I am curious about what you will be using your car for, mine was built to be driven. When I go out I exercise the pack. I keep up the electrolight on a weekly basis. Please be more specific on why you think I am being hard on them. And what you do for a living, I dealt with batteries on a daily basis for Ford Motor company the last 15 years of the 30 that I worked there and consider myself well versed on them, but I am always willing to learn new things. When the voltage drops below 130 volts I pull over and let them recover, By that time I am near my house and 15 minutes on the side of the road does wonders for the batteries. I expect some crittisim on this site I have had over 8000 hits here and most of the people have had positive comments, but I need a clearer insight what you are refreing to as far as the batteries go.
Hello New Dawn,
I must commend you on the awesome work you have done with your project. Your skills in bringing this all together and making such a nice ride speak for them selves. I do feel compelled to also mention as Heynow999 has that allowing your battery pack to drop below 138 volts (assuming 77 Deg F) will reduce the life of the batteries.
I can not say that I worked for any automotive company and your experiences may well prove sound.
I do have some experience setting up deep cycle (house) batteries on sailboats. I have found that the most popular battery in that use is the Trojan T105.
On sailboats without air-conditioning in Florida if allowed to discharge below 1.9 volts per cell the life of the battery will be measured in months. On temperature controlled boats, where the owner never allowed his bank to go below 1.9 volts per cell (139 volts for your pack) the life would be measured in years, typically 5-8.
Here is a table put out by Trojan, for the Trojan Deep Cycle 12 Volt Battery (30XHS), they recommend rarely allowing the battery to enter the yellow zone and state that damage will occur if allowed to enter the red zone.
[B]Depth of Discharge–12 Volt battery–Volts per Cell @ 77° F[/B]
100%[COLOR=“PaleGreen”]----------------12.70-----------------2.12
90%-----------------12.50-----------------2.08
80%-----------------12.42-----------------2.07
70%-----------------12.32-----------------2.05
60%-----------------12.20-----------------2.03
50%-----------------12.06-----------------2.01
40%-----------------11.90-----------------1.98[/COLOR]
30%-----------------11.75 ----------------1.96
20%-----------------11.58-----------------1.93
10%-----------------11.31-----------------1.89
00%-----------------10.50-----------------1.75
I do think what you are doing is terrific! I truly hope I can join you in my own EV in the new year.
Today was a milestone, I drove my car 86 miles in a 14 hour period. My goal is 100 miles in a 24 hour period. I believe I can get this if I devote a day of driving it and charging it. I had a couple of errands to run this morning and when I got home I put the car on the charger. At 12 PM the Michigan EAA (Electric Auto Assotation) met at my house to see my car and one I have on the hoist, a 1998 Electric Ford Ranger, I have dropped the battery pack and am preparing to replace the batteries in it. This is the third electric vehicle I have worked on in my shop. It was a very intellectually stimulatating meeting and was capped off by a drive in my saturn. There were 55 miles on it when the meeting ended. I put it back on the charger and about 10:30 PM I asked my wife if she wanted to go for a joy ride. We got home with lots of battery power left 140 volts at 86 miles. Thankyou for the chart and the information polygonfla it will be very useful. new dawn, as in a new era
I heard about a program from DTE for electric vehicle recharging on off peak hours ar a reduced rate at the Michigan EAA meeting last Saturday. I called DTE this morning and on Wednesday they are goung to install a E Meter at my house!!! It costs 5$ for the installatation and will be 1.7 cens per Killowatt hour with a delivery charge of 5 to 6 cents per Killowatt hour. I believe that is what they quoted me.:D:D:D:D:cool:
I went to the scale today and the weight of my car came in at 3430 lbs.:D:D
[QUOTE=new dawn;2951]I went to the scale today and the weight of my car came in at 3430 lbs.:D:D[/QUOTE]
wow thats not bad, thanks for the updates! i’m super excited to hear more about it. hear anything else about that company? 
The Green Fair is being held in Ann Arbor Mich. on Friday June 13th from 6pm to 9 pm Downtown. There will be at least three EV’s there in various stages of completion. Mine will be there to see if you are interested, please come and meet me in person. new dawn as in the dawning of a new era.
Here is a article written about the Saturn.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/08/retired-autoworker-converts-early-saturn-coupe-to-battery-power/
I hope you enjoy this. Thanks Sam Abuelsmid for shuc a nice article.
