March 2005
The Las
Vegas Electric Vehicle Association (LVEVA) will meet on the third Saturday of each month during 2005. Meetings will be held at the Clark County Library on 1401 E. Flamingo Road from 10:15 AM to 12:15 PM. Members will be displaying
their own electric cars and answering questions before and after the meeting. 2005 Events Calendar
Month Date Activity
March 05 EV Workshop March 17 Las Vegas St. Patrick's Day Parade March 19 Monthly Meeting April 02 EV Workshop April 09 Wicked Watts 2005
April 16 Monthly Meeting April 23 Earth Day Summerlin Exhibition May 07 EV Workshop May 21 Monthly Meeting June 04 EV Workshop June 18 Monthly Meeting July 02 Boulder City 4th of July Parade
July 16 Monthly Meeting August 06 EV Workshop August 20 Monthly Meeting September 03 EV Workshop September 17 Monthly Meeting October 01 EV Workshop October 15 Monthly Meeting November 05 EV Workshop
November 19 Monthly Meeting December 03 EV Workshop December 10 Boulder City Christmas Parade December 17 Monthly Meeting
Contents:
LVEVA President's Message
NEDRA Wicked Watts on April 9, 2005 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ("The Strip")
LVEVA to Participate in St. Patrick's Day and Earth Day Celebrations
EAA Member Proposing Revision to H.R. 6, Allowing $4,000 Federal Tax Credit for EV's
LVEVA Ongoing Projects
EV Parts and EV's For Sale
LVEVA Board of Directors:
Richard Furniss, President
Bill Yule, Vice President Bill Kuehl, Secretary/Treasurer Al Sawyer Jan Himber Al D'Inzillo Adam Howard
Newsletter Editors and Contributors:
Bill Kuehl Richard Furniss Al Sawyer, P.E. Jan Himber Adam Howard Stan Hanel
WATTS HAPPENING
is published monthly by the
Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association, a chapter of the Electric Auto Association
Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association web site
Electric Auto Association web site
Address Correspondence to: LVEVA 2515 Hightree Street No. Las Vegas, NV 89030
Call for Information: Richard Furniss (702) 453-6196 Bill Kuehl (702) 636-0304 Jan Himber (702) 642-4000
LVEVA President's Message
Hi everyone, ---David White from Pahrump is looking to see if he can buy a pick-up in Pahrump and wants to get involved in EV's.
---Jon Hallquist from www.grassrootsEV.com is on a job hunting visit here in Las Vegas.
We had some new guests at February's meeting (February 19, 2005):
We also announced that the LVEVA will start hosting a monthly workshop focusing on different EV-related subjects. The workshop will be
on the first Saturday of each month from 10am to 5pm (with an hour break for lunch). The location of each workshop will depend on the subject matter at the time. The first workshop on March 5, 2005, will be at my house (email me
for directions). We will be making battery cables. The second workshop is scheduled for April 2, 2005 and will be welding steel and aluminum. If anybody has a suggestion for a workshop let us know and we will make something happen.
The EV Polygraph didn't make the meeting this month (it got left on the workbench at home, I must be getting forgetful). We will be using the workshops to do Watts/hr per mile testing, so if you want to test the efficiency
of your EV, bring your car to a workshop.
Richard Furniss
Email: http://lasvegasev.com
Las Vegas, NV
President
Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association
Web site:
NEDRA Wicked Watts Scheduled for April 9, 2005 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ("The Strip")
The National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA), a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) affiliate, announced that Wicked Watts 2005 is now scheduled for the weekend of April 9th. NHRA/NEDRA-sanctioned Electric Vehicle record-qualifying racing will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2005 at "The Strip" on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway from 8 AM to noon. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is home to many sanctioned NHRA and NASCAR events during the year. For more information on "The Strip" track location, admission, and logistics, visit: www.lvms.com
Friday night, April 8,
2005 at 6 PM is an open "Test and Tune" where NEDRA racers can race and tune their Electric Dragsters against gasoline-powered cars on an NHRA-sanctioned drag strip. This scheduled date has been approved by both
NEDRA's officers and the officials at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Any new information regarding this date and evolving race plans will be posted in this newsletter and on the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association web site at:
Also, please visit the NEDRA web site at:
Jr. Dragster competition will highlight the early morning events and the open "Test and Tune" will follow for all EV dragsters that can pass the NHRA/NEDRA technical inspection. For more information on the technical modifications required to race an EV on an NHRA-sanctioned drag strip, see the NHRA rule book at the NEDRA web site: www.nedra.com
Admission to "The Strip" Drag Strip will be open to all for the "Test and Tune"
both Friday night and Saturday morning. Admission price for Saturday morning is $20 for spectators and $35 for racers with their vehicles. The admission fee is paid at the ticket booth at the entrance to the "The Strip" drag race
track "pit" staging area. The LVEVA will provide logistical support. EAA and LVEVA members are encouraged to attend as well as volunteer to support the efforts of the NEDRA racers. Volunteers are needed to log in racers' run times
