Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[bennelson]

Hmmm. Interesting concept. I always love all of Mr. Sharkey's work.

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I'm thinking that rather than fix up the rusty floor, firewall & underbits of the FS, I may just convert it into a pusher trailer for the Blackfly

I like it, it doesn't have to look like half a car either, could be nice and flat, still be a good stick hauler. Cheaper insurance than two cars too.

Only drive-ability concerns are having a trailer around town, and brakes in electric only mode, but I'm sure you can manage with oomph and practice and ingenuity. And your long distance trips won't come with a fuel penalty for having a trailer.

[P-hack]

Oh, and use the rear axle from the forkenswift on your trailer so one spare will do. (umm, but then you gotta get it motorized somehow...)

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by P-hack

I like it, it doesn't have to look like half a car either, could be nice and flat, still be a good stick hauler.

The easiest approach is "half a car", since the electric drive is already built in. I'll admit I'm not interested in completely re-engineering everything just to make the trailer look more like a trailer. (And I kind of like the idea of the half-a-car look.)

Cheaper insurance than two cars too.

That thought crossed my mind.

Only drive-ability concerns are ... brakes in electric only mode

It's pretty easy to keep/get vacuum assist in the lead car: just spin the engine, either with the key or let the clutch out. Don't even have to start it. Or add a vacuum pump.

It would make sense to have brakes on the pusher as well. It would need a vacuum pump though (currently they're manual). And a way to activate them.

[MetroMPG]

ForkenSwift just died! Dead on the road.

Half a tree fell down last night in a storm, so I was using the car to pull my little trailer full of branches over to the city compost yard. On the way back... lost power.

Fortunately that happened on a quiet residential street, so I just coasted to the side & parked it. I didn't have any tools, so walked home. (One good thing about a short-range EV is you're never too far from home! )

I have to dig out my schematic, because I forget what all the wires do under the hood.

But I'm guessing it's either controller (super hot out today, and the controller was very warm to the touch), or potentiometer/microswitches in the pot box.

Found it:



Or maybe the emergency disconnect jiggled loose...

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Or maybe the emergency disconnect jiggled loose...

Shoulda checked that first before walking home...

[Daox]

Haha... on the positive side it was an easy fix.

[MetroMPG]

Actually, it was on the negative side. (Sorry.) But yes, easy fix.

[MetroMPG]

What is this terribly fuzzy picture? It's a cell phone photo I took a week or so ago of the battery pack gauge/monitor while driving up a hill -- that is, with the pack under load.

What does it tell me? The batteries are more or less doing OK. Relative to one another, there isn't a huge amount of difference in the voltage (amount of sag) between them.

Yes, I purposely installed the batts in order of strongest to weakest going from left to right on the gauge. So I mostly keep an eye on #8 over there on the right to make sure I don't extinguish the bottom LED on its scale -- that would be battricide territory (volts less than 5.25).

And, no, I still haven't mounted the gauge in the instrument panel. It's still sitting on top of the dashboard like it was oh, about 5 years ago. Nothing as permanent as a temporary solution!

[MetroMPG]

About 2 years ago I picked up a used set of floodies from an EV owner in Ottawa who was switching to lithium. From their description, they should have been just over half "dead". (Or half "alive", if you prefer a more optimistic outlook.) Either way, that's more than good enough for the ForkenSwift.



They've been sitting in the garage, religiously trickle charged with a 7A solar panel to keep them in standby mode for what would probably be the ForkenSwift's final battery pack.

The pack in the car seemed to be getting tired -- it's down to around a comfortable 20-25 km on a charge compared to ~40 km (though that's pushing it) when they went in the car in 2008.

So, 2 days ago I swapped out 5 batteries for replacements from my lead reserve... And there are holes in this lifeboat!

The standby batteries are noticeably worse off than the ones in the car. Even after cycling them 5 times, they just don't have the same capacity. I dunno if it was from sitting so long that did them in, or if the previous owner overstated their capacity when I got 'em. But they're not going to work in the car.