Triac ev experience

All Parts Are here

2012-01-10T09:21:00.001-08:00

It turns out that the transmission is the same as a Geo Metro so they got the bearings and seals easily.
They are starting to put it back together today and I should have him back as early as Friday. He showed me the bad bearing which I will try and get some good pictures of and post them here. The ball bearings and the surfaces that they ride on were very pitted. I am not sure what caused the premature failure but when I get the bearing apart and inspect the wear pattern it should give me a clue. My guess is that it is excessive side loading of the bearing.

As soon as he is all back to normal I am going to get back on the trailer hitch installation, and wiring.

There is a light at the end of the tunel

2012-01-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

I just heard from the transmission place that it was a bearing that was bad, and they have it on order. All they have to do is find the axle seal, and Mac will be on the road again. They said as early as this Friday, or early next week.
YA WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The search is on

2011-12-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

Well bad news. The transmission is broken. It is not the seal. The axle shaft has side play and is coming part way out of the seal causing the leak. The transmission will have to come out, and I can not have them do that until I can find a place to get parts. The good thing is I found out that it is out of a car in China called "Chery QQ sweet .8l. I have been doing searches, but have not found a place to get parts yet. I did find a place to buy a new transmission but with a minimum order of 10.
If I can not find a place to get parts I will probably look for a different trany that I can easily get parts for and retro fit it to Mac. I really do not want to scrap him. It all depends on the cost because I also wanted to change motor and controller.
I did get a contact person that has contact with the person that bought out all Green Vehicles inventory when they went bankrupt. I might be able to pick up a good trany through them.
If I end up going the retro fit I will likely have to do all the work myself to make it affordable. Unfortunately my garage will not be built for about 6 months so I will have to wait. I suppose I could just keep driving him with the leak :(

Mac has been broke for two months now

2011-12-20T06:40:00.000-08:00

Well I have been to busy to get Mac fixed. He started to leak transmission fluid, and I stopped driving him because I do not want anything to break. Now I have the time, and money to get him into the doctor. The company "Green Vehicles" is no more so I am on my own. I am sure if it is just a seal that a good transmission shop will be able to find one. I stopped in at Kirkland Transmission, and they were very exited to work on him. They assured me that it would not be a problem getting the correct seal. I have had work done there before, and they are very good, and professional.
I am going to get it scheduled today and get him back on the road. Then maybe I can get back to the trailer hitch work.
The last two months I have been selling my house, buying another, and moving. Finally I have settled in, and things are almost back to normal. I do not have a carport, or garage though so I am going t o get plans drawn up for a garage, and apply for permit so Mac will have a great place to rest, and I will have a great place to work on him, and prep for building a new EV.

Hitch at the welders shop

2011-09-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics of the hitch assembly at the welders shop. It is all assembled, and just needs cleaning, and painting. It is a bit clunky looking, but it will tuck up undernieth the back and should not be too visable when not in use.

The next step will be to have it welded onto Mac, and then I have to get the wiring done.

Trailer hitch finally started

2011-09-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got my design finished. I made a mockup out of wood first so I could see how it looks, and fits. I took it to the Welding shop which at first said they would do it but when I got all the pieces cut and ready to weld they changed there minds and did not want to do it.
I did find a place to do it and dropped off the pieces along with my wood mockup as a visual aid. When they get it done I will get it painted and then bring it back to have it welded to Mac.

Mockup

Cutting the pieces

Ready for welding

No more Triac's

2011-07-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

It was sad to read the other day that Green Vehicles has closed its doors. I am surprised that they did not notify me beings I have worked closely with them during the development over the last year and a half, but I guess they had bigger things to deal with. I am sure there is going to be a lot of negative things said about the company as many people are quick to point a finger and say bad things. They had a vision and tried to make it come true. Some make it and some do not. I think they should have made different decisions along the way, but we all make our own decisions. I made the decision to buy a Triac, and I am still glad I did. It is a great little vehicle, and a joy to drive. It has had its problems along the way, but they fixed them and we moved on. I am hoping to get some info from them, but it looks unlikely I will be able to get a hold of them.
I would like to say to Green Vehicles thank you for all your support, and choosing me as one of the lucky people to purchase the Triac. I love it, and plan on keeping it for a long time. It may be difficult getting aftermarket parts for it but I will do my best to keep it on the road as long as possible.

