Dyno Batteries

The rewiring is complete, and Electro is ready to receive the 16 6V batteries. The DC-DC is still at Belktronix, being reconfigured for 96V in, and I have been searching for a good vendor to buy my 6V deep-cycle batteries from. I found a local manufacturer, Dyno Batteries in Seattle, that will meet my needs. Here is the type of battery I am planning to purchase:

GC2b 6V Battery Spec

Retrofit progress: Going well!

This weekend I proceeded to:
1) remove the remaining batteries
2) reroute the under-car conduit to allow the rear battery box to store a full 8 batteries (bringing my total battery capacity up to 16 again)
3) temporarily remove the cooling and power brake booster modules
4) remove and begin to refactor the Hairball and LV fuseblock mounts, which will be condensed to make extra space for the taller 6V batteries

I talked with Bryan @ Belktronix, and he reports that I can in fact have the DC/DC I bought reworked to support an input voltage of 96V. Life is good!

Traction pack retrofit in progress: 12V to 6V

My calibration data point corroborates what I was afraid of: that my batteries don't contain enough energy for the range & speed that I want. Therefore, I am starting a process of replacing the 12V/55Ah batteries with 6V/232Ah batteries. Thankfully, things are modular and the storage areas (racks in the front, box in the back) will accommodate the 6V batteries just fine. I may need to move some items around in the front (the 6V batteries are taller).

Last night I proceeded to remove the batteries from the front racks in an hour - easy! The Belktronix DC/DC also needs to be modified as well for the new traction pack voltage range - I will be moving it from 180V (15 12V) to 96V (16 6V).

This new traction pack should give me a good deal more range - upwards to 40 miles I think.