232: Sunday 13th May 2012

Last Saturday I put the gear lever back in and I have driven it for a week now and it does make a very slight difference range, but not much. Usually I would be in 3rd gear only.
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I exploded a battery on Friday night. I had dropped my daughter off and was on my way back home and was hooning along to try for top speed. As I had kept the throttle pedal nailed to the floor, I was pulling max current for too long (800A) and I heard a bang and lost all power. I drifted off the roundabout and was parked on a small link road to another roundabout. After about 5 minutes the battery pack voltage had recovered and I was able to drive for a few seconds. I had called the rescue service and I was waiting. So repeatedly letting the charge build up then driving forward a few feet eventually got me off the roundabout. The recovery van turned up, but they had been trained recently in how to handle electric cars and told if they were not sure then just don't touch it. He towed me home then hung around while I swapped a battery. It was all running again after about 10 minutes work. These salvage batteries are o.k for now, but I now know that they can only tolerate so much hard driving. They were originally installed in a telecoms back up supply, so not really designed for these kind of heavy loads, at least not sustained for any time. There was no visible sign that battery was damaged, but the voltage did not even register on my tester. Another lesson learnt.

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