for official NEDRA record-keeping, provide support information as to logistical and technical checkout procedures for "The Strip", help racers stay in contact with local NEDRA and LVEVA officials during the EVent, as well as
provide general information about the local Las Vegas area. Last year during Wicked Watts, the two best Electric Jr. Drag Racers in the country raced against gasoline-powered Jr. Dragsters in a "bracket-racing" exhibition on the
Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time. Also scheduled to appear is a student team from Brigham Young University's School of Technology. The students and their faculty advisors are hoping to set new records with
their converted GM EV-1 Ultracapacitor-powered Electric Dragster. Led by their faculty advisors, Dr. Tom Erekson and Dr. Perry Carter, the team's Wicked Watts debut appearance in 2003 was impressive, averaging 70 mph per run,
setting records and creating a new NEDRA Racing Class for UltraCapacitor-powered Electric Vehicles. For more information on Maxwell Technologies' UltraCapacitors, visit Maxwell's web site at:
More information on the BYU School of Technology's EV-1 can be found at their web site:
NEDRA Vice-President Brian Hall with his
record-setting "Revolt" Electric Motorcycle that broke the 100 mph barrier last year at Infineon Raceway in California is also planning on participating in Wicked Watts 2005. Other participating racers will be announced in the
April Newsletter and this feature will be updated online as the date approaches. As in years past, pre-race and after-race celebrations will keep the NEDRA energy going. A recap of the days' highlights and awarding of prizes
will be held Saturday afternoon at a nearby gathering place such as the Speedway Casino or "The Cannery" casino Las Vegas is also celebrating the Centennial of its birth in 1905 and kicked off a year-long party on New Year's
Eve. Spend the weekend enjoying the sights, sounds, food, and sensations of "The Entertainment Capitol of the World". For more information about ongoing events, attractions and accommodations during the weeked of April 8th
to April 10th, please visit these following web sites:
LVEVA to Participate in St. Patrick's Day and Earth Day Exhibitions
LVEVA Vice-President Bill Yule will exhibit his converted EV Hyundai in the Henderson St.
Patrick's Day Parade on March 19, 2005. Come celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Henderson and support clean driving! LVEVA Board Members Al Sawyer and Jan Himber will also be participating at an Earth Day celebration in Summerlin
during the third week of April 2005. They will be creating an exhibition of Lectra Motors EV's that were produced here in Las Vegas in the early 1980's at a production plant on Valley View Road. Al Sawyer was President as well as
Director of Research and Development for Lectra Motors at the time when the company produced over 1,000 vehicles from its Las Vegas location. These EV's were based on Datsun "glider" chassis and bodies, including pickup trucks,
sedans, and the Datsun 200 SX sports car (reconfigured as the Lectra Centauri). Many of these vehicles are still on the road today. Other Earth Day celebrations will be scheduled during the same week at the UNLV campus and Nellis
Air Force Base, usually attended by school children from neighboring areas. Dates and times are yet to be determined. LVEVA members are encouraged to volunteer to help "spread the word" about the benefits of EV driving and
"alternative transportation" technologies that promote a healthier environment for our children, our grandchildren and our planet.
EAA Member Bob Batson Promoting $4,000 Federal Tax Credit Revision to H.R. 6. (Energy Policy Act of 2003)
by Stan Hanel On December 9, 2004, EAA member Bob Batson wrote a letter to President George W. Bush and other Congressional Representatives in his area suggesting a revision to H.R. 6,
the Energy Policy Act of 2003. Bob's proposal requests a $4,000 federal tax credit for the registration of any on-road EV, specifically including gas-to-EV conversions. At the January 2005 LVEVA meeting, outgoing President and
current Secretary/Treasurer Bill Kuehl encouraged LVEVA members to do more to become involved in local, state and federal political decisions that might allow for more EV-friendly transportation laws and regulations. Although the
LVEVA is more of an educational organization than one dedicated to political advocacy, LVEVA members should feel free to "follow their consciences" and carry forward their civic duties to persuade their elected representatives
about the benefits of Electric Vehicle technologies towards the economic and physical health of their country. Locally, the first place to consider getting involved would be the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) that
coordinates the different modes of public transportation in Clark County and Southern Nevada. There is a Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC) that meets regularly to work with the RTC in setting public policy.
Local contact information for the RTC and the advisory CAC is at the following web site:
Here is a text reprint of that web page: The CAC is comprised solely of members from the
community. This group meets monthly and discusses and makes recommendations on transportation issues that affect the entire Southern Nevada community. This committee provides citizen input to the commission, ensuring that a
cross-section of the valley's population is represented. CAC meetings are held the Wednesday before the last Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in Room 108 of the RTC Administrative Building, unless otherwise posted.
