Excellent. Take care of business first, don’t know about anyone else but I can wait a year, maybe two, but probably not three. Heh heh… 
I will have it before that Telco but I suggest you dont wait to long as gas is going up. I had to pull in to gas station last week to fill up… my can for pressure wash lol. I really love driving by them or even pulling in once in awhile to check my tire pressure.
No seriously you will get a lot of self satisfaction from doing this so dont wait too long.
Got my new charger in and what a difference. Gives new meaning to quick charge. I was using a quick charge 120v charger and took 10 to 12 hours to charge. Way too long. I bought a 220v version of same charger and now I charge in 4 hours. 2 hours brings it up to 80% so it works really sweet. I had to install a 240v outlet in my shop but no big deal. I matched it to the welder outlets at work so the same plug works at both sites. Now I can do the usual errands at work and home and not worry about having enough power to do the last 15 miles commute at end of work day. No more sweatin bullets on running out of juice on way home.
This was the charger that EVA was trying to talk me into but I insisted on doing the 120v. LOL live and learn. I will probably keep the 120v for a back up in case the other fails or maybe even use it on next project. Dunno!!
I like the Quick Charge charger as it has 4 different modes for different types of batteries and for the wet cells the gassing cycle is programmable. Also it has a mode that goes into a float charge so batts are allways topped off but not overcharged. And if you dont trust that then it has a mode that will shut off after gassing cycle and then it will start again at x number of days or when cells reach 2.1v per cell.
Anyways I like the 220v version much better.
Got over 500 miles on truck now and most of the bugs are worked out. Very happy so far.
ragee What gears do you normally use when driving (all or one, two) ? And do you know what the ratio is in the axle?
Really cool project BTW
Thanks
Dave
Dave,
I use 2nd and 3rd the most. I start in 2nd unless I need a quick take off or am on a hill then I use 1st. 3rd gear is used the most as that will take me to 45 to 50 comfortably. 4th once in awhile when I have to keep up with 55 to 60. I dont know the gear ratio so I dont know what rpm the motor is turning. I suppose I should figure that one out some day hehe. By the way this is a clutchless design. I pause for a few seconds between gears but no grinding.
Hope that helps,
ragee
Thank you. I am wanting to build a car as light as possible for max range and speed. I would like to be able to do this without a transmission. This is why I ask. If I can get 45 mph to run around town, that would be fine with me.
Dave
Dave,
I havnt weighed the rig yet but I think it is around 4200 lbs. I know I couldnt climb hills in 3rd gear unless I am traveling 45 to 50 before i got to the hill. Not likely in town so I usually use 2nd. I would overheat motor and or controller considerably trying a hill at low rpm. I havnt tried starting in 3rd on level ground because it would be asking too much of motor and possibly do damage trying. As my rig is really heavy, thus the reason I chose a pickup, I dont know how a direct drive would work in a lighter car. I know it wouldnt work in my leaded pickup lol.
ragee
Hi,
I just got my electric bill. It reflects 20 days of charging my “Lead Bed Ford” ranger. I used an average of 6.74kwh/day. That cost me $0.11/kwh which comes up to about $.74/day. Out of that I have put 700 miles on my rig which come out to $.021/mile. I am very pleased that really beats my $.26/mile in my silverado.
:D:D
I had a turn of luck last week. I think my motor was damaged and not sure what else. The only way I can really explain what happened is to basically recap the day.
It was just a normal work day for me I started off pulling out of my shop with a complete charge. I drove about 7 miles out of town to pick up a friend and 7 miles back. My average speed was 45 to 55 mph. Everything was looking great in fact I was noticing that I was doing much better on my pack. I had only used 4 clicks on my fool gauge. I charged for 4 hours at work and drove home for lunch where I plugged it in the 240v charger for an hour. By the time I got done with lunch and another Perry Mason episode my truck was fully charged again.
Now my shop has a good downhill slant to the concrete floor out to a concrete driveway for about 20 ft and then it is a coast down the hill for about a half mile to main street. I gave it a little power to get it rolling out of shop and then I coast. I just got to the end of driveway and my day fell apart like a 2 dollar suitcase. I heard a big clunk sound… kinda like the sound when you just put it in gear and it wasnt quit there and it sliped out. So I stoped right at end of my driveway. I noticed the my fool gauge went dead like it lost the battery pack. I set the emergency brake, popped the hood and went to take a look. Hmmm got 156v at battery chased it down to main power fuse and lost the reading. I then pulled my disconnects apart and pulled the power fuse and had no continuity. Left the truck there and went back to work.
