Convert Car to Electric Power
The Forkenswift EV
First Electric Test Drive
#3) Project ForkenSwift EV: first electric test drive
http://www.ForkenSwift.com - Officially, we're only at the battery rack building stage of the project. But while waiting to get a welder to finish the job, Spring Fever struck and against better judgment we piled 6 batteries into the car, hooked everything together and went up & down the street a bunch of times. (Oh - and by the way, if you enjoy spotting continuity errors in movies, you'll have a field day with this one!) Again, apologies for the video quality - 20 year-old video camera, makeshift way of getting the pics into the computer for editing. In case titles are hard to read, here they are: 1. a BIG ForkenSwift milestone 2. Officially... we're at the stage of the project where we're making battery racks. 3. The racks will hold four batteries up front, and four in the hatchback. 4. (Cardboard mockups - help figure out positioning and clearances.) 5. But while waiting for a welder to finish the trays... we got SPRING FEVER 6. and decided to "set up" (ahem) the car for a little test drive 7. Here's the forklift pot box, modified to talk nicely to the golf cart controller 8. Surplus forklift battery charger. 9. Umm... Don't try this at home. :-O 10. Darin's actual first drive ... 11. Shhhh... Listen... 12. Listen to this: unsolicited feedback from a guy fixing a car in his driveway... 13. "HEY - WHY'S YOUR CAR SO QUIET?" 14. " BULL$#!T ... REALLY ? " 15. " AWESOME! " 16. THAT WAS NOT MADE UP :-) 17. Ivan takes a spin. 18. Coming up: more comments from the peanut gallery, in ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... 19. " Can you turn the muffler up a little bit, Ivan? " 20. An impromptu car show with the car repair guy and his friends ... --- Project ForkenSwift is an electric car conversion made using parts from a Suzuki Swift, Geo Metro, Baker electric forklift and a golf cart.
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Finding the Right Electric Motor
The Building Begins
Some of the parts and tools you'll need:
Jigsaw, small grinder, various wrenches, socket set, various screw drivers, #80 sand paper. Work bench, welding equipment and a hoist and a big pile of initiative mostly.
Parts List
Motor - AC or DC
Motor Controller
Manual disconnect
Motor adaptor
Main contactor
Inertia switch
Charger
Battery ends
DC-DC power supply
Amp meter shunt
E-Meter or several digital meters
Fuses
Throttle control box
Battery cables
Cable cutters ( a must as they cut the cable properly)
Lugs
Battery ends
A crimping tool to install cable ends
Vacuum pump (to bleed power brakes)
Batteries
Battery boxes (make your own)
Misc. nuts and bolt etc.
Why Convert your car to electric in the first place?
We all know that car companies have been forced to clean up their act, to a point. But, simple emission controls are not the answer.
Finding new ways to fuel our cars is the answer. Using renewable energy to power our cars is the answer that we are pursuing here.
An electric vehicle produces very close to zero emissions, which is an excellent solution. You can use conventional AC power from your home, which is more and more produced with renewable energy sources or you can set up your vehicle charging system to be run completely from the sun and the wind. It is the right choice that we can all make.
The second answer is the Cost of Driving. Even if you can only charge your car with your own AC home outlets, it will only cost about $1 per charge, good for 100 miles. How far will $1 of gasoline take you?
Gasoline prices vary widely, but you can be sure it costs less to run your car on electricity.
Here is a typical wiring diagram.
Beer Budget Electric Car Conversion
How to shift gears.
#5) Project ForkenSwift electric car: shifting gears
http://www.ForkenSwift.com - Since the car has no clutch, people often ask how I change gears. The purpose of this video is to show just that. EV's with more power than the ForkenSwift don't need to shift much - some just leave the transmission in one gear for city driving, and only upshift for highway speeds. The ForkenSwift needs to be shifted because it's a low voltage car with a low power controller. So how is it done? With a firm hand and a little patience for upshifts, and by rev-matching the motor speed to the transmission speed when downshifting. There's no need to use a clutch in an EV when stopping or starting out. An electric motor doesn't idle like a gas engine - it stops when the accelerator is released and the car stops. At about 3:40 you see one potential "problem" of driving an quiet vehicle - a pedestrian steps off a curb - backwards! - into my path as I am slowly approaching. I don't think he would have backed up right into the car, but I tapped the horn to let him know I was there anyway. Disaster averted! (This has only happened to me once in 6 months.)
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