Guru
Joined: 15/07/2006
Location: AustraliaPosts: 640
| Posted: 09:07am 03 Sep 2019 |
April 2019
Fitted 3 new chargers. TC Chargers. Waterproof, dustproof and shockproof. I had killed way too many Zivan NG3 chargers and had them repaired to kill them again. The Zivan NG3 charger is ok if you can keep it in a dust free, water free environment. When I had them in the cab behind the driver seat they were ok, but after shifting to their own alloy box under the battery box, it became a very big mistake. Anyhow The TC chargers are brilliant. I have 3 of them so when I charge from a public outlet I can run 1 from each of the 3 phases. The alloy boxes have sealed lockable doors.
Also in April 2019
I decided to remove 4 cells from the pack of 52, making it 48 cells. (Not like the last pack after 3 years(?) adding 8 more cells). I wanted to make it 48 cells because T-Rev is 48 cells. With both packs the same cell count, I can connect both packs together for the long drives away for shows etc. This has cut my range some.
May 2019.
EV Expo again at the National Transport Museum in Inverell.
Went down via Brisbane, Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Moree to Inverell. And returned the same way. Drove on stored battery power only all the way except between Toowoomba and Moree both ways. This is 345km in which I run the generator the whole way as well as run for an hour while setting up camp. Switched off genny for a sleep. Got going early again in the morning running genny again. Stopped driving for breakfast and left genny running. Going back up to Toowoomba was much harder..... uphill. I had to stop many times for quite a long time to let the genny catch up some power in the batteries. To some people it is wrong using the generator. I don't have a problem using hybrid mode sometimes.
Here is the map with the charge points.
Here is the elevation chart.
To understand the position on the chart............
1 Home, Kuttabul
2 Carmilla
3 Marlborough
4 Rockhampton
5 Miriam Vale
6 Childers
7 Maryborough
8 Cooroy
9 Hamilton Northshore, Brisbane
10 Toowoomba
11 Goondiwindi
12 Moree
13 Inverell
Brisbane to Toowoomba is recorded as 145km, so the steep climb is no problem as the battery range is within reason. Going down from Toowoomba (10) to Moree (12) was ok, but going back up from Moree (12) to Toowoomba (10) took all day. I never charged at Goondiwindi either going down or going back up. (we charged at Goondiwindi last year). So anyway, elevation makes a huge difference to EV range. The elevation chart also shows a steep climb from Moree (12) to Inverell (13) but the distance is still within EV battery range, but used 25kW, 151km. On the way back from Inverell (13) to Moree (12) only used 19.8kW of battery power.
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Edited 2019-09-04 10:05 by Trev
Trev @ drivebynature.com