As far as Mac goes, I am still working on the trailer hitch, and am planning on putting him in a car show next month. He is technically not a car, but people love to see him even if it is just for a good laugh.

Parking brake idea / trailer hitch update

2011-07-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have not really liked is there is no park like in normal cars. I have the emergency brake, but I do not feel comfortable with it on a steep hill. The emergency brake only brakes the single wheel in the back, and the car is awful heavy for just the one wheel.
I recently heard about a device used in the racing industry called a "brake line lock" It is an electric solenoid that operates with a switch. You simply press on the brakes and press the button and it locks the brake fluid in the lines maintaining pressure. This would work on all three wheels giving me three times the holding power for a parking brake.
I have sent an e-mail to Green Vehicles to get there opinion on the idea. I think it would be a great improvement on there design with little cost for implementing. I am going to take Mac into a brake place and get an estimate for installation. I can do the wiring, and install the switch, but would rather they do the splicing and bleeding of the brake fluid.

My design for the trailer hitch is coming along fine. I am expecting the hitch tube to arrive tomorrow so I can get this moving. I have been so busy it had been moved to the back burner for a while.

Mac and I go mountain climbing

2011-06-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

I noticed that there are two charging stations at the top of Stevens Pass so I decided to see how Mac does with mountain climbing. It is about 52 miles to the top with an elevation gain of over 4000 feet. The last 15 miles or so were very steep. I was able to maintain about 50-55MPH, but the temperature gauge was starting to go up, and the battery gauge started to plummet. I was already way past the point of turning around, and was worried that I may not make it. I arrived with no problem, and 30% of my battery Pac still left. I plugged in, and walked around for a while and enjoyed the snow, and sunshine. I was quite surprised at how well Mac handled the climb.

The trip back was a blast. I went a long way just coasting. The trip back used only 30% of my pack. I knew it would use less, but not that much less.

Figuring out the cost

2011-06-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to figuring out how much it costs to charge Mac.
I drove to work and back with a little trip during lunch. I drove a total of 50 miles, and used 51% of the Pac. It took 15 Kw to charge him back up according to my kilowatt meter. With my rates that came to about $1.21 for 50 miles.
The range actually looked good as well but I still do not know where the Pac runs out. If it runs out at 10% left that is not good. One of these days I will have to run it down and see where the bottom is.

More Pics

2011-05-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some new pictures of Mac.

I got an adapter cord so that I can charge at the new charging stations being installed. I stopped by the one at the library in Redmond for a test run. Everything worked perfectly. Now I have to come up with a way to find all the charging stations. It seems like every place selling these stations have there own maps. There needs to be a master map that shows all of them for this to really work.
Here are a couple of pics of Mac at home charging.

Here he is eating dinner

Here is his personal plate

Here are a few with the new adapter

Triac update

2011-03-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well I have not posted in a long time, but I will try and do better.

Mac is doing fine, I have noticed about a 10% loss in range during the cold winter with the heater on. On the couple of warmer days we had ( mid 50's )it was back to normal. I have about 10.000 miles on him so far. I say about because I had the speedometer replaced a couple of times and I did not write down the mileage before replacing it.
I had the clutch break on me, but not the fault of the Triac. I am in the habit of stopping with the clutch out, and down shifting to 2nd (The gear I start out in). Every once in a while it does not go all the way into gear, and when I step on the accelerator the motor just spins. I quickly realize the problem, and put the clutch in and shift. The problem is I do not hear the motor spinning, and I just let the clutch out fast. Needless to say the motor is spinning very fast, and instantly engages the clutch with a bang! After doing this about 5 times one of the clutch springs broke. Green Vehicles paid to have it repaired locally, and sent a much heavier duty clutch with dual springs. Mac is much happier now.

I have almost completed my design for a trailer hitch and am getting excited to get it installed.

The weather is finally getting better here so I will try and get more pictures.

Mac returns to the falls

2010-08-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Since I had to go into work in Redmond I decided to go to Snoqualmie falls afterwards, and then back to Monroe. The entire trip was about 70 miles, and I used 72% of my pac.
I am not sure if my range is improving because of the warmer weather, or if the batteries are getting more cycles on them. Every thing I have read about the lithium batteries is that in the beginning the capacity actually increases before they start to loose capacity.
It was a beautifully trip, and Mac preformed wonderful.