Bob Lutz and I on the same page!!!
Awesome article. You did a very sweet job on that Saturn. Congrats!!!
Today is the day I am on the front page of the Ann Arbor News, Thanks Tom Gantert. And this link takes you to the video. ;):rolleyes:
I had a great time at the green fair. Talked to lots of people. There is a great interest in electric cars. I expect there will be one more article written about the Saturn, the person didn’t identify who he worked for but he took allot of notes about what I talked about and we must have talked for 20 minutes about electric cars. One woman was from the SAE and will be contacting me for some of her colleges to see the car and talk. I also talked to a couple of professors from the U of M. about the car in great detail. I hardly had a break talking for three and a half hours. All people of all walks of life were asking questions. I also seen a couple of school mates there and some old friends that I haven’t seen for many years. What a great way to spend the evening, I’m hooked!:rolleyes:
Hi Bob,
Watched your video and I must say I was grinning with you, that is cool. Was reading some of the comments and there are some real idiots out there lol. They are the same ones you see dumping another 100 bucks into some fat cat oil cartel’s pocket at the pump when you drive by grinning. I believe a lot of people are paying attention to what you have done and the light bulbs are going off. Me for one! Reading about what you have done inspires me to keep on going and finish my project. I commend you!
Thankyou for the great comments, as with you I feed on the good ones too. I was a little upset about the one negative comment in particular. But we all can’t be inteligent. There are still some cromagnimum"s running around!!! LOL LOL LOL At the green fair there were very few people thar had negative comments and by the time I got done talking to thm I had them agreeing with me that this makes sense. All I have to say is if I can do it you can too!!! I am blowing my horn as loud and as long as it will make noise, and I have only begun. Every bolt you fasten to yourelectric car makes it nearer to being on the road. :rolleyes:
[QUOTE=new dawn;3243]Thankyou for the great comments, as with you I feed on the good ones too. I was a little upset about the one negative comment in particular. But we all can’t be inteligent. There are still some cromagnimum"s running around!!! LOL LOL LOL At the green fair there were very few people thar had negative comments and by the time I got done talking to thm I had them agreeing with me that this makes sense. All I have to say is if I can do it you can too!!! I am blowing my horn as loud and as long as it will make noise, and I have only begun. Every bolt you fasten to yourelectric car makes it nearer to being on the road. :rolleyes::D[/QUOTE]
awesome articles, sorry i couldn’t make it to the fair this weekend, i didn’t get out of work till late and with the time different from chicago to MI and the time it would take to get there i would be lucky to get there at 9:30PM lol
I’ll make sure to get out there some time though and check it out. as far as those idiots commenting on that mlive site. building a car for $10,000 compared to buying even a cheap car at $20,000 you easily have a large ammount already saved (10K) not to mention the price of gas you save compared to them every week or so. Keep your head up, and I have a few things to talk about with you soon. (BTW a bigger version is currently being peiced together and is under construction ;))
Here is a neat idea, if you have a 220 volt onboard charger. Use this to make 2 110 out of phase outlets into 220 @ 15 or 20 amps depending which you choose to buy.
http://www.quick220.com/220_catalog.htm
On Wednesday I am being interviewed for the radio show “The Enviorment Report”. This show is aired by about 160 radio stations across the country. I will post when it will be aired if I can. The interview has been pushed back to Monday the 21st. I’ll keep you posted
It came to my attention recently that you can type in “electric car gurk” at google and there are several links on the net there now.
[QUOTE=new dawn;3901]It came to my attention recently that you can type in “electric car gurk” at google and there are several links on the net there now.[/QUOTE]
very nice, its amazing how common people that have “no intrest” :rolleyes: in EV’s are so intrested…
:eek:I am getting interested in developing uses for Brown’s Gas. I believe I can use it to generate enough electricity to run a generator big enough to meet my electrical needs and run back into the grid. The uses are endless, Heating my house during the winter, heating the water I use to bathe with wash dishes and ect ect ect…
A real need is to EXTEND MY RANGE IN THE CAR!!!:rolleyes:
I have a generator that runs on gas, but with the right sized browns gas generator I could use it to charge the car!!!
What I think is ironic is to make the gas from water and then burn the gas to heat hot water for bathing, heating, and washing(clothes dishes dog…).