Ben's Citicar
 

I just put a down-payment on a 1977 Citicar!!!

Must be insane! This will be my third EV! (The first one I didn't just build from junk though!)

The good news is that it's cheap! The bad news is that it's 2000 miles away!
Yeah, I know, insane. My brother lives 20 minutes from where this was for sale. He took a look at it and is taking care of the deal for me.

Seriously though, how do I get it home?
Will it fit in a PODS? PODS - Reinventing Moving and Storage > Home I mean, it IS a small car!
;):D

damn ev hoarder. :D :rolleyes:
how much did it cost?

My brother went to go see the seller of the car last night.

He put down a down payment, and will pay the rest when he picks it up on Saturday.

The car costs $800.
It does NOT include batteries. It does have a PWM controller in it, and aftermarket radial (not trailer!) tires. The battery charger doesn't work, although that MIGHT be some sort of simple problem. The car did work last time it was used, but has been sitting for a few years.

Looks pretty good overall, but has a few cracks in the body and a little work to do on the interior, all to be expected on any 1977 model car. It does need the brakes worked on as well.

Now the fun part - getting it from Los Angeles to Wisconsin....

Here's some photos:

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...150081/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...150080/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...12215711780002
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...150085/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...150076/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...150090/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...150092/web.jpg

See more photos of the car here:
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy#100336

PS: I will try not to corner the market on EV's. I still need an EV-1 and a Tesla Roadster for my collection. Seriously though, I don't know exactly how I will use the electric cars since the Geo isn't finished yet. We could have his and hers electric cars, or I might just fix the Citicar up and sell to some other EV enthusiast.

Haha, the fun never stops for you. Nice purchase.

Looks like you got a deal there! If you want to sell 'the lost cord' I'd like to have it...

Most of the fixes that need to be done are relatively simple, even the crack in the plastic body. Get some PlastiFix - works wonders.

Well, I just got a quote from PODS, and quickly ruled out shoving the CititCar in a PODS box and having it shipped cross country.

Over $3000 for one of their containers and shipping!:eek:

Wow Ben! Nice find!

The ad for that car has been floating around for almost a week, I'm glad that the guy still decided to sell it instead of junking it at that low price seeing as it is worth almost that much just in the aluminum that it's made out of...
so this is a prime example of why people shouldn't be wining about not being able to find an electric car, they are out there, and the people who are buying them are people who are wondering where they are going to put it.
another option for Ben would be to re-list it on Ebay and just dubble your money, selling it om where it is.

Google professional car haulers. Since your car is very small and is being transported between major metropolitan areas it might be cheaper than you think. Even better that you have no time constraints and could ship on a "space available" basis.

My F-I-l used to ship classic cars he bought in Florida to Maine for about a grand.

if you do go out there to pick it up, I've hauled mine on a trailer for hauling ATV's, very light weight and easy to tow, also if yu toss a pair of 12v ca batteries in under the seat you should be able to test drive it, did that with my citi car and was able to hit 20mph on the road.

Man I'm jealous.

Either a moving company, or a car moving company, or get this; a freight company.

I ship stuff with freightquote.com all the time and feel as though I get good prices; I'd give them a call and see what they can do for you. Price will be much less if you can get someone in LA to load it up; would it fit on a pallet?

your s-10 + cheap harbor freight trailer = ROADTRIP

drive to the car, buy the trailer there, sell it when you get home. plus you get to visit family as well.

I was totally thinking that too, but it's a LOT of hours on the road.

Maybe I could use our Frappr Map to find where ecomodders are on the way for sofa's to crash on!

I can vouch for the Harbor Freight trailer. Works well for the $

I haul 800~1000 lbs of WVO in a 400 + Lbs tank with no issues, just a few simple mods.


Mods I've done to the HArbor Freight trailer.
1) Use Bearing grease in wheel bearings. Amazingly the manual tells you to remove factory packing grease and replace with moly. Trust me you need to, the factory grease is crap. even has grease zerk factory.
2) Bolt the front and back to gether. It comes pre-drilled, but no bolts; 4 bolts at the hardware store later and you have a much stronger trailer.
3) Buy a spare tire.

