[bbbowden]

Another EV hits the road.... VIDEO ARE UP!

After nearly 18 months and lots of set backs, my 1974 BMW 2002 hit the road tonight as an electric car for its first four motor test drive.

I originally set out to build a four wheel drive (I live in Montana) and last September I thought I was almost done. I had the two motors driving the rear wheels and figured it wouldn't be too hard to get the front wheels done. Well, after another 12 months and lots of problems, the hub motors were installed and tonight I took the car for a 10 mile drive. What a joy! The car ran well, getting up to 65 mph and drove very nicely. It is by no means perfect but I'm very happy with it. Besides, if it were perfect, I'd have to find another project to spend hours and hours on.

 

[dtbaker]

well cool.... where is the build thread? pictures? in the garage? sounds like a pretty wild setup.

 

[bbbowden]

Ooops, I guess the specifics about it would be helpful. It is in the garage (with old pictures, another thing I need to update) and on my blog at:

http://idreamthebeemerelectric.blogspot.com

Thanks for the interest.

 

[DavidP]

Hope you'll keep us updated on your progress ... pics and video's are always great ...
I'm especially interested in using the CVT clutch with an electric motor on an EV project ...
How has it been working out ?
I'm going with a fixed pulley ratio ... due to the costs of a pair of CVT clutches, and all the negative feedback saying that the CVT wouldn't work ... or would be a bad idea for an electric EV project ...
I've kept the design simple though ... with the intention of modifying it in the future to accept a golf cart / snowmobile style of CVT in the future ...

 

[bbbowden]

David,
I never got a chance to test the CVT setup under load. Or rather, when I did the first simple tests under load (move the car forward), I found out that snowmobile CVTs are really only designed to turn one direction. This is a function of the driven clutch as opposed to the drive clutch. The drive clutch CAN operate in either direction but the driven clutch only operates in one.

As a function of how I set things up, I needed one CVT turning in one direction and the other turning in the other (for forward motion). On the side where the CVT was turning the in correct direction, the CVT operated as expected. However, on the other side, the CVT went straight to min torque (1:1) ratio and the belt just slid on the clutches.

If you looked at the videos of the motors spinning the chain drive without being connected to anything, it looked pretty good, just didn't work under load.

 

[DavidP]

Thanks for the update ...
It just seems like such a good idea .. if it works ... but it will take someone with a lot of talent to find a system suitable for EV use ...

 

[bbbowden]

Re: Another EV hits the road.... VIDEOS UP!

I took some video of my progress and uploaded them this morning... Here are the youtube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNknZtK3GW8 - Test Drive Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7yLz4py1Uk - Engine Bay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X0qSC87wKg - Front Hub motors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd4YxLunazU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWujw82Gnvo - Rear Controller Mount






Now, I'm going out for a test drive to get some video wearing my big EV grin...

 

[bbbowden]

Here is a video detailing my throttle setup. I had to do this because of my four motor/four controller setup.