Feasability of going from gas to only electric

[dremd]

I've often wondered how much good an air dam would do on a Leaf with the near complete undertray. Might be better to just complete undertray I totally don't know.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

I really want to do a boat tail and wheel skirts!!! But I'd like to make the tail removable if possible.

But first I'm going to start with all LED lighting. It already has the LED low beams and rear lights. But the high beams and front blinkers aren't LED.

Not sure that will do a lot for ya, unless you do a lot of highway night driving...in which case, you've just bought the wrong car.

Blinkers are only on briefly, even in the dark, and high beams...well, I drive on the highway, but only for 5 minutes, and rarely get to turn on my high beams. Your setup sounds just right for my needs.

Of course, it will only take a few minutes to switch them, since it's all of 4 bulbs. No harm done either way.

LRR tires(which it probably already has) and aero mods FTW!

[dremd]

Stubby 79 agreed on blinkers and unless you enjoy hyper flashing your going to have to add a resistor to slow them back down (so dumb).

High beams might be a visual upgrade, I can't decide if I like the Halogen / LED color change when cylcling between the 2. On one hand the halogens look dirty on another flashing high beams gets a lot of attention with the color change.

[oil pan 4]

You don't always have to add a resistor to slow the blinkers down.
On my suburban I put LED in back, regular bulbs up front, plus LEDs on the sides and a heavy duty flasher module to control and power the blinkers. Works fine with no added resistor.
Tried the same thing on my firebird, had to use a resistor.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by dremd

Stubby 79 agreed on blinkers and unless you enjoy hyper flashing your going to have to add a resistor to slow them back down (so dumb).

That method is dumb.

I just swapped out the bulbs for LEDs in my Firefly project. Yes, if that's all I did, it would have hyper flash. The first thing I did was swap out the conventional, current-dependent flasher for $2 ebay LED friendly flasher.

I doubt the LEAF uses an old fashioned 3-prong flasher, though.

[Isaac Zackary]

I do realize that LED's won't help very much at all (might get half a mile more at night, or something like that.) but on the other hand, every little improvement eventually adds up, doesn't it?

A boat tail would add miles. Or if I just drove around much slower. The best mileage in a Leaf is done at 12mph! But if I drove much slower than the speed limit I'd become a road hazard. Highway speed limits around here are usually 45, 55 or 65mph. And this is on country two lane highways, so I'd be backing up traffic that couldn't pass.

The only problem with a boat tail would be parking. The same would be true with a trailer. All the EV charging stations that I've seen so far have parking spaces big enough for a regular car, not a school bus.

Another idea that crossed through my mind was to run a wanted as in the paper for places that would let me charge off of 240V between charging stations.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

That method is dumb.

I just swapped out the bulbs for LEDs in my Firefly project. Yes, if that's all I did, it would have hyper flash. The first thing I did was swap out the conventional, current-dependent flasher for $2 ebay LED friendly flasher.

I doubt the LEAF uses an old fashioned 3-prong flasher, though.

Ha, no 1985 pre dates even the 3 prong flasher.
As far as I could tell, when I did the LED swap a few years ago no one made an LED friendly 2 prong flasher.
Plus its the blinkers, not like they use much power very often any ways.

If there is an LED flasher for your vehicle its the way to go.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

I do realize that LED's won't help very much at all (might get half a mile more at night, or something like that.) but on the other hand, every little improvement eventually adds up, doesn't it?

A boat tail would add miles. Or if I just drove around much slower. The best mileage in a Leaf is done at 12mph! But if I drove much slower than the speed limit I'd become a road hazard. Highway speed limits around here are usually 45, 55 or 65mph. And this is on country two lane highways, so I'd be backing up traffic that couldn't pass.

The only problem with a boat tail would be parking. The same would be true with a trailer. All the EV charging stations that I've seen so far have parking spaces big enough for a regular car, not a school bus.

Another idea that crossed through my mind was to run a wanted as in the paper for places that would let me charge off of 240V between charging stations.

Hey if you are ever down this way I use NEMA 10-50 receptacles on 60 and 70 amp breakers rated for 50 amps continuous and L14-30 rated for about 25 amps continuous accessible from my front yard for my welder, plasma cutter air compressor.

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Hey if you are ever down this way I use NEMA 10-50 receptacles on 60 and 70 amp breakers rated for 50 amps continuous and L14-30 rated for about 25 amps continuous accessible from my front yard for my welder, plasma cutter air compressor.

Sounds like a deal. My mother-in-law lives in Ciudad Juarez, so if I ever did take the Leaf there I'll be going through your area.

I'm thinking of running an ad in the paper: "Do you live in [location where I might need to charge] and have an exterior 240V outlet? Let me charge my car when I go through your town and I'll pay you cash!"

[Isaac Zackary]

I am thinking I'm going to need a better battery warmer system and a way to insulate the battery. It had warmed up today to 24°F/-4°C outside, and the battery to the fourth temp bar, by the time I put it on the charger at the charging station. I went from 26% to 80% with only 9.1kWh of electricity, according to the charging station. You'd think that it would have been more than 10kWh. Maybe the battery percent reading isn't accurate or my battery is about to lose a battery capacity bar. But my guess is that the cold is affecting the capacity and range.