Whoops, delayed response....
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Originally Posted by Wonderboy
Would you advise trying to get a hold of deep cycles, no matter how crappy (like the sweeper ones you used), or could I get enough out of regular car batteries to get a clear idea of what kind of acceleration and top speed I can expect?
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If you can get them for free (or for the recycling fee, which you can get back later), sure, collect all you can get. You could put together a simple capacity testing rig --
like this one -- and spend the winter rounding up recruits for a pack that will be good enough to test with.
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What did you do for your existing pack(s)? How did you get them?
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All the "good" batteries are cast-offs from other EV owners in the Ottawa EV group. The first "decent" pack was made up of the "weaklings" that a Ranger EV owner would periodically evict when his pack monitor showed them falling on their faces before the others.
The batteries we have now are quite good - about 2-3 years old, replaced by a Jetta owner who was upgrading from floodies to AGM's, if I'm not mistaken. These are good enough to serve the ForkenSwift's modest range needs for many years to come.
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there are tons of perfectly good deep cycle batteries out there, but I either can't find them or they are too far away.
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Joined an EV club yet? Marinas, golf cart supply/service co's, industrial floor sweeper / scissor lift companies... They're out there somewhere.