tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184078872024-03-13T03:28:08.689+00:00Electric Vehicle Bedford CF Electric VanCommuting in a 1986 Bedford Electric van
(Electric Vehicle)Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-21761483679977687032009-05-13T13:04:00.000+01:002009-05-13T13:05:21.211+01:00Status: Currently laid up. Waiting for replacement batteries.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-15784202180946523222008-01-13T17:33:00.000+00:002008-01-13T18:14:29.402+00:00<a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pPm7qq7xI/AAAAAAAAAAk/p905ZWhMTUI/s1600-h/DSCF0183.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155020253749243666" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pPm7qq7xI/AAAAAAAAAAk/p905ZWhMTUI/s320/DSCF0183.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pPnLqq7yI/AAAAAAAAAAs/qwSheW6rml4/s1600-h/DSCF0186.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155020258044210978" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pPnLqq7yI/AAAAAAAAAAs/qwSheW6rml4/s320/DSCF0186.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div>The last time I removed the battery pack there was a split in a weld at the rear of the battery pack. I decided to quickly stick weld it up but due to the unlucky position of the insulation there was a gap and one cell got a hole in it. I had to remove the whole pack then cut the battery out and weld the battery case up with a glue gun (my favorite tool).</div><br /><div>When working on the battery pack I really must remember to keep the vent pipes on the vacuum pump otherwise a Hydrogen explosion is going to happen.</div><br /><div>The batteries are constantly producing Hydrogen and Oxygen gas, especially after a water refill. This is because when the water level is raised the acid connects two regions of lead in the battery in different states of charge. (the top of the cell is at lower voltage than the bottom) This produces current from top to bottom of the plates and makes a lot of gas. I discovered this last time when I switched off the vacuum pump while waving a blowtorch around. It ignited the gas and blasted the tops off 18 cells! I had to use the glue gun for about 3 hours that evening to get the van running for the next morning.<br /></div><div>In fact I am looking for a vacuum pump that can run continuously to clear the gas.</div><br /> It has to be able to cope with acid vapour.<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzEfZaTfXNDllqK3NdPKzNamxQKDxM2wZI2Wdl-Vx77yAbQI32bi_dnqGR3XgjGzki_iVKwOQRWSGk' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>This video is of an early method of filling the batteries with demin water. I have switched to an Edwards EDM12 with a vacuum regulator.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-89492752175100989042008-01-13T16:37:00.000+00:002008-01-13T17:33:43.378+00:00<a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pJ6rqq7vI/AAAAAAAAAAU/KPmCxkpYMkA/s1600-h/DSCF0180.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155013995981893362" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pJ6rqq7vI/AAAAAAAAAAU/KPmCxkpYMkA/s320/DSCF0180.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pJ6rqq7wI/AAAAAAAAAAc/vmGmdaZKpag/s1600-h/DSCF0165.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155013995981893378" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pJ6rqq7wI/AAAAAAAAAAc/vmGmdaZKpag/s320/DSCF0165.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pBArqq7uI/AAAAAAAAAAM/AgJwQ1VXp9g/s1600-h/DSCF0167.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155004203456458466" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_ykOZ_nwzTzo/R4pBArqq7uI/AAAAAAAAAAM/AgJwQ1VXp9g/s320/DSCF0167.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div>In between servicing the battery pack every 3 months driving the van is very enjoyable.</div><br /><br /><div>The main problem is time. I use the van every week day for commuting to work so the servicing has to be completed in a weekend. This is not easy because you normally find problems when the battery pack is removed. Whatever I discover I have to deal with in a few hours. This is much harder in winter because of the dark short days cold and rain.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Getting the whole battery pack out has only been possible since summer 2007 because I was designing a rail system to carry the 1000kg of battery. What I came up with I am quite pleased with because it allows easy re alignment with the three mountings. And was cheap to make.</div><div>This is the usual procedure.</div><div> </div><div>0)Remove the rear wheel</div><br /><div>1)Disconnect the battery wires and vent pipes</div><br /><div>2)Position the U rails 1m apart parallel under the battery.</div><br /><div>3)Using 4 trolley jacks raise the battery</div><br /><div>4)Remove the holding pins</div><br /><div>5)Lower the battery onto the rails</div><br /><div>6)Slowly pull the battery out with a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">pulley</span> and rope</div><br /><div>7)Connect the vacuum pump to one vent hose</div><br /><div>8)Put the other vent hose in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">demin</span> water barrel</div><br /><div>9)Allow 18 batteries (1/2 pack) to fill until water flows into the glass jar.</div><br /><div>10)Fill the other 18 batteries in the same way.</div><br /><div>11)Clean the battery tops of dirt oil mud and acid</div><br /><div>12)Fix any problems found</div><br /><div>13)Push the battery back under the van using your foot</div><br /><div>14)Using the jacks raise the battery</div><br /><div>15)Refit the locating pins</div><br /><div>16)Remove the jacks and rail system</div><br /><div>17)Reconnect the battery cables and hoses</div><br /><div>18)Do a test run round the block</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><br /><div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-1169859167968672952007-01-27T00:31:00.000+00:002007-01-27T00:54:31.596+00:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/906/1801/1600/494660/DSCF0002.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/906/1801/320/132980/DSCF0002.jpg" border="0" /></a> 27 Jan 2007 At Christmas the van Broke down and a puff of steam came out of the battery vent hose!<br />The AA man offered to replace the battery but I had to explain it was 216V and weighed 1000kg! Ah he said.<br />After careful searching I decided to buy three Enersys 200Ah 6V monoblocks. Model 6TP200,<br />After several days struggling with inadequate lifting gear, I managed to remove the defective 6V unit and connect the new battery. The new battery will not fit in the old space so it was mounted via cables in the door step. This is useful however because it allows me to monitor the new battery and also try out other battery types for endurance. The defect in the old battery seems to be a short between positive and negative plates.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-1135703432547998692005-12-27T14:55:00.000+00:002005-12-27T17:10:34.886+00:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCN0094.