Electric Cars and Tractors

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Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:12 am

I have an Electric car that I bought a year ago . It is a conversion unit, a 1986 Pontiac Fiero an electrical engineer took the gas engin and gave it a pitch and replaced it with a 9" advanced DC motor and 12 12 volt deep cycle batteries. It has 144 volts that push the car down the road. the 5 speed pontiac transmition is still in place. There is a 13th 12 volt battery that runs the head lights turn signals, horn etc. I have had it going over 70 mph and it turns out it is the Fastest Electric Car in the County. I won at the drag races with it, lol, there were only the 2 of us there, but I was the fastest. I will try and show you some pics.


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Last edited by pa_friendly_guy on Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby matt walker » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:21 am

Holy cow, that is so dang cool. 6 hour recharge seems reasonable to me. What is the useable range?
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:37 am

Range has been a disapointment, it is between 15 and 20 miles. With electric cars you can go fast, or you can go far. I live 5 miles from town, 3 miles from church, 7 miles to my weekly Rotary meetings. It will do most of my weekly driving in warm weather. I have not taken it out much in very cold weather because the temps will reduce the range some. I bought it as a play toy. This was NOT to save money, I just wanted to see if they work. The answer is that they do work and in my case, being 5 miles from town it would have gotten me to work everyday, and brought me home. It costs about $.80 to $1.10 to charge up, depending on how far you have driven. I figure I am getting agout 100 to 120 mpg with the price of gas around here. I am a member of a local electric car club. One of our members has an Electric Lawn mower that he mows about 1 1/2 acres with and plows snow with it. It has an adapter that he can plug in electric trimmers, leaf blowers, electric chain saws etc. It is a portable power sourse. They were made by GE in the 1970's and there are still alot of them out there. It runs on a 36 volt system. Depending on condition and location I have seen them for sale from $200 to $800. Some people want $1000, but they are dreaming, lol. The power system is about the same tech that electric fork lifts use. The system is actually very simple. It turns out electric vehs are not rocket science.
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:46 am

There is a web site called evalbum that has alot of pictures of electric cars and truck etc, both home made converstions as well as ones made as electric from the factory. http://evalbum.com/4135 Here is a link to one of those electric tractors I was talking about.
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:58 am

If any one is intersted you can look at EV's for sale on a web site called ev tradeing post, that isn't the right addy, but if you type that in you will get there. You can find Electric veh from maybe $1000 to $2000 up to over $50,000. The Tesla sports car goes for $109,000, but it goes 0 to 60 in 3.5 sec and will do 120 mph. It also goes 250 miles on a charge. It has solved all of the percived problems that electric cars have, they don't go fast enough, they don't go far enough, they are not sexy. It answers all of those problems, unfortunately the price is out of most peoples range.
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby eeldip » Sun Jan 15, 2012 3:44 am

the white zombie does 0-60 in 1.8 seconds. and can take you 90 miles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 2tUHK2sJ_4

explains the engine here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLq_CbgiuLE
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:32 pm

I Love that car, that guy is such a Motor Head. It was, and may still be , the Fastest street legal dragster in the world. Electric motors do not have the horse power that Gas Cars have, but what they do have is torque, and they have it RIGHT NOW. lol I had the opertunity to ride in a Tesla Roadster and the owner asked me to turn on the GPS on the dash. As I reached forward to turn it on he hit the accelerator and threw me back into my seat. It was a joke to him, he was just making a point. The torque of the electric motor is imediate and the acceleration is truely unbelievable. If you think of volts as speed [ in other words volts make the motor go faster ] but the amps are the power to push you up the hills. Alot of EVs are designed to be used as neighborhood vehs. They have low volts, maybe 72 volts or less, and do not go over about 35 mph. They are designed to be used around a city neighborhood and not for any other use. They do not go fast, and they do not go far. This is the electric veh that most people hear about and that is why many people think that electric vehs do not work and will never be widely used in the USA. The Leaf will run at ' Hyway speeds ' and will go at least 80 miles on a charge. They claimed 100 miles on a charge when it 1st came out but you will quickly find out that every elec car over rates their range. The chev volt was to do 40 miles on electric only, now that it is out and actually being used they are getting about 30 miles on a charge. Most people drive 20 miles or less a day. So even the limited range of the Volt will do 100% of the average drivers daily use of their car. Electric cars are not for everyone, and many familys will want 1 electric car for economy to get to work and daily use and 1 gas car for longer trips to Grandmas. Electric cars are coming and you will have a friend or family member who owns one with in 5 years. [ That is my prediction, of course my crystal ball is a bit cloudy ;) ]
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby matt walker » Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:39 am

Your car sounds really cool, and the range seems adequate for your purposes. Like you said, if you were daily commuting that would add up to significant savings over time.

I love the idea of electric tractors. There are new ones that look fairly simple. I'd love to be able to mow without the maintenance of the gas motor and I could really do without the noise and smell.

Love this mower deck!

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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:40 am

That looks like a very nice unit Matt. If you notice there is a separate electric motor for each blade. I personally am used to a belly slung mower deck and prefer them to either front mounted or rear mounted mower decks. That is just a personal preference of mine. With the electric cord that runs to the mower deck you should be able to unplug the deck and run other tools like saws, blowers, trimmers etc. The ability to operate other electric power tools away from the house electric is a huge feature to me. I have seen video on you tube showing a guy cutting fire wood way out in the woods with out the noise or smell of a gas powered chain saw. They are so much quieter. Electric motors make very little noise. I have seen new zero turn electric mowers on the market today. They are a bit pricy for my budget, but they are out there and being produced today. The older GE units are definately out there and you can still get the parts to repair them and get them restored to running condition if they are not currently in running condition. The electrical systems are pretty simple really and anyone who can work on electric fork lifts can work on the tractors. You can do alot of the work yourself if you do just a small amount of research and learn a few basics about how electric vehs work. Many parts can be substittuted, it is not like a Honda where you have to have the Honda part of it won't work. The controller which is the main brain of the unit can be bought from a number of different supplers. The 36 volt battery pac is what determins what size controller you need. The motors last forever and when they do go bad they are very cheap to rebuild. Think what a motor job would cost for your car, $1000 to $1500 to totally rebuild the motor. The electric motor in my car could be totally rebuilt for $160 to $200. There are not alot of moving parts in an electric motor. No oil changes, no anti freeze, no spark plugs, no air filters, no gas filters, the list goes on and on. Electric is not for everyone. I am not a zelot for electric vehs, but I do think they have their place.
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Re: Electric Cars and Tractors

Postby matt walker » Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:05 am

Have you guys seen this electric motorcycle company? Cool stuff.

http://www.brammo.com/home/

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