Display at THS Wrestlers car show

School is just around the corner and we took the opportunity to display all three EV's at the Topsail Wrestlers car show.  This was their second show at the Topsail High School campus and we were amongst about 75 other    cars showing off their wheels.

Extreme Makeover, Electric Edition!

Seems like a good time to show the before and after pictures of our newest conversion.  There is some confusion about this truck.  First of all, it is a new conversion.  This truck is not the old Ranger without stickers, we sold that truck last spring.  Yep, "Roscoe" is a newly converted 2001 Ford Ranger Edge.

Below is a picture of our previous 1996 Ranger we owned for 8 years.

Seven time National Champions!

The EV class traveled to Raleigh this weekend and emerged victorious again.  We collected 11 trophies including first and third overall.  This was the seventh year in a row that we have won first overall in the SMARTT Challenge competition against high schools from as far away as Iowa and Miami.
  The new Ford Ranger conversion took top honors.  We finished the truck just two days before the competition and really felt this was our best effort to date.  Being our fifth conversion, we used our knowledge from the past to help us to make the very best conversion we could do with the budget we had.  All of our hard work paid off with a $1000 check for first place!
  The Toyota MR2 placed third and brought home first place in the Autocross competition, a feat we had not yet achieved. We also earned $500 for third place

Our Overall trophies were:  
1st Overall (Ranger truck
3rd Overall (MR2)
2nd School initiative

1st Website

Our Truck team:
1st Range (Josh Parmeley, Jeff Harris)  53 miles
3rd Troubleshooting (Josh Parmeley, Ryan Stone)
3rd Oral presentation (Aaron Hackett, Sean Bullock)
1st Vehicle Design
2nd Autocross (Ryan Stone, Josh Parmeley, Aaron Hackett)

Our MR2 team:
1st Range (Aaron Hackett, Marissa Ruehle) 32 miles, could have gone 50, but we had already won)
6th Troubleshooting (Ashley Counts, Dakota Adcock)
4th Oral presentation (Arik Jones, Adam Markley)
4th Vehicle Design
1st Autocross (Dakota Adcock)

Its' alive!!

"Roscoe" the Ford Ranger electric conversion rolled out of the garage on its' own today for the first time.  Plenty of tweaking to do before the final event competition this weekend.  Details to come, stay tuned.

Battery wiring and bed prop

Today, we continued working on wiring the main battery pack.  Most of the batteries are wired and loomed.  We still have to finish the wiring as it moves to the controller.  We also finally got some gas charged struts that help to assist the bed lifting experience.  For years, with our old truck, we had to hold the bed up and place a prop rod in the right place in order to hold the bed in position.  Now the assist is a very nice feature to have and it also makes the lifting experience much safer.

We have Power...steering that is.

Dakota finished mounting the power steering pump today.  All we have to do is plumb and wire it up for 12 volt operation.  Since we removed the gas engine and all components, the power steering had to be revisited.  We bought a 12 volt pump out of an MR2 that should do the trick.  The only issue we will have is the current draw can be as high as 75 amps, so we need to design a circuit to limit the current draw under certain circumstances so as not to tax our DC/DC converter.

1200 pounds of simulated batteries

This morning, we needed to find out how the truck will sit when the batteries are installed.  We had to do this to insure that the rear battery box would clear the rear differential.  What better way to test this out than to have 1200 pounds worth of students jump in the truck to simulate the weight.  We were able to determine the placement of the rear box and also were pleased with the stance of the truck.  Hellwig spring helper suspension bars have been installed and will drastically help out with the ride and handling of the truck after the addition of the batteries.

Long day, double duty

 

    Today we had two events to participate in, our raffle fundraiser at Ace Hardware, and Earth Day in Hampstead.    Six students showed up at various times to help sell raffle tickets and to show off the car.  People were very interested in the MR2 conversion and most were surprised that it was done by high school students.
   We have passed the $1250 mark for raffle sales indicating were are half way to our goal.  Next week we will be at Harris Teeter in Porters Neck from 9am-5pm.  We also will be heading to the Topsail Kiwanis club on Tuesday to sell tickets before their program begins.  All this and a truck to convert makes for a busy week!

Wheels!

We bought wheels for the truck this week. Richard at Midway Tire was able to get them for us at his cost, plus he donated the tires for free. Thank you Richard!! We mounted the wheels and tires on the truck just to see how they look and the response is mixed. Some love them and others think the truck looks "thug". Well, when all is said and done, and the truck is lowered down a few inches, it will look just fine. Let us know what you think. Like them or not, they are staying!