Trip to Stanwood

2010-08-07T10:16:00.001-07:00

I decided to go on a trip to Stanwood last weekend to visit my sister. The trip was almost all freeway, so it was a good opportunity to see how my range is at freeway speed. I was driving mostly 65-70MPH, and it is a distance of 40 miles from Monroe to Stanwood. When I arrived, I had used 45% of my battery. With 55% still left I would have no problem making it back. I plugged into her 110 outlet while I was visiting to put a little back in while I was there. I figure that one hour using 110 puts 5 miles back into the pack. If I did not plug in my battery would have run down to about 10% when I got home. It is not good to run it down that far. I try to never go less than 20% left, and I usually never get it below 50% with my normal driving.

I am still planning on taking a trip to the ocean soon. I have found an RV park that has 50 AMP service that is about at the 80 mile distance along the trip where I can plug in. It is a 160 mile trip so that is a perfect half way point within my range. I still need to find a place when I get there to plug in though.

Mac goes up Stevens Pass

2010-07-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

I took Mac almost to the top of Stevens Pass. I turned around about 10 miles from the pass because I was down to 55% left in the Pac. I did not want to run it down to 50%. I always forget that I use way less energy on the way down than on the way up. When I got home, I had gone 80 miles, and used 70% of the Pac. I believe the hot weather is helping the range. I stopped and took this picture on the way back. There are several areas that you can just pull over, and walk down to the river and see some awesome views.

Trip to Snoqualmie Falls and North Bend

2010-07-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I took a trip up to Snoqualmie falls. After the falls I continued to the town of North Bend. I was going to try for the Pass on I-90, but I was not sure if I would make it. I drove around a little in North Bend, and back down to Carnation, and then back to Monroe. I drove just under 70 miles round trip, and still had 30% of my Pac left. Most of my trip was flat accept the last 5-7 miles was kind of steep and winding.
After getting home I wish I would have tried to make it to the top of the pass. I keep forgetting that although it may take a lot of the Pac going up hill, it usually does not use hardly any of the Pac going down (mostly coasting).
It is so amazing having Mac this long, and still not having run it long enough to see what happens when the batteries get run down. The closest I have come to 0% is 11 or 12% with no sign of change in performance. I can not say enough good things about Lithium.

MAC is bac!!!!!!

2010-06-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

Mac is back, well he has been back since 5/20.

I have been so busy at work, and home that I have fallen behind on my blog. Mac is back, and better than ever. The acceleration from stop is much better now, and the intermittent electrical problem is fixed.
It has been such a joy to be driving Mac again.
I decided to do a range test on I-5 heading north and turn around when I got to about 60% charge left. I quickly realized that on the freeway, you can not just turn around when you want. You have to wait until the next exit. I was not familiar with that far north, and was getting a little worried that I may hit a spot that was far between exits, and it might put me over the 50% mark, but I decided to go for it anyway. The worst that could happen was if I went to far, and did not have enough to make it home I would just have to plug in and wait a while somewhere on the way home. I chickened out at the next exit and turned around.
I went from Monroe to the Stanwood exit, and back to Monroe. I drove 63 miles, and used 68% of my Pac. I was driving about 65MPH most of the time.
I am very impressed with how the lithium batteries are performing, and the state of charge meter.
I am still planning on putting a trailer hitch on him, and making a small trailer to match the design of the triac.
I allso am planning on taking him on a trip over to West Port on the washington coast. I will have to stop at an RV park along the way to recharge, and then recharge while I am at West Port as well.
RV parks have 220 30Amp outlets so charging will be good. I need to find a place at West Port that is 220. It should not be that hard to do. I just need to get to a slow point at work to take some time off.

Rain sucks on a motorcycle

2010-04-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well I finally broke down and bought a gas vehicle. I would have rather used my tax refund for other things, but riding in the rain on my motorcycle just got too depressing. At least with the bad economy there were a lot of clunkers to choose from.
I am still waiting to here about Mac. I should hear something this week.

Oh Where Oh Where can my Triac be, Oh Where Oh Where can he be

2010-04-15T12:27:00.001-07:00

Well, Still no Triac. It has been a little over 6 weeks. It really sucks being on the cutting edge. I am suppose to get an update today. I sure hope it is good news, and that he will be back soon.
My friends are starting to teas me by saying that they are keeping the car until the warranty expires.

