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German craftsman who assembles vehicles from scrap

Thursday August 27 2015
TEAheino

Heino Dahman in the ChapChap sidecar with a technician, and right, the 4x4 African Bulldog pulls a boat (hidden) out of the water at Mtwapa Creek, Kenya. PHOTOS | JOHN RUGOIYO

Heino Dahman has a passion for engineering — he has made an off-road vehicle that, as far as aesthetics go, looks far more brutish than President Obama’s Beast.

He has also made a prototype motorbike sidecar, and is developing an electric tuk tuk that can be manufactured from locally available materials.

His vehicle is called the African Bulldog. He claims that the Bulldog is the first Kenyan-made 4x4, and is so robust it can transport farm produce to the market during the heaviest rains when all-weather roads are at their most treacherous.

The motorbike sidecar is named ChapChap, and is and Dahman hopes it will pioneer production of low-cost, sturdy off-road transport. It can serve as an ambulance, and also save women the indignity of riding pillion on boda bodas.

Heino has a background as a custom vehicle builder — modifying cars to improve their performance, or making uniquely styled cars. Two years ago, he made what he calls the Range Cruiser, by combining a Landcruiser pickup with Range Rover body. He also makes buggies and go-karts.

Heino says that the concept of making the African Bulldog came out of frustration at seeing countless vehicles abandoned in government yards and police stations all over the country. Appalled by the waste, he decided to show, by example, what recycling can do — so he made the low cost off-road vehicles using salvaged parts from scrapyards and old, grounded vehicles.

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Explaining his style Heino said, “The best at its simplest, as Einstein said, is the highest form of art. I came up with this idea of a simple rally style cage-frame of tubular steel pipes with only a functional design. Fitted to a chassis with a modified drive train, it is so basic it can be manufactured anywhere in the country based on almost any salvaged 4 x 4 parts of any make or model.”

Bulldog’s roll-cage of tubular steel pipes is quite conspicuous. The pipes are painted black, and blue fiberglass panels are riveted on to make a body that looks like it is jerry-rigged by a Jua Kali artisan.

The fibreglass roof and bonnet are the only specifically designed parts. They were custom made by a boat builder.

The front grille is meshed steel cut from a discarded industrial work platform, and the split windshield is made of off-the-shelf glass from a hardware store.

The Bulldog is a strange conveyance indeed, looking more like one of the early models of light utility military vehicles such as World War II Jeeps than your usual off-road vehicle. It is striking in its simplicity and ingenious use of low-cost materials.

“We created the African Bulldog right here in Mtwapa, and a lot of time went in making it as simple as possible. It took us about six months to complete the car,” Heino said.

He said he purchased an old 1973 Range Rover chassis from a scrap yard. The rest of the parts were sourced from a variety of vehicles in his workshop.

He fitted the chassis with a 6-cylinder 4.2 litre diesel engine from a Toyota Landcruiser, a tractor gearbox and Landrover axles. The steering box was from a Toyota Carina. The rear springs are Landcruiser while shock absorbers are from a Scania lorry. The brake booster is from a Nissan matatu while the steering wheel is a Toyota Corolla’s.

The Mtwapa made beast does not have a speedometer or an odometer and what it has as a centre console is a marine sourced panel with gauges. It has a minimalistic marine grade electrical system that enables it to go through up to two feet of water to tow a boat out or put it back into the ocean. A non-marine electrical system would fail in water.

ChapChap

Heino’s other project is a motorbike sidecar. He is the first person to have make such a conveyance in Kenya, a prototype that he calls the ChapChap.

He says he was prompted to make it after seeing one in a local newspaper article that featured St John’s Ambulance motorcycles attached with sidecars imported from France. 

The sidecars are operating as ambulances in Tana River County, which has the highest maternal deaths in the country. They are used to ferry expectant women to hospital.

The word ChapChap, Heino says, came naturally, inspired by the local motorcycle and three-wheeler called the tuk tuk.

Although a novelty in Kenya, bike/sidecar combinations — alternatively referred to as rigs, hacks, chairs or outfits — have been used by motorcycle buffs since the late 19th century.

The earliest sidecar was made in 1893, when a French army officer designed one for a bicycle. In 1903, a patent was issued to a British national for the motorbike sidecar.

Within a short time, sidecars became very popular; luxury car maker Jaguar of Britain was started as a sidecar manufacturer in 1922. It was then known as the Swallow Sidecar Company.

Rigs were widely used in Europe and came in handy in both WW1 and WWII as troop carriers or ambulances. At times, they were mounted with machine guns.

Until the 50s, they were popular as a low-priced alternative to cars in Europe. In the US, their use declined early and by the 1930s few were to be found on the road as cars had become more affordable.

Heino made his first sidecar in 1982 in his native Germany. He learnt to make the sidecar competition “Space-frame” chassis back then, and even participated in sidecar racing.

When he read about the St John’s Ambulance project, he saw the huge potential of sidecars in Africa where motorcycles are so ubiquitous that they are an indispensable transport. So he decided to make a prototype.

His ChapChap was fabricated at his Mwapa workshop last year. The engineering team made sure that the entire rig can be made from readily available Indian or Chinese bike parts, and materials from local hardware stores. To make it strong but light, it is designed as a space frame — a three-dimensional skeleton of welded tubes.

A motorcycle wheel with a spring and a shock absorber is fitted to the sidecar, and a standard 150cc Chinese bike is inserted at the right side of the frame.

Heino emphasises that there are three elemental design features to consider when fitting a sidecar to a bike.

One is “axle lead,” where the wheel of the sidecar is never directly aligned to the rear bike wheel but must be slightly in front. Second is “lean out” — the bike has to be set such that it leans slightly away from the sidecar. Third is “toe in,” where the front of the sidecar is slightly angled in towards the bike.

The angles are very important as they affect the handling of a rig, which doesn’t drive like a motorbike, car or a three wheeler like a tuk tuk. The bike/sidecar combination is asymmetric. For instance, turning left is not the same as turning right; acceleration and braking are different in left and right turns.

A car, tuk tuk driver or an experienced motorcyclist are therefore novices when it comes to piloting a rig for the first time, as it handles differently from three or four wheelers. It requires several days of practice to be able to handle it well.

For those who like tinkering with engineering, there is plenty of information on sidecars available on the Internet.

However Heino, a certified master craftsman, who in his country is considered equivalent to an engineer, has reservations about inexperienced people or Jua Kali artisans attempting to make sidecars without training.

He is of the view that once the sidecar buffs or artisans start uncontrolled fabrication of sidecars, there is the possibility that they would create all kinds of contraptions that could turn out to be death traps.

A sidecar should conform to acceptable engineering standards, he says, and if it is to be used off road, it has to be sturdy and safe. Proper training is needed to make sidecars and he is ready to offer it to anyone who is interested.

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