Interested in serving on the CAC? You can download an NOTE: Agendas are in PDF format. You can download it free
Scheduled Meeting Date |
Time |
Location |
Agenda |
Wednesday before the last Thursday of the month |
5:30 p.m. |
Meeting Room 108 |
February 23, 2005 |
Attn: Agendas
600 S. Grand Central Pkwy. Ste. 350
Las Vegas, NV 89106.
Former LVEVA President Gail Lucas has served on the CAC and has worked to get approval to use public transportation RTC vehicle maintenance sites as EV charging stations. One tentative agreement seemed likely but was canceled due to safety and insurance considerations by a site supervisor.
More work in this area and on other proposals would help keep the RTC aware of alternative proven transportation modes that would be good for the community and the environment in Clark County.
At the Federal level, Clark County and the State of Nevada are fortunate to have strong representation for their transportation needs in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Congresswoman Shelley Berkley in the House of Representatives is on the House Transportation Committee. For Congresswoman Berkley's web site home page and contact information, visit:
http://www.house.gov/berkleyNevada Senior Senator Harry Reid has done much for environmental studies and transportation
in Nevada, including the establishment of the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies on the UNLV campus. He recently arranged federal transportation grants worth $71 million dollars
late last year. Besides improving roads and transportation infrastructure within the state, the grants also included a $1 million pilot study to research construction of a high-speed Magnetic
Levitation (Mag-Lev) train between Las Vegas and Southern California (see LVEVA "Watts Happening" Newsletter, December 2004). As the newly elected Minority Leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate, Senator Reid
should receive more decision-making influence on Federal Transportation and Energy policy in the future. His web site and contact information, including an emailed newsletter, are available through:
At the State level of government in Carson City, Nevada, an ongoing commitment to develop energy resources that are native to the state of Nevada (and don't have to be piped in or
imported from other states) has become a priority for Nevada's state leadership, including Governor Kenny Guinn (see LVEVA "Watts Happening" Newsletter, December 2004). For Governor Guinn's contact information, visit:
For Clark County State Senator Dina Titus, contact:http://www.leg.state.nv.us/73rd/Legislators/Senators/Titus.cfm
For Clark County Assemblyman Richard Perkins (D-Henderson) who is also Speaker of the Nevada State Assembly, contact:http://www.leg.state.nv.us/70th/Legislators/Assembly/Perkins.htm
The LVEVA hopes to spread awareness to Clark County's political decision-making leadership about proven alternative transportation technologies promoted by our membership, especially "gas-to-EV" conversions, DMV registration and the establishment of an EV charging infrastructure within Clark County and Southern Nevada. In the next months, we hope to have more information about government policy makers and bills influencing the Electric Vehicle community that might require the help of "grassroots" petitions or proposals. We welcome any suggestions or volunteer support you might have for this effort. Thank you!
LVEVA Ongoing EV Projects
by Richard Furniss, LVEVA President As a club we are going to do something different this year, we are going to do club projects
which will be listed in the "Watts Happening" newsletter and on our clubs web site at:
The idea is to get some of the club members involved in "hands on" EV work. If any club
member has a project that they want to do, we will list it in our newsletter and club's web page so we can find people with similar interests and build a team of people to see it through.
I have two projects, the 3-wheel EV bike and an EV range extender. Adam has the e-meter challenge and the $/per/mile battery cost projects. Jan Himber and Al Sawyer continue to
develop their unique Battery Monitoring System and Battery Charging Regulator designs. The e-meter challenge is something that I thought up to see how efficiently the local EV's in
town are using battery energy. There are two ways to get more miles per charge out of our EV's, the first and quick way is to put more Ah in our EV's with T-145 batteries, and the second
way is to make your EV more efficient. The first thing is to measure the watt hours/mile and then change something to make it better. Here is a list of things to do on a EV to get better
efficiency by Solectria Electric Vehicle Company employee Seth Allen: ------------------------------------------------------ "You might find that reductions in rolling resistance and parasitic
One thing that sort of grew on me at Solectria was a sort of mentality ------------------------------------------------------- So what we did was mount my e-meter in a box with it's own power supply (battery) and made
up some long cables to make it easy to connect it to any EV. The plan is to connect this test unit to each EV and test it. The unit (now called "The EV Polygraph") will tell the truth about how
well your EV is doing on efficiency. There will be a trophy for the winner and it will be passed to the person that "one-ups" the current holder.
