You are currently browsing the Rob’s RAVolt! weblog archives for the day February 26, 2007.
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- August 27, 2008: Lessons Learned - recap
- August 20, 2008: Air Conditioning would be soooo boring
- August 19, 2008: Here's "proof" that water/gas conversion are scams
- August 16, 2008: 2008 Maker Faire: Oct 18-19
- August 14, 2008: RAVolt reaches 150,000 miles!
- August 14, 2008: AustinEV thread: my thought is Conversions = Innovation
- August 12, 2008: Discussing ROI for conversions (and solar) on AustinEV
- August 9, 2008: AustinEV meeting, unexpected but fun (if you like hearing me ramble)
- August 9, 2008: Stealth mode Austin Li Battery company gets BIG VC $$$
- August 9, 2008: EV-2? Nissan shows protoype
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Archive for February 26, 2007
Al & Pb: Mounting plate is cut! Now, do I want more lead?
February 26, 2007 by Rob.
Erik was kind enough to trim the rest of the bell mounting plate off today. It’s great to have an EV community for support.
While I picking up the plate, he suggested that I consider putting in more batteries (using 20 8 volt cells instead of 12 12s) to improve my range. He said that the target battery load for an typical conversion is 1/3 of gross vehicle weight (GVW). My curb weight w/ ICE was 2800 and the GVW is 3200. That would mean I can carry about 1200 lbs of battery. The Trojan J150s would be (12*80) 960 lbs. The T875 would be (18*63) 1,134 lbs.
The extra lead would increase range and also allow for more luxuries like power steering.
Posted in Storyline, AustinEV, Conversion, Planning, EV Tech | 1 Comment »
MDO Scraps
February 26, 2007 by Rob.
My friend Paul has donated some MDO scraps from his construction site. I have a nice 4×4′ sheet just waiting in my garage for it’s Cinderella moment.
I’m not sure what all the fuss is about for MDO: it just looks like plywood to me. It doesn’t taste any better than pressure treated pine either.
Posted in Storyline | No Comments »
RAVolting work day #2: lots of progress!
February 26, 2007 by Rob.
We made a lot of progress today on the RAV (no - I’m not nearly done). Several AustinEV members (Dan, Aaron, Chris, Erik, Tanda, Riley) provided great help and advice. We had some other visitors who wanted to learn more about EVs and conversions (Aaron and Erik both drove their EVs).
We were all in new territory because none of us had ever followed EV America’s design plans. The alignment tool, adapter, and mounting plate fit perfectly. I put together a video of the day’s effort: don’t worry, it’s edited way down and has titles for easy viewing.
If you’re doing this yourself, I highly recommend using 1/8″ spring pins to help with the alignment! We drilled pilot holes in the plate and then extended them into the steel bell. It was trivial to keep the alignment right once the pins were set even though we took the plate off several times.
Posted in Pictures, Storyline, AustinEV, Conversion, EV Tech | No Comments »