You could actually do one of two things to help out the procedure.

1) Fold it up and put it in the bed of your S-10

2) Just buy it in LA; takes about 2~3 hours to assemble and needs a sheet of plywood (+ self tapping screws) which you could get at home Depot. If you do this, don't bother cutting the plywood to fold the trailer; it will be stronger, and you can cut it when you get home.

Oh, and don't forget to check if it doesn't just fit in the bed of your s-10.

the citi car whee base is 48" wide, 68'' long, body is 54" wide 94" bumper to bumper, 60" tall, I don't have the weight spec in front of me, but i believe it's 1,200lbs including the 510 pounds of batteries, I often lift the front and rear of my citi car to move it around the garage and to put it on jack stands to work under it with the two 12v car batteries that I have in it for testing.

Hey Ryland,

I just re-read that you said the WHEELBASE is 48 inches wide.

Would this car fit on a four foot wide trailer or NOT?

4-foot trailers are much more common (cheaper!) than 5 footers.


I have called around to a couple of freight and moving places. The freight place said they would recommend AGAINST moving the Citicar as Less-Than-Truckload freight unless it was custom crated.

When I called a big residential moving company they immediately recommended a car carrier company. They said moving it in one of their vans would be much more expensive.

I am starting to think the roadtrip is the way to go...


EDIT:
I just got back an e-mail from my wife from me talking about driving to California this weekend to get the CitiCar.

Here is the actual quote from her:

"You will owe me BIG TIME!!"

OH, and in another e-mail, she said:
YES - YOU ARE INSANE!"



Want to see something really crazy? This map!
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...re-201/web.jpg

I made a few phone calls to pro car haulers and the estimates range from $925 - 1100.

$1100 was the price that I got a couple times. Most of them charge you extra if they can't just drive the car up the ramp too.

I wish they sold them in Australia, I love minimalistic cars and electric to boot. :(
One question though how are they on 20~25% grades?

some guys have all the luck!
Still...I will be anxiously reading along... Congrats Ben.

p.s. I would do the road trip. You never know what you might find along the way!!

maybe do a craigslist search of the areas you will be traveling through. just a thought.

I hate to be mr buzz kill; but have you crunched the #'s for driving?
4200 miles round trip?
say 25 mpg? (towing 1/2 way)
So 168 gallons
@ 3.50?
$588
+ wear and tear
+ Time
+ eating out
+ that big gift you will owe your wife

might be getting close to $1100

However I didn't factor in
The adventure

Isn't it the reason why woman love man ? ;)

Great trip to do with your wife :) Every night in a different city ;)

Denis.

The adventure would be priceless!

The $925 quote was from T&T Auto Transport, Inc. 800-679-7606

An interesting e-mail quote from Webster Services. It sounds like they'd work with you on the price:

"Here at Webster Hauling(DBA Webster Services), Webster Services we are a Christian family owned and operated business and we take care of our customers in a way that insures their future business will be with us. We have been moving cars successfully for more than 8 years. We offer competitive pricing and the highest quality service. Give us the opportunity and we will exceed your expectations!

Our price is a suggested price, if you have a different price in mind we will work with you on the cost. We will post your vehicle at the price for your move that you request and work with you directly until the move is complete. We will coach you on the price as the vehicle is posted and get the job done safely and at the lowest dollar amount possible. Most of our vehicles are moved within a one to ten business days at the price quoted, although some do move more quickly than this. Also the rising price of fuel will effect the final cost. Your vehicle move is also insured while in transport and door to door. We would like your business and we always want to remain competitive in this ever changing market.

As a reminder, the price quote to ship your 1977 Citycar EL from Los Angeles, CA to Milwaukee, WI is $975.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call us at 888-333-6343, or email waw84@hotmail.com."

Ha ha ha!

Got your bags packed yet, Ben?
Go Ben, Go!
Go Ben, Go!

We are almost all insane :) The VeloKit EV was a bolt-on, the E-Pod was a home built velomobile kit trike destined to get an EV hub motor, then I just could not resist the German made City-EL 3-wheel EV micro-car. Easily licensed as a motorcycle and insured dirt cheap.

