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.”
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.
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.
Took advantage of some 15% sales with free shipping and ordered some BMR boxed subframe connectors and boxed lower control arms. The SFCs will greatly stiffen the chasis from front to back and minimize twisting. I try to always have to t-tops out so this will definately be a noticable difference in creeks and groans. I’ve installed them on two of my previous 4th gen f-bodies and think they are an absolute.
The LCA should stiffen the rear axle and reduce\eliminate the wheel hop. Currently I can’t start in any gear other than first without bouncing the axle, presumable due to the torque of the motor from the stop. Even in first a hard start will buck. I think part of the problem is the controller ramps up current, so it doesn’t get enough juice to spin the tires but enough to bind the rear end. I plan on getting some more video of the rear suspension prior to the weld-in of the SFC.
I also have a slight, rhtymic thump from under the hood at full throttle. It is not related to rpms or gear so another video in there is planned.
Currently also experiencing what appears to be thermal cutback on one the the rear regulators at 13.1 volts, so the charger cuts back and the batteries won’t charge. Regulators haven’t been quite right since the rebuild so I’ll be taking them apart to investigate as well.
19 miles today. Got home with 155.6 V, under a volt per battery used. You can stretch it out a good bit by babying the throttle.