Paddlewheels and drive systems

[Dai Powell]

Hi Derek,
I don't think you missed a post I have been talking to
Leighton Collins in NZ, and have mentioned it to him and I did
request info regarding plans from Echuca so I maybe overlooked
actually posting it on the forum, however for all who missed it "Dai
Powell is building a model of PS Pevensey" I shall try out the Diff
gear the thought of "braking" a wheel depending on the direction of
helm may work using the "diff" drive, that could be very
interesting.............Dai Powell

[dragoncity]

Hi Brett,
how do you recon that "differential gear would go on a
sidewheeler, would the inner paddle-wheel travel at a slower speed
than the outer one? as on a car or would both wheels turn in
opposite directions as car wheels do if the car is jacked up off the
ground.............Dai Powell

Dia, I was thinking the same thing, for side paddlers, and I dont know, but the answer is 'probably',
it would really depend upon the 'drag' on the inside wheel, as it does on a car. Of course tires grip
the ground rather better than our wheels and water !

I'd be inclined to knock up a simple test rig -- my first paddler was , litterally, four x1.25lit COKE plastic
bottles rigged up as a raft with timber cross bars. The paddles were simply sheet ply circles with
the floats nailed/glued onto one side only and the power was a simple TAMIYA plastic gearbox.
Looked like crap BUT went rather well. Interestingly the 'gearbox' overheated and oozed plastic
after an extensive test! Now rc car gears are a rather better proposition as they are designed for
very high speeds and hard usage.

=========
However, I suggested the 'diff' drive for a Stern wheeler, because one could simply remove one 'side'
of the diff drive and then it would be a constant drive to the other 'side' this could be a fairly easy to fit
final drive system for a stern wheeler . And avoid the water entry problems related to belt drives.

==========

[snip from DIA's later mail to DEREK ]

Come on Aussi come on, Derek I kid you not!, I have in my posession
a plastic radio controlled model "all terrain vehicle" defunct as
far as radio control is concerned but it does have an apparently
working diff that does appear to act in the same fashion as a real
car, I haven't stripped it as I was hoping to be able to salvage
some of the electronics and didn't want to "muck it up" until I had
to however if it could work (differentially that is), it may be
advantagious to use the diff gear on my Pevensey side-wheeler so
what do you think (Anyone).............Dai Powell
----------
Quite right DIA, my wrecked car has a 'real' diff, albeit in chassis moulding, not a seperate
unit like a full sized car.

Depending upon the qualtiy of the diff I recon its worth doing some tests , as I said above.

On differential drives on full sized side paddle boats : they could reverse the motors independently,
thus a rotate around the paddle shafts was possible. The P.S Cumberoona ( 1986) is a new paddler
in Albury (on the upper Murray) which has
two engines ( built 1906 & 1908) and the captains says " we could not operate in these waters without
differential control".

However I believe that the Pevensey does NOT have differential control, but I would fit it to
MODEL model, as it enhances the control dramatically!
However, I dont think my car 'diff' would be capable of full reverse of ONE paddle only. I achieve
this by motor polarity reversial using rc controlled switches.


Cheers,
Brett S Hallett

[KC6OLD]

Dai, Brett, et al.
Maybe there is an answer here, what about the brakes they use on R/c
Aircraft? (I've never looked at one so I don't know) but if you could slow
[not stop] the starboard wheel and allow the port to continue at full
speed......
Dave

[Bert Learmonth]

Hi all.
Eddy, if you look in the picture file under Nasookin RC you can see how I
made the drive for a working paddle wheel it takes very close adjustments
though any specific questions please ask.
Regards Bert.

[Edward Matthews]

It looks superb Bert, but also beyond my abilities I think :-( I'd
love to be able to make a drive system like yours, but I have to be
realistic. Give me wood, plastic or glass fibre and I'm happy....
Working with metal is a different story altogether - At least for me!

Maybe I'll have to make up some drawings of what I want and get
someone else to make it? Any takers??

Regards
Eddy

[dragoncity]

Dai, Brett, et al.
Maybe there is an answer here, what about the brakes they use on R/c
Aircraft? (I've never looked at one so I don't know) but if you could slow
[not stop] the starboard wheel and allow the port to continue at full
speed......
Dave

yes they would , they were normally operated by cable pull,
not very common on todays models, they were popular
on Competition Pattern Planes, because they had to start /finish
their flight from a standing sart/stop.

Good idea.
Cheers,
Brett

[Derek Warner]

Hi PD's - been a few good discussion points posted in the possible use of nitro powered
R/C car differential for side wheels - & so spent lunchtime today in one such shop & was
amazed [the super small drive belts & segmented drive pinions are a sight to be believed]

Result is that I have ordered an XYZ brand 40 mm diameter differential with external drive
5 mm wide flat segmented belt drive & spare pinions & belts etc for the two stage belt
drive motor to shaft reduction

Quite interesting - just like a real vehicle dif with sun wheel, two pinions & lay shaft, then back
out to output shafts - with a little of OZ engineering I believe [hope] that I may be able to have
either paddle rotating with the other fixed - Derek

[george britnell]

Hi Eddy,
Have you had any luck getting someone to make you a paddlewheel?
Let me know what you have in mind as far as size, type of material
and amount of detail and I will give you a price for construction.
The wheel for the Suter is not that bad unless you include all of the
U-bolts and nuts to hold the buckets to the arms. I made them out of
brass rod. I cut the pieces to length, threaded each end, then formed
them over a die I made to get the proper width. The problem with mine
was the size, which ended up being 1 mm. because of the scale of the
boat which was around 1/45-1/50 size. If you made a larger model you
could scale the U-bolts up and they wouldn't be as hard to make. The
hubs were machined from brass with slots for the arms to fit into and
tapped holes for set screws to secure them to the shaft. The pictures
on the drawings that I sent to you show a very good view of the
exploded parts.
Sincerely,
George D. Britnell (The Suter)