Hello all
I just recently through a very convoluted series of searches discovered this site after reading BenNelson's excellent instructable on his Electro-Metro. I then read the entire million page post on the vehicle and then read MPaul's entire VW post and have since then gone off and read about several DIY electric conversions. To say that I'm impressed just doesn't quite convey my feelings. To say that I'm inspired is an understatement. This is a project that I feel confident that I can tackle and succeed in, with the right kind of help.
So I've decided that I want to first and foremost find an inexpensive DC motor that can eventually be used as a power plant in an EV. I want to get that part first to really look at how it works and figure out just how much I'm willing to put into this endeavor (read - how much my wife is willing to let me spend on yet another hairbrained project). My thinking is if I can get all the guts of the project (motor, controller, batteries, various contactors and other strange electric necessities that I've never heard of) working outside of an actual vehicle, then find the donor car and put those guts in it I'll have less bugs to work out after the tedious work of hiding all the wires and making it look nice (again not to mention not having a 1.5 ton vehicle sitting around taking up space for the wife to get upset at).
My eventual goal for an EV would be to have a comfortable range of 50 miles with a top sustainable speed of 65 mph. I realize with lead acid that is pretty much at the upper limits of that tech and would need a light pick-up to really make that much weight movable.
I live in the northern Virginia area and those specs are pretty much required to be able to get any kind of real commuting use out of an EV. I believe that if I can find the right pieces at the right prices this can be a very economical way for me to not only reduce my expenses, but to also move forward in my desire to be more independent and less reliant on outside sources of energy. I know you've all heard the many motivations of people who endeavor to undertake this journey so I won't bore you with more platitudes but I am excited at the prospects a project like this entails.
So without causing any more bleeding eyes with an even longer wall of text I will just say howdy and if anyone knows of a good place to find surplus/used forklift motors in the northern Virginia/ DC metro area drop me a line. Thanks and I look forward to updating with progress.
-Brad
