| Owner | Geoff Pullinger | ||||||
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| Owner's Other EV | Firerock Power Wheels Jeep | ||||||
| Location | Gurnee, Illinois United States map | ||||||
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| Vehicle | 1989 Toyota Tercel A lot of restoration work was required to get this car in good enough shape to drive - safely. I thought this would be a challenging and rewarding experience, and it was - too much so! | ||||||
| Motor | Netgain Impulse 9 Series Wound DC | ||||||
| Drivetrain | Original 5 speed with clutch | ||||||
| Controller | Evnetics 600 amp I accidentally fried the Kelly controller in 2009 while working on the battery pack. I replaced it with a Logisystems 500 amp controller - which went Ker Flutz after 8 months. Now a Soliton Jr. has been installed (Controller #3). Let's hope for the best. | ||||||
| Batteries | 10 Power Sonic PS - 121000U, 12.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, AGM I was hoping for some kind of fusion battery like the one in 'Back to the Future III'. Sadly these are not yet available. They would be so awesome though because I could use all that non recyclable trash to run my car. | ||||||
| System Voltage | 120 Volts | ||||||
| Charger | Soneil 1212SR 10 Chargers for 10 batteries - the nice thing about these chargers is that they will recover and recharge a battery that's gone down below 10 volts. This is great because I tested this out when the PC style power plugs came loose in the back of the chargers - no a/c = no charge. | ||||||
| Heater | Ceramic 2 element - with each element independently controlled. The ceramic heater never seemed to spit out more than a tiny modicum of heat so I'm putting together a fluid heater to see if I get any results - so right now no heat. 3/14/2014 - (pi day!) Finally got the fluid heater to work just in time for spring. Of course that means still a couple of months of use here! | ||||||
| DC/DC Converter | Iota DLS 30 It's still working. I added another 50 amp converter but my windshield wipers are still slow and the headlights are dim. Not sure why. | ||||||
| Instrumentation | PakTrakr with current sensor. | ||||||
| Top Speed | 75 MPH (120 KPH) Many moons ago I had it up to 75 for a short trip on the freeway. I went 75 for maybe 10 seconds then slowed down as my freeway trip was only about 3 miles. | ||||||
| Acceleration | Yes. | ||||||
| Range | 20 Miles (32 Kilometers) Still Unknown - but I have gone as far as 20 miles. | ||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | Still unknown | ||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | 4 adults - 2 adults right now - I need to get the back seat in. | ||||||
| Curb Weight | 2,800 Pounds (1,272 Kilograms) about 2300 lbs or 1045 kg before conversion. About 2800 lbs or 1273 kg after conversion. | ||||||
| Tires | I will use whatever the car came with - they look like they are in pretty good shape. 2/28/10 - well they don't look so good now and the wheels are made of a very heavy solid steel - definitely the kind of wheels that can repeatedly hit curbs and potholes and come back for more. The only problem is that alot of energy probably goes into turning these around. | ||||||
| Conversion Time | 24 Months and not counting - The car is pretty much finished! 2/26/10 Update - All the batteries are in and connected. The car is still up on jacks but I tested the controller and etc. last night - everything works fine so far. The wheels spin faster the more I step on the pedal and so on. 4/19/10 - I'm just about done! I drove the car yesterday for about 2 miles and every thing seemes to be working ok! 2 miles and my Pak Tracker went from 95% SOC to 78% SOC. Hope this improves. | ||||||
| Conversion Cost | $15,000 - I spent a lot of money replacing parts on this car so the actual conversion is probably closer to $10,000. 8/3/2011 - The extra 2 controllers added about another $4,000 to the price so now it's $19,000. I should have gone A/C. Maybe I should have bought a Nissan Leaf? | ||||||
| I hope all the parts work ok - because at 22 months out their all out of warranty! 4/19/10 - I drove the car for the first time yestrday. It was so quiet! I had to remind myself that this is an electric car because I kept feeling like it was not running. So far so good! 10/18/10 - I love driving this car! I still need to get the back seat in so I can haul more than one passenger. I drive this car as much as I can now. 8/3/2011 - The car is back on the road after the great Logisystems catastrophe. It now has an EVnetics Soliton JR controller with water cooling. It had been sitting in my driveway for so long that wasps had nested in the rear view mirror. It's running though and I'm not buying gas for local trips now! 10/8/2013 - Still running! 2/22/2015 - The car is still running but it's having it's winter break right now as it's about 10 degrees F below zero. | |||||||
1989 Toyota Tercel
“The Car with no Name”
Last Updated 02-23-2015
Copyright © 1997-2024 by Mike Chancey