>Would you care to describe the orignal hybrid system this truck had? >Sounds interesting.
That was long ago, in a galaxy far away. The original customer asked Mike to build him a hybrid because he was a bachelor, and "didn't want to have to have a wife to pick him up if he ran out of juice". The project got completed in the mid-1980's. It had a China Motor (we imported a few of these from China before deciding they just weren't good enough) and an old Willey 9 controller and a 72V battery pack. It also had a Syvaro (Isreali-built) rotary gas engine. The truck could run pure electric, pure gas, or both together. It used a Norton motorcycle clutch to engage or disengage the hybrid system. The motor and engine worked off a belt/pulley/jackshaft arrangement. The truck also had to have a special custom muffler for the rotary engine. Even with that, it was noisy. You also had to use the electric motor as a starter for the gas engine. The truck was kinda wimpy in pure gas mode, ok (not spectacular) in pure electric mode, and pretty good in hybrid mode. However, it was noisy and vibrated whenever the gas mode was involved. The customer was happy with it anyway. Don't know how much he actually used the gas mode. When we got it back and sold it to the next customer, she decided (and we agreed) that it would make a MUCH better vehicle as a pure electric, with more modern components and more batteries. So she and Mike ripped out the hybrid and the China Motor and controller and eplaced them with an ADC and a PMC, and bumped the system up to 120V. Shari Prange Electro Automotive POB 1113 Felton CA 95018-1113 Telephone 831-429-1989 http://www.electroauto.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] Electric Car Conversion Kits * Components * Books * Videos * Since 1979
