Yesterday I woke up very early to place the quad bike on the trailer so I could go to the RDW.

It was a very long trip and I arrived there safely and on time. Was just a bit too early, no one was there yet so I had to wait at the main entrance for a bit.

It was all still very exciting, but then they started with the test. Unfortunately it quickly turned out that it would fail the test because the chassis number wasn't clear enough after sandblasting and spraying of the frame. You can still see it but it's hard to read it by just looking at it. According to them the chassis numbers are never really affixed deep enough with Chinese vehicles. It's a shame really but it is what it is. I will now get an identity check on the frame where they'll see if the frame is still the original one. I'm just going to assume that this will all go well and then the chassis number will just get affixed again.

But even if the chassis number was all good the quad bike probably still wouldn't have passed the test. At the beginning of this project I already seperated the brake system so I could operate the front and rear brake independently. Much safer this way, just like on a motorcycle. I also removed the hand brake since this wasn't working, I had this hydraulic after seperating the brakes so there's still a hand brake present. But that's apparently not allowed, the brake system has to stay original, even if it's actually worse then. So I'll have to change this back again before going back for another test.

They also checked a few other things and I'll have to modify some small things. But that all isn't much work, the main things are definately the chassis number and the brakes.

That was it for the less fun things of the approval. What actually was fun is that they weighed the quad bike. The total weight turned out to be 271 kg (597 lbs). Way more than I expected, thought it would be around 240 kg (529 lbs) somewhere. But it's still below the maximum allowed weight. It's just that the amount of seats will be adjusted from 2 to 1 on paper. Have no issues with this since no one fits on the back anyway.
But they actually weigh the weight seperately on the front and rear axle. This was very interesting since I was really curious about the weight balance. And what do you know, the weight balance is a perfect 50/50. On both the front and rear axle they weighed 135,5 kg (298,5 lbs). This was a nice surprise, I didn't even try to get the weight balance this good.

But that's about it for the approval. Have to wait and see now when I can go for the frame. This might just take a few weeks.

For the rest there are still some problems with EMC (electromagnetic compatibility / noise) and it's definately possible that I need to get a seperate EMC test done which will cost around 1500 euros. Not really looking forward to that either but I still don't know everything about this. Will probably know more about this next week.

After a few busy weeks of only making drawings and documents everything is finally ready for the road approval test at the RDW. And just in time as well, the approval is already tomorrow. :) I'm very excited and really wonder what they'll say about it. And ofcourse if it'll pass the test. I hope so and have a lot of faith that it'll go just fine. But ofcourse there can always be some small thing that needs to be improved, we will see.

Here are a few of the drawings that I have to take with me tomorrow. I also have a lot of pictures and a folder filled with documents of all the components that are used. I really have no idea if they need all of this but it's always better to have too much than too little.

What I also had to make is an instruction manual. But just for the electric drivetrain. How it all works and needs to be operated.

Everything's ready and in position for tomorrow. Just still have to place the quad bike on the trailer and I can leave right away.

Hopefully it all ends well. I'll let you all know right away tomorrow evening. :)