MAC is bac!!!!!!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.