Thinking about a lithium conversion

Yes that was his name. I am not casting aspersions against him but trying to decide which way to go.

I canā€™t give strong opinions, as I sell parts for Gem conversions, and hotrodding.
There are at least 4 on here who needed help after being sold 66 volt batteries for 72v Gems. Fact!
Batteries being new didnā€™t help them. These new batteries are 2015 vintage gen 1.

There are volts on the road with 300k miles.
If you can find these flood damaged batteries, Iā€™ll buy them. Iā€™ve yet to find a bad volt pack.
The gen2 are much improved. 2016 and up. Could it be gen1 were dumped when gen2 was introduced?

This is an opinion:
If budget isnā€™t an issue, the 12kwh module that Grant has makes the best, stock performance, high mile gem, I know of. It is the only one left in the country. Not sure he will even sell it.

2nd choice is also one Grant has used. 9kwh Spark. He can find one of those for you too.

For a budget build, buy a used Volt pack. Makes no difference new or used, if you let it go dead, itā€™s dead!
Better to risk a $1k than $4k. :slight_smile:

Well, Allan was up front about needing two and a half packs to reach 84 volts. He was quoting $800 for a 50 ah pack and said that I would need 2 and one half packs or about $2,000 for a set of new batteries.

I think Alan is a great ā€œArm Chair engineerā€. Let us know how many gems you have personally converted Alan?

Personally I would take the advice / Recomendations of people that have actually done it over the people selling just product. Sure if your a expert and you just need product and YOU know exactly what you need I see no reason NOT to deal directly with Alan in fact I would recommend him. BUT if you need help setting up your system good luck. Personally I support people here on the Fourm like David.

If I buy something from him he is here to help with real experience, not theoryā€™s or excesses, he stands by the stuff he sells and helps people from all over, same can be said about Mike and Rodney. Great guys and always helpfull

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Iā€™ve never met Alan and Iā€™ve never interacted with him personally. I have helped a couple of his victims however. He advertises and sells solutions that are knowingly overstated in their capacity. He has been informed that his ā€œ72Vā€ systems are truly 66V. In the beginning one could dismiss his dealings as simple ignorance but he has been informed and is now aware of the truth of what he is doing to his customers and he chooses to keep doing it. You can decide if that is ethical or not. In my world, its blatantly dishonest and corrupt.

To better understand what these guys are doing let me add some clarity. Our GEM cars have 72V systems. They come with 6 12V batteries. A 12 Volt battery is comprised of 6 cells. Each cell when fully charged to its peak charge will finish off at 2.2-2.3V. 6 cells when fully charged is 13.2-13.8V. 6 batteries would give us 79.2-82.8V. As the battery is discharged the voltage will drop. 12V is considered to be the 50% charge point below which battery life is shortened dramatically(note that 50% is the nominal and rated value of the battery, not the fully charged value). So, our cars are made to run from ~80V down to 72V between charges. The 72V packs that Alan and others are selling to unsuspecting victims have a range from 3.2-4.2V per cell and there are 18 cells. It is considered best for long term life to not charge above 4.0V/cell on a regular basis. So, these 18 cell packs have a range of 57.6-72V. They are fully charged right at the point where your car was designed to be put on the charger. You basically start out with a near dead battery condition when fully charged. Lithium Ion batteries are rated at nominal voltage of 3.7 which is precisely in the middle of their range. An honest seller will list an 18S pack as 66V not 72V. The problem is that these old new batteries that he has, come in 6/12S sections so its much easier to sell an 18S than it is to sell a 21S because he canā€™t separate them. What he did to the 2 people I helped was to sell them 18S with charger and all as a 72V drop in replacement and then when they couldnā€™t make it work he sold them another 6S pack with instructions on how to take half of them out of the circuit. He refused to refund them their money, and he made them pay friends and family on PayPal so they couldnā€™t file a dispute.
I learned everything I needed to know from @Inwo and @grantwest and a few others on here. They gave me free advice and Dave (Inwo) offered to sell me the individual parts I decided I needed. He explained why he believed in them but never pushed them on me. He is a hobbyist who is helping to finance the hobby of helping all of us make our cars better by selling his innovations. He answered every question I had before and after the sale and was available night and day when I had questions. You can do this entire project 100% on your own with the free information you will get here. You donā€™t need to buy anything from any of us and we will help you. You can also buy from Alan and if it doesnā€™t work out, we will help you. Its your call but if you deal with him, make no mistake about it; he does not operate with a high level of integrity!

