Yeah, that's quite a tragedy down there. Had an uncle that went through there years ago. Lied about his age to get in, and his grave stone still has the incorrect year!
I applaud and salute your sacrifice that you have made.
Let me try to explain part of what I was referring to earlier. Since it always takes more energy to turn a generator than the energy it can produce, if you take an AC motor to turn a generator, which would then power your DC drive motor, you'll actually increase your net energy loss, and run down your batteries
even faster!!! Using a generally more efficient (and lighter) AC motor to run the car, like the Tesla does, is the way to go for someone who wants an electric car that can actually get out of its own tracks. This will also save some weight, giving you more range. This was what captainslug was getting at, too.
The cost of the motor and controller is why so many go with old DC forklift motors. I've been watching the "Paul and Sabrina's" cheap open source motor controller thread
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ller-6404.html and hope to get one of those some day. Now if we could come up with less expensive batteries!!!
