Meeba said:
Hello. I am new to this site but not new to building bikes. the lowrider sites do have 2 different styles of trike kits available. one is the traditional style that uses a back wheel and a front wheel for the conversion and the other is the "shwinn" style which uses what they call hollow hubs. they come in 20 and 26 inch wheel sizes. another option is to try and score on a schwinn town and country and take the rear from it if you want to keep the same frame that you have. the benefits to having the hollow hubs style kit is that you do not have to have the cage that holds the basket in place to use the kit so you can make any style rear end compartment to it. good luck trying to find one cheap. the used ones are out there but hard to find.
Those lowrider hollow hub rear ends use only 1 rear wheel for drive, full time, and the other spins freely. As far as I've been able to learn, the mid/late 70's to early 80's Schwinn T&C's used differential rear ends, and with the exception of an older Huffy model, no other trikes, or trike kits, use a dif. If anyone knows differently, please speak up.
Also, I've seen the Schwinn dif rear ends used without the basket support cage, so I'm not sure why you say it's required.