Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[Daox]

Very cool.

[MetroMPG]

The horn works too - everything except the little flashing yellow light on top!

I've still got the flasher off ours, if you want it.

Keep an eye on your jumper cables. Ours got smoking hot when we were moving it around - probably feeding a couple hundred amps through them. Those jaws/clamps don't offer much surface area where they're connected to stuff.

Wouldn't stop me from doing it again. Just sayin'.

I've read of a guy who's built a bunch of conversions, and his usual first test drive is with a "jumper cable" controller.

[bennelson]

Yeah,

I was watching the jumper cables. They got a little warm, but not bad.

Kinda nice to have their warmth with what weather we had lately.



I have been using that .Mac site because it is just so darn easy to post images to. Drag, drop, done.

I know a lot of people use Flicker or other photos services. I already have the .Mac account, and it' easy, so I use it.

If anyone has a suggestion for other space that's easy to use and puts up with my short attention span, that would be great too.

[WaxyChicken]

i use http://www.imageshack.us , don't know if you will like it. I've used it for some really big pics in the past and they don't seem to block the pic if you decide use a direct link. One guy i know actually used their storage to store his entire website pics. And it supports .ZIPped pics upload. (standard compression, winzip 7zip winrar .zip extensions) but i don't think it has a drag and drop feature. Account is helpful but not necessary. no limit to the amount of views a pic can get. Also they don't seem to be very Dial-Up friendly.

[Ryland]

I wish we had one of those at work, the propane forklift is annoying.

I would be really tempted to resell it for more then you paid for it and find another if it's had all that work done... and if you can get more for $500, altho last time I checked on scrap prices it seems like most of the parts that you don't need will almost pay you back $85-135 a ton for steel, and $.15 a pound for batteries, not sure what hydrolic rams sell for, but parting it out and selling the rest for scrap seems reasonable to help pay for the project.

[bennelson]

I would thing the hydralics on there must be worth something. Pretty nice looking cylinders.

Since I ran it, I was able to hear which motors spin when doing what.

The smaller motor on the upper left is the power steering. It spins up when you step on the dead-man's pedal.

The bottom motor is the wheel drive.

The biggest motor, up on top, drives the pumps to raise, lower, and extend the forks.

[diesel_john]

Holy smoke that thing is big, its worth a heck of lot more than 680. That mast would work great on the back of a tractor.

[bennelson]

Big EV day today.

I visited the only official electric car dealership in Wisconsin.
I saw another forklift motor.
I saw a Miata with a poor engine.
I removed the first electric motor from "forky".

This morning I visited Chris in West Allis (Milwaukee, WI). He is a Zap dealer, and has one Zebra in his scooter show on display. It really reminds me quite a bit of the Citicar. The main difference is that it has a modern PWM controller (Alltrax) and is a three-wheeler, so it gets around the NEV laws. Still doesn't go super-fast - about 35 mph at its stock 72 volts. Fast enough to get around though.
http://web.mac.com/benhdvideoguy/iWe...s/DSC05610.jpg

I also stopped out to see Greg - I guy I met through Craigslist in reply to my ad looking for poormans EV parts.
We shoved a whole pile of things out of his garage to get a better look at what's left of the forklift he has. It has a MONSTER drive motor in it, but the ID plate is unreadable.
http://web.mac.com/benhdvideoguy/iWe...s/DSC05620.jpg

He also has a Miata for sale, which I thought has potential for being a really cool little EV. But after looking at it, I think it needs more of a restoration than a conversion.
http://web.mac.com/benhdvideoguy/iWe...s/DSC05618.jpg

When I got home, I had just enough time to remove the smallest forklift motor (power steering pump motor) and remove the plate to view the controller before the snow hit.
http://web.mac.com/benhdvideoguy/iWe...s/DSC05628.jpg

My wife just got home and said we are supposed to get 20" of snow tonight.

More misc photos available at my photo page


PS: Darin is stalking me on other forums

[bennelson]

Oh yes, the guy with the Zap car was also the other guy trying to buy the forklift I ended up with.

Small world, huh?

