Electric Cars and Tractors

[pa_friendly_guy]

It has been an effort not to have a cell phone. I was in business for 35 years, they pushed me hard to get one, but there are times when I don't want then to find me. My family has been pushing me since I retired because of my Heart condition, mmmmmmm they do have a point, maybe I will have to get one at some point, but it has almost become a matter of pride, lol. I was at my hunting camp this last week and needed to make a call, the one pay phone that I have been useing for awhile now has been taken out, its getting pretty hard to find a Pay Phone these days. I was able to borrow a cell phone from a person that I did not know to make the call, it does not cost them anything normally and people are generally pretty nice about such things.
As far as using the big terminals, my friend from Pittsburgh has a 120 volt Jet Industrys car that uses 6 volt golf cart batteries, he has melted several of the $1.98 fittings off and has melted a hole the size of a baseball in one of his batteries. My copper fittings have worked well up untill my son took it out, Since the new brass fittings cost about $4 each and I would need 24 of them I think I will use what has worked well so far. I am a big believer of " If it aint broke don't fix it ' lol maybe I am just cheap. I am seriously thinking about buying a used vac pump to make the brakes work though. A guy from our electric car club has one for sale for $100, new they are $300. I have just been standing on the brakes since the old vac pump quit working. I have always gotten stopped, it just takes a little more effort on my part. I really like the way the car runs so quiet with out that loud pump running. Some how I think an electric car should be quiet, those vac pumps make alot of noise.

[matt walker]

Keep fighting the good fight, Guy! Lol. I'm kidding, I have nothing against 'em, and can see the value, but it's a bill and a complication I don't need. I don't really have anybody to call, I've structured my business to not need one, and I LOVE to be here, not out somewhere else making phone calls. You're right about pay phones though, I continue to use them occasionally and they are getting harder and harder to find. I always feel like I'm trying to contact someone by telegraph whenever I use one, they seem so obsolete now.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Contacting by telegragh, I like that. Did I mention that I do not have cable at my camp and still watch movies on VCR, I have about 80 on VCR. I do have a DVD played and have maybe 20 movies on that media, but the majority of my movies are on VHS tapes, lol If you have any good movies on VHS that you can't use you can send them to me, I sill have space to store some more,

[pa_friendly_guy]

Many people have converted tractors to electric. One popular model to convert is the Ali-Chalmers Model G. It was made in the late 1940's , had a rear engine design and was used as a cultivator mostly. It is an easy tractor to convert to elevtric and is fairly light weight as tractors go. Here is a video of one showing details.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... kIYuI&NR=1

There are alot of videos on U-Tube showing these tractors at work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... N9HJk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... 1qLunke0LE

Here are just a couple to give you an idea of the way they work, so easy a Child can do it, I think they are using a 48 volt system. The one in the video looks like it uses 6 volt Golf Cart batteries, you get more amps from 2 6 volt compaired to 1 12 volt battery. The controllers and electric motor for a 48 volt system are relativily cheap compaired to higher voltage equipment.

[pa_friendly_guy]

The Testla Electric Car has been the break out leader for electric cars. Their 2 seat sports car was everything an electric car should be. They are just coming out with a Model S sdn. The range is good, and you can pay more and get a bigger battery pack for longer range. Here is a short video showing the dashboard of the new model S

http://www.wimp.com/tesladash/

It is pretty high tech. It makes my electric car look like the old coal fired model

[pa_friendly_guy]