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCN0094.jpg" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-1135694607662805072005-12-27T13:09:00.000+00:002008-01-16T09:31:33.785+00:00I have included a video drive past<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxG27KyQKwxuri1Glfn4Ja7Z6hquaqZ-2BJGhGkawPn0HUqzz1ncucPgpna1uqe9cmua0L2XGr02d8' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-1134517794820682492005-12-13T23:31:00.000+00:002005-12-13T23:49:54.836+00:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0006.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0006.jpg" border="0" /></a> <strong>Hello I thought you should see some of the bits that make the van go. The photos below show the traction motor and 2:1 chain reduction gear. The motor bearing and the speed controller.</strong><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0005.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0005.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0003.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0003.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0004.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0004.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The weather lately has been very cold and it has had a negative effect on range, so much so that a couple of weeks ago the battery went completely flat on the journey home and I had to pull over for three minutes to let the batteries recover before limping the last mile home at about 5 MPH.<br />The solution I have discovered is to recharge the batteries every day even if the van is not used.<br /><br />Every morning before setting off I suck out the Hydrogen gas with a Hoover to prevent the gas evolved during charging from igniting from sparks while traveling.<br /></span><p><span style="font-family:arial;">There is an ominous thud now after heavy breaking when the van comes to rest. I hope its not the motor getting loose on its mountings. The mountings get a real hammering because the motor is used for breaking and acceleration. 13-12-2005</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-1131403522728658872005-11-07T22:21:00.000+00:002005-11-07T23:23:55.276+00:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0021.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0021.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />When reversing on Thursday leaving work there was a nasty scraping sound. When I tried to pull the hand brake on I discovered it came up much more than normal and had stopped working.<br />I decided to continue on my way home and fix it the next day in daylight before going to work.<br />The next morning I jacked up the OS rear wheel and removed the wheel, however when I removed the brake drum several bits of mashed up mechanism fell out. I realised I couldn't fix it in 10 minutes so I left it and borrowed my wife's car for work.<br />At work, in a panic, I phoned around for a replacement mechanism.<br />On Monday I had a day off so I decided to fit an Ah meter to the charger so that I could see the number of Ah (Amp hours) delivered to the battery.<br />On Tuesday the brake parts arrived and were very rusty and did not fit. I spent half a day thinking of ways to repair the self adjuster mechanism before realising the answer: Fix the adjuster with epoxy glue to make it manual adjustment. I adjusted the brake and refitted the drum and wheel, In fact I had the entire week as holiday so the following Monday I set off for work. The battery voltage seemed lower than normal after a few miles but this could be the dropping temperature as we approach winter.<br />All seemed well that day but on the run home I'm sure I could smell boiling acid!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18407887.post-1130532469460099822005-10-28T21:07:00.000+01:002005-10-28T22:14:00.846+01:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0007.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/400/DSCF0007.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><p>After driving for about 3 miles in the rain there was a loud bang sound from directly under my seat. This was very alarming but I decided to keep going because there was nothing I could do. The damage was already done.</p><p>I think acid had formed a thin conductive film on the surface of the last cell in the pack and when water splashed up it ignited the Hydrogen gas trapped in the cell during charging.</p><p>Later at work I decided not to feel for damage due to the risk of death by electric shock and acid burns.</p><p>At the weekend I went to the Landrover Sortout and bought 4 used trolley jacks. When I got home I used the jacks to lower the 1 Ton battery pack to the ground.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0011.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0011.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>I had feared several monoblocks had blown their tops but as far as I can see only the end cell had its top blown off.</p><p>I found the broken pieces on top of other batteries in the 36 battery pack.</p><p>After sucking the hydrogen out with a wet and dry Hoover I used a glue gun and a paint stripping hot air gun to refit the broken pieces of plastic. The reflowing idea with the hot air gun was a bit stupid because in my haste I overheated the glue and the piece of broken plastic that I had spent some time carefully cleaning and positioning dropped down about 2mm. I decided not to try and re-position it.</p><p>The inside of the cell looks quite interesting. I took a picture of the complete assembly before refitting it. 28-OCT-2005<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/1600/DSCF0014.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/906/1801/320/DSCF0014.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>That night I recharged the batteries as usual and set off. It started to rain again and I started to feel very uneasy. The window started to steam up and so I decided to turn on the heater (which had not been used in anger) Just as I pulled away at the lights there was another bang from underneath the van which I felt through the floor! I thought oh dear! I decided to stop at the top of the hill but could see nothing unusual underneath. Anyway the rest of the days driving was uneventful.</p><p>When I got to work I decided the only way to eliminate the risk of ignition in a cell was to fit a small vacuum pump to suck the hydrogen out. The pump should run all the time the power was on. In the mean time I decided to use the Hoover to suck out the gas each morning before setting off.</p><p>Later I had a look at the top of the originally damaged cell expecting to see a large hole but it was still intact! I am beginning to wonder if the second bang was a backfire from the diesel heater which had gone off mysteriously due to water in the fuel or air bubbles. On reflection I think I tried to relight the heater too early and it ignited unburnt oil vapour in the combustion chamber and exhaust pipe.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Enersys Flodded Tubular Plate Lead Acid Batteries 6TP200</div>Chris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953462914258613286noreply@blogger.com1