#1) Project ForkenSwift electric car conversion: 1st powerup

[jeffrey19621]

Good work ! This is what America used to be about people solving problems and improvising. Dont worry of the comments of detractors sitting in moms basement masterbating alternating between porn and some bullshit VDO games.

Jeff

[Dorisequador]

I developed a way you can get unlimited power.. never dies if you share with me your engine and transmition hookup.. For silence your electric motor must have a quiet design which is a different way of being built we can work on that later.

[Milwaukeebosch]

Hey I like how you mount motor to transmission.

Do you use clutch or just direct? I have hard time figure how you can shift without clutch they grind.

[KinoFilm21]

super awesome !!! great project....

[pbmartin14]

hey i live in ontari also! im just finishing my 99 accent gsi cnversion. i have a question though, what did you have to do to get the car road legal, did you have to take it to soem special garage to get a proper saftey??

thanks

[mvlady]

wait, u kinda lost me with no oil thing :S

[TheDoyleClan]

That was so moving ........ okay it was standing still but it was still moving.

Thanks for sharing.

[mccunecp]

this is what I want to do I want to take a small car that will fit a family of 4 in for local tripps to like the stor ect or up to 100 mile range or more and then for longer trippes have a gas car or truck that I can just tow the electric car behind it for tripps and use the electric for driving a round town ect I want and electric car realy bad

[12311981]

Electric cars are very silent, the noise is because you are using an electric engine with brushes (that has friction) instead of one with permanent magnets ( that doesn't); with those you'll get a hum sound instead.

[tonycavez]

caiman buena suerte

[CaimanDeAguja]

ok creo que los vehiculos electricos no seran muy atractivos hasta que tengan una autonomia de por lo menos 500 millas o mas para viajes en carretera. en este momento estoy trabajando en eso dentro de unos 20 dias prometo publicar el video de la primera motocicleta convertida a electrica con esta autonomia 500 millas.

[vivitar45]

i youse to drive one of them but i relly miss that little car as it was so cheep on gas

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

I still have a gas car for highway trips, and it's the same kind: 1.0L, 3-cylinders. :)

[smazz104]

Ok, dude, are you in Ontario? It looked like Ontario plates and then the "eh" haha.

Super Cool. I was thinking of doing the same thing.

Would be great to know someone not too far away who is something like that.

Thanks for posting.

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Search on the evalbum(.)com - you can search by location to see who has an electric car near you.

[pipersall]

The music was great! I want to build one one day and I'm sure after all the fuss and bother and EXPENSE of putting one together, I'll be playing music like that too!!!!! It's quite an accomplishment, apparently one that our wonderful auto makers are really fighting doing.

[salemcripple]

What they're having such a hard time doing is coming up with an electric, that has all the characteristics of the ICE cars we have now. You know 300+ mile range, rather than like 40, even with a top speed of 100+ mph, able to "fuel" in mere minutes rather than hours. Building one of these is rather easy.....EXPENSIVE, but still easy. Only hard part is machining the mount, and coupling the stator to the input shaft of the trans.

[AxLstyle]

yeah but all this mumbo jumbo is really a stupid idea.....most of the people use their cars to travel under 100 miles....school, work.....so why not make a car, that is as cheap as possible and that charges overnight in a house plug....

and for the big distances....if electric is a must, hybrids have prooven to be quite good at it, with both a gas and electric engine.

[salemcripple]

People like nice cars. Even if they mainly only use them for daily commutes. And if i'm going to spend thousands on a car, i want it to fulfill all my needs, both daily commute, and long trips alike. Ya know?

[ccoasterdesigner]

Right now all we are really waiting on is the batteries. But no one will develope them until a large amount of people is making their own and interested in electric cars.

[THEtechknight]

problem is, i see no torque converter, how you pumping fluid through your trans???

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

It's a manual transmission.

[BigFishingShop]

Hi again, got the motor running the cart but wrong direction of rotation, our motor has two sets of those contacts, does yours ??

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Do you mean two sets of terminals on the motor? Check over at the evconvert [.] com web site - there's a schematic showing how he hooked his up, if you've got a series motor.  Otherwise, try posting a question at the ecomodder (.) com forum or diyelectriccar (.) com

[BigFishingShop]

Hi, thanks for your response, we got it figured out, yeah it has two sets of contacts on the motor itself, not sure what he did, he's (the motor) in PA and Im in WA but it works and he is happy, thanks again, Scott.

[BigFishingShop]

Hi, so can a person simply hook up 36 volts to those two posts and which one is positive ??

