All buggies appear to be powered by a kite harnessed to the rider. I was wondering if anyone has ever built a larger vehicle where the kite is harnessed to the vehicle. This post is just "in theory" because I'm sure it's fairly hard to implement in real life.

Obviously the engine would have to be a NPW and sized pretty tamely, as lofting something like this would be a train wreck, though possibly not so bad for the rider if he could jump clear fast enough.

I have some large pastures on my ranch, plenty of wind, and have always wondered if a wind-powered vehicle could be practical for cruising around at a leisurely pace, checking on animals, fencelines etc. Kite buggying through deep grasses and brush carrying tools is obviously not very practical. Could a kite be hitched to equipment designed to be pulled by horse?

Control of the kite could be fairly simple with a pair of "handles" mounted to a bar that is mounted on the vehicle, and some sort of linkage to push/pull and tilt them (assuming a 4 line NPW here, brake lines are obviously essential)

The big question is, where would the attachment point be on the vehicle. On boards, skis, even kite buggies, the rider is the attachment point, and is conveniently located in the middle of the "vehicle" like the mast is in a sailboat.
Pulling say, a hay wagon by the tongue, it goes to figure that you could never steer upwind, only chase the kite around at best on a broad reach. So, would the attachment point have to swivel from the center of the vehicle, thus requiring 2 operators (one to fly, one to steer)

Has anyone ever been crazy enough to hitch a kite to a land vehicle?

There are people out there who "hard wire" the kite to their buggy. Not everyone approves. Hopefully, those who do have some kind of working deadman on the link because an unmanned buggy attached to a fully loaded kite could be a lethal combination for those downwind and extremely costly for the pilot.

S

Pretty sick! Don't know why that didn't show up in my search results. I'm glad these guys just went for it because this is pretty cool to try out.

That's pretty much how I imagined it, with a strop to the vehicle somewhere in the middle of the wheelbase, 2 operators required. However the easiest way to pivot the kite on a turn is just to pivot a harnessed rider, this is true!

Obviously to get the Mini going on a flat it doesn't require a ton of power, however nowhere in the video is this vehicle shown accelerating (probably pretty sad I would guess, weighing many times more than a human). I also see the added weight of the vehicle is so much more than a human rider, that lofting is probably not a big concern unless kites were to get truly massive. Even 1/2 ton of lift would be pretty hard to come by!

So an entry level "kite vehicle" is pretty simple:
- strong attachment point inside wheelbase, probably forward of center
- kite stropped to attachment point
- driver can use the brakes to anchor the vehicle for launch
- let's rock.

I wonder how this would scale to vehicles heavier than the mini (as most are) or if climbing hills was required (like on my ranch). Might actually be fun and not too dangerous.

Edit: I agree that hard-wiring a buggy is dangerous for other flyers as buggies are light enough to be lofted. This is more about "full-size" vehicles.

Cargo Ship

http://www.treehugger.com/cars/cargo-ship-with-kites-first-t...

Don't mean to poop on your parade, but I have to disagree with your assessment, ...while the mini vid was really cool, this would seem and appear to me to be VERY dangerous. While hardwiring your buggy is dangerous for the obvious reasons of lofting and lack of brake control, what you are talking about is dangerous on many other levels. Assuming you can effectively rig something and get it moving, you're not talking about a 30 to 60 lb buggy going out of control when something goes wrong, it's something big and unwieldy with much higher potential for injury.

If this sort of thing really interests you, look into kite boating, that way if it goes bad you end up hitting the water instead of being run over by something with wheels and breaking bones.

Or if just "cruising" is what you're interested in, check out land sailers.

Sorry to be a downer, but it sounds like what you're thinking is NOT as easy as you may think NOR will it be safe. Just my humble opinion.

RTZ what is that giant thing for?

It's got to be a 50m kite for a boat.

Here's a kite powered car that's a little more thought out:

http://www.designboom.com/technology/evonik-kite-powered-ele...

http://project.kiteboat.com/

http://www.kite-boat-systems.com/index.php/en/

In both cases it's a depower kite fixed to catamaran.

Couldn't you just use a Bigfoot buggy and a trailer? Behind the seat have a couple different kite sizes. Big trouble might come when the wind dies and you have to walk back dragging everything. Not a comfy option, but there are videos out there of buggies going over crazy rough terrain.

Yeah, I'm not actually going to go out and do this... at least not without a ton of serious thought, and a well-designed system to release the power lines above a certain tension, and to release ME from the vehicle and kill kite if SHTF.
I was more curious as to whether anyone had ever implemented such a system - that Aussie kite car really shows that it's possible to pull a vehicle, which is neat.

Bigfoot buggy looks cool but seriously this is "quad terrain" not buggy terrain... not so much the bumps as the brambles and brush smacking you in the face if you are near ground level. In a few years it will be snowkite heaven, as we are putting sheep in next year to eat that crap down... then it might be buggyable too. Could become a real good kite spot as we have some sick hills, going to get out and ride some of the hills this winter that no brush grows on.

Land sailors look cool but not overly good for my hilly area. Too long of wheelbase.

I think the vehicle I ultimately had in mind is a classic one-horse sleigh (I've always wanted to build one anyways...) which would be a low-power affair powered by a big lazy NPW, just for cruising around my home quarter in the snow at <20kph. Plenty of room for a few more kites in case the wind changes. If the wind dies, just strap on some snowshoes and walk the half-mile home. Go back and get it when the wind comes up the next day. But how would you steer upwind?

Here's a guy who beat you to it by 200 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Po#@%$#!_(inventor)

From the article:
In 1826, he patented the design of his "Charvolant" buggy. This used two kites on single line 1,500 to 1,800 feet (457–459 m) long to provide enough power to draw along a buggy carrying several passengers at considerable speed, similar to the modern sport of kite buggying. In his book, The Aeropleustic Art or Navigation in the Air by the use of Kites, or Buoyant Sails, Po#@%$#! records that it performed at the rate of 20 miles an hour (32 km/h) over considerable distances and that a mile could frequently be covered even over heavy roads in 2¾ minutes. A group of three Charvolants made a trip of 113 miles (182 km) together, and on a run between Bristol and Marlborough one of the buggies sailed past the mail coach, which at the time was the fastest passenger transport. On another trip, a Charvolant passed the coach of the Duke of Gloucester, a breach of etiquette that was considered so rude that the occupants had to stop to let the Duke pass them.

wait a minute...this lunatic George Po#@%$#! used to send his kids up in the kites as an experiment..nice,,,that would go over big at my house..i wonder if we have any descendents as members??

Huh, old George really looks like he could be considered the Grandfather of power kiting. I'm glad he quit the manlifting before someone got hurt and switched to traction kiting!
His vehicle sounds like it was pretty much a big kite buggy, and even quite a bit faster than the technology of the day, but I suspect the reason it never caught on was the lack of backup power when the wind dropped, and perhaps the lack of development of the brake (drag bar, really?). Also, the window of his old kites was probably pretty poor, and flying by 4 lines on 4 separate spools sounds near impossible. Now that vehicle sounds pretty scary!

Modern materials are really what has made this sport possible, and of course the sport has driven development of the kites and allowed exploration of these other uses. Pretty neat.