Sunny - Roadrunner 300 - DF300TKB : Various ? By texomaev (Read 13,391 times)

[JR]

If Alley said he'll find it you can bet he will, he has for sure earned the Trike Professor title, well deserved and what's best is he just loves to help folks!

JR

[alleyoop]

Well I did not find it but IT FOUND ME (HEHE), thanks to one of our members AMAC1680 he pmed me and did not know the rules about posting links to other forums and gave me the link to something he put together with drawings and Verbage to explain How-To go about aligning the front wheels. I also explained to him it is ok to post anything that would help anyone with their ride problems that we do NOT CENSOR links to other forums.

So without further a-do here is AMAC1680 How-To Align the wheels:
Alleyoop

AMAC1680 said:
Hers a method I've used to toe-in my reverse trike. I haven't been under the sunnys etc so I don't know how much of this would work but it did the trick on the much maligned MC-95.

I didn't post this link as I don't know what the policy is on that sort of thing.

mc-95reversetrikegroup.yolasite.com/maintenance-tips.php

Don't know if this helps. Primitive but effective.

[texomaev]

Outstanding, Thank You so much for sharing that adjustment procedure. I will certainly do this before taking it out on the road again.

[amac1680]

Thanks sir. As I would love to take credit for putting that link together I can only take credit for finding it ! It does work and once the toe-in is correct the trike becomes more "tame"

I don't know if you have the parts breakdown for that trike. If not here ya go:
sunnyparts.com/index.php/browse-by-model/three-wheel-trikes/mc-d300tkb.html

While I'm at it heres one for the MC-95 reverse trike:
roketa.com/product/product_support.jsp?cateID=34399&sonCateID=0&proID=47108

The Roketa site also has parts for the "sunny" trike just as they do for my MC-95 that's labeled as a "Kandi"........gotta love it they are all different, but the same ! Lol

All kidding aside I love my little "scam-am", lol. Fools people all the time it's a "sheep in wolves clothing". Looks fast but it's a 45 mph scoot. It's loads of fun and set up correctly perfectly safe.

They are scooters for the hobbiest though. If you don't like turning wrenches look elsewhere.

[texomaev]

I took a couple of closeup photos of the front wheel assembly. In the photos, when you click on them, you'll see some notes placed on the photo. I noted some obvious grease inserts, but there is also a curious screw that I have no idea what it does. Check this out at:

.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8388229414/in/photostream" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8388229414/in/photostream

.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8388228662/in/photostream" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8388228662/in/photostream

For those unfamiliar with flickr, you can click on the photo, then open the "Original" size of the photo when you click the (View All Sizes), and see much better detail of the screw I'm asking about.

[alleyoop]

Tex,
I believe you are correct that is tighten it down because notice the screw goes in at an angle so as to fit in a grove inside.
Alleyoop

[texomaev]

Got the front end all greased up after work, before it got dark on me. Found 12 grease inserts on the front end. Took a whole tube of lithium grease.

I was adjusting the handlebars to my liking, (Knees were hitting them before), and I noticed some left/right play in the steering before the front wheels even start to budge. How does one adjust that out?

[alleyoop]

It all depends where the play is At the bottom of the steering arm or up on top, so you have to find where the play is. It could just be the Handlbar T that has the play.
Alleyoop

[texomaev]

Got tires balanced today, Both were seriously off. Took long strips of weight to get them to balance out. While the Trike was up in the air, I took the opportunity to nudge around the front end. There is no play on the spindle/hub/wheel but I noticed the lower swing arm at the hub had tremendous front to back play in it. We tightened them up. The wheel alignment is certainly off. With one wheel pointing straight, the other is pointing out away from the trike. Will work on manual alignment tomorrow, as no shop in town was interested in helping. At the same time, I will try to figure out where the play is located in the steering.

[alleyoop]

Very cool, that is the problem with china scoots nobody will touch them. I don't know why they are just turning down backroom money which is where they make their money anyways. Must be that they have a lot of the brand scoots they sell BROKE BACK THERE

Also if the tires took more than 3 ozs of weight they are crap. The dictation for a good tire is for it not to take more than 3 ozs of weights to balance otherwise it is not made right. When I balanced the tires that came with my trike unbelieveable one took 10oz and the other 8ozs and still I had a bouncey bouncey on the roll. I then got the Kenda 205/65x10 tires which are 3" taller and they are smooth. One took 1 oz and the other 2 ozs plus they are softer nice smooth roll.
Alleyoop

Alleyoop

[texomaev]

Good point, after all the tweaking is said and done, I suspect these tires are going into the recycle bin. I would welcome getting a larger diameter tire up front, as I'm really worried about coming up on a pothole doing 65mph with these mini donuts up front.

Supposed to be an awesome day tomorrow in Texas, so I hope to make the best of it, and get the front end tweaked, and some body panels removed to begin the crack repair process.

[alleyoop]

Hope you get the front end aligned that is the most critical point on those Trikes otherwise you will not be able to bring it up to good speeds without vibrating your hands and arms off. But once you get them to roll straight you will have a nice ride.
Alleyoop

[amac1680]

Jan 18, 2013 21:47:47 GMT -6 alleyoop said:

Hope you get the front end aligned that is the most critical point on those Trikes otherwise you will not be able to bring it up to good speeds without vibrating your hands and arms off. But once you get them to roll straight you will have a nice ride.
Alleyoop

Amen to that !

Do not attempt to bring that bike up to speed before you are sure the front end is right. These bikes use a rather primitive suspension and there is little wiggle room, so to speak.

Once you get it right the ride will be predictable but it's not like riding a scoot or cycle. More like an ATV. Input to the bars will have an immediate and direct effect to the wheels. Most that ride these trikes will say not to lean on nor back against the bars. I agree with that. If the front end is right the trike will track well and require very, very little input to get it to turn.

No fancy dynamic stabilization here. Good luck, be safe.

Be Big,
AMAC

[texomaev]

Looking forward to a stable/safe ride for certain. Hope this experience will help others who purchase a similar trike, in their adventure. I don't want to discourage anyone from taking advantage of buying an inexpensive import, but want them to understand, they will have to put in the effort to fine tune them for safety/reliability. Once I've done all my homework/labwork with you guys here in the forum as teachers, I hope to graduate with a 3.0 GPA at least ......

[texomaev]

While waiting for it to warm up a bit outside to align the front wheels, I've been looking at steering dampers/stabilizers for ATV's. Wondering now if something like this might work for an "On Road" vehicle like this Trike. I have a magnetic mount video camera, I'm going to try and place on the Trike, to capture video of the front wheels, one at a time, so everyone can see/experience what I am having fun with.