It was fun, but lately sits in the garage collecting dust with a dead battery pack that isn’t getting replaced.
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/sale-all-parts-complete-156v-pontiac-90701.html for details.
Mike
Not much going on in the past year. Battery regulators have been the biggest pain, they just keep blowing fuses. Replaced the front 5 with the new digital versions and haven’t had a problem with them yet. Got 2 drives in before a rear one blew and the battery was over 16V. Wishing now I’d just used flooded and could boil them.
Heard a charging station may be in the works at my office building. That would reduce my range requirement to 7 miles which would ease my mind with all the trouble charging it has.
Time flies when it’s cold out. Blew another regulator fuse and sent it back for repair, also ordered a spare. Putting it all back together now with a couple more improvements that should speed up future maintenance. Also have several good ideas under the category of “If I ever do that again I’d do it this way”.
A few weeks ago I drove a Nissan Leaf at an event. Nissan did a really good job showing off the technology and making it an event instead of just a drive. Comparing to my first experience with the Volt, the Leaf is a smoother, quieter ride. They also have realy cool electronics, including the phone intergration and charging reminders.
Also went to GM’s Main Street in Motion the other day. Got to drive a bunch of their vehicles and they’ve got some good stuff. Got to rag on an Acura TL Super Handling AWD, pretty fun (don’t tell my wife, she for real likes them.) The cool part was driving the Volt again, this time in full electric mode. It was a little more favorable to the Leaf, but overall I wish you could mix the exterior of the Volt with the interior of the Leaf. Technology could be mixed, I like the range extended but 99% of the time wouldn’t need it. 20 miles a day’ll do it.
Looking forward to it warming up a little bit and racking up some miles. Trying to get an outlet at work where I can trickle charge during the day, should help extend battery life a bit and allow me to have some more fun with it as far as sucking amps. The acceleration is right in line or better than the Volt / Leaf from 0 to 30.
Chevrolet Voltage Click on Unplugged to see where they’re going next.
We went down to Disney today and did a ride and drive event with the Chevy Volt. It’s a pretty cool car and it was a really neat, unique experience to drive one with a GM Engineer answering questions and explaining the car.
Then we took Trans Amped out to dinner. Comparing the two, I can now say when asked how much torque it has, “About 273 lb-ft.”
Here is a sampling of the cars at the car show.
But up here is where they put me. It was in the shade so I was very happy.
Next to these folks.
So I’m happy I had my fancy battery cover completed on Friday.
Car Show went well. Lots of people looked over both Trans Amped and an electric Miata. I need to make up a board or something that displays all the stats. Which by the way are (at least the major items):
156 Volts
Raptor 1200 amp controller
Netgain WarP 11 Motor
Manzanita PFC 30 on board charger
IOTA 55 DC\DC Converter
Odyssey PC1200 auxiliary battery
Manual Steering
Flywheel – Clutch- Transmission driveline maintained
I dropped of the files today to have a plate engraved with the logo for Trans Amped. It will be on two plates that join, one black and one red. This will be mounted on top of the rear battery cover.
Over the weekend I plan on taking pictures of a lot of the changes I’ve made. There is also a car show I’d like to take it to on Saturday.
Regulators are remounted, rear battery box cover is in place. I’ll fix the steering tie rods but then it’s just time to drive it for a while. Very happy with the 220V outlet. Charging at 220\30 amps tops it off after a work commute in a little over 2 hours. It goes into thermal cutback due to the Florida heat and the afternoon sun on it, but as it cools we should be able to get charged in under 2 hours.
Sold the exhaust to the scrap metal place. Dollar Dollar.
Received an order of 13 fans to cool the regulators. I had to undo the pin wiring and reverse them to work with the polarity of the regulators but it was pretty quick with my wife’s help. Next up is to create a wooden frame to mount them all in and we should be back to driving. It drives fine now, but a regulator is going into thermal cutback which makes it very difficult to bring the rest of the pack to full when charging.