[sausageslaps]

you used the wrong type of motor and you are going about it all wrong. i am building an electric sprint and i dont why you did what you did. i used the traction motor from the drive of an electric forklift. i have no clutch system, its direct drive, i only use 1st and reverse gear. i run a solar panel array on the roof to power the 12 volt and have an alternator connected to the final drive as well. i am also looking at a regenerative braking system to charge the 48 volt as well

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Who taught you manners? :D

FYI, the pump motor is more than adequate for the job. Suitable for over-volting as well (but no plans to upgrade from 48v.)

It's been driving the car now for over a year and a half with no problems, capable of moving the car at up to 45 mph.

For full details visit the web site: forkenswift [dot] com

[Gillhoolee]

FORKEN EH!

[sebairaf3]

but it's more quiet than any gas car... :D

[WorldStove]

your vid just made my day!

[thegoosebrain]

The new Chevy volt gets a pathetic 40 miles on a charge and they tout the car as thou it's something out of this world fantastic! I've seen conversion cars here on youtube that get 200 miles on  charge.

[malgacho]

The volt is the lamest car there is, I rather a evie or an emiev.

[TheArchieBell]

Love the music too! Very suitable threshold type classic all. Thanks for your reply. If you want irish roots info i,ll be more than glad to do it.I owe you!

[TheArchieBell]

I found your"adventure" into EV engineering last week. I Followed all your theory and defined links hardwork with geniune admiration. You have me(a 65 year old would be "greener car guy") completely hooked. Your generosity in providing such detail from construction sourcing driving is incredible and humbling. It deserves publication in book form. As an Irish gob smacked fan I say. Fair Play Lads you do Canada Proud. Due to you a lot of folk will drive sparkilly. Amazing stuff Thanks so much.

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Thanks for the comment! And there's an Irish connection: that's where my dad's family traces its roots (4 or 5 generations ago).

[fordescort98]

Hey, i love the car. My friend and I are thinking about building one of these. Just wondering, how much horse power is the motor rated at and how many volts.

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Unfortunately, the motor didn't come with a specifications tag, so other than the voltage range of the forklift (36/48v) we don't know. Running @ 48v with a 400A controller, our theoretical peak power is about 25 hp, not counting various efficiency losses through the system.

[kaduisaui]

Excellent video! Love the music, I hope your new car rocks.

[carvindc400]

nice music!

[CJurasin]

Good video but PLEASE delete the song....it distracts from the video...

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

That's what your volume control is for :P

[CJurasin]

Forkenstein: Uh, How about just changing the song?

I'm sure I'm not the only person who's thought the same thing???

[darian1968]

nicely made and still good even if its noisy, Hey these are not pros but still creative and can make the same for less.Makes you wonder eh?!Oh and speed is not important just need max 70 mph or 110kms/hr and a long driving time other than that who needs a Ticket? I wouldn't :) still nicely done

[Trelamenos88]

With 10 batteries it will going about 110 km/h (68mph).But if the car have enouph space it would be nice to put 20 batteries in the car,it might going about 220 km/h.

[35ams]

how about the clutch? is it the same?

[chris19770602]

Respect for the struggle to build the EV

[netmeter]

I laughed so hard. great milestone.

[thegoosebrain]

put a FORK in this project because its going nowhere! LOL

[marklundge1]

Do a google search on Electricity4Gas

The site shows you how to do your own electric car conversion on your own car

[SpeedMetal4635]

what´s cost all the system?

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

We didn't use the clutch. Look up "lovejoy" couplers for ideas on how to connect two dissimilar shafts. You don't have to weld them together.

[tdawgsm]

Hey how did you couple the motor to the transmission? Did you guys do a direct coupling or one with a clutch? My buddies and I are doing a similar project and our machinist told us we would only be able to do a direct coupling by welding the shafts together. what do you think?

[ratheads]

I think you need a smarter machinist, no welding is required, only a coupling and motor mount.

[FulinYu]

It's Alive!!!

[moalor262]

Great project.

Why is it that you dont fit a gererator, to the wheels, so that it can be charged as you drive along?

[creamyfilling102]

the generator would make the car pull harder, using more energy, so any extra energy given off by the generator wouldn't do any good.

[Viewer6991]

market this and put the oil companies out of buisnes ha ha ha ha take that bush allah ackbar

[lpgas1]

hey mate. i've just started an ev conversion on a car the same here in australia, except they're known as holden barina's here. just wondering if you had any idea on the hp rating of the motor and how many volts is your system running on?

cheers mate and keep us posted!!!

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Hi. Not sure what the motor's power rating is - it had no tag on it. However it was used in a 36/48v forklift. The car is running on 48v. Good luck with your conversion.

