You know you're famous when...

My truck has officially reached the highest level of notoriety: the local Starbucks chalkboard.

This weekend's project: the proverbial black box.

And no, I'm not going to tell you what it does or what's inside.

The latest errr 'improvements'

Yeah, I know, underbody lights on a rusty old truck... but they really do look cool! I spent the better part of this saturday installing these things.

While I had the truck up in the air, I decided it would be a good time to add that swaybar that's been sitting around the garage. So, in addition to looking cool, my truck also handles remotely better. Not a bad weekend.

Anyway I've been working on a little bit of everything lately so I'll try to keep the updates coming!

And the verdict is...

Success! I rolled into the driveway with juice to spare, and I even stopped at Starbucks on the way. According to my trip odometer, my truck has seen almost exactly 70 miles today, almost all of it in 55 mph zones. No trouble there... Talk about a money saver!

Later folks... This is a very pleased EV driver, signing off.

Fun drive to work...

Well, so far so good. I got to work without any problems and plenty of charge left. Having never driven my truck in heavy traffic, I was impressed how well it kept up. And now: will I make it back home??

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Range test results

I did an informal range test on my truck yesterday. The official test track consisted of several miles of open, 55 mph road, and several miles of slower stop-and-go driving.

The results (drumroll please)? A very comfortable 45 mile range over a period of about an hour and 10 minutes, with the truck still comfortably maintaining 55 mph when I pulled in the driveway.

I was, needless to say, quite pleased.

Next up: The 70 mile roundtrip commute to my summer job, in rush hour traffic. I hope to undertake this expedition tomorrow morning, and I should have the results sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited. Stay tuned!

Breaking news!

Well, not quite, but whatever. My latest "media event:" ABC came over and did a feature story for today's news. I didn't get to see it, but reports indicate that it turned out well, and the transcript looks good. Not a bad day!

Stay tuned for more after these very important messages!

144v upgrade

Here's a pic of the 144v upgrade on my truck. I added four more batteries above the motor. The other four that were already in the engine compartment kept their original position. The component board was turned on edge and mounted against the firewall, and the charger and vacuum system were scattered all over the place to make room. Everything else stayed exactly the same.

Up and running

Wow, I'm quite the procrastinator... I'll try to post updates a little more often now that I have (slightly) more time!

Anyway, here's the big news: the Tercel is up and running! I've had it on the road for a few weeks now and I love it. Lemme tell you, this thing is FAST! It has no trouble breaking the tires loose in 2nd gear, and I have yet to reach the top speed (so far I've had it up to around 70). 2nd gear is fine all the way up to redline at 55.

I do have to say range isn't so great (so far it's about 20-25 miles), but I guess that's what I get for building a car with cheap marine batteries and a huge motor.

In other news, I've just finished upgrading my truck to 144 volts, which seems to have helped out a little bit in terms of speed and acceleration. I'll probably do a range test sometime this weekend, and I'm optimistic in my expectations. Anyway, more on the later.

Oh yeah, happy Independance Day everybody!

Instrumentation... it's a good thing

Here's the gauges mounted in the cluster. It actually worked out pretty good. The isolated power supplies are mounted on the back, and there's a nine pin D connector wired up for easy IP removal. Not to mention they look really cool with the blue backlight... I'll add more pics next time I power them up.

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More wiring... it never ends!

This morning's project: making up battery cables. These are the cables for the rear 120 volt pack. Most positive and most negative connections are at the top (front) center of the pack, and the circuit breaker is at the bottom. This way, when I throw the breaker, it essentially cuts the pack in half. When the breaker is thrown, no more than 60 volts will be present across any two terminals.

Living the EV dream!

Just a quick post to brag about how much I love my truck.

Getting closer...

I'm getting close to getting my car rolling... just working on putting together all the little bits and pieces. This is the vacuum canister for the brake system. It's made of 3" dia. white PVC, 22" long. It will be mounted right behind the bumper, in front of the batteries, so I won't be missing the space.

Here's the rear batteries temporarily set in place. They fit surprisingly well.

I picked up the batteries this morning. 14 marine deep cycle 12v batteries. As always, this is one of the more exciting parts of the project! Now I just have to put my car back together and wait for my gauges to show up...

Wiring... and lots of it!

Today's project (and probably the rest of the week, for that matter!) was straightening up some of the dash wiring and removing all of the unnecessary engine wiring. Well I'm at it I'm going to run the gauge wiring through the original harness. Tedious at best, but it will definitely look nice and make the car easier to service. Not to mention, it can be kind of fun once you get the hang of it.

EVing in Plymouth

This weekend I took my truck to the Plymouth Green Street Fair with the Michigan EAA. We all had a lot of fun and the crowd definitely enjoyed it. The kind of interest we saw was really awesome. Darin also brought out his awesome electric drag bike. Having never seen one before, I thought it was pretty slick, with its twin Eteks and 96v system... Power!!!!!

Why you ask?

The point of all this was to get to the wiring harness, which, as luck would have it, comes through the firewall right in the middle of everything. I had to pull the dash, steering wheel, gauge cluster, heater core, and about a million other items to get to it.

Needless to say, my car isn't very happy with me right now...

My nemesis the dashboard

I told myself I wouldn't do this. I begged and pleaded with the heater core to spare me the trouble. But as time passed, it became evident: I had to pull the dashboard. So there it sits, on my garage floor, looking smug after putting up such a struggle.

Plugged in!

Well, not quite, but the plug is now installed on my Tercel. I think I'm having problems with my GFI because I can't seem to get power through it. Other than that, things are moving along pretty quickly. My gauges are on their way from Nanjing, China, and I'm working on the wiring harness now.

And for those who have been wondering- my truck is running great. I just haven't had the time to post pics. More later!