Here it comes!
It goes without saying that the cost of gasoline is starting to break the bank for a lot of people and it's all too common to see people trying, perhaps in vain, to sell their large vehicles that get decidedly poor gas mileage. People are increasingly seeking out smaller cars, hybrid cars, two-wheeled modes of transportation, and still other alternatives. I've been thinking that I might be able to put my engineering skills to use for the greater good and build small electric vehicles for people as a non-profit service to the public. I've experimented with this kind of project in the past using scooters, but some research revealed that people are choosing golf carts for their electric-vehicle experiments. Some of the techniques they've used are very similar to what I tried with the scooters, while others are very different and, truthfully, less innovative. My scooters also featured "turbo" switches to provide quick bursts of extra speed (in addition to the high speeds I built into them). These were made possible by the special cooling system I developed. After one too many trips to the grocery store in my pickup truck, I decided that it was time to revisit the old scooter idea on the slight bigger golf cart scale. A complete golf cart will be enclosed, climate-controlled for use in all weather, completely street-legal, move at regular street speeds, and have a cooling system to enable it to travel across a large city without the various batteries overheating. I've read up on what defines a street-legal golf cart and will incorporate the parameters into every cart I build. Because of the ease of charging and building one of these, it will be able to be much more economical to many people than a full-sized electric car. People can still maintain their regular cars for long trips or work purposes while driving one of these carts on small errands. Later, I want to be able to convert gas-powered vehicles for people, again at a much lower cost than they would have to pay for a factory-built or converted car.Now, to tell you the actual story of what I've been able to accomplish so far along these lines. Back on Cinco de Mayo, Beth and I made a small road trip up to Waddell, which is an unexpectedly agricultural area between Goodyear and Surprise. Why the random trip to a random part of the West Valley on a day when everyone out there was partying? Well, I'd had the good fortune of finding an excellent deal on a used golf cart that was very much intact and just about functional while still being very inexpensive. I looked around and couldn't find anything approaching that deal any closer to home. So we drove up to Goodyear, picked up a U-Haul trailer, and found our way to a nice lady's ranch where we chatted for a while and loaded up her old cart. Since then, I've been working hard to turn this little ranch runabout into a very legitimate electric vehicle that can be driven on the streets of Tucson and give us a much-needed break from hauling around our Dodge Ram at ten miles per gallon of (three-and-a-half-dollar) gasoline.
We're certainly not the only ones in the area with this idea—a family right in our neighborhood doesn't even use a regular car at all, but gets around with their own golf cart. I've also seen other small electric utility vehicles being driven on major roads in town. Beth tells me that when she lived in Florida, the residents of the Sun City development down south of Tampa rarely drove cars around their town but famously got around by golf cart. What will set my cart apart from these examples, though, is the fact that I am simultaneously building a solar charging station for it that will run on a different kind of solar power: thermal energy from the sun, instead of photovoltaic cells.
Before and After
Before beginning to add the street-legal features, I had to take a couple of important systems apart to ensure that they were in good condition and working properly. Look at the effort I had to put into inspecting the brake system: The lugnuts had apparently been previously put onto the hubs with an impact wrench, so it was, at first, a rather troublesome time removing them. After some work on them all was well with the brakes, though, and I was reminded to avoid impact wrenches when doing my own vehicle maintenance! You can check out the short clip below to see part of this. Of course we will be putting together a detailed how to video documenting all this.
Inspecting and Reworking the Brakes
After ensuring the functionality of the brakes, it was time to show other motorists that they were working--that is, connect them to the taillights. It's quite a simple concept: I cut a hole in the brake pedal, inserted a switch, and wired the switch to the battery that is connected to the brake-light portion of the taillights. When stepping on the pedal, the driver can't miss the switch and thus activates the lights. Also as part of that effort there was the intallation of the turn signals. The video clip illustration below shows this.
Great Brake Light System!
The cart needs a little bit of basic body work before I enhance it at all, as you can see here:
The way the thermal station will work is with steam that will be created by heating water with a parabolic mirror. The light is focused onto a pipe that can withstand moderately high-pressure steam escaping from it. The steam will escape and turn relatively small DC motors connected in series that will be be about double the size of a man's fist. The motors only have to have a reasonable amount of amperage and a little more voltage than the battery pack they are charging. The released steam won't go to waste but will be condensed and collected for reuse to start the process over again. The parabolic mirror is a "pre-prototype", you could say, and the goal is to have it working for a short time in the middle of each day. Once I'm sure that it's effective and I've worked out the biggest bugs, I'll build an actual prototype. Check out my video of this concept in crude form. The more advanced version will soon begin.
Solar Furnace Concept is Implemented
Returning to the thought of photovoltaic cells--While I am concerned about their environmental impact and their cost, they still have their utility. They can be used to manufacture new cells or be refurbished. I'm interested in collecting secondhand solar cells for my future plan of building more of these enhanced electric vehicles. I want to be able to provide these vehicles and cells to people at a very affordable non-profit price to give more people a break from having to use their gasoline-powered vehicles and to enable them to charge up without the high up-front cost of solar power that might otherwise prevent them from making the switch. *I am currently accepting donations of your old solar panels, working or not, to make this possible.* I am also accepting donations of other related items, such as carts (one has already been donated to us), delivered deep-cycle lead acid batteries, and laptop computer batteries. Computer batteries are great for powering other electrical systems on these carts, such as cooling, climate control, etc.
To sum up, I've started what I think is a great golf cart prototype that so far, has a range of about forty miles, is designed to operate at the maximum legal speed, contains all of the necessary safety lights, and is ready for the horn to be wired. Regarding the maximum legal speed, I want to distinguish between what the cart is capable of and what it can legally reach. It legally must be designed to travel at 25 miles per hour and is not allowed to exceed 35 on any street without the driver being cited by the police. These are the parameters for all street-legal golf carts of this class. After mine becomes legal, it will be enclosed and climate-controlled, have its cargo space increased (likely with a detachable trailer), and have a cooling system installed so that the demands I put on the electrical system won't strain it, such as maintaining speed on steep hills or using one of those turbo switches I mentioned earlier. You can see it still in its early stages here yet it is very fun to drive and has a very long range for what it is and zips right along.
Here it Comes!
As I continue my research and experimentation, I am increasingly really looking forward to using similar methods to develop enhanced full-sized vehicles converted from gasoline to electricity as I am developing a greater understanding of this comming bup with plans on how to make such things more obtainable to those who would otherwise feel it is out of their reach.. I'll use some the same concepts as on the golf carts, such as design, cheaper ways of acquiring and fabricating parts, and soliciting donations. This way I can provide very viable electric vehicles to car owners who would like to switch, even part-time, to electricity but otherwise couldn't afford to. I want to see lower-income citizens be a part of the movement and hope to extend financing to people who want to purchase them and the accompanying charging stations. I feel strongly that hybrid cars are not a real answer, nor are all-electric vehicles that depend on charging through conventional means. The electrical grid actually wastes much more energy than it makes useful to consumers, so I want to do my part to move the world in the direction of hyperlocally-generated electricity (i.e., in one's own backyard). If the vehicles catch on, people will be inspired to increase their use of solar power in their homes and businesses, which will greatly reduce the materials needed to build houses and transportation.