Triac In the movie's

2010-03-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Mac (My Triac) is down in California for some upgrades, and service. While he was down there he had the opertunity to be in a short 15 minute movie. he was used as a police car about 4 minutes into the flic. Here is the link if you want to check it out

http://futurestates.tv/episodes/pia

I sure miss him. I am hoping to get him back some time this week.

2010-02-17T10:01:00.001-08:00

Well it has been a while since I posted. I now have about 2,800 miles on my Triac who I have named Mack.
Mack is performing very well. I am driving him daily, and usually never get below 45% charge. I am going to try and get some video done and put on YouTube as soon as the weather gets better. Somehow video always looks better when it is not pouring down rain.

I have seen a lot of debate going on in the EV community on battery management systems, and I would like to put my comment out there. The biggest issue I have seen is over charging or over discharging. Lithium batteries will be damaged if you charge them to high, or drain them to far. The chargers I have seen appear to do a good job at charging without going to high. The big issue I see is with Battery management systems not allowing the voltage to drop below a certain voltage, and they are doing a bad job. And by bad job I do not mean they are damaging the battery. What they are doing is stopping or limiting the amount of power because of false readings.
Here is my understanding on lithium batteries. I am going to use Mack (my Triac) as an example, but it applies to all Battery management systems I have seen.
My cut off voltage is 2.5V per cell. That means if one of the 45 cells goes to 2.59V it will shut off to protect the batteries from being damaged. The battery can go below 2.59V under load as long as it is still above 2.59V at rest. When you are going up a hill drawing about 150-200 amps the voltage in the batteries will drop. I have seen it drop as much as .3V. If my voltage is at 2.9V, going up a hill could fool my BMS system into thinking my batteries are to low, and shut the car off, when in fact I have almost half a charge left. I have not run into this yet because I usually only drain my pack to 50%, and I do not have any hills at the end of my trip.
There is my long winded two cents on BMS systems. I think they are great used as a visual aid, but I would much rather not have it making the decisions for me until it can do a better job. The big problem is the small range of voltage from full to empty. Mack is usually at 3.3V per cell when charged, and 2.5V when empty. That is only .8V difference.

Stats and more info on range

2010-01-13T07:41:00.000-08:00

I have put together some statistics that many people have been asking me about. Keep in mind that these are approximate, give or take an inch.

The inside width dimension varies depending on where it is taken. I tried to take it about where the center of the seat is with the seat almost all
the way back.

Outside
Length: 125 inches.
Width of body (not including mirrors): 55 inches.
Height: 62 inches.
Clearance under Triac: 6 inches.

Inside
Width: 46 1/2 inches.
Height: 45 inches.
Seat to ceiling: 35 1/2 inches.
Back of seat to steering wheel: 23 inches.

The weight of mine is 2,280 LBS. I went to a truck stop and had it weighed. I have been told the batteries weigh 750 LBS, putting the Triac at
1,530 without batteries.

My Tire size is 195/50 R15 (I believe this was an upgrade)

Range: I have done two range tests with great results.

1st was averaging 45-50 MPH with no heater running, level ground with an outside temp of 40: 102 miles with 13% battery left showing on the gauge. This would be around 117 miles if it went to 0%.

2nd was averaging 60 MPH with no heater on, hilly terrain and temp of 40 degrees: I drove 48 miles with 50% charge still left this would estimate to about 96 miles if the batteries were depleted
To 0%.

I would not go much more than 10% left so the batteries would last longer.
I generally only go down to about 45% between charges.

I am very pleased with the results so far. The 100 mile range seems to be as advertised.

I am not sure what affect the colder temps are having on the batteries. I believe lithium is suppose to do well in cold Temps.

Charge times

2010-01-05T05:59:00.000-08:00

I love the fact that I can charge the Triac with both 110, and 220. The 110 allows me to plug in anywhere, but the 220 is far better.
With 110 it takes quite a long time. Green Vehicles told me for a full charge it would take about 20 hours. With my driving I have not run mine down much below 50% so charging with 110 was working as long as I plugged in right when I got home. If you do the math that works out to be about 5 miles of charge an hour.
The 220 takes about 4-5 hours. if you figure 5 hours that is 20 miles of charge an hour.
Someone pointed out to me that the best place to find a 220 outlet on the road is at an RV park. It never occurred to me that that would be an easy access point. The plug is probably different so I would have to have a new cord made up for it. The new cord would only need to be about 6 inches long. Just long enough to change from my plug to a different one. I have no idea how much they would charge though. most people think because it is 220 that it uses a lot of electricity. I am guessing it costs me between $2.00 to $2.50 to charge up. I would like to think they would not charge more that $10.00 to let me charge up.
I will try and get the dimensions, tire size, and weight posted soon.

