After reading Tuarn's post in the AEVA forum I got thinking more about lowering the rolling Resistance.
I had considered these ideas at different times but Tuarn rolled them up into one nice post.
Lower viscosity oil in the diff will be a must. As per Tuarn I will look for 55W75.
Setting the tow in will be important. Lower the better within reason.
Tyre pressure is a given. I will try and locate the Rolling Resistance specs for my tires.
Now the tricky part. How do you minimise brake drag. The rear drums are self adjusting and the front are disk brakes. Neither lend themselves to tweaking. Any tips and suggestions welcome.
At some point I will get some 'moonie' hub caps / wheel covers. Partly to reduce wind resistance and partly for looks.
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Update - Batteries - Tester - Diff - Steering - VFD - Tray
It has been a few weeks since my last post so an update is in order. photos to follow.
1. I received the Greensaver batteries (20ah and 27ah - 2 hr rate). The port chargers were unbelievable! These would have to be the 2 most expensive batteries in Australia! Lesson learned about sea-freighting goods
2. I have built a micro controller based charger / discharger. It will measureand log to a PC the following aprameters during discharge and charge Volts, Amps, Watts, Ah, Wh, temperature and the all important Peukert factor. It uses 4 x 1 ohm resistors. The resistors can be wired differently to vary the test current. I am waiting an LCD from Futurelec and a charger from ebay's ecrazyman.
3. I have bought a diff from pick'n'payless . It is a 5.125 ratio from a Hiace van. All going well I will install it this weekend. This gives a theoretical top speed of 94km/hr at 4000RPM
4. I also bought a manual steering box from pick'n'payless for installing this weekend.
5. Better VFD. I bought a better Danfoss 5042 VFD off ebay. So, if anyone wants a Danfoss 6042VFD in an IP54 case I have one looking for a home. I have removed all the AC components from the cabinet to minimise losses and will feed it DC directly to the soft charge circuit.
6. The ute has a tray back which was way too wide for the body. To tidy up the looks I have narrowed the tray to be the same as the body (100mm off each side) and shortened the back. If I need sides I can get them from the manufacturer which is encouraging.
At the moment the carport looks like a car wreckers yard, but things should start coming together in the next few weeks. I am still waiting to borrow an engine hoist from my neighbours.
1. I received the Greensaver batteries (20ah and 27ah - 2 hr rate). The port chargers were unbelievable! These would have to be the 2 most expensive batteries in Australia! Lesson learned about sea-freighting goods
2. I have built a micro controller based charger / discharger. It will measureand log to a PC the following aprameters during discharge and charge Volts, Amps, Watts, Ah, Wh, temperature and the all important Peukert factor. It uses 4 x 1 ohm resistors. The resistors can be wired differently to vary the test current. I am waiting an LCD from Futurelec and a charger from ebay's ecrazyman.
3. I have bought a diff from pick'n'payless . It is a 5.125 ratio from a Hiace van. All going well I will install it this weekend. This gives a theoretical top speed of 94km/hr at 4000RPM
4. I also bought a manual steering box from pick'n'payless for installing this weekend.
5. Better VFD. I bought a better Danfoss 5042 VFD off ebay. So, if anyone wants a Danfoss 6042VFD in an IP54 case I have one looking for a home. I have removed all the AC components from the cabinet to minimise losses and will feed it DC directly to the soft charge circuit.
6. The ute has a tray back which was way too wide for the body. To tidy up the looks I have narrowed the tray to be the same as the body (100mm off each side) and shortened the back. If I need sides I can get them from the manufacturer which is encouraging.
At the moment the carport looks like a car wreckers yard, but things should start coming together in the next few weeks. I am still waiting to borrow an engine hoist from my neighbours.
Monday, 12 May 2008
Tray off and ICE ready for removal
I have removed all things petrol from the vehicle and am ready to lift the engine out as soon as I get the hoist from my neighbour.
The brakes look OK. The diff needs replacing. Just as well I planed to change it to a lower ratio.
The next few weekends will be spent fixing up the body paintwork and surface rust spots.
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The brakes look OK. The diff needs replacing. Just as well I planed to change it to a lower ratio.
The next few weekends will be spent fixing up the body paintwork and surface rust spots.
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Friday, 2 May 2008
Band I just found - Abney Park
I just found this Steampunk band called Abney Bark.
here is their album to play while you read :)
here is their album to play while you read :)