Converting your car to Electric instead of gasoline.

[Bob]

 Sense this is an Alternative answer to the GASOLINE problem I thought it should be here for the consideration of our members... Although I don't know that much about the conversion process I do hope to remedy that problem in the future...
if you know what it takes to convert the standard gasoline rig Please post it ! we'd Love to learn!
...
Bob.......

[WyndFryst]

     I have no idea about the conversion, but I do know about building them. Electric vehicles are so simple in overall construction that they can easily be built by people with basic construction skills. In the simplest form a very basic electric go cart can be built that can consist of a simple wood frame built out of 2" x 4"s, basic wheels, an electric motor, a car battery and a momentary electrical switch to turn the electricity on and off as a gas pedal. A more sophisticated system would use a go-cart body made out of steel (or perhaps converted from an existing gasoline go-cart), with the same elements as the wooden cart would use. Simple electric vehicles as just described can probably be built in two weeks. Many people have the impression that electric cars are pollution free and will eventually replace fossil fuel powered engines. This understanding is rather inaccurate, in my opinion. The fact is that at the present time, electric vehicles can not compete with mainstream gasoline and diesel in terms of speed, range and overall safety.
     In addition, electric vehicles create pollution in a number of different ways. Not by the cars themselves, but by the plants that create the electrical energy. First, most of the electricity we use in the United States is from fossil fuel burning power plants which creates pollution, though usually away from the urban centers. In some cases, electricity produced at nuclear power plants, though these also pose potential risks. Solar power plants are in their infancy, though they may be useful in sunny, areas with little cloud cover. If everyone was to have solar arrays on their property, some people may object to them, similar to how people objected to the early 10 foot satellite dishes. Wind power may also offer some potential to generate electricity, though windmills pollute in terms of visual as well as noise pollution.

</rant>

[Bob]

HAHA Yah your right there !
 But the conversion of a normal automobil to dc electricity is supposed to be fairly easy...
I have a perfect car for the experiment a toyota tercell that the engine is knocking because its just wore OUT.
this is a front wheel drive Forign car that has served us well sense the early 1980's and we retired it because of the cost of the engine rebuild....
 if I can find a 25 to 40hp 12/24volt DC electric motor, say from an electric forklift or such
I can mate the motor with the FLY-wheel and then build a rack over the top of the motor to hold batteries.
....
 to control the power to the motor takes a PWM or motor speed controller of very high amp ratings
this is a technical bit that requires a proven schmatic design and high quality expensive components
but it alows the electric motor to be throttled.
...

[Tink]

WyndFryst ,
I gotta say I was impressed as were my neighbors at how un-noisy my wind turbine was while it was running. The commercial ones are noisy but these home brew Axial Flux wind turbines are extremely quiet. When I started my wind mill project my one neighbor who is a real challenge to share a neighborhood with complained so much even before I had the darn thing running that I had to promise her that I'd sell it if the noise offended her in any way. To say the least she was amazed as to how quiet it was.

As for the practicality of the electric car.....they take a lot of electricity to charge those batteries. I believe electric cars will be viable when better batteries are developed. At this point hybrid (gas/electric) is the way to go. Also the car companies could make a hybrid get a heck of a lot more mpg, don't you think? I once had a little Masda diesel pickup that got 40mpg without even trying and it wasn't even a hybrid.
Tink

[WyndFryst]

Back in my hometown there was a governmental push to get a high-capacity battery plant started. Of course some ecologists stalled the bill for so long it was assumed dead. As for converting a normal internal-combustion vehicle into electricity, the only issue I can see is the long, continued application of torque. From my experience the only thing that electric motors have problems with is torque.

[Bob]

Not true !
 Torque is what Electric motors have in abundance !
 the 3.5hp B&s will have about the same torque as a 1hp electric motor!
...which means you don't need a 120HP electric motor to replace a 120hp gas engine
a 50hp or 60hp will do just the same...(as far as torque goes)
the problem is that electric motors do eat UP ALLOT of electricity... so storage capasity is a MUST... as well as the most effecient electric motor you can get to Keep that usage as low as possible...
the difference between an old forklift 20hp 24vdc motor and today's equivalent 20hp electric motor is like Night and day the electric use is halved at the very least!
...so a good motor is essential to a good working electric vehicle
...
I was considering making my own electric motor personally... I don't know if it is even possible to achieve the same power but I know that the newer motors are larger in diameter to give higher torque at lower RPM...
I think a motor 18" in diam on a 1" steel shaft with 8 to 12 hand wound electro- magnets  controlled by the brushes on the armature with perminant magnets attached to the aluminum flywheel, would give a huge amount of power... one to run my truck easily I'ed think... but powering it...that's another story !
...
Bob....

[WyndFryst]

Well, I should have mentioned that my expertise was with ultramini motors. Those things could spin forever on a single battery but couldn't do any appreciable work alone. Well, just shows how much I have to learn.

[Bob]

Well as long as you Don't Stop learning there is Hope !  LOL !
I thought I was wrong once but it turned out I was right all along(LOL)... so don't feel like your the only one with some learning to do ! LOL !
...
the more I think of making my own big car motor the more I like the idea....
I think the first most important part of such a motor would be the magnets in the flywheel...
 so the next question is... where can I get some of those Super duper really strong magnets....
...
I just thought of something funny.... I could see me manufacturing electric motors for car conversions..... and the people asking well, whats your expertise in the field ? and I tell them well I took apart a Broken starter motor once and got it to work again.... what more do I need ?
HAHAHAHAHAHHA (how not to inspire confidence in your investors eh ?)
LOL
...
Bob....

