Thanks Lee, Iam new at the EV curve, or road, should I say. Most of my experience with miniature locomotives is in steam power. A different creature altogether.
Indeed this is a series wound motor, rated at 1.7kw. Dims are 7” diameter, approximately 12” long case. When I bought, the vendor said it was good for 5-6 Kw, hence I brought it home. Looking at it today, seems like a big disconnect between what I need and what the guy said this motor will accomplish. I’ve run the tractive effort and train resistance numbers and come up with an ideal max theoretical train weight for this loco of around 5000-6000#. Which requires say 8-10 Kw in two motors, or 4Kw per each truck. My plan is to install and test one motor on one truck. If it works out well, add another motor and upgrade the body and chassis, etc. If I can get 4 Kw out of the motor I’d be happy, and continue on... but don’t want to go to the expense and time of fitting an undersized power plant.., I guess the question is, is it feasible, or a stretch, with this 7” motor? Thanks much, Glenn Sent from my iPad On Oct 29, 2020, at 4:53 PM, Lee Hart via EV <[email protected]> wrote: >>> What kind of motors are you using? > > Glenn Brooks via EV wrote: >> So far experimenting with used 7” diameter 24v forklift motors. > > If it's a forklift motor, it's almost certain to be series DC. That's > actually a good choice for your application. They have very high starting > torque, to get a heavy train moving without excessive battery current. > >> However just brought one home and the inspection plate shows less >> than half the Kw rating than what the guy told me. > > The KW rating on the nameplate of an electric motor is very conservative. > Unless it says otherwise, it's generally the continuous-duty rating. The > peak-power rating is several times higher. > > Also, sellers chronically exaggerate the horsepower. Go by weight. Electric > motors are a mature technology, so the continuous-duty and peak-power ratings > are closely comparable between motors of the same weight. > >> Would like to work with a 5-7 Kw motor if possible. > > At that level, a 24v or 36v golf cart motor will be fine. These are very > common. Just be sure to get one that has bearings at *both* ends; many depend > on the second bearing to be in the mating gearbox. > >> I’ll check out the older version of the Curtis. I will likely need >> to run several motors and controllers off one speed control. > > With series motors, there's no need to use more than one controller. Just > wire the motors in parallel to the same controller. > > Lee Hart > > -- > A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is > nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. > -- Antoine de Saint Exupery > -- > Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html > INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