So 3 EVs here too. My neighbors think I have totally lost my sanity!:D

My wife can be brilliant.

Or maybe I am so dumb she just looks that way when compared to me.

Get this....She works at a large furniture store - with a big loading dock..... and trucks that come in and out all day.......Some of them from California...

You thinking what I am thinking? :rolleyes:


She gave me the phone number of a logistics guy that lines up trucks for the company. I spoke with him on the phone briefly about what I was trying to do. He said that it probably shouldn't be too hard to arrange to get the car brought out on a load of furniture. It would just be up against matresses and dressers and covered with packing blankets!

Then, I would drive out to my wife's work with my lil' pickup truck and a borrowed trailer and pull it home.

The rest of it would just be to figure out how to get the car onto the truck in the first place. It would have to be a residential pickup (no loading dock or forklift!) so that might be slightly tricky. As long as the truck had a good ramp, the car could be winched or possibly even pushed? up the ramp. I have heard that they can run on as little as 24V, but that might just be the contactor controlled ones. This one has a PWM controller. Most of the PWM controllers are 24-48 or 48-72V, so maybe it COULD just run on 2 car batteries?

Still would have to work out the details and wait for a call back from this guy next week, but it's the most promising lead I have so far! :thumbup:

PS: He said the estimated cost would be $450-$500 - less than the price of gas to drive it myself!

If the truck has a lift platform, a Citicar (without batteries) may be light enough, and maybe just small enough to put up sideways. (not on its side!) It could then be 'bounced' in. (or just lift the front end - they are fairly light without all the lead.)

If the truck can pass by someplace with a loading dock (origin and destination), it could be rolled straight on to the truck... You may want to refer to it as an electric golf cart without batteries. For some reason, shippers get expensive when you mention 'gas powered' or 'car'.

I just got a call from my brother earlier tonight.

He said he and his wife went out and picked up the car. They didn't know anyone with a trailer they could borrow, so they rented a U-haul car carrier. This is one of those trailers where you roll all four wheels up onto it. But the middle of the trailer is open! They said the car was BARELY wide enough to fit on both tracks!

I got the call from them in their driveway with their cellphone set to speaker phone mode. She couldn't stop laughing. Said they already had people coming over looking at the car wondering what it was. Another neighbor said he was looking forward to seeing it driving around the neighborhood.

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...t_robs/web.jpg

I tried using "Uship" to see if I could find a shipping company to move the car cheap. I got a bid from a place for $500 to move car. I think it would be an enclosed trailer pulled by a truck. Sounds like a pretty good price, especially considering that it is residential pickup AND drop-off.

I like it! I can't wait to here what you do with it. Any idea what the registration process is or what insurance companies think about the Citicar?

I have collector plates on my commuta-car and they called me up when they got the paper work asking what this car was, they wanted to know that it was not home built, and most of all they wanted to know that it had the vehicle safety label (it does, on the drivers side of the dash, open the door to see it), it will basically say that it complies with all vehicle safety requirements of the date of manufacture.
I got insurance from progressive, around $200 per year for liability, no other insurance company would touch and electric car other then collector insurance and they would only if I trailered it to car shows.

I got "hobbyist" plates for my electric motorcycle.

They are similar to collector plates and have the advantage of only having to buy them once (No annual renewal!)

I plan on pestering Ryland a whole bunch about getting this thing registered right.

I also met a guy yesterday who is a Milwaukee area C-car owner. He offered to let me come look at his any time and ask any questions I want.

Your networking skills absolutely amaze me.

I talked to the freight company this morning.

Looks like the car is going to be picked up on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning and be dropped off at my house on Friday or Saturday!

All for less than the cost of gas to drive there and back. :thumbup:

Way To Go Ben!

DITTO!!



What kind of deal did you have to make with your wife for her coming up with the idea?:cool:

The additional cost of this entire project is that I have to buy my wife a recumbent exercise bike!

Hey, better than a new TV!


(Plus, you know I am going to want to at least TRY to hook a generator to the exercise bike!)

I would love to see that:D

I just found this thread. Congrats on the purchase, Ben. You're a nut. (OK, I'm jealous.) Looking forward to following this.