Paul & Sabrina's Cheap EV Conversion

[TheSGC]

Hey Paul!
How well does you little 12 volt heater work for defrosting the windshield? I don't have the ability to install a ceramic heater into my EV until the Spring, so I was thinking of getting one of those 12 volt heaters off eBay to help defrost during my drive. That would allow me to actually drive my EV in this snowy weather.

It wouldn't be my main source of heat as I use a 1500 watt AC heater to preheat my EV before I go anywhere, but I need something to keep the windshield defogged.

[MPaulHolmes]

It's acceptable, barely. It's a piece of crap from Harbor Freight.

[TheSGC]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

It's acceptable, barely. It's a piece of crap from Harbor Freight.

Hmmm my plan B was to take my 1500 watt Ceramic core that I have for the heater core and make it into a dash mountable thingy like 12 volt heater, and rig it up to my battery pack and a PC fan. Maybe I'll do that...

[bennelson]

I've got the same Harbor Freight heater. It barely does anything.

For defogging - running ANY air over the windshield seems to work fine - although cold air blowing through the defroster isn't exactly comfortable.

A couple of guys in the Milwaukee EV club were working on installing 1500 watt ceramic heaters last week. There is another meet tomorrow. I am only going to be able to stop by briefly, but maybe I can at least get an update on their heaters.

Last winter, I was pre-heating off wall power with a 1500 watt AC oil-filled electric radiator. IT WORKED GREAT!!! So nice and warm to hop in the car. It was on a timer. My schedule this winter isn't nearly so regular, so I haven't been using that heater and timer.

[TheSGC]

So it sounds like those 12 volt heaters do basically nothing and I will have to work on my plan B using my ceramic core. I'll make something up that can use full/half the core so I can save battery life while needing only to defrost.

[TheSGC]

Now that I know you have those Sears PM-31, how are they holding up? I am curious to know what your AMP draw usually is and what your range is with this suckers in your bug.

[MPaulHolmes]

I'm really bad about keeping track of the range and amp draw. I'm not even measuring battery amps. I basically just drive around (look at motor amps) about 35 mph, not more than like 5-10 miles at a time. It's at 72v. Actually right now, I don't even have a controller in the dang car. I still don't have one for myself yet. Only when I have built one for someone else, I drive around for a while until I'm done testing it. But the Synchronous rectification one I'm going to keep I think.

They all still charge up to like 12.7 or 12.8 and stay there. I have no complaints at all.

[TheSGC]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I'm really bad about keeping track of the range and amp draw. I'm not even measuring battery amps. I basically just drive around (look at motor amps) about 35 mph, not more than like 5-10 miles at a time. It's at 72v. Actually right now, I don't even have a controller in the dang car. I still don't have one for myself yet. Only when I have built one for someone else, I drive around for a while until I'm done testing it. But the Synchronous rectification one I'm going to keep I think.

They all still charge up to like 12.7 or 12.8 and stay there. I have no complaints at all.

D'oh! I am looking to get a 96 volt pack, and I also drive at 35 MPH, but I need a solid 18 miles of range from them, ideally a solid 20 miles. I have hills and such, but my current batteries work well until they past the DoD 50% mark, then they sag like crazy. My usual drive takes me 16.8 miles, and I hit DoD 65% mark and those last few miles are awful saggy, but I keep going.

[CRWsound]

This is maybe a bit off-topic, but it's directly for Paul and the issue of registering the car as an EV for insurance reasons.

It's true: if you have an accident and the insurance is for an ICE car, they could shut you down right then - it's not the car you're driving. But there's good news!

I live in Seattle also, so this info applies. I've pondered doing an EV mod to a car and wondered about registering it...figured it would be hideously expensive or annoyingly difficult. Not so. We recently bought a salvage car in Oregon, and in registering it up here found that it had to be re-certified as street worthy - same as when you've modified a vehicle to be an EV. And I mean EXACTLY the same, the process you go through is identical whenever you've done any kind of heavy modification to a car that changes its status (or if the car was salvage like ours).

You have to take any vehicle you want to be certified to the Washington State Patrol office, and you'll have to call ahead and make an appointment - we had to wait about a week. What they wanted to see was that the car ran, and the lights worked, and they want to see the receipts for major component parts that you've bought to make the car run. In our case, we had to buy a MAS airflow sensor for the engine, that was it (we were leaving it as an ICE car). For some reason they won't accept receipts for parts bought over the internet, including e-bay, so I guess just don't show those receipts.

My wife took the car in, and it's a little banged up of course, but she just showed the guy our single receipt, he walked around the car once, and started filling out paperwork. She was done in 10 minutes. And here's the best part - it was free! It costs literally no money to get your car's status changed to reflect what it ACTUALLY is. Now I can't vouch for if your insurance rates will change, that part I don't know. But getting it street legal as an EV is pretty much a non-issue in Washington state. We just had to pay to get the car licensed in our state, just like we would have had to do with a new car, once it had been cleared as street legal by WSP.

Thought you might want to know. BTW, here's WSPs web page describing the process:

(shoot, since this is my first post here I can't post a link in the message, so I'll have to post it incognito)

www dot wsp dot wa dot gov / traveler / vinspect dot htm

Sorry this info is coming to you so late in your process, I just stumbled across your thread...and read all 51 pages of it in one go. Well done dude.

Chris

[Christ]

Vehicle Identification Inspections - Washington State Patrol