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I have a complete set up I purchased from Inwo in April 2017 I never installed battery pack BMS and shunt I will sell.
Health issues last year and so far this year have stopped me from doing anything and I probably never will get around to doing it. I paid 1440.00 for everything and I will sell it for that plus shipping if you are interested
Ken in Va.

Can you describe what you have and what else it would entail for the conversion?

Thanks,

Rudy

BTW, Iā€™m sorry to hear of your misfortune.

I will go thru the old emails and messages and let you know. This was a complete plug up system. Just feed the power wires to the battery set up. I also wanted to mount them in the front for traction we have hills also.

I will be selling off other items as they are not needed any longer.

Stock 5hp motor.

Rff blue motor.

I will have 2 front diffs. For sale after we my son takes it apart.

The battery set up is still in the boxes, i never opened them. Came in from fed ex and set on the shelf In my garage.

I might be interested in the RFF motor and a differential depending on the price

He sold me a 5kw pack from a 2016 volt 24 cells split in 2 so I could get them under the hood. A BMS to monitor the charge on all 24 cells. He wired it to use the 24 cells and a shunt to spoof the controller into thinking it was running 86 volts he said if I did not to take that chance of over powering my controller to just hook it up to 21 cells he provided a tap for that also. Here are the pictures he sent me before he shipped it to me.

By the way the 1440 I paid him included a charger set up for the lith. Set up with the remote wire to connect to the BMS so you can set the Charing profile up using the BMS to monitor and cut the charger off at the voltage you set it to.

If you do not need the charger I will take 240 off and make it 1200 plus shipping. Shipping was 190 to me so close to 200 to ship it.

I appreciate the pictures but they donā€™t really tell me what I need to know. I am not sure what my charger will do or not. It is R4Fun and it is supposed to charge any type of battery but I will have to check with them on that. I am a little confused by the shunt you are talking about. I want to be able to just plug it in and treat it like I do now with the lead/acid batteries. I am not finicky but I do not want a jury rig. Maybe I can talk with the guy who sold you the setup.

The battery pack is 24 cells that will make 100 volts when using all 24 cells. The pack has 2 connection points 1 is on the 21st battery that will make the 85 volts needed for the gem car and the shunt is not used. Or if you are adventurous you can hook the main wire to battery 24 and get 100 volts. The shunt has to be used with all 24 to fool the controller into thinking it is only getting 85 volts. Some of the guys running 100+ volts with the blue motor and changing the settings in the controller are running 40+ mph. With my lead acid that were in my gem, 14" mazda wheels with 24" tires, blue motor and controller settings changed for all out power, on flat ground with just me in the car top speed 1 time was 52 mph. That is when I burnt up my controller. 1 week later I got sick and have not been able to work on anything since then. My 2 sonā€™s help me as much as the can around the house but they have families too and I canā€™t ask them to be with me all the time. Thanks for considering the parts. If I do not sell them they will sit on the shelf and maybe 1 day I can get to the point where I can start doing things like that again.

Ken

Your RFF charger will only charge to 91V. I called them and the company that makes them for them. Thatā€™s all it will do. If you run it at 21-22S your charger will work. If you hotrod it like most of us have, you will eventually want the DQ charger he has shown. Dave @Inwo can answer any questions about the setup he sold him. The spoof (shunt) he has will trick the controller into seeing the rated voltage and plugs in and out very easily. Itā€™s a very clean design.

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Hi Inwo, I am new to this site and after reading a few of the post it seems like you are one of the guys (if not the guy) to ask a couple of questions to;

  1. I am interested in doing a Leaf (8ā€“Gen3 modules) conversion for my golf cart. The completed battery pack would have 56-64v capacity with something over 4000whs
    I can get the batteries but I am confused as to what BMS and HOW to wire it up.

I would appreciate any help you or others might offer.

Thanks

Need more information than that. Is this a 48v vehicle?
A Gem maybe?

My Lead/Acid batteries are 48v. (4 12v lead/acid) in a Club Car Golf Cart. Would like to go lithium. Want to have around 4kWh capacity so I can do 36 holes + . I admit not knowing much about lithium batteries, BMS, etc. but I am willing to learn.

Thanks

Will you car run on 64v? Other that that it should work fine.

I would probably only use 7 of the 8 modules so around 56 volts. Should be OK. My questions really are about actually building the battery pack with a BMS and Charger. Looking for some advice on a BMS and Charger that would work. Also, any advice/pictures on actually wiring the thing up.

Thanks