Electric Vehicle Enthusiasts

[MetroMPG]

My first electric lift truck was a 1968 Clarke with no power steering.

Ha! My first electric lift truck was a 1980's era Baker FTD-110!



A buddy and I bought it from a local company, had it trucked over to the house, and stripped out all the electric components:



Then we stuck one of the forklift's hydraulic pump motors into a $175 Geo Metro:



And got a crapload of used 6v golfcart batteries to power it (only using 8 at a time for 48v):



Then we tidied everything up, and ended up with a super cheap short-range, medium-speed electric car to drive around. Used it for about 6 years in Brockville.





Full details: http://forkenswift.com

[MetroMPG]

PS: Moose, your bike sounds like it was a LOT of fun!

[Pete]

I've seen forkenswift site before. I always wish the drive motor would have worked for you. My current weapon has a a.c.r. motor for each drive wheel and they are super efficient. We have some caterpillar lift trucks that are being takin out of service. Hmmm

[Moose]

PS: Moose, your bike sounds like it was a LOT of fun!

It was, i had a big road bike crank up front and a 11 tooth rear sprocket so i could pedal and keep up with the motor. It was pretty stealthy...on some occasions people would pull up and ask how i was going so fast. Sometimes i would say "i'm superman" , and "oh yah...and theres a motor on the back and a battery in the box".

I was inspired to see your project years ago MetroMPG. Thank you for that

What kind of potential do you see for a Micra Electric Conversion? Curious what someone with your experience thinks.

[MetroMPG]

The Micra EV has already been done!



http://www.evalbum.com/689



http://www.evalbum.com/4897

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I don't think there's nearly as much interest in conversions now that factory EV's have been widely available for about 5 years.

And people looking for cheap, used EV's have lots to choose from. Leafs are already under $9-10k, Mitsu iMievs can be found for under $6-7k.

[Moose]

Oooooo.

[Daox]

I did a conversion of a riding lawn mower a while back. Its still kicking and does my snowblowing as well.

[MetroMPG]

And doubles as a mobile boost-pack if you ever need a jump start.

[Moose]

Cool! Very mad scientist-y. Those big rig batteries?

[Daox]

Those are deep cycle flooded batteries. Pretty much the go to for EV stuff when you do lead acid conversions.

I'm not sure what big rig batteries are, but I imagine they're more tailored to starting than deep cycling.