Parking brake idea / trailer hitch update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.