That evening after work got a friend to help me with his tractor and pushed it back in the shop. That night I jacked up the rear end and turned the whole drivechain by hand. Didnt have any thing locking up in all four gears and reverse. Everything spun freely from rear wheels to front motor shaft. Then I went to the motor and disconnected the cable from the control board side and checked for continuity through the motor. It was fine then I checked for continuity from each lead to ground and had none. Everything seemed alright and normal. I hooked it up to 12 volts and out of gear at transmission and nothing motor wont turn. Oh yes and usually when you fry a motor it smells really bad. This one doesnt smell at all.
This is not good. I dont know much more than that. I am going to start tearing it down and pulling the motor this weekend. I have contacted Bob from EVA and he tells me that is what I need to do. He also says that he hasnt seen to many 200 amp fuses blown. I am really curious to what the original clunk was and to why that fuse didnt protect my motor.
I will let you know more after I get it tore down a little.
:(
:mad:
Wow that’s bad news. You tested for shorts so it doesnt sound like the motor failed. You mentioned testing for voltage to the main power fuse but lost the reading. I assume theres zero voltage on the other side? Does it not sound like the main power fise blew? The loud clunk could have been your controller and not the motor, not that it would be a better alternative other then being easier to remove/replace.
Let us know what you find.
Ben
Ragee, Any news??
Not Yet,
I pulled the motor and I havnt found anything out of place or worn. The transmission spline is fine and it rotates freely in all gears. The coupler assembly has not moved any since installation. There is no wear marks anywhere. I see no signs of burn marks on motor terminals or on the brushes and armature. I havnt split the motor open yet because it will void the warranty. There is no smell from the motor from burnt windings.
I have contacted Bob from EVA and am waiting for a responce. That is all I know right now. I will post some pics and let you know as soon as I find more out. Oh yes the motor fails the 12v test so I know its somewhere in motor.
I got some pics of my motor that doesnt run. I still dont know why and am waiting for Bob from EVA to get back to me. I could take it too my local electric shop and have them fix it but it would void the warranty on it. So I have to wait on manufacture. Bummer. Well anyways here is some pics.
After some conversation with Bob from EVA I decided to ship the motor back to NY to Manufacture. I have done all of the tests on the motor and everything checks out. With the jumper connected between A2 and S2 I have continuity between A1 and S1. I have no continuity from either A1 or S1 to ground. with jumper between A2 and S2 disconnected I have continuity between A1 and A2 and continuity between S1 and S2. This according to manufacture is correct and should work although when hooked to a completely charged 12v and the jumper between A2 and S2 connected the motor doesnt turn. Since I live in Oregon the shipping alone is spendy but so is cost of new motor so off it goes on its journey.
While the motor is out and the truck is stripped down again I think I will get it painted and do some body work on it. I anticipate being down at least a month. What a Bummer. 
But I will be ev grinning again and the truck will be much nicer looking when its all finished again.
If any of you have any ideas before I ship it on September 1 I would appreciate your input.
I decided to test the motor 1 more time before I shipped it because it really didnt make sense. This time I used a large rv deep cycle 12v to do the test and low and behold the motor turned. I cant believe that I didnt try this before. More amps. I was using a small 12v vehicle battery that I really couldnt get good connections on. Whew that was a few hundred saved in shipping it from Oregon to NY. I still have the original problem of why did the 200 amp fuse blow. Now that the motor is out I think I will pull the transmission and check it. The only thing I can figure is that the motor got in a bind and tried to pull the amps until the 200 amp fuse couldnt take it anymore. Seems mechanical in nature. While everything is out I am going to get the truck painted. I will post what I find out as soon as I find out LOL.
Laters…
Well the problem was in transmission. Found some loose bolts in bellhousing and transmission. Also transmission was very worn and 2nd gear syncro was shot. Transmission is in shop getting rebuilt today. That is some of problems with going with a 20+ year old rig. Truck came back from being painted today so I can start putting it back together. Here is some pictures.
I hope I will be getting the transmission back by the end of the week. Really miss driving it.
Congrats on the project, it’s lookin good!!! I hope to see some data soon.
Well its been a while… any updates?
Get the tranny back?
Get the truck back together?
Yes that Ranger is looking sharp, how is it doing now!!!
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