We were 6 friends (Myself, Chaithanya, Anirudh, Karthik, Kalyan, Mallikarjun) we were into mechanical engineering wanted to build something practical for our final year project
Most of our batch mates have decided to do some IT projects from local institutes on the design front which were theoretical in nature and would not be of any use later on. But we wanted to be different from everyone.
We had 3-4 ideas on what to build-
- Electric bike
- Battery bike
- Electric auto
- All-Terrain Vehicle(ATV)
We had zeroed on the All-Terrain Vehicle as it had many challenges and overall we would get a good practical knowledge on automobiles. The specialty of an ATV is that it runs on any type of terrain. We wanted the below points in our ATV-
- It should be for 2 people
- It shouldn’t look like a very big monster but sweet and small just like a battery car
ATV: Designed to travel on all types of ground, including rough grounds
Research:
From the 1st semester of our 4th year we started our research on building an ATV. We went to many colleges, universities, contacted a number students, professors to gain practical knowledge before starting our project.
One such encounter was when we met the students of Maturi Venkata Subba Rao (MVSR) Engineering College. It is one of the famous engineering colleges in Hyderabad. The students in MVSR had made an ATV with the support of their college in about 10-12 months.
We neither had time nor the support but we had only 2 months of time in our hands to complete the ATV. The students of MVSR college had challenged us that it is a near impossible task but we turned the odds and built an ATV in less than 2 months.
Therefore after getting some knowledge on what we wanted and where to start, we started building our ATV on 13th Feb 2012.
The steps which were important in building our ATV-
The design part was always the critical one. We did a lot of online research, contacted many car servicing centers, old school mechanics on how to design our ATV. The things we had in our minds was-
- Ground Clearance should be high
- The price of building it should also be minimal and in later stages when used for commercial purposes it should be affordable
After contacting many people, garages there came up a person (a retired mechanic) who was interested in our project and wanted to help us. We told him our idea and he helped us in the designing and also the dimensions of the ATV
The whole design took a good 15-20 days of time.
Material purchase was a very tedious task. We had to negotiate with all the vendors who sold the automobile parts. Afzalgunj is the biggest automobile market in Hyderabad. We got all the spare parts from Afzalgunj.
Before going for a Royal Enfield engine we searched online for engines for close to a week. Earlier in our research we found out that we can purchase engines online and assemble it with our body. But we found out that our assumption was wrong as the dimensions, engine efficiency and other things were not in line with our requirements. Then we got it in touch with a garage owner and told him about our ATV. He gave us an idea to use the Royal Enfield Engine.
Why did we go for Royal Enfield Engine?
The Royal Enfield Classic 350cc is powered by a 346cc, single-cylinder air-cooled engine that makes 19.8bhp and 28Nm of peak torque. These specifications are in line with what we wanted and on top of that Royal Enfield Engines are heavy duty, reliable and cost effective (with the specifications we wanted)
We went to Ranigunj for the Royal Enfield engine. That is a place where we get to repair the Enfield bikes and it is a famous place throughout the city of Hyderabad. We didn’t find what we wanted.
Then we went to Nallakunta, the garage owner told us that he will get us an engine. We waited for 3-4 days but still couldn’t get one.
Finally we bought a seconds Royal Enfield Classic- 350cc bike in Afzalgunj and dismantled the whole bike and took its engine.
We wasted a lot of time while getting the engine but yes, we learnt a lot of things from that wasted time!
- Material for outer body, chassis:
We purchased steel, iron, aluminum at least prices from the market. We learnt negotiation skills from here.
We had to change the tyres 4 times as we used to purchase heavier tyres each time and the steering system would completely break if the tyres were so heavy. First we purchased Auto Tyres then changed it to Maruti-800 then to Tractor Tyres and then finally we got what we wanted. The tyres were bigger than Maruti-800 but smaller than Tractor!
Each time we changed the tyres we had to change the discs on which we had to mount the tyres.
We used the rack and pinion steering system. In this the steering wheel turns the pinion gear; the pinion moves the rack, which is a linear gear that meshes with the pinion, converting circular motion into linear motion along the transverse axis of the ATV (side to side motion).
