Re: EV Beach Buggy Outing - long

[XURQ03A@prodigy.com ( LEE A HART)]

Great story, Scott!

> The on board charger is really just a rectifier with some safety
> features added.

This sort of charger is not very practical 144v. You'll probably have trouble
with too low a charge current and too low an end-of-charge voltage on most
120vac outlets. But if the batteries are deeply discharged and AC line voltage
happens to be high, it will still trip a 15 amp breaker.

The simplest fix is to add a buck/boost transformer. Get a transformer with a
12v 15amp secondary. Wire switches so you can select "high" = 120vac line
voltage + 12vac secondary, "medium" = 120vac line alone, or "low" 120vac -
12vac secondary.

> We could here a lot of comments from the pedestrians...

Yes, this is a wonderful thing about EVs. You can hear again! Birds singing,
pedestrians chatting... Since people assume you can't hear them, you hear all
sorts of candid comments!

> I noticed that my voltmeter had not dropped any noticeable amount
> so with some confidence I told the kids we would proceed farther down
> the coast to Grover Beach.

You are discovering that voltmeters make a fuel gauge :-)

> starting to kick up the softer sand (and getting it in out teeth
> - and covering the batteries)

Be sure and rinse off the sand on top of the batteries. It will have brought a
lot of salt with it, which will wreak havoc with leakage currents and battery self-discharge.

> 144 volt pack of group 24 flooded batteries... started sagging
> to 90 volts under load

Be really careful not to drag your batteries down so far, especially when they
aren't even fully broken in. I think every EVer ruins his first set of
batteries this way. Try hard not to pull them below about 120v under load.
Charge, drive slower, or at least give them a rest to avoid it.

> I answered EV questions from curious people...

Yep... I hope you are an extrovert. Plan to leave time to talk to strangers.
PS -- When I'm in a hurry, I answer the "why EVs?" question (see quote below)
by pointing to a child and saying, "Because of them."

Lee Hart                     Mallory toured the US for 18 months, raising
4209 France Ave. N.          funds for the climb of Mt. Everest. After
Robbinsdale, MN 55422 USA    giving detailed answers to the "Why climb it?"
phone (612) 533-3226         questions hundreds of times, he finally gave
e-mail XURQ03A@prodigy.com   up and just answered, "Because it's there."