ON THE ROAD

After motor installation and transferring components from garage test board to the truck, it was time to hit the road. It was amazing to see the truck perform like a real truck! The 7 batteries totaled 84 volts which is at the low end for the controller. The initial drives of a few hundred feet showed slow pickup but it worked. after gathering up my nerve, I adjusted the controller for increased current ramp and max current draw and the pickup became tolerable.

Learning to drive the truck with an electric motor was interesting. I found that I could leave the clutch engaged in second gear and drive up to 35 mph and back to a stop without shifting. The current draw in second gear at 35 mph was around 125 amps. Shifting to third gear jumped the rpm down and the current up to 150 amps. I have gotten it up to 55 mph but current draw is high: 200 + amps.

I have added an eighth battery and current at 35 mph in second gear is around 100 amps. My batteries are 125 amp hour rated and the approx. range is 20 miles at this point. I have used up to 60 amp hours and still have good drivability.  The recharge time is in the 3 hour range at about 5 kwh.

I am looking for additional batteries to increase the voltage, top speed, range and pickup.

While web searching for batteries, I found what looks to be a bargain at Sears. A deep cycle 100 amp hour 12 volt battery is available for $90! The battery is a marine/RV battery model: Diehard Group size 27M. This is slightly smaller in capacity than my 125 amp hour ones currently in use. I am going to get 4 to bring my battery count up to 12 and my voltage up to 144 volts. I am hopeful that these will extend my range and improve pickup some. Oh boy! UPDATE: After about 400 miles and 40 charges, the battery voltage began decaying much faster than the other batteries and this dropped the range to 15 miles or so. Also I believe high currents during acceleration were over heating the battery indicated by battery fluid coming out of the fill caps. I replaced these batteries with the heavier duty platinum series and the range is back up to previous levels.

Well after a controller problem handled by a replacement promptly sent by Logisystems, I resumed my test drives at 144 volts. The range with city driving seems to be 27 miles – a little shorter than I hoped for. I used around 64 Amp Hours and required about 12 kwh to recharge. At $0.10 per kwh, that means it costs about $1.20 to drive 27 miles. This would have used about 1.25 gallons with the old engine and cost around $3.10 to fill up.

Currents are in the 60 amp range in second gear cruising at 35 mph and in the 85 amp range cruising at 45 mph in third gear.

The batteries when fully charged were at 154 volts and dropped to 121 volts after 27 miles.

I have the ramp current on the Logisystems controller set at mid range or around 50%. With this voltage the car jerks strongly at startup if you just have the clutch out and hit the accelerator. I find that I can make a smooth startup using the clutch like a gas engine: start the motor with the clutch disengaged and let it out slowly until the truck is moving then leave it out.

I am installing the main battery charger behind the drivers seat where the small jump seat used to be. I have run the AC input cable using 10 AWG stranded wire through conduit to the gas fill door and have put a regular AC plug on the cable to attach to the extension cord for charging. I mounted a breaker box in the rear wall behind the driver’s seat and put a single phase 30 Amp breaker in. I also installed a neon lamp that shows when power in on and a duplex outlet in the breaker panel to power a 12 volt IOTA charger for the accessory battery. So to charge all the batteries, plug in the extension cord, turn on the AC breaker (if off), then turn on the charger power switch/breaker. Both chargers will charge until full then shut off until power is removed.

I am playing with a new air conditioner solution. I have purchased 2 Haier NuCool 2.8 CU ft refrigerators.  These refrigerators use solid state coolers (peltier effect) which have no freon and don’t need a compressor. They draw around 2 amps off 120 volt AC when running. I am thinking about removing the cooling units and mounting them in the truck someplace and using the cool sides to cool the car. I think I will have to vent the hot sides out side the cabin, but may use some sort of door to use the hot side for cabin heat. These could be plugged in when charging the truck and have it already cool before driving. Then later use a solar panel to run one unit or at least a fan while parked away from a plug in. More to some on this.

I now have  almost 800 miles on the truck.  I have had routine problems with a bad tire and battery replacements as follows. One of the 125 amp hour batteries dropped to ~ 5 volts and would not charge. I replaced it with a Sears platinum marine battery. I replaced the accessory 12 volt battery with one of the smaller Sears deep cycles to add a little more reserve power for lights, etc. I replaced the three remaining “cheap” Sears batteries with platinum versions after the smaller batteries started to degrade. (discussed in an UPDATE above).

Current battery configuration: 5 each Sears Platinum Marine batteries (PM-1), 7 each 125 Ah surplus deep cycle batteries, accessory battery: 100Ah deep cycle battery

I have also tried to check connections and wiring every month to make sure that vibrations are not loosening connections or stressing wires. I am also doing some body work getting ready for a paint job. Otherwise the truck performs reliably.

10-27-14: The truck has been on the road over 5 years now with very few problems. 3 of the original surplus batteries have been replaced as they failed. My average drive is under 10 miles and total mileage since the conversion is around 2,000  miles. The replacement batteries have less Amp hour ratings and the range has decreased from around 25 miles to less than 20.