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Written by jonR
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 00:00
Electric Conversion For the next conversion, I would propose building a 144 volt system for a small, light-weight car. I would propose using something like a 1988-1992 Honda Civic DX. Stock, this car weighs about 2100 pounds (700 pounds less than the Prospector) and has about 100 hp. Using a 144 volt system and a "600 amp" controller that will only pull about 350 amps, we would have a peak of about 68 hp. If we had a controller that actually pulled 600 amps, it would be 116 peak hp (yes, that is more than stock). According to my calculation, it would have a range of about 42 miles and a top speed of 85 mph. This would be more than acceptable for 90% of America as a daily commuter. I estimate that we would charge about $9800 for such a conversion. At this price, we would barely be making anything for ourselves. But the experience is worth it. If you are interested in being our first customer conversion, please contact us.

Solar Harvester

Written by brianG
Thursday, 20 November 2008 13:35
1971 Travelall It should be noted that this project started out as a solar suburban but because I am a diehard International Harvester fan it turned into a solar Travelall which is IH’s version of a suburban, only better. The basic idea came about because of a few reasons: lead-acid batteries are cheap but heavy – very heavy; this makes a problem with most commuters’ suspensions. Lead acid batteries take up space, also problematic with the limited cargo area in most commuter cars; solar panels are generally inefficient so one needs many of them to have any real power – this requires lots of surface area, also pretty slim on commuter cars. So the thought came into my head: what car is cheap, has burly suspension, lots of cargo capacity and is large? With gas prices at $4+ per gallon the abundance of Suburbans caused their prices to drop and BAM! Excellent candidate for a permanent ICE-ectomy (ICE = internal combustion engine).
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Energy Costs of an EV

Written by jonR
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 00:00
How do you feel about paying $1.44/gallon of gasoline? Right now, with gasoline prices about $2.00, it does not seem like that huge savings, but when you consider gas going back up to $4/gal, paying $1.44 is an incredible deal. Well, according to our calculations, that is the equivalent cost for an electric car paying $0.08/kWh for electricity. Electricity costs do not go up and down very often. They are not related to wars in other countries. Electricity profits local companies. Electricity can come from renewable energy sources (gasoline cannot). Part of the reason there is so much difference in the cost of electricity and gasoline is because electric motors are about 3 times as efficient as gasoline engines. The theoretical maximum efficiency limit of a gasoline engine is about 35% (depends on a lot of factors); most engines are less. It is common for electric motors to be up to 95% efficient at converting electricity into motion.
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Possible Changes to the Prospector EV

Written by jonR
Wednesday, 05 November 2008 00:00
Installing Battery Pack: Trojan T-105's It would be interesting to try adding another 12 volts to our battery pack and see if we burn out our controller or not. The controller is specked for 72V, but has an over-range protection for a high floating pack. I am betting that it can even be used higher than that, but the manufacturer wont say so, because they can charge more for a higher voltage controller. If we do fry the controller, I could probably take it appart, and fix it, and then we would know what the limit is, or maybe I could bump it up myself.
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Subsequent Trials

Written by jonR
Monday, 03 November 2008 00:00
Fueled by Mountain Dew - and electricity We have completed 2 more trials. It looks like we get about 25 miles or so on a full pack to the point of crawling, so about 22 mile range realistically. The car will go 35 mph without much problem. The acceleration is a bit slower than most cars from a stoplight, but it is acceptable. The EV took a little bit to get from 30 to 40 mph and quite a while to get from 40 to 50 mph. Because all the batts are in the back, and we haven't replaced the springs yet, and there is very little weight in the front, the car was a bit squirrely at 55. So I backed down. I feel like it could have gone faster with enough open road and suspension work, but not very quickly.
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