u/buchenrad

Has anyone ever made or converted a bicycle to have 4 wheels? Basically the general format of a 4 wheeler but with a typical bicycle drivetrain. A tricycle conversion for the rear end would work, but is there a way to do the front end?

I can't think of a practical use for it, but it sounds cool. I'm sure it would be a bear to pedal, but I used to own a Rhodes Car so I'm not too worried.

I am on a volunteer county team in the US mountain west. We are considering implementing meshtastic. For those who have experience with it, would it be worth the investment for our needs? Our specific systems, environment, and needs are as follows:

Our first level of communication is county issued encrypted digital radios and our second level is personal cell phones. Meshtastic would be a third level last resort communication for when radios aren't reliable and there is no cell service. County radios are not always reliable in the remote areas we sometimes end up in and cell phones are even less reliable.

We also use caltopo and use our personal cell phones for the location tracking. Meshtastic would be a second level solution for tracking as well and be the only solution when there is no cell service. I believe the county radios also submit an APRS packet with GPS coordinates with each transmission, but I have had little luck getting with anyone from the county who knows how to extract that data for our use, and even if we did get it, radio transmissions are not frequent enough to have adequate data to build a good route.

Our county is roughly 95% rolling sage plains and 5% mountain foothills. There aren't a lot of large obstructions. It's just freaking huge. We also have a large lake in the middle of the county.

A well placed portable repeater would remedy our radio problems, but getting one from the county has not been fruitful. I don't think they have any portable repeaters and if they do they aren't giving us one. But I believe a simple meshtastic repeater station or two would make meshtastic reliable for us in most conditions. Also it would be nice to just be able to manage our own system and not have to ask the county and wait 7 business years to get anything done.

And finally, is the ability to type on the device worth paying for? It looks possible to save like 30-50% per device if it doesn't include a keyboard.

And do yall have suggestions for specific ready to use devices that are durable and perform well? It needs a GPS receiver with the ability to automatically send a GPS position at regular intervals. We would probably be looking for 15-20 devices.

The 5x10 trailer frame and all its accessories are on clearance. I have a project planned in the future that was going to use that frame. Do I need to buy one now if I want one or could it just be a temporary sale and would that product still be available in the future?