Miranda and Me before leaving Sonic to drive the laps at Lowes Motor Speedway.

Had the chance to tag along with a group of Smart car owners from NC and SC today.  We all met up at a Sonic restaurant near Lowes Motor Speedway.

After lunch we all went over to the speedway for a unique experience.  The speedway had granted us the opportunity to make three laps on the speedway.

On the last lap I lagged behind a bit and was able to get ITIBITI up to 85mph.

I will be posting pictures later tomorrow but I wanted to get the video I put together on line tonight.

Right now I only have the 384×240 version on line. I will probably post the whole thing

My Smart Car on Lowes Motor Speedway

Here is the first of many image postings.  It includes some images of when I purchased the truck and some of the tear down photos showing the fuel tank and yoke damage.

Image Post #001

Well, give up AC to help the world. In North Carolina summers are hot and humid. Currently I am considering keeping the AC and the power steering.

With that in mind I started noodling a layout to use the main drive with a belt configuration to provide 12v power for the regular vehicle systems and drive the A/C compressor and power steering pump.

Kevin You Are Crazy – Yea I know. The A/C system itself would decrease my range significantly.

But I thought about how I drive to and from work. It has regular small hills here in the peidmont 10 seconds of drive then I can coast down the other side. I thought if I can connect the compressor clutch to only activate when I am coasting then It might be possible to have some A/C with very limited power drain. I did some research and someone else actually applied the same idea successfully.

Also included in the illustration is another motor to use for regenerative breaking. Yea I know that there are better ways but this is what I thought about so I put the idea down.

Here is the layout:

One of the most expensive commitments to an EV project is batteries.  They are the heart of the project.  They dictate how far you go and how fast you can get there.

Batteries are expensive, good batteries are very expensive.  This is another constant in the EV universe.  Most DC systems I have researched run at approximately 144 volts.  This equates to twelve 12v batteries or twenty four 6v batteries.

To put my observations into basic terms voltage level equates to acceleration and current equates to run time.  While you cant have one without the other, they work in harmony to provide the push to get you rolling and keep you rolling.  While I am sure that someone will desire to put me straight and describe it better, this log is designed to relay both technical and lay terms.

My battery choices have been narrowed down to two choices.  I am settling for one for the price with the knowledge I will purchase the other after time.  I am getting a very good deal on batteries and I will make the best of my situation.  Before everyone requests, I can not pass on my battery deal.  It is a one time thing I took advantage of while I could.

The battery I am starting with is a 12v-75 AH battery.

The battery I will eventually move to is a 12v-100 AH battery.

Have made a decision that I will reassemble  the truck IC (internal combustion) components and drive the truck for a while.  Better to make sure that the frame and structure are in excellent working order before I put half a ton of batteries or more onto the frame.

Any shaft or differential issues need to be sorted out before I commit to putting major battery frames in place.  I intend to leave the bed off for a while as I figure out the battery placement.   The truck gets OK gas mileage and should do even better with the bed off.  I will use this frame as my daily driver until my Smart Car arrives and I can begin the IC engine removal and DC motor phase of the installation.

Removed the ripped gas tank and replaced it with another that I picked up at a local reclamation yard.

After getting all of the tools out and getting the tank unbolted I had to begin the rubik’s cube process of removing the old tank.  As I am moving and folding the fabric of space & time to get this tank out, I notice weather approaching.  It turned into a quick session tonight.

I did get the tank out before the rain arrived. While it was raining I figured out how the pump assembly was installed and moved it into the new tank.

Total Time: 1.5 Hours

Moved the truck into place in the yard today. Removed the bumper and bed to begin the process of disassembly.  The disassembly went pretty well.  A couple of tight bolts but removal and tagging took less overall time than I expected.  Never knew the beds were that easy to remove.

Examined the original damage done by the u-joint failure from the previous owner.  It pretty much ripped a major tear into the gas tank.  The muffler took some damage as well but not too bad.

The rear yoke was also damaged.  It will need to be replaced.

Procured a replacement prop shaft complete with center support.  I picked it up last Saturday and arranged for the possible yoke purchase if needed.

Total Time: 3 Hours

Welcome to my Chevy S-10 EV conversion project.

This will be a digital documentation of my adventures or my demise (depends on the outcome) with converting an Internal Combustion S-10 pickup to a Electric Vehicle.

While this start will include some poor quality pictures I will be replacing them later with detailed higher quality pics.