My '74 Rupp Centaur In The Making Page 1
This picture shows the front right side of the frame.
You can see the original brake pedal and the master cylinder. This will be removed. I had plannned on using the foward foot controls from a Harley Davidson Sportster. I have since changed my mind and that happens often.
The above pictures (from top to bottom) show the hydraulic brake, clutch and gas pedals. I found these at www.larrysoffroad.com. I chose this route over the Sportster foward foot controls so that I could have my gas and brake pedals on the right and my clutch on the left. I chose hydraulic pedals over cable because of the reliability factor. I would hate to be in the middle of nowhere and a cable snap and cable's snap more often then hydraulic's will need a new slave cyinder. The other reason is this, I have notcied that with most Trikes that have the throttle on the handlebars sometimes have a lot of slack and delay in them, so by putting the gas pedal on the floor takes care of the slack problem and using hydraulics completely gets rid of the cable problem and will make it smooth just like a car. I Chose the hydraulic clutch for the same reasons as the gas pedal. I have a hydraulic clutch in my truck and love the smoothness of the clutch.
I will be using the handlebar controls for virtualy nothing since I will have my rear brakes at my feet. I am still going to use the original front end.
You can also see what looks like a gear shifter, actually it is the emergency brake lever. The gear shifter is on the other side. The gear shifter only moved forward and backward. Forward into drive, center is neutral and all the way back into reverse. These will also be removed.
This picture shows the rear of the frame.
This picture shows where almost all of the transformation from Rupp to VW will happen. The Rupp Centaur was originally equiped with a 340cc 2-stroke Kohler snowmobile engine (not shown) and a centrifugal clutch on the transmission (shown here) Behind the transmission is where the 10 gal. rectangular gas tank used to sit. The object here is to put a VW frame (from the torsion bars back) in place of a portion of the existing frame, so that a VW transaxle and engine will fit.
The Rupp frame in its entirety.
This picture shows the complete size and shape of Rupp Centaur frame. What I have done so far is measured 4" from where the drivers seat bolts to the frame and cut the the front of the frame off to extend it.
The reason for this is the Rupp was kinda designed for someone who is 5' 9" and under. I am 6' 1" tall and would have a hard time with the foot controls as my knees would be up to my chin in order to push in the clutch.
After the three tubes of the frame were cut,I moved the front of the frame forward until my foot was comfortidable on the original brake pedal, which was still attached to the plate on the frame and then measured it. The measurement was 6 inches. With that measurement of 6 inches to extend the frame, I added 3 inches on either side of that for a total length of 12". What was done is this, I used solid 2 inch round stainless steel stock, which is the same diameter as the Rupp Frame. The inside of each of the 3 Tube's of the Rupp frame were individualy measured for inside diameter. Each of the round dtock piece's were then milled down individually to have an exact match on both ends of the Rupp Frame. The reason for the extra 3 inches on either end was that this is how far down each of the piece's were milled down. This would give me 6 inches in the middle for the extension and 3 inches of solid metal inside each end and slip together like tent pole's.
Each piece weigh's about 5lbs. For a total of 15lbs. added to the front end, which is a good thing as it will help keep the light front end on the ground. The other thing that was done is the plate that holds the brake pedal was so corroded, That it will be cut off and another added. What I did was measure the plate which is 1/8 inch thick and added 6" to the width of it and 3" to the length. This will allow for more room for pedal adjustment in any direction, as well as more weight to the extreme front of the frame. I ended up using a piece of 1/4" thick plate steel which added another 15lbs. to the front for a total of 30 extra lbs to the entire front of the frame.
