Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[nemo]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

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.

Planning a replacement?

[MetroMPG]

Nope. I think the car is on its last pack now.

[MetroMPG]

Also! Yesterday I went to drive a neighbour to his car after he walked home to get his spare keys (locked the first set inside the car).

I started to unwind my window, heard a clunk, and the glass slid all the way down inside the door.

I'm still looking for the "one touch" window up feature.

In the mean time, now the glass is rattling around inside the door. It's a common problem on these cars, but that's the first time it's happened to me.

[mechman600]

Things are not looking good for that poor car.....

[mikeyjd]

What are your long term plans for ForkenSwift?

[MetroMPG]

It's up in the air now. I was seriously thinking about making it into a pusher trailer for my Firefly/Metro, but that was when I thought I had a better battery pack than the one I've got. (It's going to be pushing ~50% more weight, so I figure range is going to suffer by about that much.)

Short term plans are to put the other batteries back in it and just keep using it. It's probably good for at least another year.

Why, you wanna buy it? Parting it out is probably its ultimate fate.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

It's up in the air now. I was seriously thinking about making it into a pusher trailer for my Firefly/Metro, but that was when I thought I had a better battery pack than the one I've got. (It's going to be pushing ~50% more weight, so I figure range is going to suffer by about that much.)

Short term plans are to put the other batteries back in it and just keep using it. It's probably good for at least another year.

Why, you wanna buy it? Parting it out is probably its ultimate fate.

Asking Price?

It would be sad to see all that work go to waste. I'm sure someone would buy it as is. I think getting it into the U.S. might be an issue though.

[MetroMPG]

Yup. Just buying the parts would be much, much easier.

I was actually just saying to Tim today that if I did make it into a pusher, it would probably be waaay easier for someone to bring it into the US, 'cause they'd only be bringing a trailer, not a vehicle. Then you could swap the parts into a good Metro host car.

I'm sure all the important bits will ultimately be used by someone. So it won't really go to waste even if it ends up being parted out, eventually.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Yup. Just buying the parts would be much, much easier.

I was actually just saying to Tim today that if I did make it into a pusher, it would probably be waaay easier for someone to bring it into the US, 'cause they'd only be bringing a trailer, not a vehicle. Then you could swap the parts into a good Metro host car.

I'm sure all the important bits will ultimately be used by someone. So it won't really go to waste even if it ends up being parted out, eventully.

You don't have the gumption to keep at it? Was it not really practical for your needs or is it just a little more work than it's worth?

[MetroMPG]

Actually, it turned out to be a very practical runabout for a small city.

But considering I only drive the car about 500 miles a year, I can't really justify spending a lot of time on repairing the rusty underbits (already have too many projects), or the money on replacement batteries (my source of cheap, used floodies has dried up).