[mrbigh]

Originally Posted by Daox

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.

Your latest experience is promissory for the life expectancy of the kit besides the down side of half of the components failure