bearings
|-
|-
| Throttle pedal
| Collars
| £10.09
| £5.30
|  
| Adapters for Sprockets
|-
|-
| Steering wheel
| Nut & bolts
| £24.99
| £20.00
|  
| Various
|-
|-
| Steering shaft
| Switches
| £13
| £10.77
| Includes UJ
| 2x power switches, reverse switch
|-
|-
| 2x mtb brake set
| Battery
| £-
| £-
| Brake Component - Free
| E-Golf Battery Pack
|-
|-
| Batteries
| Sprockets
| £21.98
| 2x 74 tooth sprockets
|-
| Chain
| £-
| £-
| Batteries - Free
| included with sprockets
|-
| Electronic components
| £15.24
| ESP32, ADC1115, ADXL345, Connectors etc
|-
| Throttle pedal
| £16.78
| 2x throttle pedals
|-
| XT90 connectors
| £5.00
| XT90 connectors
|-
| MT60 connectors
| £3.00
| MT60 connectors
|-
|-
| Switches
| Wiring
| £2.00
| £20.00
| £9.99 for 10
| Various
|-
|-
| Seat
| Brake Return spring
| £10.99
| £-
|  
| Classic car throttle return spring
|-
|-
| Wheels + Tyres
| Isolator switch
| £30.00
| £-
| £50 for 4x wheels and 2x sets of tyres
| XT90 link
|-
|-
| Total
| Total
| £360.63
| £414.61
|  
|  
|}
|}
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==Limitations==
==Limitations==
The driver (that's me) weighs too much!
The driver (that's me) weighs too much!
No suspension.
 
Ground clearance is only 4 cm at the lowest point, so its not suitable for bumpy fields or long unmown grass.
 
Single wheel drive can be poor in muddy conditions (otherwise its just fine).
{{clear}}
 
==Gallery==
 
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Latest revision as of 12:26, 29 October 2024


Bodge Charger 2
Built By Vince Williams
Theme Bodge Charger 2
First Race Footfest 2024
Current Status Active
Motor 2x 2kw Brushless BOMA, AliExpress
ESC 2x 1500W 48v ebike Generic controller, AliExpress
Battery 48V 12S Li-Ion module from an eGolf EV
Transmission Chain
Contact @Bodgecharger
View all Racer Profiles


Background

Bodge Charger 2 was developed from a combination of the original Bodge Charger (circa 2020) and lessons learned from ACDC (a very successful low ground clearance racer best suited to tarmac / concrete / flat and smooth short grass circuits, but some of the tracks we race on throughout the year can be held on rougher ground such as bumpy fields or meadows with medium to long grass. So Bodge Charger 2 takes into account all the lessons learned from these two Hacky Racers and incorporates them into the new Bodge Charger 2. These first set of pictures show the original Bodge Charger Hacky Racer as it was in 2020/21 at the very first Scrumpy cup and then at fully charged Live at Silverstone.

I also wanted to see what could be improved on regarding power, traction, stability, differential and batteries and have addressed each of these topics in the design. So I've now included full suspension (independent on the front, single swing arm on the rear), twin 2kw motors one on each rear wheel (split rear axle), electronic Diff, and a 48v 12s EV battery module from an eGolf.

Construction

Motors

Bodge Charger 2 has two MY1020 motors, one fitted to each half axle as seen in the photos. These motors are one of the most common type used for Hackys, they are 2kw 48v motors primarily designed for scooters etc and work well when matched with a cheap AliExpress 1500w 48v e-bike controller. The motors have been modified to provide more cooling airflow through the core of the motors by drilling out some of the vent holes to 6mm.

In Bodge Charger 2 the 2 motors are used independently to provide an electronic diff capability. In normal operation only one motor is driving at any one time, the other is left idling; which motor is providing drive is determined by a combination of steering angle and lateral G force. In a LH corner the RH motor will be providing drive and vice versa for a RH corner, drive always being provided to the outside wheel (typically having the most traction) which is the opposite of what a standard diff on a car does.

Motor Drivers/Controllers

Hacky Controller

Brakes

Batteries

The battery module is a single 12s pack originally from an eGolf EV. As you can see from the photos I've removed the original BMS board and split the pack into two 6s configurations. The battery as it comes is made up of 12 standard 4.1v Li-Ion cells housed in a sturdy metal container with a BMS PCB fitted on top. But seeing as I already have a powerful Dual 6S balance charger, then it made sense to split the pack into 2x 6S modules and get rid of the redundant BMS PCB and just charge the pack in balance mode as I normally do with my old 6S LiPo packs. So I wired up the pack as 2x 6S modules and connected balance leads to all the cells so that it would connect to my charger. To use the pack in its 48v 12S mode then all I needed to do was to connect the two 6S sub-packs in series again for racing with an XT90 adapter I made up.

After my first round of testing at Footfest 24 I discovered that the Li-Ion EV module voltage sagged drastically during race conditions and after only a few minutes racing the voltage under load dropped low enough to brownout (power down) my ESP32 controller. After that I replaced the battery pack with the standard 2x 6S Multistar LiPo's I had as spares and all my voltage sag issues went away. Bodge Charger seemed to have more punch and power after swapping the batteries over to the old LiPo's, so the only conclusion I can draw from this is that the Li-Ion EV pack is no good for racing. Well, that's what testing is for!!

Drivetrain


Race Results

EventDriverPositionClass
Kit Car Show Malvern 2025Vince600 - Full Size - Piloted
Kit Car Show Malvern 2025Vince899 - Overall
Scrumpy Cup 2025Vince900 - Full Size - Piloted
Scrumpy Cup 2025Vince1090 - Moxie
Scrumpy Cup 2025Vince1199 - Overall
VeeDub and Retro 2025Vince1000 - Full Size - Piloted
VeeDub and Retro 2025Vince800 - Full Size - Piloted

Awards

  • Not Raced yet, just testing!

BOM

Bodge Charger 2 BOM BOM Notes
Chassis frame £20.00 Bed frame
Donor Vehicle £22.50 eBay, original Bodge Charger
Tyres £- included with Donor Vehicle
Wheels £- included with Donor Vehicle
Seat £- included with Donor Vehicle
Bodywork £25.00 Googly Eyes, plastic pipe, carboard, stickers.
Brakes £- MTB Hydraulic brakes
Steering Rack £23.78 Ali Express Rack and Pinion
Steering Wheel £- included with Donor Vehicle
Steering Wheel Shaft £- included with Donor Vehicle
Front Suspension £13.00 2 Shocks from Mobility Scooter
Rear suspension £13.00 2 Shocks from Mobility Scooter
Motor £106.78 2x 48v 2kw Brushless motors
Motor Controller £31.80 2x 1500w Brushless motor controller
Axle £16.24 20mm hollow shaft
Axle bearings £24.44 Pillow bearings
Collars £5.30 Adapters for Sprockets
Nut & bolts £20.00 Various
Switches £10.77 2x power switches, reverse switch
Battery £- E-Golf Battery Pack
Sprockets £21.98 2x 74 tooth sprockets
Chain £- included with sprockets
Electronic components £15.24 ESP32, ADC1115, ADXL345, Connectors etc
Throttle pedal £16.78 2x throttle pedals
XT90 connectors £5.00 XT90 connectors
MT60 connectors £3.00 MT60 connectors
Wiring £20.00 Various
Brake Return spring £- Classic car throttle return spring
Isolator switch £- XT90 link
Total £414.61

Limitations

The driver (that's me) weighs too much!


Gallery

Resources

Twitter Account Charger @BodgeCharger

For the latest news, posts and discussions about everything Hacky Racers, head over to the Facebook group.

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