Big news! New charger...
This arrived in the mail today. A re-manufactured, proper 3-stage 48v charger donated (!) to Project ForkenSwift by an E.E. who works for the company that makes them in in Vancouver, B.C. (Burnaby, actually). I helped him track down some parts for his gen. 1 SuzukiClone EV.
Delta-Q chargers.
We have been using a semi-dumb 24v 10A charger, which forces us to split the pack and charge in 2 parallel strings of 24v each. It was originally for a commercial floor cleaner, I think. The only reason I call it semi-dumb instead of fully dumb is because it has LED's that show 80% and 100% charge status based on a preset voltage, and a shut off timer when (if) the pack reaches the 100% voltage level (which has never been 100% reliable because the batts are old, and some don't come all the way up to the expected voltage. Lately, it's been working about 2/3 of the time).
So this new charger is almost 4x more powerful! Faster! And probably more efficient too - which will show up in the car's fuel log soon, I hope. I'll know in a couple of days.
I already used it tonight - worked like a charm!