[MetroMPG]

Oh, sure. The Zap guy get's a "small world" comment, but I'm a stalker!

Agreed - that Miata looks pretty rough. How much does he want for it? (No, I'm not shopping. Just curious.)

A friend of a neighbour bought an early Miata at a junk yard in Toronto for $500 last summer. The owner junked it because it wouldn't pass emissions test, and didn't think it was worth spending money on it.

But it ran. So the new owner drove the %$&$ out of it all the way home from Toronto (350 km) on the highway, and when he took it in to his mechanic, it passed!

And in your forklift pic: now I see the drive motor you thought was a reservoir.

[bennelson]

That guy is asking $1200 for the Miata.

I guess right now I am really leaning towards the simpler/lighter/cheaper the better.

Miata might make a better second EV conversion for me.

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by bennelson

You are right on with 72 volts.

Controller costs seem to jump up above 48 and above 72 volts.

72 volts seems like a reasonable way to go.

There is a Kelly controller that is quite a bit cheaper than alltrax and Curtis (and Zilla, and etc...) that goes up to 84 volts. Their 72v 400amp controller is $389 NEW from their site. I didn't find the 84 volt one there today, which I have been eyeing, but they said they still carry it.

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by bennelson

PS: Darin is stalking me on other forums

Then quit doing such dang awesome cheap EV conversions using a forklift! You know he won't be able to resist reading about such a project.

[Daox]

Just curious as I've only browsed through a few things on EVs. How hard/expensive is it to find a controller with regenerative braking capabilities?

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by Daox

Just curious as I've only browsed through a few things on EVs. How hard/expensive is it to find a controller with regenerative braking capabilities?

Here is a Kelly Controller price list:
KD72201,200A,PM with Regen Kelly $ 319,
KD72301,300A,PM with Regen Kelly $ 369,
KD72401,400A,PM with Regen Kelly $ 439,
KD72501,500A,PM with Regen Kelly $ 519,
KD72601,600A,PM with Regen Kelly $ 599,

Each of the controllers are programmable from 24v to 72v.

I don't think regenerative braking works very well with DC series wound motors, but I don't have any first hand info on that.

[bennelson]

From what I have heard, nobody has much experience yet with the Kelly controllers. They do look to be reasonably priced AND offer regen.

Series Wound DC motors aren't ideal for use as a generator. Some of the other styles of motors work well though.

Mr. Sharkey's Electric Rabbit uses a shunt-wound motor and features regenerative breaking.

I have heard that permanent magnet DC motors also work well for generation.

Regenerative braking is NOT high on my list of priorities. As this will be my first electric car conversion, I am looking for cheap/easy/uncomplicated.

Now if I can end up easily adding regen brakes, I definately would.

[MetroMPG]

Here's a conversion using a 72v Kelly:

http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/ev-talon/

[bennelson]

Feb 6th.

It's the middle of a blizzard here. My wife is home from work because of it. Also she has the sniffles & cough.

I am going to try to remove the wheel drive motor from the forklift today.

We'll see how long it takes my hands to go numb.

[bennelson]

I wasn't able to figure out how to get the drive motor off.

First, I had to disconnect a weird drum brake to get at anything else. Then I removed all the bolts that looked like they were holding the motor on. I put a nut on the end of the drive shaft and carefully tapped on it a little. Not sure what else is holding it in place other than a gasket connecting it to the block it is attached to.

After all that, I decided to remove the big pump motor. It wasn't nearly so difficult, bolt one bolt was nearly inaccessable. It took about half an hour of turning the bolt a tiny bit, sliding the wrench off, flipping it over, wrench a little more, flip it over, repeat....

The big pump motor weighs around 120 lbs, as best I can tell, I had to balance it funny on the scale to weigh it.

The outside measurements are 9" diameter and 12" length

Still, this one doesn't have a real drive shaft either.

[bennelson]

I just talked on the phone to a guy in the Raymond (fork lift brand) parts department.

The motor has an ID plate on it, so I just gave him the part number and asked what it would cost for a new one.

Guess how much?




$2283.95!