One thing that bugs me on the EVDL is the occasional bickering over what a
real hybrid is. I especially get annoyed by those who want to claim that my
Honda Insight isn't a real hybrid. Well I ran my own homemade Hybrid today,
and this one matches all the usual criteria people use to define a hybrid so
I'm sure that everyone will agree that this is a real hybrid. Actually,
being that this is the EVDL I know that at least on person will have a
contrary opinion, but I'll just ignore it :-)
My base vehicle is my old mostly broken down 1994 4.0 Litre Ford Aerostar.
I have outfitted it with a 6.7 inch ADC motor and 45 of my BB600 cells along
with a 400 amp Alltrax controller. It works like a charm. I did almost
exactly 50/50 gas and electric on my 26 mile commute this morning, then
charged at work and turned around and did the same on the way home. This
may sound like a tough thing to acomplish, but as has been pointed out on
this list many times the devil is in the details. I simply loaded my EV
motorcycle up in the back of my van and drove halfway to work, then unloaded
and rode the rest of the way...
Actually this was a test run for doing the whole thing electric, although
even then the van will have a role. I have been working on building a dump
charger to locate half way along the route, but after doing some testing
decided that swapable packs will be a better option for me. I can easily
put something together that can be swapped in 5 minutes, and the dump pack
was taking much longer than that, plus it's hard to get a good finish charge
with a dump pack. It was fun chargin at 200+ amps though :-)
I know from everyday riding, that the first half of my commute is doable on
a single charge, but I wasn't sure how much tougher the second half of the
run would be. I have a two mile very steep grade to climb to get over the
hills. I'm using back roads, so the speed limit is slower which is an
advantage as far as ahrs used, but the gearing on my EM is such that I was
worried I might overheat my motor at the lower RPMs. The motor did get hot,
but not so hot to have me worried. It all worked out, but by the time I got
to work my pack was feeling very drained, as well it should, since the
Emeter had me down more than 39 ahrs. This is from batteries that are rated
at 30 ahrs at the 1C rate. Man I love NiCads. I did have some extra weight
on board as I was carrying my charge with me and a few other things in a
backpack. The ride back from work to the van only took 35 ahrs without the
extra load. Also, at work one of my coworkers noted that my tires looked a
bit low. Duh... it's been a while since I checked them, so I had a look
when I got back home, and sure enough, they were down around 15 lbs instead
of the 30 they should be at. So I'm feeling pretty good now about this
working out long term. All I need to do now is throw together a couple of
extra battery packs and tweak things to make them a bit easier to swap out,
and I'm golden.
I had originally hoped to find a host for a charging station, but since I am
cutting it so close on range, I think I like the idea of battery swapping
better. That way, I can watch the batteries charge at home and know that
they are in good shape before I head out. I will probably start off with a
total of 3 packs, which will give me a two day cycle. On the first day I
will drive halfway, then ride the rest, charge at work, return to the van,
swap packs and come home. Charge at home drive to the van the next day,
swap packs, drive to work, charge, return to the van and drive home. If it
works out well, I may make up more packs, but right now I'm still a bit of a
fair weather rider, and I generally work from home at least one day a week,
so a two day cycle sounds about right.
I've already manged to put over 3100 electric miles on the bike without
using it to commute. If this works out well, I will be putting many more on
it over the next few months, and that frees up the Insight for my wife to
drive.
damon
- [ElectricMotorcycles] Now that's a hybrid damon henry
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