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Gav's EV Conversion - Step 20 - Living with an EV (part one) So far so good! Having an electric car has been great! We've been using the Tredia as a reliable daily driver for a couple of months now and we've cleanly clocked up over 800 kilometres (500 miles) already! Our "Unspent Gas Money" jar gets a $40 visit from Her Majesty each week. It's much better having the money we normally spend on gas back in our pockets, that's for sure! After 2 months we've put almost $300 of money in the jar that would have otherwise gone up in smoke - literally. We now have to decide what to spend it on! I've been busy saving money and I've sold a few things to make up enough to buy a new faster charger too. The method I'm currently using works fine, but it's slow and chargers here are VERY expensive. I'm about to order a new Zivan NG3 16-amp charger from EV America! That'll be in the next video, along with my demonstration at the regional Sustainable Energy Expo! So keep your eyes peeled for the next video! Until then, happy motoring. :) More details can be found at www.KiwiEV.com From: Gav. Views: 185 Added: 05/11/2008   Add Video to QuickList Gav's EV Conversion - Step 20 - Bloopers & Cock-Ups As you can imagine I've caught a fair amount of cock ups and mistakes on film during the 8 months of converting my car to run on electricity. While I may have looked cool, calm and collected on the other 19 conversion videos, this video shows the ugly truth behind "Gav's EV Conversion" It demonstrates just how I earned the nickname Captain Clumsy. :) Warning: There's the occasional expletive in a couple of scenes! If anything, the video's good for a cheap laugh. Cheers! Gav (The song is "Hanging Upside Down" by David Byrne - appropriate I thought) From: Gav. Views: 153 Added: 05/11/2008   Gav's EV Conversion - Step 18 - The Inspection It's legal at last! Two tough inspections and a sea of paperwork later, the electric Mitsubishi Tredia is legally allowed on the road! I was as nervous as hell during the inspections but it turns out that it was all worth it as I now have a fully functioning, road-legal electric car! This episode begins with transporting the car up to Auckland City for the main Certification test, then transferring the car all the way back to New Plymouth for the Warrant of Fitness test. Once I had those tests under my belt and a WOF sticker on my windscreen, I could go to the post office and... well, get more forms to fill out. But once I'd filled THOSE out, I was given my registration sticker! Next step was to start my "Road User Charges" (another tax) and away we go - Time to hit the roads! I celebrated by taking the car out for it's first legal go-anywhere road trip! I even passed two gas stations, one of them might look familiar! As always, I welcome your comments and tips. But in the mean time, I'm off for another drive! ;) Cheers! (More details & photos available at www.KiwiEV.com) From: Gav. Views: 152 Added: 05/11/2008   Gav's EV Conversion - Step 19 - Frequently Asked Questions Now that the conversion's complete I thought I'd tackle all those questions I get through my inbox. The questions answered in this video are the most common I get asked on almost a daily basis by people at supermarkets, on the street or by email. I'm sure many of you have the same questions too, so on with the video! I admit, it's not a terribly exciting video compared to the others, but it's important for anyone using my conversion as a platform for their own. Next video (bloopers & out-takes) coming very soon! Cheers! Gav From: Gav. Views: 148 Added: 05/11/2008   Gav's EV Conversion - Step 17 - The Charging System The car's finally ready for the big inspection! After some initial hiccups, my recharging system is now up and running using 13 individual chargers and one 32-pin plug (I'm only using 28 of the pins though). As well as finally getting the charging system going, I've also installed a splash-guard under the motor and installed the ventilation ducting. Everything went well and each battery is charging as it should with no noticeable voltage-drop through the recharging cables either! A car transporter will arrive in a few days to collect the Tredia and take it up to Auckland where I'll meet it for the big test! Let's hope it passes! (I'll need everyone to cross their fingers) From: Gav. Views: 136 Added: 05/10/2008   Gav's EV Conversion 16 - The First Trial Run Woohoo! The Tredia is alive and KICKING! After successfully test-spinning the wheels with the car off the ground, we lowered it down late on Friday night and