Milwaukee Electric Car Club (Running EVent!)
 

Hi everyone!

There will be an electric car club meeting Milwaukee.
This is a joint meeting of the SE Wisconsin chapter of the Electric Automobile Association and the informal Milwaukee EV building club.

Date: Saturday, January 17

Time: 10:00AM – 1:00pm.

Address: 6630 W. Coldspring Rd.
Greenfield, WI 53220

Tom Gralewicz's and a great group of Milwaukee guys have been getting together for the past few months helping each other convert their gas powered cars to all electric. Tom has generously volunteered his house for the next EV meeting where the group currently is working on converting Tom’s neon to all electric. We will also have a show and tell of a recently converted Geo Metro and Chevy S10, as well as a classic manufactured electric Citicar.

If you are at all interested in electric cars or sustainable transportation, please attend the meeting.
Hope you all can make it and please forward this on to anybody that you think might be interested.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

We have also been doing "build days", which have usually been every other Sunday. The idea is just to get together to share parts, tools, and skills to build electric vehicles. It's too much fun!

-Ben Nelson

We had great turn out at the Electric Auto Association meeting!

Thanks to everyone who could make it!

Congrats!!

Crap I missed it.

Ben , couls you let me know the next time that there is a meeting?
I'd like to go. I could maybe convince My ( our ) friend Marty to come along.

Bart
Oconomowoc

Hey Bart,

Then next build day is this coming Sunday. Same location as listed at the begining of this thread.

I private messaged you all the details.

-Ben

The next meeting should be

Sunday, Feb 15th, 2009 in Milwaukee at Tom's (same location as listed above)

It is a pretty good time guys. If you're in the area come and have some fun. Bring your projects, come and help others with theirs, or just talk about the crazy ideas you have floating in your head!

Next Meeting: Sunday February 1st 10am till 2pm Tom G's House

There should be a Pizza Delivery Cushman there for us to figure how to convert to electric!!!

Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Registration
 

Good to see the Milwaukee Electric Car Club, my father and I are looking into buying a used electric vehicle or building one but are not finding much information or requirements and state law on being able to register one. It would be a small truck or small auto, can you pass along if the state has issues with registering an electric vehicle or a website that states Wisconsin's requirements. Thanks

Brjan:
The state of Wisconsin pretty much DOESN'T HAVE ANY LAWS about electric vehicles.

The only one there is is about NEVs. I am assuming that you want a faster than 25 mile per hour vehicle. (Even if you didn't, I think that a low voltage conversion of a small gas car would be better/cheaper than buying an NEV.)

In Wisconsin, if you convert a gas car to electric, it will still be treated just as the gas car. The only things to watch out for are:

Insurance: Check with your agent first. Not a big deal though.

Emissions Testing: If you are in part of the state where there are emissions tests, you will have to get a manual exemption from that. It's not a big deal, it's just a trick to find the right person to talk to. I have the correct contact info for the Milwaukee area.

Electric motorcycles, scooters, and bikes also make great first-time conversions. They are fun and a little simpler to convert than a car.

If you get either COLLECTOR or HOBBYIST plates, you only have to pay the plate fee once, with no annual registration fee. In this case, you would need HOBBYIST plates, as the vehicle is "significantly modified". It's the same class that hot-rods fall in to.

The Milwaukee Electric Car Club now meets the Second Sunday of the month at the Milwaukee Makerspace.

Directions to the space are available at the webpage.

How did it go Ben? I wanted to be there but I had some family plans. Too bad too, the PHEV kit for the Prius is working great lately.

Attendance was pretty good. It was twenty-some folks there.

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...13182779320001

Out in the parking lot we had:
Brian's Lithium Pickup Truck
Tom L's Lithium El-Camino
Thomas' Electric Leopard (LeCar)
a Kandi Coco (brand new NEV class vehicle)

and 3 electric motorcycles
my Kawasaki
The Sparkster, 60V Harley
and Tony's Lithium Suzuki.

The last vehicle was my favorite. I met Tony at the Detroit Makerfair. He works as an auto tech for Tesla Chicago. He drove up special for the meeting and brought his bike.

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...13182779130001

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...13182779360001

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...13182779630001

The El-Camino (EL-El-Camino!?!?) was sporting new BLUE lithium batteries. What happened to his previous Thunderskys? I asked. They are available for sale. Anyone want to help with donations so I can afford to buy them?! An El-Camino's worth of Thundersky easily equals one electric Geo Metro PLUS one electric motorcycle! It's just a matter of funds! (If you seriously DO want to donate.......VISIT HERE.

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...13182779270001

I did get to ride Tony's cycle. WOW was that fun. It has the same controller as my cycle, but it's 72V instead of 48 and 450 amps instead of 300. Also, his cycle has higher gearing to take advantage of the increased amp-rating. It's really fun, but I still like the comfort of the "standard" type motorcycle. On the sport bikes, you crouch so far forward, I just can't imagine that being fun for long.

The acceleration and speed on his cycle are GREAT though! I chased him around the parking lot for a little bit with a camera mounted on my cycles handle bars. The best part is at the end, where he twists his throttle the REST of the way, and just takes off!

I have a video of it going up on YouTube soon.


Oh crazy... The way I am viewing this post right now. There is a video ad right under this text. That is NOT my video!

OK, here's my video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzZ0gvJbm4s

About Tony's cycle. What batteries does he have in there? 40Ah lithium cells should never see anywhere near 450A draw. But if you go with much higher capacity cells and you run out or room fast.

I have no idea how many amps he actually pulls. When he had the cover off the cycle, I did see that it was an Alltrax AXE 7245 running it.

I just found this thread, and it turns out I live walking distance from the Milwaukee Marketplace. :)

I would like to check this out. What time do they meet and do I just show up in the back of the building?

Thanks,
Dean

Hi Dean!

The Electric Car Club meets on the second Sunday of the Month from 10 am to 3 pm, usually.

Just come on over at that time and say hello!

If you would just like to come see the Makerspace, you can stop in at 7pm on Tuesdays, when they do the meeting, or usually Thursdays at the same time, someone is typically doing some sort of demo.

Just introduce yourself, and say you'd like a tour or learn more, and that you are interested in electric cars.

Don't forget the secret handshake! :D