RE: Geo Tracker EV (was Clutchless Throttle Blipper)

["Mark Hanson" <mhanson@valcom.com>]

It uses the standard 9" motor (Warfield, ADC equivelent) and 14ea
US8VGC-HD's all under the floor except for two mounted up front. I went
clutchless this time just for the Halibut but had to make a throttle blipper
in order to downshift, like when someone pulls out in front of you etc. I
started with the 4-wheel drive model for beefiness and replaced the 4-wheel
stuff qand auto tranny with one rebuilt from a 2-wheel drive model so i
didn't have to fool with the springs. Got a 3" body lift kit from
Calmini.com so the batteries hanging down wouldn't cause more road kill
(went from 4" to 7" ground clearance). Range is 25-30 miles per charge at
60mph. I built the speed control, charger and DC converter. I blew up the DC
converter and got another one from DCPower which works great. It has my
battery scanner which saves on tennis shoes (catches a bad batt or
connection). The JC whitney tow bar mounts under the frame (now since i
ripped the bumper off going far away to EarthDay) and a 6" lowering ball
hitch for my truck. Of course since i've done this, i havn't had to tow it,
like adding the fire extinguisher :-) The controller connects the engage
contactor on each throttle depression and there is also a bypass contactor
for full throttle. The frequency was set off resonance from the motor
laminations but audible to animals to reduce road kill. The vacum pump is
mounted low and towards the right front bumper on rubber pouchies so i don't
hear it cycle. The running boards which look cool are from JC Whitney and
the fender flares from truckaddons.com The charger is isolated
ferrorfesonant PFC corrected and set with the uP for the standard IEI
dv/dt=0 charge curve. All display info (no meters) is integrated into the
seam between the windshield and dash which shows state of charge, amps,
volts, RPM's, batt temp, mo temp, controller temp. There is no aux battery
and an emergency click-over tap in case the DC converter dies. It uses the
Canadian standard of a light centertap (max volts to frame = 56V) to the
frame through a 30A breaker and a diode bridge-Sonalert. So if a wire
chamferes through etc. it beeps and the battery scanner shows which battery
(by voltage offset with respect to frame) where the short is. This catches a
ground fault before before a second one occurs as i've seen on other
vehicles (CommutaCar) years ago and makes a fireball. I chose this vehicle
mainly to get the batteries below the vehicle and aftermarket stuff
available for mods.

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Shay [mailto:tshay@ix.netcom.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 3:20 PM
To: ev@listproc.sjsu.edu
Subject: Geo Tracker EV (was Clutchless Throttle Blipper)


Mark, could you please tell us a bit about your Tracker?
I have a Tracker and I'm quite curious how yours was
converted to an EV.  Others are probably  curious too.
I'm not planning on converting mine but it would be nice
to know how it might be done.

Tom Shay  1983 Ranger EV,  1991 Tracker convertible

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Hanson" <mhanson@valcom.com>
To: <ev@listproc.sjsu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 10:14 AM
Subject: Clutchless Throttle Blipper


>
>
> I got the 1400 rpm throttle blipper working and it makes the difference
> between being unable to downshift and downshifting with ease on my
> Clutchless 96' Geo tracker. The Hurst push button (from a local speed
shop)
> mounted on the shift leaver clicks in a pilot relay for the engage
contactor
> and a resistor switched from the pot for a fixed 1400 rpm setting. May
have
> to try different speeds for optimum shifting on different vehicles.
> Also the pump garden water sprayer works great for watering the batteries.
>
>