Trouble in the packCloseup trouble in the packCloseup of the interconnect and molten pIs this how it started?
OwnerCor van de Water
Owner's Other EVs1994 Chevrolet S10 WaveDriver
Schwinn Sierra
Blue 2002 Toyota Prius
2004 Reva Maini
Currie Phat Flyer
1999 EVGlobal
PowerSmart ladies bike
Green 2002 Toyota Prius
2001 Toyota Prius
LocationMountain View, California United States map
Web/EmailWebPage email image
Vehicle1989 Ford Ranger
Truck was owned by City of Santa Rosa (still has inventory tag on dash) and converted by "Pro EV" in Penn Valley, probably in 1995-1996 judging from the serial nr placed on the controller box: 0496-001
MotorGeneral Electric Series Wound DC
11"
Drivetrain11" GE DC motor connected to stock A4LD automatic tranny and rear wheel drive via 4.10 diff.
ControllerGeneral Electric EV100
The 120V version of the GE IGBT controller also used in Forklifts.
Batteries20 US Battery US-145, 6.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded
Best of the Flooded type batteries for EV use. link: www.usbattery.com/usb_us145xc.html
System Voltage120 Volts
ChargerBycan BY-120/132/144-25A
120V and 240V (switcheable) and up to 25A into the 120V pack. I might use the 240 input to attach a J1772 inlet with a bit of logic.
Heateryes, apparently a ceramic heater which to my surprise it is working well, using pack voltage to heat the air of the regular dash outlets. Great to have instant heat!
DC/DC Converter
no DC/DC. Two additional (spare) US145XC batteries are configured as deep cycle aux battery. I use a laptop supply connected to the Bycan transformer and charge at 15V 3A while the pack also charges. The connection to the Bycan allows to keep the truck plugged in, the charger will switch off automatically and also stop overcharging the aux battery
Top Speed65 MPH (104 KPH)
Still working out too high consumption by automatic transmission. Would really like this truck to use less than 400-500 Wh/mi
Acceleration"glacial"
Range25 Miles (40 Kilometers)
at freeway speeds, 25 miles before the pack starts severely sagging - probably 40 miles at constant low speed.
Watt Hours/Mile450 Wh/Mile
EV Miles
Start:69,620 Miles (112,018 Kilometers)
Current:86,320 Miles (138,888 Kilometers)
Total:16,700 Miles (26,870 Kilometers)
 
    As of 5/17/2016
Seating Capacity2 adults, 3 if you are good friends.
Curb Weight4,400 Pounds (1,999 Kilograms)
Ranger truck minus 2.3 gas engine, plus 11" GE series motor, EV100 controller and a total of 20+2 golfcart batteries, including driver. (used weigh bridge at recycling center)
TiresTigerpaw LRR at 45 PSI
The front passenger tire has a slow leak from a nail (since I bought it) and that needs to get patched some day. I need to pump the tire every month to stay above 35 PSI. Edit: after dealing with the slow leak for over a year, I finally bought a patch kit, found the nail and pushed a plug into the tire. It is now holding air very well!
Conversion Timewas already converted when I bought it, just needed to fix the controller with 2 new IGBTs (from used Clark forklift controller EV100 at 36V) and a new freewheel diode (Thanks Rod!)
(Update: after 1000 miles on the replacement IGBTs they gave up and I replaced them with a single CM600HA-24H (1200V 600A) of which I blew 2 in short order until I discovered that the gate protection zener was bad. The third one has been holding up...
Conversion CostBought complete converted vehicle for $4000 with almost new batteries, charger and tires installed by previous owner. Bought a used Clark controller for $150 and paid shipping cost to Rod for the diode. My hours not counted.
Additional FeaturesGE controller standard instrumentation to display error codes; remaining battery capacity (SoC) percentage and the run hours (now a grand total of 38 hours, I almost doubled it in the last 500 miles of my driving which tells me that the truck is probably converted after doing 69k as gas truck in the first 6 years and not driven much after that...
Other instrumentation are a 0-500 Amp and expanded scale Voltmeter (50-150V).
Update: after 1800 miles of my driving, the hour count is at 105 (from 20 when I bought it) so even though I have only used it 4 out of the past 7 months due to travel and waiting for parts, it gets good use as commute vehicle and errand-runner. Very practical when still getting furniture and other items for our home. One and a half year into it, the truck has added 5600 miles with the hour-counter now at 289. Apparently 21 MPH avg is what you get when tooling around town - including quite a bit of Freeway driving, but also long waits for traffic lights...
It took me a while to get used to driving an automatic with an electric motor, I am still appalled by the low efficiency but it may be that the torque converter is not locking up and keeps eating into the performance. I also can't get it into Overdrive (4th gear) and both are controlled by solenoids, so I will need to check the signals to those.
The controller (EV100) has broken down several times initially until I installed a 600A IGBT and 400A freewheel diode, but still 1200 miles further it blew up again. I have installed the same (about the most rugged parts for decent price available) and have added an inductor in series with the motor in an attempt to reduce peak current. The inductor is the core from a scrap microwave transformer (removed the alu wire) with the motor cable wound through in 3 windings, plus I added an air gap by sticking a thin PCB between the E and I part of the core, before using a large hose clamp to tighten them together again. The controller whistling sounds softer now (not as sharp screeching as before).
While driving on the freeway, one battery terminal melted clean off one of the pack batteries, so now I have swapped it for one of the two aux batteries. Good to have spares.

code by jerry