Gas free vehicle
 

I just joined this forum to learn how to improve areodynamics on a rv camper I will be building soon. So I don't have it or any cars to show off yet. I am kind of proud of my gas free boat though :-) I need the camper on my truck so I can go camp at many lakes and rivers and play with it. Have a look if your into solar vehicles.

https://sites.google.com/site/serenitysolarcanoe/

Tommy

What a great idea , a solar powered canoe - I really like it

You have lots of room for Panel expansions, is that your plan ?
Is it powered by a electric fishing motor ?

No Plans for more solar panels at this time. I don't want it to much top heavy weight. It will go a average of 5 mph all day long like it is. Yes... I am running a newer computer controlled Min Kota Endura Max that is much more efficient then the older rheostat type electric trolling motors. The only change I will be making in the future is to switch from lead acid batteries to Lithium batteries which will provide higher speeds for longer distances with less charge amps needed while reducing battery weight by 70%....

As you can see on my website I have completed 100 miles of the Columbia River and plan to complete another 100 to 200 miles this summer so it works extremely well as it is right now.

:thumbup:

Sweet and nice to hear you have enough power without needing to add panels.
5mph is a nice speed for cruising.

lithium batteries are expensive, I have bought 5 or 6 laptop batteries and opened them up to retrieve the 6 to 9 18650 batteries that are in them.
I bought my battery packs on fleaBay

So I have about 40 batteries at 2000 - 3000mah each
which cost me about $50 , they take up about the space as a red brick.


It will cost you a lot of money to use lipo or lithium batteries for the canoe , a lot of money - For enough lithium's to match the spacial area of a 12v car battery it would cost $500-$750 if you found cheap batteries, but it would be a mass of Power

Yes there expensive but for the weight reduction and the fact they can be discharge 80% instead of 20% like lead acid there a real plus. Lithium also don't have Peukert's law to deal with.

Here is what I have been eye balling: 4 of these would replace a 12 volt lead acid 12 volt deep cycle I have now.... Lead acid also looses 15 percent from the solar panels so the Lithium would charge faster too :-)

http://www.electriccarpartscompany.c...-kg_p_288.html

Tommy

Just saw this. THIS IS AWESOME!!!! Now I'm wondering if something like this could be done for land transportation - - - like a solar powered bicycle (or recumbant trike, etc, or....) ???

Thought about doin somthin like this for years. Fantastic! Nice job!