1'ST RANGE TEST

2010-01-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got around to doing my first range test. I was told that the Triac should be able to go 100 miles at 45MPH so that is what I was going to attempt. I did not run the heater because I am sure that is how they did there range test to achieve the 100 miles. My speed was between 45 and 50 MPH for the ride. I had a stretch of road that was flat, and a little over 5 miles long. I would drive the 5 miles @ 45-50 MPH, turn around and come back. Because I was only going 5 miles the range test had several stops and starts which does affect range a little. I drove very conservatively. Starting out very slowly, gradually getting up to speed, unless someone was behind me. About 8 miles had gentle rolling hills so some of it was not flat.
All in all I was very impressed. I drove 102 miles, and still had 13% charge left. The state of charge meter seamed to be very accurate with the discharge of the battery. I would have gone farther to see when it would go into limp mode ( this is when the batteries are down low, and it limits the amount of power you can use), but I was very board after driving back and forth for two hours.
A+ to Green Vehicles for there honesty on range. Most EV companies over state what the range will be. I have always told people to take what they claim, and cut it in half, and you should get a little more.

2009-12-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have had my Triac for almost three weeks and it is such a treat to drive over my ZENN. It is such a difference having Lithium over Lead Acid batteries. I have gone on several round trips of about 50 miles, with the lights on, and heater running full bore. The temps have been in the low 40’s, and the range was good. I think the range of 100 miles looks to be accurate at 45 MPH with out the heater, although the heater does not seem to affect it much. I have not done a full range test yet.
I am having a little difficulty with the state of charge meter though. Green vehicles is working the issue. They have been WONDERFULL to deal with as far as support. If I had a problem with my ZENN it would be a minimum of 1 month to get it fixed, and on average probably 6 weeks. At times It felt like the ZENN was down about 50% of the time I had it in the first year.

The head room in the Triac is fine. I had originally thought there would be a problem, but I was wrong. Driving an electric stick shift is very different though. Not in a bad way, just different. You have to use the clutch to change gears when you are moving unlike what people have been telling me. You do not have to put in the clutch when stopping. You simply come to a stop in what ever gear you are in, and then shift it into 1st or 2nd. I usually start in 2nd if it is on level ground. If there is a hill I will start in 1st. Because the motor is so quiet you do not know exactly when to shift. That took some getting used to. I use the speedometer to give me an idea of when to shift. Following is my general rule of when to shift. This is based on trying to keep my amps down to increase range.

I found that I stay in 1st gear until I get to 10MPH, then I shift to 2nd. I stay in 2nd until I get to 20MPH, then I shift to 3rd. I stay in 3rd until I get to 30MPH, then I shift to 4th. I stay in 4th until I get to 40MPH, then I shift to 5th. I use 5th for above 40.

The fastest I have gone is about 65MPH, and I was pleasantly surprised. I was thinking there would be a lot more vibration, and it might wander a little. I was surprised to find that it road the same as if I was going 25MPH. I felt no difference. I can let go of the steering wheel, and it goes perfectly straight, no wandering.
The charge time with 110 is a bit lengthy though. A 50 mile trip usually takes me about 10-12 hours to charge. I just got my 220 cord and am looking forward to charging in much less time. I am told that if the batteries are down all the way it will only take about 5 hours to charge with 220
Everyone seams to really like the look of it though. I was thinking people would find it to be odd looking.

I got my Triac

2009-11-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

I have finally got my Triac. I have had it for a little over a week now. Here are a couple of pictures. I am going to try and get permission from Green Vehicles to post some of the performance.

Let me clear this up a bit

2009-11-16T12:34:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the confusion. I did have the choice to buy the Triac without signing the non disclosuer. I am perticipating in an "Early Adopter" program which enables me to get the second year warenty free, and I will be working closely with Green Vehicles to make sure that everything is working properly and make improvements as needed. This is very important in making sure the Triac is the best they can make it. I am able to comment if I get Green Vehicles permission, but that would not be good data because they probably would not let me point out problem areas like if the range was not what was expected.
I still believe I will have a good experiance with Green Vehicles, I just will not be able to share it :(

You will no longer be getting updates from me :(

2009-11-16T06:23:00.000-08:00

Nothing like an Attorney to conduct business like this. It may not be a scam like I feared, but they waited until the last minute to send me paperwork that I had to sign in order to be an early adopter.
According to the confidential agreement I will sign I can not disclose anything about the vehicle and its performance. I also can not make any disparaging comments about the vehicle, Green Vehicles, or there employees.
My vehicle is going to ship out Today, and I should get it Wednesday.
I am sure I will be happy with it, and Green Vehicles. I am not sure why the secrecy but to each there own.
I wish everyone well in there EV endeavors.

