| Owner | Luke | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner's Other EVs | 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit 1980 Jet Electravan | ||||||
| Location | New Orleans, Louisiana United States map | ||||||
| Web/Email | WebPage | ||||||
| Vehicle | 1980 Subaru 600 Electra Van this is a nice low-mileage electravan that was stored inside...mostly in good shape. | ||||||
| Motor | General Electric 5BT1346B38 Series Wound DC It says: HP 20.9 WDG SERIES V 90 A 84 NO.LR8-1102LR RPM 4707 ENCL BV CL H DUTY-1 HR 140 C | ||||||
| Drivetrain | G.E. motor, original clutch and 4 speed tranny | ||||||
| Controller | Curtis 1231c replaced the original GE ev1 controller with the curtis....working great so far. Much better control at very low speeds and much higher top speed | ||||||
| Batteries | 36 Thunder Sky 260 ah, 3.30 Volt, Lithium Iron Phosphate This pack was used to test a prototype Wheego Life. I got it third-hand. It likes to hang right around 118v. | ||||||
| System Voltage | 120 Volts | ||||||
| Charger | Delta-Q Technologies quiq I have 2 delta-qs @ 1kw each. They need cooling fans so I rigged up some of those, and I replaced the tiny output pins with 10 gauge wire. I have added 4 elcon chargers, so now charging at 11kw.. yay! | ||||||
| Heater | I removed the original gas heater and tank. Need to rig up an electric defroster at least... | ||||||
| DC/DC Converter | Meanwell SD-500-12 Was using an aux deep cycle marine battery. I tried the dc/dc converter built into the quiq- dci charger but it failed after a half mile or so. I'm guessing the antique controller's backflush currents fried it. The meanwell is new since the curtis 1231 install, we'll see if it does better. | ||||||
| Instrumentation | Have a JLD404 in, seems great except one decimal point burned out and now some of the parts of the numbers are sometimes not lit up. Also have a digital voltmeter for the 12v system. | ||||||
| Top Speed | 65 MPH (104 KPH) With the curtis controller, I went past the end of the speedometer. The car can go faster than any reasonable driver would want to go while inside of it. | ||||||
| Acceleration | adequate | ||||||
| Range | 80 Miles (128 Kilometers) 80 is a ballpark figure. I drove 70 miles, very carefully, and used 20kwh... the batteries are getting old and have lost some capacity I'm sure. Could go farther if I balanced the cells. | ||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | 300 Wh/Mile 300 is a rough estimate, not including charger losses | ||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | 5 people or 15 clowns. I just built a seatback to make the battery box into a back seat. Apparently this was a factory option. Had 3 skinny people back there yesterday and they said it was fine. 3 skinnies can squeeze across the front too, but it is trouble for shifting/emergency brake. With a smaller battery box it could be configured for 3 rows of seats for small people. Which would be hilarious. | ||||||
| Curb Weight | 2,352 Pounds (1,069 Kilograms) Jet listed the weight with FLA batteries at 2790, subtract 1122 lbs FLA and add 684 lbs LiFePO4 for 2352. Haven't weighed it on a scale though. | ||||||
| Tires | vee rubber citystar v2 145/80R10 74N yeah, ten inches...with tubes inside. The alignment is so off that they only last about 8,000 miles. | ||||||
| Conversion Time | Pretty easy mods on battery box for lithium cells, had to drop motor out for rebuild, rebuild brake, still lots of projects..... | ||||||
| Conversion Cost | Probably about 9k so far, half on the used batteries.... | ||||||
| Additional Features | Everybody loves the van. You get smiles, waves, thumbs up, questions, compliments, children pointing and yelling. Also, it can carry lots of stuff. You could even set it up to sleep in the back. A problem is driving the little 10" wheels over New Orleans' bumpy streets. That limits performance more than the electric drive system. Added a J1772 inlet and a 50 amp RV/marine style twist lock inlet to use at RV parks. Would also like to add a chademo inlet once a kit becomes available. | ||||||
| The first day I drove this van something in the brush end of the motor started to make a grinding sound. I took the motor out and to a motor place and they said it had developed a short inside, they fixed that and now it is running again. I think the Jet Industries motor cooling fan is inadequate. Odometer readings are actually kilometers, and are about 10% overstated because the outside diameter of the tires is smaller than stock. Jan 2013 update: Killed two cells, over discharged them. I have a refurbished curtis 1231 installed with a reversing contactor.... contactor is 24v so I have a voltage device to run that... one of the delta-q chargers seems to have died, just flashes an error light. Does somebody fix those? Not quite back to driving yet, reversing contactor is blowing fuses... Feb 2013 update...went back to mechanical reverse, will wire up reversing contactor later when dc/dc is installed. The curtis controller makes a huge difference in acceleration and feel... still driving around with two dead cells in series in the pack. Yay! Just turned 5000km. The next benchmark will be if I can make it to 5580km, putting as many kilometers on it as all previous eight owners combined. Put in two replacement cells from Balqon....need to balance them. August 2013 update: Turned 7000km, went on longest trip ever of about 50 miles Dec 2013 update: Added a radio... it is great. Added a marine inlet where the gas filler used to be.. nice.And I think I have realized that an AH on the JLD404 is smaller than a real AH.... since charging reads 22 amps at 120 volts, that equals 2640 watts, 2 quiq chargers at 945w each should be 1890w... which would make it about 30% off.. Still haven't balanced the cells or figured out range. Feb 2015 update: van is still doing well.. needs some alignment and a few things of course. May 2015 update: Just went on a road trip to Florida panhandle, 300 miles each way.. Lots of fun to have an out of state license plate on such a silly old car. The van had zero problems, which is good since I realized I left my voltmeter at home. Managed 300 miles in 24 hours on the way back. There's an article about it at WebPage 2021 update: Sold this van... it went to Minnesota | |||||||
1980 Jet ElectraVan 600
“Blueberry Pie”
Last Updated 08-16-2021
Copyright © 1997-2024 by Mike Chancey