I took my Electric Car to the Mother Eath New Fair last weekend. The were 2 electric cars, an electric Bike and an electric tractor on display. The Three Rivers EVA club had a booth with info about electric cars. It was a big hit as was my car. Alot of interested fokes stopped by to see how the car was converted. Directly across from our booth were 2 portable saw mills that were set up as demonstration units. The saw dust was every where and the car was opened up and on display. When I went to drive it out of there it would not run. We pushed it onto the trailer and hauled it home. Tried to blow out the saw dust with the air compressor, no good. I spent today taking out bateries so that I could get to the contactors that were not working. They were in a place that you could not get to from here. A neighbor can down and helped me get them out so we could take a look. He is a retired engineer and was very helpful with ideas of what we could check and how to check it. We tried different things to see if the unit was burned up or not . There had been a puff of smoke come from the unit when I tried to turn it on. Smoke is never a good thing with electric cars. I think some electric cars run on smoke, because when the smoke leaks out they stop running, The contactors worked fine when I hooked them directly to a 12 volt battery so I knew that was not my problem and the unit was still good. While I had the thing unbolted and out of the car I sanded the contacts anyway, just to shine them up a bit. We found that the neg wire was the problem. When I hooked a wire directly from the neg post on the aux battery to the contactors they worked fine and shut off when I turned off the key. So now all I have to do is either follow that ground wire and try and find the problem, or try and replace it, or try and run a new ground wire direct from the battery. If I run it directly I do not know what other electrical systems could be effected by the old ground wire. I may have to call in a repair guy to figure it out, I am basically a Dummy when it comes to electrical systems.

[matt walker]

I'd start with the main ground cables on the batteries Guy. Often just a little corrosion or a worn terminal lug can create enough resistance to mess up the works, especially in high current applications like your car.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Thanks Matt, I was hopeing you might have an idea, I emailed the engineer that converted the car originally, He said I could call him if I needed to, I may do that. First I am going to replace the aux battery that I know is not holding a charge and see if that does any good. While I have those conections all apart I can try sanding them to make sure they are all making good contact. I know that a faulty ground can be hard to find. I started to tract the ground wire from the contactors but it looks like it heads to the front of the car. That conduet does not seem to have a small blue wire in it when it gets to the front compartment. I am guessing it goes to the switch up the stearing wheel. I suppost I could clear off the pit and try and push it over there onto it so I can see under the car safely. I was pleased with myself just getting the danged thing out, it was a bear. And being able to narrow things down to the ground and not the pos wire was also a huge advancement for me. Actually being able to fix it with out calling a repairman would be unbelievable, lol I have a guy that works on electric fork lifts that has helped me befor, I am sure he can come back and take a look, for a small fee,

[Lollykoko]

I wish you good luck on getting the problem taken care of, Guy. I am confident enough to replace one electrical wire with another of the same gauge, but getting under floorboards and inside dash panels has become more difficult as the years pass. Perhaps next year the sawmills can be at the opposite end of the displays from the electric cars. That sawdust does seem to get into everything!

[pa_friendly_guy]

I worked on the electric car today. I had taken 2 of the main batteries out over the weekend and had un-bolted the main fuze and the celinode that operates the main contact points that actually turn the main battery pack on for the car when you turn on the key. My friend Len had to come over and help me turn a bolt because I had to stand on my head in the trunk and I couldn't reach the head of the bolt to loosen it. With Lens help I was able to get the contactors out with out disconnecting any wire. That is a good thing, because I am not sure if I could re-connect all of the wires the way they go properly. Once I had the contactors out and could look at them I used some sand paper and brightened them up a bit, then I tried the key, nothing happened. We then tested the celinode and found that it was not getting power. So I hooked a 12 volt battery directly to the unit and it closed the contacts no problem. So at that point I knew that the unit was not burned up and was working. We then disconnected the positive wire and ran a wire directly from the battery to the unit, nothing happened. Then we did the same thing with the neg ground wire. When I turned the key the contactors closed just like they are supposd to, and when we turned the key off they opened, just like they are suppost to. I then checked all of the fuzes, they were ok. I went and bought a new aux battery which I knew was bad, plus some wire and some connectors for the end of the wire. I made a new ground wire directly from the aux battery to the main connector and tried the car. Everything worked fine, the lights, turn signals, horn, flashers, windows all worked great. So I went for a short test drive and the car works as it was designed to work. I do not know why the new wire works with the key, it seems to me that it shouldn't, but it does. This was so much cheaper and easier than trying to run a whole new ground wire to the front of the car where the old ground wire went. My only concern is that I may have by passed the fuze box and there may now be some danger from that, I am not sure. But I am up and running again, so I can drive to town this month and get it inspected, Pa required an annual safety inspection, and in this area an emmissions test as well. My car is exempt from the emmissions test because I do not have a tail pipe,