Ship Date!!!!! Can it be real this time?

2009-11-12T08:14:00.001-08:00

I just got this E-mail from Ehab

"Looking forward to delivering the Triac to you. The truck leaves on Monday"

The VIN number was GOOD

2009-11-12T08:13:00.001-08:00

Well it turns out that the VIN number was in fact a good number. My insurance company wrote it up as a smart car because the Triac was not in there system. The first time I confronted them with the problem they assured me the VIN number was in fact for a smart car. I went back, and there was someone there that actually new something and cleared it all up.
I did get a message from Ehab at Green Vehicles, and it said that my Triac was going to ship out on Monday. I will not get my hopes up. This is only about the 5th time he has predicted a ship date.

I had a dream last night that I got my Triac, and the range was only 25 miles. I guess dream is not the correct word. it was a nightmare.
All I can say is frangabarskaborgasnorch.

It may all be a SCAM!!!!!

2009-11-11T04:48:00.001-08:00

Well I am really starting to get worried. I have just heard that the production Triac is not going to make it to the Seattle auto show the 11th thru the 15th. I was told that the delivery is now pushed out into December because they are busy moving there production facility to a different city.

It turns out that the VIN# that Green Vehicles gave me is a fake. It is not for one of there vehicles at all. It turns out it is a VIN# off of a Smart car.

I have been giving them the benefit of the doubt, but am afraid they have been stringing me along.

The company is also going after state and federal money. I am sure this is where they are putting all there effort. Ehab told me the schedule got pushed out because he was busy with acquiring the use of the new building for his production facility. I find it hard to believe that the mechanics that were working on the Triac had to stop because Ehab was trying to work out the details of moving his production to a different city. There are only about 7 of these Triac's that are here, and it was only suppose to take about two weeks to finish building them after they got here, and that was about 2 1/2 months ago.

Boy was I wrong

2009-10-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

My Bad,
The Triac that was at Green Car Co in Bellevue was not one of the production ones sent over a couple of months ago. I was going through my older photos, and there was a prototype that was before the production modles that had the same body.I allso looked at the pictures that I have of the production Triacs, and they are MUCH better quality. Allso I noticed that on the prototype that the rear wheel is mounted on the opposit side than the production modle. The one I saw was the same way, so it clearly was not one of the production Triac's.

I got an E-mail from Green Vehicles on Monday saying that they would be sending me some paperwork by the end of this week, and My Triac would be ready to ship the end of next week. I have heard this story before, I just hope this is the last time.

Sorry for the mistake on the Triac at Green Car Co in Bellevue

Wow a Triac in the flesh

2009-10-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

I went to the "Green Car Co" in Bellevue Wa. this weekend, and there it was the Triac in the flesh, or should I say fiberglass. To my surprise it was not proudly on display with the other ev's in the display room. Almost as if they were ashamed of it. The Triac was through a large opening into the shop where they repair cars, and had dust all over it from the shop.The car was sent up from Green Vehicles for the "Beyond Oil conference". They were told that it is a prototype, and there’s was not ready yet. I am a little skeptical though. The prototype I am used to seeing is the older body style with the center headlight. This one clearly looked like one of the 7 that were shipped here from China two months ago.Green car co was so disappointed in the quality of the car that they did not even take it to the conference. I did see some things that clearly were not good quality in the interior panels. One of the indentations in the plastic near the cup holders was so thin there was a hole in it big enough to stick a couple of fingers in. There were also a couple of places where two panels come together that the black plastic was rough, and had white showing where it was either cut , or the black had just been rubbed off.I was able to sit in it and one of my fears turned out true. My head hits the roof :(. I am not sure what can be done about that. The seats sit in contact with the battery box, so they can not be lowered. It might be possible to adjust the seat position and angle to get around the problem. No one was there that knew anything about it.I am anxious to here what Ehab from Green Vehicles has to say about there car as well as mine.

