I was feeling a bit destructive today and was wondering what it would take to fit some more batteries in the car in place of the back seat.
So, I removed the back seat.
And the back seatbelts.
Leaving SharpieŽ notes to myself in case I ever want to re-install them.
To remove the shoulder harness, I needed to remove the car's interior panels.
And to get those out, I really needed to take out the piece of plexiglass over the batteries that the charger was mounted to.
Oh heck, all this stuff is coming out!!!!
I pulled a whole pile of stuff out of the car. I did a little recabling to make everything reach, and shoved the main contactor and relays down below the batteries.
I could now move the batteries over just enough to slide the charger down beside them as well.
Since I needed a new cable to reach the repositioned contactor, I thought it was a good opportunity to add an Anderson connector as a main battery disconnect. This will make it MUCH easier to disconnect power for working on the car. Before, I always had to unbolt the fuse and it was under the plexiglass and hard to get at - a pain in the butt!
Here's the Anderson connector right on top. Just grab it and pull the two halves to disconnect all power.
Here's what the car now looks like with the entire rear seat removed and all the back body interior panels gone.
Boy, that carpet looks pretty dirty too. Anyone ever replace carpet in a car before? How tough is it? Astroturf might be pretty funny in there.
Anyways, with the back seat gone, it's pretty easy to visualize how I could cut a rectangular hole and build a box that drops down into that to hold more batteries.
In the wayback, there is the spare tire well directly below the batteries. It is an odd shape and not wide enough for four batteries. I think when I first experimented with how to put the batteries in the back, I found the two batteries would fit down into the well, but the other two couldn't, so I just put all four straight across on scrap bed frame metal.
If I cut a box down into the spare wheel well. I could fit all the batteries below the car.
I then might be able to put the back seat and cargo area floor carpet back in and actually have cargo space! (although not weight-carrying capability!)
This geo metro is using the same batteries I am (although a lot more of them!) and nicely displays how they can be sunk in the trunk.
I also liked the design of
this Geo Metro.
Here, you can see the Yellow Tops in a box where the back seat was.
Can't tell how that's the back seat? How about if we put the seat back in?
That's right, it's so nice you can even put the baby's seat back there.
So anyways, I am thinking that I can put 12 batteries in the car. I can parallel them and stick with my measely 72V system, without having to upgrade my controller or charger.
BUT, if I can "road-test" somebody else's homebuilt 144V controller (hint hint) I could rig the batteries up as a 12 batt series!
Now we would be talking serious transportation!!!
How many inches of road clearance do I need? I wouldn't want a speed-bump to smash my battery box...
I still need to figure out how to boost my suspension.
PS: If I have 4 batteries in the way-back, 4 under the rear seat, and 2 in front, that only gets me 10 batteries - 120v if series or 60v in parallel!
Where would I cram 2 more batteries? Under the hood. For the life of me, I can't find it, but I have seen a photograph of a Geo Metro with my exact same batteries under the hood.
All four batteries are in the radiator position, but they run the length of the car. That makes a block of batteries 13 inches deep and 28 inches wide, just like in the back of my car right now.
I measures between the headlights in front, and it's just a hair over 28 inches! Measuring between the transmission and the grill is about 14 inches! I may have to trim a little bit off the motor adapter plate (it sticks out further than it needs to) but I should be able to fit 4 batteries in radiator position.
I knew there was a reason we so overbuilt that front battery tray....