Electric Cars and Tractors

[pa_friendly_guy]

I am a member of an electric car club. There are clubs all across the USA for people that are interested in electric cars. I have found them to be a wealth of information. Here is a link to our web site http://www.threeriverseva.org/member-vehicles.html you can look for a club in your area. Their members are truely helpfull if you want to build your own electric car. Several of our members have built their own electric cars or trucks. The young college student did a wonderful job on his Saturn and the Gentle man from Ohio did an outstanding job on his Chev S10. He owns a machine shop which was quite handy for the conversion. He has talked about selling the S10 and doing a 2nd conversion unit. He enjoyed the process.

[pa_friendly_guy]

One of my good friends from the Electric Car Club in Pittsburgh has a company that sells electric Bikes, as well as other EV parts and services. I am posting this link not because I want you to buy anything from his company, [ most of you are way too far away for that anyway ] I wanted to tell you about electric bikes. Small electric bikes are not considered motor cycles, and therefor do not have the same regultions or requirements. They must have a motor less than 1hp and go 20 mph or less, it they meet those requirements they are not a motor cycle [ at lest here in Pa, you may want to check the laws in your state ] So being an electric bike and not a Motor Cycle means that you do not have to pay for a licence plate, you do not have to have insurance, you do not have to have a Drivers Licence, you do not have to pay for registration,if you run low on battery you can still pedal the bike to get home, riding one of them is the same as riding your bycicle. You should understand that if you plan on pedaling alot you have to deal with the added weight of the battery and electric motor. So if you live close to work and want to be Green and have an electric Veh you can use an electric bike for a pretty cheap cost. Jon used one of these bikes to get to his last job for about a year. His new job is too far away for the bikes range. I think they are pretty neat, and the cost can be less than $1,000 up to maybe $3,500 for the top of the line. http://www.paelectrics.com/ev-instruments.html

[matt walker]

Guy, thanks for posting the link, I found it really interesting. If I lived closer to town I think I would be seriously considering an electric vehicle of sorts, most likely a bike/motorcycle type. I'm just outside of the range of those bikes for a round trip to town, unfortunately. They make a lot of sense to me, and aren't as expensive as I'd thought they would be. Heavy, though. I wonder if new battery technology like Li-Po or some such can get the weight down.

[pa_friendly_guy]

If you look at the weight of the bikes its the lead acid battery that makes up most of the problem. The Bikes with the Lithiun batterys are alot lighter, but they are also a bit more money. Lithium Batteries cost at least two to three times what lead acid cost. But they last 3 times as long and they put out more amps than lead acid, so in the long run they may actually be the better deal. The cost of the Lithium batteries has been coming down, they used to be over 3 times the cost of lead acid.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I took some pictures today, I am not really very good with such things but I took a picture of the charger for my electric car as well as the plug that I use to charge it. It charges from regular house current, 110 volt. I did put in a seporate 30 amp line so that I will not have any problems with blowing fuzes.

This is the charger, I keep it in the trunk, but it is not built in as part of the car.



This is the regular outlet that I use to plug the car in for charging. Pretty simple operation really.

[matt walker]

Neat, it looks like the conversion is really clean, what I can see of the battery bank. Have I told you that the bulk of my income comes from designing similar electrical systems in the marine industry? Mostly design for new boat builds, some refits as well. I love looking at batteries and charging systems and such. Did your car come with a schematic? I'd love to see it if you have one.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I have a loose leaf binder that has some papers in it Matt, but I have no clue what all is in there. I have no way to scan the stuff so getting you a copy may be a bit of a problem.

[matt walker]

That's alright Guy, I'm just curious. If you get the motivation, you could always just take a photo of the schematic, but don't go to any trouble. Are you still on the first set of batteries?

[pa_friendly_guy]

Yes, the batteries are about 3 years old now, I just added water the other day, they took a good bit. My son had the car out about 3 weeks ago now, he apparently wanted to impress his girl friend because he was doing over 60 mph in 2nd gear going up a steep hill on a 90 degree day. He melted one of the battery terminals right off. I mean it melted right off the battery, left a puddle of lead dripping along the edge of the battery. Of course the car stopped dead on the road. He called my other son on his cell phone to let him know he was in trouble. I do not own a cell phone, I never have. So when I got there I decided to open the hood and take a look, it was pretty easy to spot the problem right off, there was a cable laying there not connected to anything. I drove home and got some tools and just by passed that battery, it was much easier than I expected. I just drove home a mile and 1/2 on 11 battery's instead of 12. I went to the auto parts store and told them that I needed a battery terminal that could with stand high heat, I told that I did not want the $1.98 one, I wanted a GOOD one. I bought a brass one and connected it to the cable I had, then I used the regular auto connection on the battery that was still there. I had been useing the bolt on connections and that is what had melted away. It seems to be working fine now, I am showing the right voltage on my guage and the car seems to be running ok. I took it to Rotary last week and it made it to town and back, lol that is really all that I require the car to do. Just get me to town, and Hopefully bring me back. LOL

[matt walker]

Yep, getting back is good. So, it sounds like the cables are connected to the little terminals instead of the big posts. Any time I'm designing the high current stuff I require the batteries are connected at the post. It makes a BIG difference in how much current they can handle. Wouldn't be a bad idea to convert all those at some point. On the other hand, you could just not go uphill at 60mph and probably be just fine as is.

No cell phone here either. I think we might be the last two on earth.