Of course the devil is in the details. To make things fair we need to drive the same course. But what we need to figure out is how do we consider "the time it takes to drive the course" in
relation to "the weight of the vehicle". In the end, what it comes down to is "a watt is a watt". How many watts does it take you to drive a mile? Any input into this challenge is, of course, welcome. Richard Furniss Editor's Note: As mentioned in the lead article, LVEVA President's Message, a decision was
made during the February 19, 2005 monthly meeting of the LVEVA, to schedule regular EV workshops on the first Saturday of every month and add these workshops to the club calendar.
Monthly workshops will be held in addition to the regular general meetings at various locations in town to give members "hands on" EV building experience. The first meeting will be at
Richard Furniss' house on March 5, 2005 to demonstrate how to make battery interconnect cables for EV's. The second workshop scheduled for April 2, 2005 will focus on welding steel
and aluminum. Each workshop will run from 10 AM to 5 PM (with an hour break for lunch) on the first Saturday of each month. For more information, contact Richard at telephone number: (702) 453-6196 or email him at
loads, both mechanical and electrical might be where to look first to
extend range.
Things to try:
-Low Rolling Resistance tires
-special alignment (no toe, no camber)
-low viscosity transmission fluid
-a transaxle that uses fluid wetted (versus grease) inner CV joints
-remove the internal motor fan
-add external motor fan to above
-use the biggest properly wound motor possible
-a low current limit
-assuming a DC-DC is used, reduce 12v power wherever possible
-ditch all the sound deadening in the car, you don't need it, it's an
EV!
-if you can get an efficiency map for the motor, then figure the
correct operating regimes based on roadspeed and torque and shift
appropriately (this could be the most significant and it is FREE)
-learn how to drive modestly
-coast whenever possible
-slow down
that every Joule was sacred and every pound was evil. It would have
been easier and cheaper to make steel battery boxes, (and cost was very
much a consideration), but they were made of aluminum."
Las Vegas, NV
President and Board Member, http://www.lveva.org/
Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association
EV Parts For Sale
108 Volt Lester Battery Charger $450
Contact Jan Himber, Tel: 642-4000
One 8 inch Advanced DC used motor
-- asking price $800 One 9 inch Advanced DC used Motor --asking price $1200 Rudman PFC20 CHARGER used 4 times --asking price $1500
Contact William Kuehl, Email: bill2k2000@yahoo.com
4504 W. Alexander Road, North Las Vegas, Nevada 89032
Tel: 702-636-0304
For Sale: Chrome "Electric" Emblems for EV's
Mike Chancey - Posted 06/25/00
My URL:http://formmail.to/emblem/order
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Checked: 07/13/03 http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/signs.htmlhttp://www.austinev.org/evalbum/signs.html
Chrome "Electric" car emblems, just like the OEM factory lettering. Okay, so you own a beautiful electric vehicle, but does the world know? Show them with these profession quality "ELECTRIC" emblems. Fabricated from weather resistant thermoplastic, these signs feature a bright chrome like finish on the letter faces with a subtle matte black background. They mount easily with the self adhesive HighTack backing. Simply peel off the protective cover, and press the sign into place. Each sign is approximately 1.25" in height and 7" in length. Only $6.00Each or four for $20.00, plus $1.75 shipping and handling per order. Discounts for larger orders available. Send check or money order to: Mike Chancey, 1700 East 80th Street, Kansas City, MO 64131, or order online at: http://formmail.to/emblem/order
EV's For Sale:
For Sale: 1995 GMC Sonoma Pickup Conversion $6,500.00
. When new, this vehicle was worth $18,000.00 Asking Price $6,500 or Best Offer William Kuehl Email: bill2k2000@yahoo.com
This pickup was originally converted for Nevada Power Co. from a new purchase. William
Kuehl, LVEVA President, was initially contacted by the Principal of Clark High School for his knowledge of electric vehicle conversions and was asked to help the 12th grade students build
an EV project. The students did the conversion from information given to them by William Kuehl.
After the project was completed, Nevada Power used the pickup in service until June 2002
when it was auctioned off. William Kuehl bought the truck and towed it home. The mileage was 1,867. He installed twenty new T-145 U.S. Batteries. These batteries have been run for two
years now and there are now 8,811 miles on the pickup truck odometer
The truck's 120-volt system drives an 9-inch Advanced DC motor through a newly upgraded
Curtis controller rated at 750 amps. There is an onboard Zivan NG-3 220 volt charger. Tires have been changed to Pirelli P225/60 R 16 with chrome alloy rims.
With new batteries this EV has a range of 53 miles per charge. The currrent two-year (plus) old batteries have a range of about 20 miles. With this upgraded controller the vehicle can be driven
in second gear for most of my "in-town" driving. There is a volt meter for the battery pack voltage and an ampmeter to tell how much current the motor is using. Also a 12-volt guage to
show the voltage in the 12-volt accessory battery.
Contact:
Address: 4504 W. Alexander Road, North Las Vegas, Nevada 89032
Telephone: 702-636-0304
