Design: The Bed Buggy

Year: 2005 Grade: Sprinters Drivers Name: Douglas Hilson [11yr] Designed and built by: Douglas and Dad together.
	Douglas Hilson in The Bed Buggy
The Concept: To make a traditional-type wooden trolley, but with a steering wheel instead of rope steering, out of ordinary parts, and using hand tools.
	The Result: Rack-and-Pinion Steering The Bed Buggy was made over the two weeks prior to the race out of an old broken wooden bed, a length of old pipe, a piece of old plywood, four trolley wheels from Mitre 10, an old wooden drawer, a banana box, and a pillow.
The 'rack and pinion' steering mechanism was actually made out of two metal gate hinges (into which the axles were jammed), four old bed bolts, a piece of wood, and a piece of a length of an old curtain wire, which originally held up the curtain in the first aid room of the old Griffins factory before it was demolished. The wire was threaded into and around the old length of galvanised pipe which acted as the steering column The weakness in this mechanism was that the old curtain wire eventually broke after several days of use, due to the large forces and bending, which it was subjected to; we are working on a stronger system for next year. It was completed on the morning of the race, completed all the heats safely, but didn't make it to the finals.
Deadman Braking: Bed Buggy has a 'deadman' braking system - push forward with feet to release the brakes on the back wheels. A stretchy cord under the hinged seat holds the braking bar back onto the rear wheels until released.

Active Braking The reverse version of this deadman system is this very simple active system that was used on The Ghost Train, driven by Saaben Wouts in 2005.

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