[Bob]

I got to looking on the web for strong magnets for possibly making a motor for the truck out there....and I came up with this site
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/categories.asp
they have a wide variety of magnets at reasonable prices, and good info. on them as well.
this has possibilities !
...
Bob.....

[Tink]

Bob,
Try this for magnets.

http://www.forcefieldmagnets.com/catalog/

These are the people who make the wind turbines and use really strong magnets but also specialize in selling them for other projects.
Tink

[Bob]

Thanks for the Link Tink !
I appreaciate it ....really I do ! saves allot of time looking stuff up ! LOL
...
I didn't see any bar magnets on that site ,but suspect they update their site often
that's what I will use to make the motor (if I ever get started on it!)
...
I was trying to figure out a way to use one of the stators as a basis for the electric motor...but got to thinking about the wattage and think it would smoke it fairly fast... but with a magnet on both sides of the stator on 2 plates,both spinning at the same rate(attached to the axel) I should be able to energize the
coils to make it a motor  and it would be a very large diam motor indeed...
but I would worry about the stator windings not being able to handle the constant amps
.... hard to say... it'ed probably work fantastically ! LOL !
...
Bob......

[Tink]

Bob,
Not at all practical. Their 17' Wind turbine produces about 3500 watts at 210 rpm. These alternators are definitely low rpm devices. In their book they show one of their alternators for the 10' turbine connected to an old steam engine and it powers their power tools and a heater in their workshop during the winter.
Tink

[Manta]

Try this link.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/869605551/m/209602234?r=498601264#498601264

If it doesn't work go directly to biodiesel.infopop and search on 'electric vehicles' Look for postings by johno.

He was involved in converting a Triumph TR7 to electric. \there is a lot of info there.

Manta

[Bob]

Thanks Manta!  looks like its working for him
....
 the More I design on this electric motor the more I think its no SMALL UNDERTAKING!
hehehehe OBVIOUSLY !... but at this point I think I will hold off on it and see if I can find a Cheep electric motor that will fill the bill.... even though I doubt that very much !
...
 the first drawings I made of a large diam electric motor looked simple and easy to construct ...even for me ! ... but as I put in the components I find that the timing and power to the electro-magnets
is going to be much harder than I first thought....
 Unless I make a cam arrangement to throw a relay to power the electro-magnets the commontator is going to be hard to make and POWER...
even if I don't use the reverse polarity trick to Push and Pull the armiture...
and without the reverse polarity in the picture the power is reduced by 1/2 right off the bat...
...I'm still working on the idea but at this point I don't hold out much hope for making my electric motor for the car....its just too complicated for me....
...
Bob........

[hydrotinkerer]

A forklift motor hooked to a manual transmission would work. Motor has lots of torque and the trans would give better speed on the road.

[Bob]

Very true...problem is finding one !
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

HEHEHE OK here is another thought... Mutable electric motors !
instead of one big one have 3 or 4 small ones... or 8 even....
this opens up the possibility of using the super high and efficient model airplane motors...
but it would probably cost more that way than one big one ! LOL
....
but the idea is sound enough if the price of the smaller electric motors  is low enough to make it worth all the extra parts needed to do this and all the Hassel too
... perhaps 2 golf Kart electric motors ?
...rated at say 10 ~ 15hp each , because from what I can gather from all my reading a small car only needs 20hp to 30hp in an electric motor to move it quite well... the batterys needed for that size is around 8 to 12... deep cycle batteries which cost over $100 each
(so we're talking $1200.00 bucks right there.)
And at EVparts.com a good electric motor will cost you around $2500.00~$3500.00 for ONE large electric motor big enough to power the vehicle.
Now when you add a Store bought CONTROLLER say 400amp capacity that's another $750.00
and if you add all the cables and circuit breakers and plug in's and such another $1000.00 there
...so On the High side of going out and just buying the parts and assembling it at home , we're talking something like $6450.00 !
... But if like me you scrimp on every penny  you could use automotive batteries at about $75.00 each (or less if you catch them on sale)=$900.00
and say 2 golf kart motors at $600.00 each =$1200.00
(I'm not sure if you could run 2 motors with 1 controller or not, but the lower amp motor controllers are MUCH cheaper than the higher amp ones but lets just figure one big one ....$750.00
.... and scrounging for some of your cabling and parts will save a bunch at least Half ...$500.
and that amounts up to $3350.00....for a Minimum cost.
....
all in all its an expensive undertaking... and one thing I don't have is LUMPS of money at any given time.... my money trickles in and that makes big ticket items very hard to get!.
... so from the LOOKS of things My electric car conversion is going to have to wait for quite a while... although I can slowly gather up parts most of the stuff needed is going to have to be purchased in one form or another.
...
 There is however another possibility if you have a spare 10hp ~12hp motor laying around... you can attach it to a large alternator and go in Hybrid mode... this allows for fewer batteries (less weight too).... but if you have to purchase these items, chances are this method will wind up costing you quite a bit more.
...(6~8 batteries instead of 12)
...
...
fwiw
Bob.....

[crb]

Bob,
I've looked into electric since before HHO.
Now you know why I've just looked.
crb

[Bob]

hehehe yah ! I understand that !
...
Bob......