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Electric sidecar
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 12:32 pm
by Colin Day
Electric powered sidecar used in hillclimbs and sprints by my son
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 5:40 pm
by Roger Hollingshead
That looks interesting Colin,what sort of 1/4 mile times does it do ? and have you any technical info ?
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:28 pm
by johnmitch93
Roger - build a tubular version immediately!
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:48 pm
by alanw
Please god no this cant be hapening

Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:58 pm
by steve-e
we have this pic from a previous thread - Gordon wanted fewer moving parts? This, no matter what Ed thinks, really will be the future :lol;

Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:54 pm
by Roger Hollingshead
johnmitch93 wrote:Roger - build a tubular version immediately!
Thats a good idea John ive got an extra long chasis to accomodate some extra batteries,you may remember it!
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:38 pm
by Colin Day
Hi Roger,
The motor is a Netgain transwarp 9, We did hill climbs last year, our times where 3 to 4 seconds slower than when the suzuki engine was fitted.
Last year it was direct drive, (this year it will have a 4 speed gear box )
The controller is a Curtis 1231c,(this year we will be making our own controller)
The batterys are Odyssey Pc 680 SLA at 144 volts, 500 amps, (this year we will be running at 170 volts, 680 amps.
Colin Day.
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:58 pm
by steve-e
What current does the motor draw at full load Colin? That looks like 50-70mm cable at most, something between 150-240A rated?
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:11 pm
by Colin Day
The cable is 50mm welding cable rated at 500 amps continuous,the motor can take 2000amps at 170volts but is limited by the cotroller to 500amps at 150 volts.( the cables do not get hot at all.)we are limited by the number of batteres we can carry( can not afford lithium iron phosphate cells the solos use).
Colin.
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:24 pm
by steve-e
50mm welding cable really isn't 500 amps continuous, it's good for about 180 continuous and a bit more for peak ( a lot of leeway included for heating) no matter what voltage. The voltage is not important when it comes to carrying current, the voltage is pressure, the current is flow (an easy lesson for the others here who don't understand electrickery)
I feel that you will be getting a lot of voltage drop in them cables if the motor is pulling more than 200A, hence asking about the motor itself.
Now tell me you're an electrical engineer and I'll hide

Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:39 pm
by Richard Rollings
Info on motor.
http://currentevtech.com/Drive-Systems/ ... P-p60.html
Welding cables are rated differently to normal cables a 50mm welding cable is rated at 345amps.
A good cable site
http://cse-distributors.co.uk/cable/voltage-drop.htm
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:51 pm
by steve-e
surely not continuous? it's not that different to trirate in construction is it? does that look like welding cable, I'm sure the stuff on our welder is more flexible than that

Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:35 pm
by Richard Rollings
They dont look like welding cables to me either.
the cable capacity is on the link below. However with the short distances involved you could mak allowances.
http://www.eland.co.uk/documents/H01N2D%20Cables.pdf
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 3:43 pm
by Colin Day
Thanks for your comments on the size of the cables, I know nothing about electrics and have to go by what my supplyers tell me, and what i see when we attend EV events.this motor and batterys are used by most of the fast private cars at alternative energy race meetings and we get most of our advice from them.
The volts are important to us as the RPMs of the motor goes up in a linear manner to the volts,amps=torque remains constant or so the motor makers say. thanks colin.
Re: Electric sidecar
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:44 pm
by bruce moore
just out off curiosity,how long do the batteries last,what sort of speed ?
do you think it could lap the Isle of Man without stopping !