Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[MetroMPG]

Anybody wanna buy a 12 inch torque monster?



We're not going to use it. Need to start thinking about building a battery fund, or something.

Good shape - was serviced in '02. Smooth, clean commutator, good brushes. 4 external terminals (easily reversible). Tailshaft. Comes with big lovejoy coupler which you can modify for your project...

@ 240 lbs, shipping's not going to be cheap though

[MetroMPG]

Ben asked if we'd considered using motorcycle batteries...

--

No, hadn't really thought of that. Probably would be difficult because their terminals aren't beefy enough to take the amps we'd be asking from them. Packaging would be easier though...

[MetroMPG]

We're going to have the Torque Monster motor "remotely" evaluated by motor guru Jim Husted @ Hi-Torque Electric, which may help determine an asking price. (He'll be able to provide info about the manufacturer and its overall condition - with obvious caveats about a visual-only inspection).

I was pleased when he originally looked at the pump motor we ended up installing in the ForkenSwift and said it was built like a brick ****house, and he'd be tickled to find a pair of motors like them.

He said "there is interest in these big guys", so it's worth looking over.

Another EVDL member who has done a bunch of conversions (and is familiar with forklift motors) suggested it's worth about $400 US. We'll see if Jim wants to comment on that. Hopefully next week.

[MetroMPG]

re the motor, someone replies...

'd be especially interested in it if it came installed

Sorry, "some assembly required".

[MetroMPG]

More Torque Monster motor details...

The forklift was a 36/48v system, but that doesn't mean the motor can't handle MUCH more (in fact it almost certainly can).

Square shaft (haven't measured it). For the other stuff, I'm going to have to defer to Mr. Husted.

I'm going to go over to Ivan's now to pick up the ammeter, and will see if I can wrestle the monster onto the dolly and move it into the garage. (It's been in a tool shed since it came out of the Baker.)

I need to get a bunch of pics of the motor, and see how easy it is to get the end cap off and get a clear view of the innards.

[MetroMPG]

Well, that wasn't too hard. Got the monster in the garage and took it apart. With 4 major chunks - 2 end caps, the body, and the rotor - shipping may not be impossible after all. Just do it with separate parcels.

Ivan's visiting his out-laws today, and he has a better camera than the antique 1 MP unit I've got. So the quality pics will have to wait until he's back.

[MetroMPG]

Fun with ammeters - making a load tester
Played a little this evening with the ammeter. Tried my hand at setting up a heavy-duty battery load tester.

One of the "professors" of the EVDL says you should be able to put a 75A load on a 6V battery and have it go for at least an hour before the batt drops below 5.25V (under load).

Hmm... Where to get a 75A load...

Some guys said: just dead short a very long piece of wire, like an extension cord. Someone else said: dead short a coat hanger, it's about the right resistance for its length.

So I dead shorted a coat hanger between jumper cables . Call me Sparky.

Just over 100A of current flowed at first, then as the hanger heated up, its resistance increased - and current dropped all the way down to 40A, where it seemed to stabilize (and the coat hanger gave off a toasty warm glow).

Repeat with the coat hanger submerged in a big pot of water, and current stabilized around 90A, with the test battery humming along steadily at 5.3V. I only let it do this for about 10 minutes.

So I'm thinking I'd have to make up some kind of test rig, and run each battery through it.

OR ... I was thinking maybe it would be easier to charge up the pack in the car, jack up the drive wheels, and spin the works in 5th gear - that's got to get be close to 75A. Then I could test & monitor a whole bunch of batteries at once.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Darins gone mad! La la la.

I've been talking you up to people around campus, how famous you've become. If you want to visit and speak I can get you 3000 bucks for speakers budget...

I read just recently there's a Dartmouth prof who has a solar-powered EV (panels on the roof of his barn). Of course I can't find the reference now...

If you do tell me the name...might be jim merkel? I know a few have grease machines.

I don't think there was a name - just "a Dartmouth professor". Sorry.

---

Some drive motor pics:

http://forkenswift.com/baker-12-in-motor.html

I realized after I posted this, I didn't get any images of the inside of the motor body - showing the field coils & shoes. Doh! I'll get 'em tomorrow.

And if Mr. Husted wants other shots/close-ups/mood lighting, I may be posting some more.

[MetroMPG]

Well, it's official now. Made a ForkenSwift entry in the EV Album:
www.austinev.org/evalbum/1146

---

Had planned to work on the FS today right after installing the thermonuclear 850w engine heater in the Blackfly. Alas that job turned out to be more difficult than changing the camshaft. Go figure. So now I have 2 "disabled" cars in the driveway (until I can get a length of heater hose tomorrow). I hate that!

Plus it's snowing again. Hate that too.

What better to do when you can't play outside than play with Photoshop. Virtual repairs! Did a little pixel paintwork to see what the car would look like with the rust cleaned up, a little fresh blue paint, and a racing stripe (which would also serve to disguise some of the rust repairs & repainted lower edges of the doors).

The stripe is a nod to the 1st gen VW GTI. And also a joke on our 29 mph vehicle.



---

Have also been thinking of ways to achieve our 15km minimum range goal with used batteries. The idea actually came a comment Peakster left at YouTube: why not parallel 36v? If we had 2 strings of 36v in parallel (ie. 12 batteries instead of the current 8 for 48v), we'd theoretically increase range by about 50% (not exactly - weight penalty + higher Peukert penalty from running @ 36v vs 48v). Let's say we'd be looking at a range of 7.5 km right there, assuming 4 more batteries of equal "quality" (ahem) to the ones we've already got.

To deal with the performance hit, we could set up the system to do 36v on the controller, then a controller bypass at 36v for full battery amps using the "high pedal" microswitch in the potbox. Turbo mode.

We could even theoretically add an even "higher pedal" microswitch to continue bypassing the controller and connect the two 36v strings in series for 72v. Twin-turbo mode. She'd be smoking fast then!

The downside is: 4 more batteries = 250 lbs. The car's going to be riding on its bump stops if we do this. Also, they probably won't all fit in the hatchback, which would mean losing the rear seat. I was hoping to retain a stock appearance - at least maintain the illusion that the car could transport 4 people

The upside is: we could use the 36v forklift charger for the whole pack (no more need to charge the 2 "orphans" individually with a 12v charger with the current 48v setup). Plus, we haven't even started testing/sorting batteries to get the dogs out of the pack. Which tells me this might be do-able...

[MetroMPG]

Hoo ha! Someone with a Xebra beat me to the idea I had for alerting pedestrians to my vehiclular presense...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpwnfzQKwc&NR=1

Awesome.