[khrisinfo]

That music from the opening of Grandtumio 4.

[theworm212008]

i was wondering if you can use a compreser motor

it says its a 250 hp motor it has 460 volts and 299 amps

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

You've probably got an AC motor there. I'm using a DC motor - most converted EV's are DC (lower cost, lower voltage, fewer batteries).

[madmodder]

Maybe because there's no oil in the transmission :-),lol

[nelsontt2001]

Nice work Darin and Ivan! Have you considered adding a couple ultracapacitors like AFSTrinity is using in their 150 mpg hybrid? (AFSTrinity - dot - com) Also, what about a tiny gas engine to charge the battery for extended range, similar to what the Volt is supposed to use, if I understand right. Keep up the good work!

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Haven't considered ultracaps - they'd make more sense in a car that had regen braking (which ours doesn't). No plans for an extended range ICE either - the range we're getting is actually OK for this vehicle given the size of our city.

[thegentilehunter]

it's not quite b/c dc motors use carbon brushes which rub on the axle ac motors are the ones used in electric cars.

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

You're right - the brushes do make noise.

But only AC motors in electric cars? You'd better not tell that to the the people at evalbum -dot- com! :)

[MPaulHolmes]

You didn't seem to have any problem with joining the motor to the gearbox. Did you have all the parts for it, or did you have some machining done. Did you use a love/joy connector? Pre-machined adapter plate, spacer, joiner of motor & gearbox sells for like $1000! What's the secret, yo!

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Secret = a friend who did some discount machining. He charged us about $250 (about half price what it should have cost us).

It's a used lovejoy jaw-type coupler. We welded the splined clutch hub to one half, and the machinist welded a shaft stub into the other half.

Our setup is complicated by the fact that our motor has an internally splined shaft - thus the need for a splined shaft stub.

Check the build thread @ ecomodder dot com for pics, if you like. Easier than describing.

[MPaulHolmes]

Thanks for the ecomodder DOT com link. I've been reading it from start to not quite finish. (I just got to the part where you have this video embedded.) I had no idea you went to sooo much trouble, suffering, tears, orphans crying out in the night for their parents to make this work!!!

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Well... let's not exaggerate! There weren't any orphans involved.

But we did start this project absolutely green.  It was (and continues to be) an "immersion learning experience". Lots and lots of learning.

[MPaulHolmes]

I'd write on ecomodder, but I haven't been approved yet. Suggestion for even cheaper: Leave out a shunt resistor, and just use a length of your 3/0 cable. Make sure the resistance is about 0.001 ohms. Then instead of an ammeter, get a $4 volt meter. Set the voltage scale to 200 mV (Cen-Tech digital Multimeter). Then, just measure the volts across the ends of the cable. Poof, 0 to 200 amp ammeter for $4.

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Re: Ecomodder - you should have rec'd a confirmation email address to activate your account. If you didn't, try making another new account... or e-mail me and I'll see if I can help: darin -a-t- forkenswift dot you know what.

You know I heard about the "budget ammeter shunt" method a couple of days after we got the "proper" one off eBay. Only $25, though, so didn't cry too many tears. :)

[TommeyLeeReed]

I have one of those motors, what hp is that?

I build controllers, I am building a special controller for that type of motor, 48v-60v/600 amps

Please let me know what hp that is.

[jmoyet]

whats up? where are the new video updates on the car?

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Summer's up. Taking our time, but still working on it. Next vid will be when it's licenced and (legally) on the road. Definitely before Labour Day. Check the ForkenSwift project thread at gassavers -dot- org if you want more info than that :)

[ROCKSOLID19]

Kill the dam music! I want some commentry!

[jmoyet]

lol thats the Gran Turismo 4 intro theme song

[ClunnEVs]

Love the music , I may have one of those motors , not a robust motor with its small brushes , mine says 32v volts maybe yours is different . I hope you do more videos , Steve Clunn

[ForkenSwiftDotCom]

Hey Steve: I think our motor's OK. It's got 4 brush pairs, and Husted gave it the thumbs-up when we showed him pics of the innards. He said he'd be happy to get his hands on a motor like this! If you're interested, you can see a pic of the brushes/comm here: tinyurl DOT com/2lrjmh

[landongendur]

It's Alive!!!

[sal1819]

Great video - excellent soundtrack for the "birth" of this forkenStein! Keep us posted on your progress!

[desertblbuesman]

Like the epic music hehe.

[brankog7]

hey fantastic work mate. its small pioneers like you who will eventually shame the big car co's into building a cheap simple electric car. congratulations

[dognoseranger]

Forken' sweet!

[aminorjourney]

Hehe... neat :)