Hi all,
I know it’s possible to step 24 volt up to 48 volt but I haven’t seen a converter that will put out enough power to run a motor. Does anyone have any experience or input with this? I am trying to pull 2 batteries off my motorcycle and use a converter to still get 48 volt off the other two batteries.
well, an increase in voltage decreases amperage, but power stays pretty much the same. You’re going to convert 24V to 48V, your amps are cut in half. This hurts acceleration.
Best thing to do is look for smaller format batteries and fit 4 in with a lesser Ah rating to get the same Wh pack as before.
You’re going to have a hard time finding a high power DC-DC converter that can run 1-200A at the very least. You’ll spend more on that than the whole motorcycle/batteries/controller/etc. Converters of that size are NOT cheap, I guarantee that you’ll spend less on batteries than converting to 48V. Plus, you add losses to the system.
Why are you removing batteries?
Lets say you have 48V now with 75Ah batteries. Thats a 3600Wh pack.
Say you go to 24V with 2 less batteries of the same type (75Ah). Thats now an 1800Wh pack. Range will suffer quite a bit. Acceleration will suffer once you convert to 48V. At 48V, your pack equivalent would be half of 75Ah, or 37.5Ah.
You could probably afford a LiFePo pack for the cost of the 24-48V high power converter.
I was looking at pulling the two batteries for weight and using the converter so i didn’t have to buy new batteries, but if they are that expensive I will just get new batteries. Right now I am running 115AH batteries and in hindsight it was a very bad Idea to get them LOL but you live and learn. The batteries weight about 60lbs each. I have no real plans to run the bike much further then work and back and that is only 10-15mi round trip and most likely I could plug in at work. I am sure I could get by on much much less then my current batteries. Really I think i need to get out there and run my bike and test what kind of millage I will get on the big pack i have then just divide by the mileage I need and that should give me the factor I can reduce my pack by and I should earn just a bit extra from the reduced weight.
you COULD replace them with smaller ones, and get a 48V solar inverter… so you can dump charge… maybe add solar or something as money permits. Just a thought.
Definately lighten it up a bit though. Maybe fit 4 optima type batteries.