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Preliminary Parts List and Suppliers
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Part
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Have
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Description
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Where to Get it
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Frame materials
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Y
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1.5, 1 and 3/4 inch square steel tubing
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Local steel supplier
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Electric Motor
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Advanced DC motor
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NH dealer
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Batteries
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Y
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Six Marine deep cycle 125 a/h
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Wal-Mart
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Battery Boxes
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Part of frame
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Make, plastic better
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Motor Controller
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Motor compatible, Programmable
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NH dealer
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Contactors
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Ignition/kill switch/forward and reverse
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EV America
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Front End
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Y
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26 inch whls, hyd disk brakes
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Used motorcycle parts warehouse
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Rear Wheel
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Y
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Used 1,000 cc Kawasaki motorcycle
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Junked motorcycle
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Turn Signals
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New, LED
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Internet
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LED Taillights
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tail, dir, stop, lic plate
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VIP / AutoZone
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Seat
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Y
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‘99 Dodge Caravan passenger
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Local junkyard
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Headlight
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Sealed beam, 55 watts, high/low beams
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Internet
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Fenders
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2 front, 1 in back, plastic
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Internet
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Sprockets and chain
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#630, new total 6:1 ratio
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Martin Sprocket and Gears?
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Outer body material
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Fiberglass or ?????
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Home Depot
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Paint
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Rustoleum
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Nuts, Bolts, Wires, switches
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Misc
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Home Depot
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Solar stuff
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Mitsubishi panel/controller/programmer
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Internet
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Backup light?
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VIP or AutoZone
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Something new and handy- An LED lights calculator
http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz
These solar panels will be the ‘gas station’ in my back yard
Here’s the second PV array ready to go up
Here’s another view of the second panel on my 2x6 ramp. The array weighs about 130 pounds. The extended and pivoting pole top will allow flexibility in coordinating the same plane orientation of the two arrays.
Here are both arrays up on their eight foot poles. The wiring is not finished in this photo. Yes, I needed help to get them up there without dropping them. Each of the six panels produces 110 watts for a total of 660 watts. This system could theoretically produce up to about 2.5 kilowatts per sunny day in Maine, if they followed the sun (they don’t). Expect less production in the real world. Heavy tempered glass Mitsubishi panels.
Here is the ‘combiner box’ on a pole, then the wires go into the basement to the charge controller and batteries through PVC pipe. Ground wires to the panels have been added since this photo was taken. This back yard ‘gas station’ will provide enough power to recharge my electric car batteries, but realistically it will take two or three sunny days to charge them.
This system outputs 12 volts DC for my home. I will add a switching arrangement and a separate plug to output 72 volts DC for charging the electric car batteries. In addition I will hook up my 110 volt AC inverter as soon as I can get around to it.
This system includes an Outback MX60 MPPT charge controller, and six 265 amp hour batteries. I left room in the bottom of the battery box for two more batteries, but I don’t think I’ll ever need them.
Do not copy my system, consult a qualified electrician for your own installation. I take no responsibility for anyone else’s setup.
Back to Building the Electric Car
NOT MINE! This is the frame and running gear of Art Haines’ latest prototype of his Sunn electric car. My car’s front end is from Art, so it is the same except mine is now five inches wider, and my car has three wheels.
A new and important thought. A sustainable car body material.
I have been thinking about making a fiberglass body for this car, but that is fossil fuel derived, plus fiberglass outgasses toxic gases for years. I’d be better off finding a more sustainable, and less toxic material, or recycle some already existing material. What was that East German Trabant car body made of? Cardboard or something like that?
Criteria: The material must be reasonably lightweight, malleable and reasonably inexpensive, at least no more expensive than fiberglass, at the most.
How about:
Recycled cardboard?
Bamboo panels?
Thin aluminum panels?
Fabric over aluminum bows?
Scrap wood or laminated wood strips?
Bubble wrap?
Recycled plastic material of some sort?
Heavy plastic flexible sheeting material stiffened with something
Recycled something else?
A new material that is on the market that I am not aware of?
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