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Electric Car Conversion

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A thought occurs: how are you going to stop your big trailer of batteries without power assisted brakes? You don't have engine vacuum anymore to supply the booster.
 
Pulsar said:
Make darn sure none of you tell him how energetic the reaction is when you mix baking soda and vinegar. God knows what might happens if he finds out.
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Maybe he'll try and power his car off the stuff. I can just imagine what will happen when he gets in an accident the trailer full of baking soda vinegar erupts in a huge CO2 volcano.


JCH13 said:
A thought occurs: how are you going to stop your big trailer of batteries without power assisted brakes? You don't have engine vacuum anymore to supply the booster.
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I mentioned that. I bet he won't even be able to steer the thing without power steering.
 
Bignate603 said:
Maybe he'll try and power his car off the stuff. I can just imagine what will happen when he gets in an accident the trailer full of baking soda vinegar erupts in a huge CO2 volcano.
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Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of going electric in the first place, you know, to reduce emissions?
 
Howard said:
Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of going electric in the first place, you know, to reduce emissions?
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My goal was to reduce operating costs and just figure out how to do this to make a profit in the future. I could care less about dumping a little CO2 in the atmosphere.

Same concept as the Volt. It has a gas generator. When gas is readily available and cheap, why not?
 
JCH13 said:
A thought occurs: how are you going to stop your big trailer of batteries without power assisted brakes? You don't have engine vacuum anymore to supply the booster.
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Good question. My seat of the pants solution would be to get an electric vaccum to take the place of the engine vaccum. I have frankly never dealt with brakes so will have to come up with something if it proves to be a problem.

Also, my dad's car does not have power brakes, and it stops good enough if you are careful.

If the battery pack proves to be a problem, I could do the same thing with just solar panels. Could still generate 1000 watts on a good day and would weigh nothing.
 
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DougoMan said:
Good question. My seat of the pants solution would be to get an electric vaccum to take the place of the engine vaccum. I have frankly never dealt with brakes so will have to come up with something if it proves to be a problem.

Also, my dad's car does not have power brakes, and it stops good enough if you are careful.

If the battery pack proves to be a problem, I could do the same thing with just solar panels. Could still generate 1000 watts on a good day and would weigh nothing.
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capturefs.jpg
 
DougoMan said:
Good question. My seat of the pants solution would be to get an electric vaccum to take the place of the engine vaccum. I have frankly never dealt with brakes so will have to come up with something if it proves to be a problem.

Also, my dad's car does not have power brakes, and it stops good enough if you are careful.

If the battery pack proves to be a problem, I could do the same thing with just solar panels. Could still generate 1000 watts on a good day and would weigh nothing.
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But you'll be adding a bunch of weight, especially if you use lead-acid cells.

Like JLee pointed out, 1000watts is nothing in terms of automotive power. And 1kW of solar cells won't be cheap.
 
JCH13 said:
But you'll be adding a bunch of weight, especially if you use lead-acid cells.

Like JLee pointed out, 1000watts is nothing in terms of automotive power. And 1kW of solar cells won't be cheap.
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What are you talking about? A 2000 watt electric engine will easily power a car according to my calculations.
 
Just in case the 100+ square feet of solar panels don't work out I thought of another source for you:

news-graphics-2007-_655312a.jpg


You could again get a warranty on them or sell them on the roadside when your car project travels the 50 or so feet...
 
DougoMan said:
Have you looked at solar cells imported from China or Hong Kong? In bulk they are dirt cheap.

200 watts for $2.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/284454643/180W_Polycrystalline_solar_panel.html

That is like, nothing.
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At a trailer width of 102" / 8.5', you're looking at a 18 foot trailer to fit enough of those cells to generate approximately 2000 watts.

If your trailer was as long as a standard (53') semi trailer, you're looking at just shy of 6000 watts, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.88 horsepower. To pull a 53' trailer.
 
Dougo doesn't understand KWhr or power in general.
200w so you would need 10 panels just to run a hair dryer, now is your hair dryer going to move a car at 100MPH?
 
DougoMan said:
Have you looked at solar cells imported from China or Hong Kong? In bulk they are dirt cheap.

200 watts for $2.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/284454643/180W_Polycrystalline_solar_panel.html

That is like, nothing.
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Ok, good luck actually getting anywhere near that much power out of a cheap solar cell from China. Also, you need to realize that ratings for solar cells are all over the place. Even on the best cells from a good manufacturer only produce their rated power in extremely strong sunlight (like high altitude desert on the equator at noon) while the panel is oriented perfectly perpendicular to the sun.

At normal locations getting normal amounts of sunlight and sitting at a funny angle to the light you'll be lucky to get half the rated power. With a polycrystalline panel from a random supplier in China it will probably be even worse.
 
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