Has Anyone Ever Used the Parts from a Electric Fork Lift to Make an Electric Car

I think it's a great idea..If I had a workshop and an old fork lift I'd have done it by now...
Your location isn't in your profile. If you are near Harlow UK can I play too?

I used the parts from an electric boat winch to make a forklift once.

Because the motor on a electric lift truck was designed for torque and not speed you may want to gear the speed up a bit. Most only turn at 2000 to 2600 RPM. May want to look at re-gearing the transmission for an increase output RPM more than 1:1. Also while your scraping out the old lift truck don't forget the speed controls and the directional controls. While the the old contactors may be problematic in they as they wear pit and some times stick will get you by until you get the bugs out. Curtis makes a good solid-state controller.

http://www.fsip.biz This company can provide circuit repair to controls if needed. Has available service info on the many different control boards manufacture in the USA. Been away from Electromotive Vehicles for a while do not Know what else they offer now.

I'm particularly excited by this idea, but only if you can somehow retain the forks in the new car design.

I guess weight will be an issue because the forklift uses the batteries as counterweight for loads, so you will not have a lightweight electric car

http://4qdtec.com this site also got Schematics and controllers for the application. Very low price compared to Curtis. Good luck for all those tying to build one!

12x hella...sounds like gavin! Those batteries sound very good but unfortunately are made in NZ and not sold anywhere else.

Anyone curious about the nitty gritty of converting, check out "Gav's EV Conversion" on youtube...a 20 part documentary of a guy that started out the project not knowing anything about cars.

Renew ( an Australian magazine, technology for a sustainable future)issue 101,Oct 07, has an excellent article on converting a car to electric power.

It also gives these sites to look at www.aeva.asn.au

controllers etc www.bylongwind.com.au

www.evmotors.com.au, www.wattashock.com www.acpropulsion.com www.cafeelectric.com www.electroauto.com www.evparts.com www.thunder-sky.com

Go do it.

If you are looking for 3 phase ac motors with a low supply voltage (80 -150 VAC), I can help you. You can fed these motors by means of a frequency converter. Motors have an position encoder feeding back to the frequency converter. The DC power stage of the frequency converter has to be supplied with a battery bank.

Torque controle or speed controle is possible by the frequency converter. Active breaking is also possible.

The only problem will be the weight of the battery bank...

Good luck with the project

No but Im busy with the plans from run your car from water (Hydrogen) or supplement the petrol with Hydrogen gas, apparently more than 50% better mileage !!!

Someone left a full version of zipped plans to down load at

http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/feb2/carplans.htm

Looks fine to me

Battery's are expensive and take a long time to charge is the only problem for me re battery powered products.

I use Battery packs for Underwater video lighting / metal hydride and Lithium ion are great for holding peak power but they don't last long and if one dies you then technically need to replace the whole lot because they are not the same anymore etc. I use Lead acid 7 or 15 amp/hr which are usually used for alarm systems and starting generators. They work fine and are a 1/4 of the price. Amortise the cost of replacing 10 Deep cycle batteries every year - may as well stay on petrol.

This is a good one. Too bad your forklift parts are not DOT certified and you can be arrested for circumventing Federal fuel taxes, if you own a commercial trucking company.

At Disney there are semi-retired GM autoworkers, constantly repairing the electric cars at the GM sponsored, car of the future.

After speaking with the technicians, they insist the maintainability of any such vehicle is prohibitive. The stators constantly wear out, the beryllium copper gets really expensive and the dust is utter hell on the environment, (let alone the repairman). They were averaging 2-3 days use, per car, before hours of costly rebuilding. About the same MTBF as bumper-cars, at the fair.

Moving to electric vehicles was Luka$' dream. Unfortunately, the wires were not long enough, to make it, to work.

Range Rover has miraculously solved all our electric automobile problems.

Now you can use a Range Rover to build an electric car, instead of a fork-lift!

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/23/british-company-building-electric-range-extended-rovers/

Here's why it won't work:

http://www.jumbojoke.com/lucas_electric_465.html

[quote] you can be arrested for circumventing Federal fuel taxes [/quote]

I heard that enough people are converting in Virginia that you have to pay an extra $50/year on your restration to amke up for the lost gas tax revenue. If this is true then it's a lot better deal than up here in Canada where gas just about hit $6/gal a couple days ago and 50%(ish) of that is taxes...will the gov't do anything to help??? Better not bet your life on it...or the life of the planet.

I'm no tree-hugger but there are other options out there with a lot of potential. The development of these ideas will only happen when there is sufficient interest to make a market.

[quote]After speaking with the technicians, they insist the maintainability of any such vehicle is prohibitive. The stators constantly wear out, the beryllium copper gets really expensive and the dust is utter hell on the environment, (let alone the repairman). They were averaging 2-3 days use, per car, before hours of costly rebuilding. About the same MTBF as bumper-cars, at the fair.[/quote]

Sounds like they picked some REALLY bad motors. There are industrial motors plenty strong enough to drive a car around that will definitely NOT wear out every few days...

typically forklift batteries, while heavy are well made & long lasting. If you got those and the motor and all the controls, all you need is a donor car or truck. Sure you'll have to put a study on the gearing. You'll be all the smarter after this project. I agree: go to evalbum and search and study.

i can't answer to all the legalities. Like a firearm, do i really have one? How come gold prospectors never find any gold? etc. etc.

I just came by to check... how is your project going?

I just found a very interesting Blog Showing how to convert a car into an EV . It shows videos and its fun to watch ...

http://www.kiwiev.com/

Enjoy

Thanks for all of the responds on this post. Since posting this I have come across a Clark fork lift that I can buy for a song. It is a 36 volt system.The batteries are weak and the hydraulics leak. I have decided that it would take to much time and effort for me to try a conversion. If any one is interested in parts off of it let me know. I may be able to work a deal out with the owner. I am located in Southeast MO 100 miles south of St. Louis. Thanks.

If only I was closer ... and had a workshop... and .

Don't spose it would fit in a Jiffy bag...nah.

Del

I remember reading an article on a drag bike that used a 32v forklift motor to drive it. They used (from memory) 2 x 120V NiCd battery banks, paralleled on launch and then series for 240V running .. so no current control at all, they had to use the clutch because it snapped dual 930 chains not surprisingly.

i attended, and joined the VANCOUVER ELECTRIC VEHICLE ASSOC. and a guy had a forklift motor in a Japanese motorcycle. i will try to find the picture and specs and post before i go on holidays. it was an excellent fit. can't remember the battery/driver config. http://www.veva.bc.ca/home/

if i make it to the next meeting i will ask for specs again.

That's Robyn! http://www.evalbum.com/1497 Not a forklift motor...a special one for high performance golf carts. Not a bad looking golf cart he has there! ;)

your right. I got the vehicles/ motors /drivers mixed up.

the electrique engines,and motors on underground mining machines are heavy duty...mules and lokies pull thousands of tons of material all shiftlong. plug it into the charging station, for next shift. change the battery pak for the next shift, away ya go.

i think the only draw-back holding is the mass of the batteries and safty of what happens if...there is spilled contamination