Feasability of going from gas to only electric

[Isaac Zackary]

Once thing about small engines and gasoline, and part of the reason I'm leaning towards making my own propane engine, is that gasoline does not like to burn at a stoichiometric AFR at full throttle. If a 30hp motorcycle engine is pushing a car as big as a Leaf at highway speeds it would have to be turning at full speed in order to get 66% load. That's close enough the engine may have to turn to high load (and in some engines, high speed) enrichment most, if not all the time, which would render the catalytic converter inoperative and produce much more CO and HC emissions. The best way to do gasoline would be a car sized engine running at part throttle and low RPM's.

Propane burns cooler and is more resistant to detonation. As result stoichiometric operation at high load should be much more possible to attain with a small propane engine.

[freebeard]

Is this your picture or someone other's? Because I'm curious about the 'handle' between the hitch and rack.

[roosterk0031]

The pusher doesn't have to be able to do all the work, if it just does half, you'll double your range.

Find a wrecked scooter what has the engine is integral with the swing arm and you could make a small one pretty cheap and see what it will do. Something like this.

2007 Complete Yamaha Vino scooter 125 engine assembly only 647 miles

125 might be a little on the small size, 8 hp. Those things are made to run full throttle most of the time so I doubt it goes rich. 8 hp = 6 kw

I found it takes 9.2 kw to go 45 mph, 16 @ 55, and 22.7 to go 70 with a Leaf. So a 250cc might be better suited to double your range. Go real big and use it to charge the Leaf battery by riding the brakes then shut it off.

[Isaac Zackary]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28FNRkrQoGE

Maybe I'm just pro-pain.

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Is this your picture or someone other's? Because I'm curious about the 'handle' between the hitch and rack.

Nope. Not my picture. I also wondered what the handle was for.

[roosterk0031]

Propane's nice, really cheap right now in bulk, 92,000 btu per gallon and under a buck a gallon last time I had my 500 gallon tank filled. But in 20 lbs containers it is very expensive, that's just over 4 gallons and cost $20.

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

Propane's nice, really cheap right now in bulk, 92,000 btu per gallon and under a buck a gallon last time I had my 500 gallon tank filled. But in 20 lbs containers it is very expensive, that's just over 4 gallons and cost $20.

Good point!

[freebeard]

My game plan if I were to find myself with an Arcimoto SRk would be to get an old Vespa, cut it through the footwell and add a motorcycle-height hitch to the seat area.

In the case of a Leaf, it could be on a 3-point hitch, like a plow.

[Isaac Zackary]

After looking at some YouTube videos as well as a blog a guy did on adding more chargers to his Nissan Leaf it does look possible to simply tie in a (400V!) solar panel where the cable to the motor controller connects to the battery. More (400V!) batteries could also be connected in parallel to the main battery by the same means. Or, like in the blog, add another J1772 charge port and charge twice as fast with two Level 2 chargers.

[sendler]

Adding another 6kW outboard charger to plug in through the dc port would allow using two J1772 public chargers at the same time or full use of a 14-50 RV outlet. I'm surprised I'm having trouble finding an off the shelf solution since most of the newer Leafs have a dc quick charge port and allow using the dc and 1772 charging at the same time. It would be plug and play.
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This guy does a really nice charging mod for the Leaf.
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Example II | Upgrade My Leaf
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