View Single Post
Old 05-19-2011, 10:16 AM   #248 (permalink)
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 11,203

CM400E - '81 Honda CM400E
90 day: 51.49 mpg (US)

Daox's Grey Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
Team Toyota
90 day: 49.53 mpg (US)

Daox's Insight - '00 Honda Insight
90 day: 64.33 mpg (US)

Swarthy - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage DE
Mitsubishi
90 day: 56.69 mpg (US)

Daox's Volt - '13 Chevrolet Volt
Thanks: 2,501
Thanked 2,586 Times in 1,554 Posts
Well, I decided to throw the kit back in the car while waiting for new celllogs to arrive. At least one of mine has a toasted alarm port, so I can't do a ton as is. So this means manual charging for now (watching for alarms and checking it at certain intervals).

I did use it on the way to work this morning with great success. My commute is 7 miles now and has a top speed of 45 mph. I turned the kit on and was able to use EV mode until I was out of town and the speed limit increased to 45 mph. After I got into the next town, I was able to keep it in electric only until I got to work. The commute itself was a pretty good one. I only hit one red light and I was in town and in EV mode. However, halfway to work I noticed a warm plastic smell so I turned the kit off. Once I got to work I double checked my connections and sure enough one of the bolts was loose. My mistake there and I'm glad I caught it. The lock washer was keeping tension on the joint, but not a ton. I was able to turn the screw with my fingers to tighten it up. All in all though, it was a great commute. I got 108 mpg on the way in and I'm incredibly happy to see that I'll be able to hit ~100 mpg on my daily commute. The only downside is that on the trip home I always get 10-20% worse mileage. I'm also not sure when I'll hit the low voltage alarms on the kit. I have them set pretty conservatively to short cycle the batteries to extend their life. I'm not sure how much capacity this is causing me to loose. I estimate with only half the batteries, the batteries being somewhat dead, plus setting alarms conservatively my capacity is quite limited compared to what it will be.
__________________
Current project: A better alternator delete
  Reply With Quote