One more little delay, but worth it

2009-10-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well there has been one more little delay, but it is worth it. It turns out there is a dealership opening (in Bellevue WA) about 25 miles from where I live. Part of the agreement with them is that they get the first Triac, so there's got done first. This is good for me because if I have a problem I have somewhere to go now.

Mine is suppose to be ready to ship by next week. The dealers Triac is being delivered tomorrow. I plan on going down to see one for the first time in person.

Where can it be?

2009-10-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Oh where oh were has my Triac gone, oh where oh where can it be.

I called Green Vehicles on October 2nd, the day they assured me it would be done, and I have not heard back yet.
Searching on the net I discovered that the 2009 ALTCAR Expo (Alternative energy and transportation expo) was October 2nd and 3rd in Santa Monica CA. The list of exhibitors included Green Vehicles. I can only guess that they have been very busy getting ready for it, and that is why I have not heard back.
The big question now is "Oh where oh were has my Triac gone, oh where oh where can it be".

Still on schedule since last update

2009-09-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

Well I just got off the phone with Ehab at Green Vehicles. The hub will be in early next week, and he is confident that by Oct 2nd he will have my Triac finished.

more delays

2009-09-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

Well I just got an update, and it seems the two weeks to finish the assembly in California is going to turn into around 4 weeks.

The installation of the electronics, battery box & batteries along with connections is taking longer than expected. The real hold up is the custom transmission/motor hub. I think it was about two months ago I learned of a bearing sidewall failure in the mating of the motor and transmission. I believe this is why they are waiting on the new custom hub. Mr. Youssef will give me a better update by next week.

I just pray that I will get it by the time the rains start up. As anyone who has lived in western Washington knows, it can get quite wet. And when it starts, well lets just say gurgle gurgle gurgle blub blub blub.

The Triac's have arived!!!!!!!

2009-08-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with Lee at GreenVehicles. The Triac's arrived last Friday, and they are in the process of installing the electronics. This should take up to two weeks to complete.
The dream is getting closer.

Ultracapacitor Pac for extending range

2009-08-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

When I get my Triac I would like to eventually get an ultracapacitor pac installed. I have been following the one pictured here, and the results are very good. They claim about a 30% increase in range, although the true benafit is it decreases the stress on the batteries durring accelaration, and captures most if not all of the regenerative breaking. Lead acid batteries can only absorb about 10%.

Triac is on the water

2009-07-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

The first shipment of Triacs has FINALLY shipped!!!!!! Here is a picture of the Triacs in China just before they shipped to California to have the motor, controller, and batteries installed.

It will take 18 days on the water to get to Callifornia, and about 2 weeks to finish the assembly.

Mine will be one of the first 6 to be delivered!!!!!

2009-07-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have been an electric vehicle enthusiast for many years. My first EV was an E-bike. It was very well built, but was not quiet. The motor made a lot of noise, and people would look to see what the heck was coming.

My next ev was another bike. This one was more powerful and totally quiet. It was truly a joy to ride. It could reach speeds of 30MPH, although that is a bit scary on a bicycle.

My third ev was a ZENN neighborhood electric vehicle. I had it converted to AC so it would have more power, and go 35MPH in stead of 25MPH. From day one it was a disappointment, and continued to disappoint me from when I bought it until now. Many people have had the same problems as me (charger, and pac failures ). It is great when it works, the problem is it only works about 40% of the time. The reason I say 40% is because every time it would fail it would be anywhere from 1 to 3 months to get it fixed. Support has been the biggest problem.
I have about 10,000 miles on it now and it has gone through 3 battery pac's, and had the charger replaced twice. If it was not under warranty it would have cost me approx $9,000 in repairs just for the parts.

My next vehicle is the Triac three wheeler. it seats two, has lithium batteries, and can go 80MPH. It is suppose to have a range of 100 miles @ 45MPH. I am not sure what the range is @ freeway speeds.
I have been waiting for my Triac EV for over a year now. There have been MANY delays, but I feel confident it is very close to becoming a reality. As with many new technologies, and companies there are many delays. They have been rigorously testing the prototypes, disassembling it, checking for wear, and making corrections. Most resent problem was a bearing failure. They have replaced it with a much stronger, and more reliable one.

I am estimating that I should get it around the second week in September. The photo attached has a picture of the Triac that I photo shopped in front of my house just for fun.