dablack00 wrote:I couldn't give a flip about the truck! We need to know about the forklifts!
#1. Always tell the rental place you are hauling a truck cab that weighs 500lbs. I once told them I was picking up a miata and they told me my truck wasn't rated for it. GRRRRR!
#2. Tell me more about the forklifts. How much did you pay for 2 of them? How big of a controller are you going to use? How far do you want to go? How fast? Are you going to use a transmission too or just direct drive? Sealed lead acid or ???. I really want to go pick up a $500 dent side and build an electric truck. I only drive about four miles to work so it would be perfect! Also, I learned the other day that the prius has an electric AC compressor! How cool would that be in your electric truck? AC on electric! NICE! Are you posting somewhere else about your electric car project? I will just read there so you won't have to write everything twice. It kills me that I only live four miles from work, but since I drive home for lunch, I burn at least two gallons of gas every day. When gas goes back up that will be $10 a day!
I'm going to be building an electric bicycle first to get more familiar with the technology and then move on to something bigger.
I managed to get the "golf cart" I originally had my eye on so I may not even need these forklifts. The forklifts are only 24V but my "golf cart" is a 36 volt truck. It's a Taylor Dunn industrial truck. I don't know whether the motor and controller are good but as soon as I connect 36 volts of batteries to it I'll find out. This thing originally was only designed to go 15 mph but also can carry quite a lot of weight. It appears to have a gear or chain drive mounted directly to the axle.
There is another industrial type truck, actually this one goes 55mph and can be registered for on the road use, just down the road from me. It runs on 72 volts and comes with a rebuilt controller. The owner is asking $900.00 but it doesn't come with batteries. You could even convert your '67-'72 F100 with this truck. It has a direct drive system. The electric motor is mounted directly to the differential without any gearbox/transmission. Here are some photos of that truck:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolinick/tags/021109/show/
T-105 golf cart batteries cost about $100 bucks a piece and weigh about 60 pounds. I would need six of them for my 36 volt EV conversion. So $600 dollars and 360 pounds of batteries would be the minimum to get my electric vehicle going with limited acceleration and probably not fast enough to get on the highway. With 3 car batteries or marine deep cycle batteries I can run the car but it would have a severly limited range and running the batteries very low could damage and/or shorten their lifespan.
I have a long way to go but at least I am getting some of the parts together to make my EV conversion really happen.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolinick/s ... 66526/show
Well perhaps I still can rent a trailer and haul those forklifts myself. I paid $312.00 for the pair. I have heard of alternative air conditioning systems and or compressors. I won't be installing the AC in the Chevette or at least not bothering with it until I get the car functional. A 4 mile commute you might also consider an electric motorcycle or moped. I live near major bus routes so I would try to take the bus and or my bicycle if I had a 4 mile commute. I mean besides my electric car.
.
Dan
