Feasability of going from gas to only electric

[Stubby79]

So...you need a ~1.5l econo donor car that's at least OBD2 with relatively low miles or a freshly rebuilt engine...

Find something that's been re-ended. Maybe a Yaris or something similar? Be sure to either check out BSFC maps or at least typical fuel consumption.

BTW, unless it's running on propane or the like, a genset will pollute more than a typical car...though maybe not more than your old diesel .

[Erasmo]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

It wouldn't be a bad idea to discuss first all ecological choices first and then compare their disadvantages and see if they're too much of a disadvantage or not.

The first that pops up in my mind is a car rental. The disadvantage is purely pride, I guess. Why buy a new electric car and then rent an ICE car? This is definitely a viable option, but something in my mind keeps pushing me away from the idea. If there were some 15kW-20kW super low emissions engine for cheap I could just strap on and go that would make my day...

Don't you have something like an AirnBnB for cars? Where people can rent out their cars to others for a price they can set them self and the company makes sure that all the risks etcetera are insured.

And here's a thought, albeit a bit controversial maybe... It seems that you're local infrastructure still has some issues to support EV-only in the region. Why not trade the Leaf for something plug-in like a Volt or i3, more than enough e-juice to do the in town errands(38 miles), you can still charge it at home and in the town to maximise e-range and if you need to go to Denver no props.

[Isaac Zackary]

I just did a 70 mile drive. I charged it to 100% last night and preheated it. It was 10°F when we left. We drove up to and around Crested Butte. After 40 miles I had lost 8 bars out of 12 and still had 30 miles back home. So I plugged in at the charging station. We took the bus up the mountain and then to the store. An hour later we were back in the Leaf, which had charged 4 bars up to 8 bars. Back down to Gunnison I used only 4 bars. We stopped a couple points along the way and took pics of some big horn sheep.

So I used 12 bars to go 70 miles with the heater on the whole time. Not bad I would say.

Propane has me really intrigued. A 25hp Kohler Propane Command Pro with electric start and closed circuit fuel injection costs $2,000. I could make a simple chain drive with a sprag clutch to a single wheeled trailer.

I wonder how far off from modern emissions such an engine would be especially if I added a small amount of EGR and a catalytic converter?

On the other hand, on the way up to Crested Butte my wife glanced over and remarked about the "fuel" gauge being so low so quickly thinking I hadn't even charged it up like I had said. After telling her that it's an EV and that this is normal and expected she pointed to her auxiliary battery she uses for charging her phone and tablet and said, "Wouldn't it be great if we had a big one of these for the car?"

[freebeard]

It sounds like you have buy-in.

A receiver for an electric motorcycle front forks with a spare tire mount on the side to carry the front wheel? Then you could stop, reconfigure the motorcycle and use it to go the rest of the way up the mountain.

Either/or.

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

It sounds like you have buy-in.

A receiver for an electric motorcycle front forks with a spare tire mount on the side to carry the front wheel? Then you could stop, reconfigure the motorcycle and use it to go the rest of the way up the mountain.

Either/or.

I like your idea!

I'm not sure if the other three people in the car would have though. Especially since it was 10°F/-12°C and snowing.

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

BTW, unless it's running on propane or the like, a genset will pollute more than a typical car...though maybe not more than your old diesel .

This is true. But...

The way I see it, I could take along a genset and still get less emissions. How? If I have a pusher/generator trailer I never would have to stop and charge. I could go anywhere on 100% fossil fuel. But with a genset in the trunk I'd have to treat this car like what it is, an EV. After every 60 miles or so I'd have to pull over and charge somewhere. And if I have the choice between a free or cheap Level 2 charging station or a $20 propane exchange bottle on a 1500W suitcase generator or course I'm not going to bother pulling out and setting up the genset.

It would be only for emergencies. As the charging infrastructure grows, I may not even ends up using it. But there is that scenario that I get to a charging station 80 miles from the next, and it's out of order and I'll have to spend the next 21 hours with my little generator.

Maybe a 240V inverter propane genset?

[Erasmo]

240V would increase charging speed significantly. Any plans on mods to get further per charge yet?

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by Erasmo

240V would increase charging speed significantly. Any plans on mods to get further per charge yet?

I really want to do a boat tail and wheel skirts!!! But I'd like to make the tail removable if possible.

But first I'm going to start with all LED lighting. It already has the LED low beams and rear lights. But the high beams and front blinkers aren't LED.

Also fill the tires up as full as allowed on the side wall. I might only do this for those long trips. I'm also going to investigate whether these tires are low rolling resistance tires or not. It looks like the Michelin's are getting good reviews for the Leafs. Eventually I'd like two sets of tires. One for summer and one for winter.

[Erasmo]

Go for the low hanging fruit first, replacing incandescent/halogen bulbs for LED's is by far the easiest thing to do.
If you have decent roads there you might want to look in lowering it and installing an air dam. Every shop should be able to lower your car and an air dam just takes some rubber and time.

[Isaac Zackary]

I've always wanted to install hydraulic or air bag suspension on a car so I could get the best of both worlds. But I'm afraid we get to much snow here to simply lower the car. In fact I just woke up to several inches. In most cars the ride height is already a bit iffy, that is, it's easy to get hung up on the snow. And there are still several dirt roads that wouldn't be good for driving over in a lowered car.

But if I could find some sort of hydraulic or pneumatic suspension kit for the Leaf...

I also keep throwing around the electric trailer idea. Once I get off the initial financial shock of buying this car I think I'll put out a few bids on some wrecked Leaves and see what I can get.

There is a company down in Arizona that will install a whole new extra Leaf battery in the trunk for $6,500. I don't know if that includes suspension modifications for the added weight. But I'd try to do it myself, on an aero trailer, if I can get a Leaf battery for $2,000 or less.