Milwaukee Electric Car Club

[bennelson]

This morning, I hitched up the Metro to the ICE S-10 and headed to Milwaukee with two boxes of chocolate donuts to feed the troops.

A whole bunch of other people were already there, including Swee, Rich, and Rich's nephew Tom.

They were already working on Swee's trike, which was parked at Tom G.'s since last time.

The plasma cutter was set-up, and they were chopping the motor mount off the trike.

Once the mount was off, it was cut to the proper length, and then welded back on. The total effect was to lower the motor, so as to make the chain line up better between the motor and the rear sprocket.

They also welded a plate under the seat as a custom mount for the Curtis controller.


It ended up being quite a few people there, including Matt, a restaurantuer with a pizza delivery Cushman three-wheeler. The Cushman has a 1200 lb capacity, which seems to make it a contender for EV conversion. The differential on it is adorable...


We are all interested in giving Matt EV advice in exchange for a pizza sponsorship!

Brian showed up in his EV S-10. The batteries are all mounted below the bed, except for the two that just plain would not fit, no matter what.
Instead, Brian mounted those two batteries ABOVE the others. He then cut a hole in the bed, so that just those two batteries poke through when the bed is lowered. The effect is similar to hot-rods with part of the engine sticking out of the hood. In this case, it gives the effect of the entire truck being powered by only two batteries.





My car never even made it into the garage today!

However, both Brian and Tim took a look at both the back and under the car to figure out what would work best for a "sunken" battery box. Brian has an old equipment case, which would make a fantastic battery box, it just needs to get cut down to size.

After discussion, I think we can fit seven batteries in a rear box - 5 across, then two more turned 90 degrees. Something similar to this.

By then cramming two more in the radiator position, that only leaves one more battery to find a location for! I think that one may end up in the engine compartment over the top of the motor.

Besides shifting the battery weight forward, this will also free up the trunk space! That's right, I will actually have some cargo space and a back seat when I am all done!

I also got "volunteered" to tow Swee's Trike back to his house. (That's what I get for owning a pickup truck....)

I figured I would have to tow the trike to his place, and then come back to Tom's, hitch up the Metro, and then drag it home. Unneeded doubling back and extra driving.

Swee suggested that he could drive my truck and I could just follow in the Metro. Wait a minute! I actually could! His house was only about 10 miles away, and didn't require going on the freeway!

We hitched the trike to the truck and headed off the Swee's house. I followed in the Metro. It felt very strange to be driving my EV someplace other than my hometown or just around the block at Tom's. We went across town, and I had no trouble at all blending in and keeping up with traffic.

I saw several other drivers and people on the sidewalk look at the unusual configuration of an S-10 pulling a three-wheeled ATV, yet nobody noticed my "stealth" EV at all. Just another compact car.....don't look at me....

At Swee's, we put the trike in his garage and hooked up my car. I wish I had my camera in the Metro while going to Swee's. It was quite a sight. Here's a photo of the trike behind my truck at Swee's driveway.


Across the street, there was a black Geo Metro parked there.

You know you are an Ecomodder when.....You notice that the Metro is an LSI, so it has 4 cylinders - a negative because it's not as efficient as the 3-cylinder, yet you still want it because it has a manual transmission, and you know the 4-cylinder moves the transmission over so you can install a longer electric drive motor in place of the engine!

PS - I also dragged my three forklift motors down there at Doax's request, so he could see if one would work for the EcoRider project. The SMALLEST motor was about the right size, but was a pump motor, so it doesn't have a proper drive-shaft. Doax declined to accept the motor on the basis that Tom G. could dig something else up. Grrr. - those motors are heavy and hard to drag down there. I will have to build something cool with one of those motors just to spite Tim.

I will still need to mow my lawn this summer, and figure a way to do it without gasoline. So, maybe I will let Tim build his mower, and then steal his design.