I thought I would bring this thread back to life after reading an article in "Farm Show" magazine this month about Mr. Albertson and his Mag-Trans drive electric Ranger. I called Sugarbush Ford in Winona, MN and they said this is for real. They said the truck will get 100 miles on a charge and they are 60-90 days out from taking orders. I then called Mr. Albertson and talked to him about his set-up as I am interested in starting a company to convert cars from gas to elec. I emailed him about the posibility and am waiting for his reply. In the mean time I did some research on this technology and found that it was originally patented in 1989 as a friction device on a stationary bicycle. Then in the 90's a company called Magna Force, Inc. added a second disc on the other side of the magnets and patented it for coulping electric motors to pumps ect. You can test it yourself by dropping a magnet down a piece of copper pipe. It takes 3 to 4 times longer to get to the bottom than it would dropping it from the same height in the air.
The thing I don't understand about his system is how he can get the power out of the motor. The forklift motor I have in my Fiero is designed to run at 48 volts, and I can see just turning the motor on and using the Mag-Trans to put the power to the wheels, but at 48 volts, my car would only do about 35 mph. I get the extra power from running at 108 volts, but if I turned on the motor at 108 volts with no load- well I think most of you know what would happen. If anyone know how he does this, please post.
Hondo
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