Woohoo! The mother earth hybrid plans came today!

[rmay635703]

I am all for a test but not if you cannot afford a failure.

Before you buy anything, note what type of vehicle platform you intend to convert to an EV.

Then locate the car on diyelectriccar (or one very similar) and find out how much current the thing takes to drive in your goal speed.

Then locate your goal generator and find out how much gas it uses at a given wattage (most will give you this now days as part of the spec)

This will give you a rough estimation of your FE because you will know how many watts makes you go what speed and how much gas it takes at a minimum to make the watts. Now how closely this estimation is will depend on if you plan on converting to a dc generator wound to mechanically control current flow (most efficient and within 10% of calc) or an AC genset with full electronic regulation which is not efficient which may be up to 30% less than calculated.

The main trouble will be finding someone who converted to 48v and drives 30mph. I will say even electric has losses that many seem to ignore, a 48v EV is much more efficient at WOT going 25mph than a 144v EV running 33% throttle at 25mph due to controller issues, assuming of coarse the vehicle weight is within normal design limitations and not way over driven at 48v.

When I ran through the calculations for a Leaf using the "Standard" current draw I ended up with a 16mpg-37.4mpg fuel economy range to drive a leaf down the road depending on which genset and parameters I chose out. Of coarse many can drive more efficiently than the standard and a lower set of speeds make that number more up rapidly but it is worth remembering aero, weight and speed are more critical than ever in your choice on a vehicle of this type.

So your first step is more research. Be very carefull to choose a car that once converted real world uses a frugal amount of watts. Then take great care on the genset because there are many inefficient duds out there.

A Miles ZX40 although not paticularly light or aero but generally comes with a more efficient than average motor and drivetrain than most converted cars generally will have. If you have the bank these are road legal and relatively cheap ($1k-$6k) and best of all their design parameters are known and current requirements are known. They also have lots of people room (7ft tall and still room to go) but seat 4. Then it would just be a matter of choosing a decent genset to match.

This same story is true of any conventional EV on the road even the prius since the current requirements are well known. Which makes it much easier and fruitfull to be able to determine real world what you will get for FE without actually assembling it.

If you choose a car in the wild there are many places that you can loose efficiency due to how you convert resulting in a potentially excessive watt draw to drive down the road.

So choose carefully and do lots of research because the convert to EV is a whole animal in of itself. Only if you exceed exceptionally on that regard will the genset step work out well.

Cheers
Ryan

[cleanspeed1]

Funny you mentioned diyelectriccar.com, when your post popped up I was finishing the registration over there.

Thanks again for the input.

I have some more calculations to make. The plans are designed around an under 2500 lbs. weight, 5 hp or more ICE, 100-300 amp generator, 400 amp dc motor ( inventor used a surplus DC jet starter motor ).

Fortunately we have a power calculator on the site, so I can play around with different scenarios.

Trust me, a basjoosed Civic 4 door is looking more appealing every minute.

[deathtrain]

CS1 I am with you. If i was in your area i would be over at your place wrenching with you. I have friends here in houston that are always picking on me because I am turning into a "green weenie" or a tree huger. But power generation is my trade so everything power related interest me. I just tell them that when the zombie's come and man is on the run and living in the woods I will be their best friend.

On the other hand I see what others are saying and don't be afraid of failure. 1st rule of trading is don't risk more than you are willing to lose. I wish you luck.

[cleanspeed1]

Originally Posted by deathtrain

CS1 I am with you. If i was in your area i would be over at your place wrenching with you. I have friends here in houston that are always picking on me because I am turning into a "green weenie" or a tree huger. But power generation is my trade so everything power related interest me. I just tell them that when the zombie's come and man is on the run and living in the woods I will be their best friend.

On the other hand I see what others are saying and don't be afraid of failure. 1st rule of trading is don't risk more than you are willing to lose. I wish you luck.

Thanks for the kind words DT.

Life is all about risk. We're getting better at making calculated risks, but let me tell ya, ya can't be afraid to try.

I may have to pick your brain DT on the power generation side.

[deathtrain]

faraday law, and ohms law are the two i use the most when it comes to power generation.

and I would like to see those plans that you got to put my mind to them. are they in a PDF or can you make a PDF of them?

also for your first EV I would go with a small pick up. like a S10 or dakota. its light with plenty of room in the back to work, cheap on craigs list for a donor car.

room for generation in the front
battery bank in the back
rear wheel drive is easier to mount a motor on
live axel in the rear so easy to change gearing


or

mount the motor to the tranny in the front.
battery bank in the rear
generation in the rear against the cab
this way you can still use the gearing of the tranny and change the rear end.

these are just things i think about. I have always wanted to make a drag car EV. just for fun... I would then like to run it in my race team against my 440ci dodge satellite in a gudge match

[cleanspeed1]

The plans are on large paper, I'd have to find a scanner big enough to do the scan and then upload it to the site. Maybe Kinkos. As long as there isn't a copyright issue, I could do it.

[deathtrain]

Originally Posted by cleanspeed1

The plans are on large paper, I'd have to find a scanner big enough to do the scan and then upload it to the site. Maybe Kinkos. As long as there isn't a copyright issue, I could do it.

how big? because I have a scan/printer/fax here at work that takes up too 11x17. worse case we can work something out.