DIY Electric Car Forums banner

Help replacing/upgrading batteries

1665 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  raphen
Hello community,
I have a Geo Metro electric conversion that needs its batteries upgraded. Currently installed are twelve Walmart branded 12 volt 114 amp hour deep-cycle lead-acid batteries. They got toasted trying to climb home. The road to my house has about 1/3 of a mile of 22% grade and nuked the batteries. It is an interesting feeling and experience climbing that hill as you can feel the electricity get pulled from the core of the batteries to the motor. It made it once but the second time had no chance of hitting the half-way mark and the brakes could not hold the weight. Thankful for my superb driving skills :rolleyes: :)

Anyway... I would like to upgrade my batteries to be able to use the vehicle. My aging CRV does not get very good gas mileage and need to watch the budget commuting to and from employment.

Have been interested in buying a salvaged LEAF or similar EV to scavenge the batteries and resale parts. That seems like the more economical route versus buying new "drop-in" batteries.

So this is why I come to the community. Looking for help in the calculations of what I will need. How many LEAF batteries? If I do the "drop-in" LiFeOS4 do I just match the number of batteries I currently have? What other alternative solutions may be out there?

Here are the details of the EV:

Motor: Netgain Impulse 9" motor
Controller: Open ReVolt 144 volt, 500 amp
Batteries: twelve 12 volt 114 amp hour deep-cycle lead-acid
System Voltage: 144 volts
Chargers(2): Quick Charge Octopus-AGM 10 Bank Charger
Quick Charge 2 Bank
http://www.chargingchargers.com/quick-charge/mb1210x2.html
DC/DC Converter: Kelly HWZ Series 144V TO 12V 300W
Instrumentation:
PakTrakr Battery Monitoring System, which monitors instantaneous
voltages of each battery in the pack.
Paktrakr Current Sensor, which monitors instantaneous
current delivered by the battery pack.
PakTrakr ES1R automatic logging serial interface for
recording instantaneous battery voltages and current.
The recorded data can be downloaded to a PC for detailed
analsys.

http://www.mightyboyev.com/PakTrakr 800.htm

Bluetooth RS-232 adapter for use with smartphone app
to display dashboard metrics on your smartphone.

http://www.usconverters.com/serial-bluetooth-adapter?zenid=363893a35f5f08d888f59851b2bbb07b


adapter port, which allows it to accept a standard
Level 2 charging station J1772 plug.

And finally any suggestions on proper battery disconnect? Would like to remove old dead batteries so I can push the card around the yard and avoid potential damage from leakage etc.

Thank you in advanced!
See less See more
1 - 1 of 11 Posts
I have found you can go lower voltage if needed to add up right amount or cheaper to use less batteries

I got rid of 18 6v for 108v
now run lithium at 96v (120v controller limitation) and its alot faster and climb hills better without all that weight


not sure if better to use more batteries at lower voltage (6 at 20v vs 5 at 24v) to get closer to 120v or leave it at 96v with (4) 24v batteries ????
120v is max for old curtis controller and don't want to blow that up



im using fiat 500 batteries for the jet industry escort

think they were $220 each?
See less See more
1 - 1 of 11 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top