Sarah's Big Girl Trike Is A Hit

Sarah s Big Girl Trike Is A Hit FARM HOME Novelty Items Sarah Rasmussen’s 10-ft tall 4-H mechanics project earned the 16-year-old a purple premium at the Wright County Fair and a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair this year “We had offers for as much as $2 200 to buy the front spoke wheel ” says Sarah’s co-builder and dad Scott Rasmussen “It came from our neighbor It was laying in the grove and we had to cut four trees growing through the spokes to get it ” With some grinding to clean it up and a few coats of paint by a professional painter the wheel is in impressive shape Finding a tire to fit was a bigger challenge The Rasmussens had the 36-in wheel for a while before a local tire dealer discovered a tire in the back of the shop that fit and he sold it to them for $100 Scott who has restored 15 Deere tractors and Sarah spent evenings and free time between Valentine’s Day and June 30th creating the trike in time for the county fair The trike is powered by a 5 1/2 hp Briggs & Stratton engine They used parts they had on hand: a throttle cable from a 3-wheel bean buggy a Deere B tractor seat and diamond plate for the back deck “I learned a lot of basic skills on this project from my dad ” Sarah says She cut the 2-in square tubing for the frame used a welder and cutting torch and helped make design decisions For example the back wheels from an ear corn elevator didn’t turn correctly She approved the solution of making the right tire a “dummy tire” and allowing the trike to steer off just the left tire Getting the right size sprocket to get the correct gear ratio was a little trickier They ended up having one laser-cut at a machine shop and then grinding the teeth to fit properly with a Dremel rotary tool In addition to a ladder to get to the seat the Rasmussens added a couple of braces for stability The driver pulls the engine cord to start the engine climbs into the seat and engages the engine with the throttle Pushing another lever forward shoves a piece of plate steel against the front tire for brakes “Sarah can go about 12 to 15 mph on it I can only go about 10 mph ” Scott says because he’s heavier “But up there it feels like 40 mph ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Scott and Sarah Rasmussen 3224 210th St Goldfield Iowa 50542 ph 515 825-3130; jessras1993@gmail com

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