We chose rack and pinion as it reduces the steering effort required to turn the wheels and the steering ratio of the vehicle is also decreased considerably.
The steering system was broken 2-3 times, due to excess weight of the wheels. We again had aligned it by welding and all other sorts of things which was a very tedious job.
We used the Forced Oil Braking System. The rotating members of the ATV such as wheels are stopped with the engagement of brake calipers which are cooled by oil forced by a master cylinder.
The braking system also failed twice before the final one was in place
As an ATV will be driven on all terrains i.e., both on road and off roads, suspension system plays a very critical role. Therefore we used the best suspension systems as the vehicle encounters many shocks, vibrations. Suspension Systems used-
- Front Independent Suspension System(i.e., independent suspension for each wheel)
- Rear Rigid Suspension System
Seats, Batteries, Horn, Indicators, Fuel Tank, CNG cylinder, Cables etc.,
Once the design was finalized and purchases were made then came the toughest part, THE BUILDING of the ATV. We found an old used car garage near to Amberpet and started building the ATV.
The first iteration of the chassis and the body was built in 4 days and we had to put in almost 16-18 hours per day for it to be done. The owner of the garage gave us a professional welder, cutter. They helped us a lot in building the ATV.
We were not satisfied with the first structure and dismantled the whole and started from scratch. The second iteration took about 3 days and this time we had to dismantle it as we had a change the suspension system.
The third time we were happy with the built of the chassis as the outcome was according to the dimensions and our plan.
During this time we had differences between us as there was wastage of money, time and the pressure was building as the deadline was nearing. We sat together, ironed out the differences and again motivated ourselves to build the best ATV available in town.
- CNG(Compressed Natural Gas):
2/3rds of the ATV was completed and still we want to improvise on it. We thought of many different things but none was feasible and affordable. Then came the thought of why can’t we use CNG to run the ATV.
CNG is-
- Affordable
- Fewer emissions than gasoline(petrol, diesel)
- Safer than Petrol
Therefore once we knew its advantages we wanted to run the engine with the CNG. Again we searched online for the CNG distributers in Hyderabad. We found one guy near to Secunderabad who is a big dealer in CNG for automobiles but he asked us a big amount of advance and we couldn’t afford that.
We didn’t give up and searched for a week then we finally got a guy who is near to 6No. He was reasonable and he helped us a lot in aligning the CNG cylinder to the ATV engine.
We knew where to place the petrol tank but we didn’t have the idea on how to connect the CNG practically.
But by the end of the project we had a very clear idea on how to power the engine with a CNG cylinder.
The ATV has been completed and then by the time we had to start it, it was not starting. We had to turn on the keys or kick start the engine. Neither of them was working. We almost tried for 4 hours to start it. The Petrol Tank was full as well as the CNG cylinder. We didn’t have a single clue on where we went wrong.
We thought all our dreams, hard work was shattered and we didn’t know what to do. The team fell apart and nobody had interest to take it further.
Then I and Chaithanya took the task to our chin and we found out a guy named Surya who helped us to start the ATV again. He was a bike mechanic and was very much interested in automobiles.
In the last one week of our completion I used to wake up around 5 in the morning travel for around 50kms pickup Surya take him to our ATV so that he can do some modifications for it to get started.
After some slight modifications and getting to know the exact problem, we got the ATV up and running in 4-5 days.
As promised we completed the ATV in the scheduled time and we displayed it in our college on April 11th 2012.
On a personal front, I knew we spent a bit of extra money but I’ve learnt a lot of new things-
- Negotiations
- Determination
- Handling the pressure
- Pushing myself and not to give up!
Aftermath:
Many newspapers, TV channels have interviewed us on how we could build the ATV within 2 months of time with no prior experience.
The sweetest point was Mahindra & Mahindra has asked us the patent rights for our ATV but till that time we were in different directions and didn’t file the patent. But all in all this was a game changing project of our lives.!
All the ideas, implementations we got were from the layman and not from big brands or online journals. At the end we understood that, if we are determined to do a particular work, the universe will conspire and help us to complete the job, only if we don’t give up!
The ATV is still in our college and the college management keeps it as a jewel in their crown!
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PK,
PK Enterprises.