took it for it's first test drive up and down our empty street! I make no apologies for my excited girly giggling - you would too! I would rather have test proven the car on a race-track or abandoned airport runway but there are none of those things near here so I had no choice but to use the empty road. In case the Police are reading this, Sorry! I had to for testing purposes! It won't happen again! :) So, not only was the test drive REALLY good fun, it was very useful for finding faults. I've tracked down three teething issues I need to work on before taking the car to Auckland to be certified! If you're thinking of starting your own conversion or if you've been putting it off, START IT TODAY! Ok, still heaps to do before I can drive it about so it's back into the garage to build the recharging system! Check out www.KiwiEV.com for the latest info! From: Gav. Views: 156 Added: 05/10/2008   Gav's EV Conversion - Bonus Video - How to throw away your income! Lesson One: How to Throw Away Your Income! --------------------- UPDATE: Donations are no longer required! A HUGE thank you from me and my wife for the assistance people have given me. With the financial help received, I'm able to finish the project on Schedule! ---------------- Over the last four months I've compiled enough clips of me filling up the car to make a fun new video! Every week I take the car to the local gas station to put an expensive and smelly liquid into a (bottomless) holding tank in my gas powered car. It's a time consuming and expensive operation. This weekly experience isn't enjoyable, despite what the advertisements tell me. Chances are, just like millions of others around the globe, you do something pretty similar. This video was also created to reluctantly help raise funds for the completion of my electric car project. Up to date progress can be found at KiwiEV.com From: Gav. Views: 166 Added: 05/10/2008   Add Video to QuickList Gav's EV Conversion 14 - Installing the Batteries The batteries have arrived and are installed at long last! It took a few days of fiddling about but we installed and secured the front and rear batteries into place with super-strong stainless steel strapping. I also created and installed my sealed rear battery box which has the extraction system connected to the turbo timer and a relay so that both the ignition and the charging system activate the fans. The turbo timer ensures the fans keep going for 3 minutes after I've turned the car off, or unplugged the charger. It sounds complex but it isn't. You have to remember it's ME we're talking about here ;) If you can't wait for the next video you can Check out the regularly updated progress at www.KiwiEV.com From: Gav. Views: 203 Added: 05/10/2008   Gav's EV Conversion 15 - Installing the Main Cables The electric car has power! After 2 days of slithering about underneath the car installing cables and cleaning the garage floor with my back, I've finally finished installing the main cables for the electric car! The last 10 minutes were the most nerve-wracking as we fought the urge to turn the key and forced ourselves to check all our connections one by one. In the end, we connected everything and heard the sound of that amazing Curtis 1231C Controller springing into life! The car was jacked up at this point so We did a test spin of the motor, then a test spin of the car in gear (with the wheels off the ground). It all went GREAT! The next video will show us taking the car onto the road for it's initial test drive! Stay Tuned! For more up to date details on what I'm doing, check out www.KiwiEV.com From: Gav. Views: 137 Added: 05/10/2008   Gav's EV Conversion 13 - The Control Panel With the racks installed and out of the way I was able to create and install the "Control Box" and Curtis 1231C Controller. I started by 'Tetrising' all the components into a metal box I found, and screwed everything down. After that I installed the Controller onto a nice thick plate of aluminium to help remove any heat as apparently they can get hot at times. Then it was a matter of bolting it all down and pre-wiring everything ready for the batteries. I even installed the cool Kill-Switch with a choke cable from an old Mini! Progress is roaring along. My batteries have been ordered and should be installed within a fortnight with luck. The ETA for completion is most likely January-ish! Watch this space! You can check out all the latest news at www.KiwiEV.com too and as always I welcome your comments and tips! From: Gav. Views: 129 Added: 05/10/2008    Page 1 of 3 pages  Next

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