Looking for some advice and wisdom from other Ford Think / LSV owners out there. I recently purchased a Ford Think Neighbor 4-seater. After a bunch of freshening up (tires, 4-wheel brake re-build, bushing and ball joint replacement) the thing is running great…BUT range has become an issue. Pushing it uphill to home with kids onboard has left an impression.
My current setup consists of 1-year-old 105AH lead acid batteries that seem to be in good shape. Upgraded D&D motor. Car will run ~27mph on flat and level. I’m getting ~10 miles out of a charge with a heavy foot. That seems like poor range, but not sure what is “normal” given my configuration. Any others have experience with a similar setup?
Should I have the current lead acid batteries load tested to make sure capacity is not diminished?
Or should I scrap them regardless and start exploring Lithium options?
I bought a 2 seater, OEM unmodified, Batteries probably 3 yrs old (not sure tbh)
got 8 miles per charge, 27mph ground level. and under heavy acceleration on every corner.
I do lithium conversions for the gems and I’m planning to start testing some of the Batteries I use in the Think.
We are getting over 70 miles of range with that Battery so I think it will be massive upgrade.
You should be getting a lot more than 10 miles out of them. Put a voltmeter on one battery at a time and drive it for a short distance or brake torque it. Do this to all six batteries. If one or more drops a lot lower than the rest underload than you have found your problem. Lithium is definitely the way to go.
@djgabriel2004 Sounds like you’ve had a similar experience. 70 miles range is incredible. I know comparing apples and oranges here but do you know the approx AH capacity of the lithium setup that gets you the 70 mile range on the gem? I see several drop-in options out there but they all seem to be near or even below the capacity I have today.
@David_Illingworth Thank you! I’ll get my volt meter out and run through that test. Really appreciate the advice!
I bet this is an over-simplified general question here, but I’m going to ask anyway: Assuming both a lead acid and lithium setup have the same capacity, would you expect the same range from both or would you expect to see a jump in range as well as performance with lithium?
Yes I use 17kWh pack (~230ah)
Stay away from the Drop in batteries or any with LFP (lifepo4) chemistry.
Lithium Ah is not the same as Flooded, I calculate 1/2 of rated Ah safe for flooded since they don’t like to be discharged below 50% (you don’t have that limit with lithium)
Also you’ll be dropping 400lbs of lead and your car will love it.
Can you pls measure the battery compartment and the opening to see if we can fit the Modules I use for the Gems
@djgabriel2004 Thanks for the info! Makes sense to me now on the usable capacity of the flooded batteries. I’ll have to take the battery shroud off the Think to get the measurements and perform the load tests on my current batteries. I’ll let you know once I have those. In the meantime, I remember seeing another member on this forum that provided detailed measurements and layout (including pictures) of their Think battery compartment. I’ll try and find that as well.
This is the thread I saw here with the Think battery compartment dimensions. It’s a bit odd since the 4 center batteries sit lower than the 2 outboard batteries.
If @Inwo module fits then look no more, they are 22s Samsung sdi cells 7.4kWh. There are dozens of gems running that pack, fortunately gem and Think are cousins so I don’t see any problem with it.
Only connections are positive and negative, no series connection and the Bms has Bluetooth,
Thanks all! Seems like the 22s sdi module is the way to go.
On a possibly related topic; I’ve assumed since I picked up this Think a few months ago that I have a charger issue. After @David_Illingworth mentioned the possibility of having a bad battery among the 6, I’m wondering if the charger is fine and the batteries are the culprit. My Quiq charger seems to “overcharge” the batteries. It pushes voltage past 92+ volts while charging and the 80% and 100% charge indicators do not illuminate. I’m not sure what battery profile is selected. The ammeter always illuminates a solid III current draw regardless if batteries are charged or near dead. Any ideas?
The last thing I want to do is upgrade the battery and immediately ruin it with a bad charger.
