Vintage Thing No.122 - TreeVee

The TreeVee hails from Sweden and is inspired by the Morgan Aero and Ariel Atom. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

I've described a few contemporary Vintage Things before now, like the Toniq R (VT No.21), and here's another.

Following my earlier post about the RIP Special (VT No. 112), Per-Gunnar Björck e-mailed me about his Morgan inspired three-wheeler that exemplifies what I like to call "rolling sculpture". Per-Gunnar worked for Saab with powertrain and vehicle concept development for over 30 years and his ambition was to make and design something to professional automotive engineering standards despite working in a humble home garage.

It goes as well as it looks, too. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

Obviously, it helps if you know what you are doing and have a clear focus of what you want as a final product.
 

"The actual starting point was when I fell of my Ducati Monster and felt that I needed more than two wheels to keep upright. I also released enough insurance money to pay for the Harley engine and some more.

The choice of engine was for two reasons - first a large narrow V-engine is an iconic ornament on anything resembling a Morgan - and second just for the hell of it."

A clear focus ensures the design integrity of the final result. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

This isn't something to take on lightly - the feeble Harley crank output shaft doesn't match well to an automotive transmission. 

"Some have failed (broken cranks) and some have developed complex structures, support bearings and dummy flywheels to make it work. My solution was to let the engine and transmission live their own lives by being individaully suspended in the vehicle frame and linked by just a rubber disc. The clutch is a wet multiplate Haldex AWD unit attached to a Ford single rail 4-speed transmission. This clutch is also rather small leaving a decent footwell. The clutch pack is permanently pressurised by a gas spring to keep it closed."

Drive from the propshaft goes through reversed AWD power take-off unit with a ratio of 2.53 to 1. Chain ratio is 1.7 to 1 for overall final drive ratio of 4.3:1.
 

Not many machines look this good with the bonnet and bootlid up. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

I asked what steering rack P-G used, and he sent me a list of components, which makes interesting reading.

Engine:               

Harley Davidson TC88

Starter:

GM HFV6 auto flex disc + starter motor

Clutch:

Haldex AWD wet multiplate - much modified with hydrostatic actuation

Gearbox/prop shaft:

Ford Escort 4-speed single rail - modified to be in unit with clutch

Bevel drive

Saturn Vue AWD PTO

Rims:

Smart aftermarket

Steering rack:

Saab (old) 900

Brake discs:

Peugeot 306

Brake calipers:

Front - Peugeot 206 (rear)

Rear - Renault 8 (front)

So that's rear brakes on the front and front brakes on the back. Nothing wrong with that, especially as this way round P-G gained a handbrake facility on the front brakes.

"All the rest is owner/designer/builder fabricated - sometimes with several iterations."

Ah yes, those pesky little iterations are the bane of perfectionists everywhere.

One of my favourite features of the TreeVee is the way the driving position can adjusted.

"The pedal box and steering are movable in ergonomic proportions by an electrically adjustable seat rail. The seats are obviously fixed which takes away any tendency to wobbliness."

The controls all move relative to the seating position, rather than the other way round. This way has GOT to be better hasn't it? Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

Front suspension is by double wishbones with their pivot lines set approx 30 deg to the vehicle centreline. This layout was adopted for two reasons - it made the front wishbones legs perpendicular to the vehicle (in plan view) to give the vehicle a flat front appearance like the Morgan sliding pillar front suspension and it also moved the rear pivots out adding width to the footwells.

This demonstrates the closeness of the upper wishbone to the steering rack. The cylindrical shank of the lower balljoint is clamped in a threaded insert in spindle. The upper balljoint shank is tapered shank and set in a seat made in steel bar welded to spindle. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

This photo shows the original silencer required to meet the official noise regulations but also gives a view of the rear swing arm design. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

Rear suspension is by single sided tubular swingarm triangulated for lateral stiffness. The swingarm is also pivoted concentrically with the chain sprocket to eliminate chain tension variations.

I particularly like this view of the TreeVee. Photo Per-Gunnar Björck

P-G says "I had hoped to learn how to MIG weld during the build process but I am thankful to powdercoating - it improved the weld appearance significantly."

The welding looks damn fine to me. P-G carefully made templates for the curved main tubes so that his tube bender could get this right - well, you wouldn't want to do it wrong. The TreeVee depends on these chassis members for looks and structural integrity.

The TreeVee name is a play on words. P-G's family name "Björck" means birch as in the tree. Tree is like three, in fact in parts of Ireland that's just how they would say three. Vee is V-engine, V-shape or wee (small). "TreeVee can be 'trivial'," he explained although I would hesiate to describe such a well designed and made three-wheeler as anything trivial. Simple and minimalist, it certainly is, though.