simonr

Potentially. The problem is the resistance of the field windings - it's half that of a motor which will draw 1000A+. Your burst will be drawing double the current. The way it's achieved with series traction motors is to effectively use a sepearate speed controller for each (armatue & field windings). Then the field controller limits the current, allowing the armature to generate. It's not efficient, only useful for EMF Braking. Long ago, I tried to develop this as a motor brake - but the cost was just too high to make it a viable product. If you just feed 12V in to the field windings, they burn out too quickly!

It was more in reference to the rather low tow limits of the majority of EV's - which someone had mentioned prior. It does not apply to a PHEV in the slightest. The whole concept of Hybrid EV's with almost no electric range is just greenwashing.

You don't (easily) get regenerative braking on a series wound motor. The armature and field windings are in series (hence the name). In order for it to generate, there has to be current flowing through one, to generate a field, to generate a current in the other. Other than the tiny residual magnetic hysteresis in the iron core, there's no magnetic field to get it started.

My Eyes....my Eyes! Aaarhguggh!

As I understand it, it's because it absolutely hammers the range. The higher current you draw from the battery, the shorter it's effective capacity. The batteries are 'tuned' to deliver the maximum possible range at typical loads. Add a trailer and you take it well out of this 'sweet spot'. Hard acceleration does the same, but it's not prolonged so doesn't hammer the range as badly. So, I think it's more about marketing. If you advertise that the vehicle is capable of towing, you don't want loads of people reporting on social media that the battery was flat by the time they reached the end of their road. Range seems to be one of the key indicators for people buying an EV - so you want that to appear as good as it can be, everywhere.

Powering out tends to over-speed the motor - effectively centrifuging the windings & commutator plates out of alighnment. On Red Winches website they say At a guess!

Thanks Mike, I'll give you a call in the week. We're going to be testing the suspension over the next few weeks (a single wheel on a test rig) to get a better handle on the amount of force the wheel / knuckle / axle will see. Your axles are the best option I've seen so far, particularly as they can be adapted to suit the requirement. Si

Over the years I've had lots of mystery squeaks, rattles & squeals. My method for finding them has been to strap a GoPro (or similar) close to where you think the noise is coming from. First narrow down by the amplitude - then, if you're lucky, you'll be able to see something moving that shouldnt - or at least, what is moving when the noise ocurrs. The most mystifying for me, was a squeal, followed by a tinkling noise when cornering or braking. It turned out to be one of the washers on the back of a worn out front radius arm chassis bush. The bush was compressed, making the squeal then the washer was loose on the shaft and made a tinkling noise. When stationary, everything felt tight. Another one was the 300Tdi fan belt idler bearing which made a dreadful squealing noise, but only on braking for some reason.

Could we have a bit more information? I'm guessing the original fault you were trying to address was a flat battery? Apart from the MAF, what else have you done to track down the drain? Were the voltages measued across the MAF with the ignition on or off? Personally, I would unplug the main ECU first. If there is still a significant drain, it has nothing to do with anything switched by the ECU. Then you need to start pulling fuses to see which circuit is drawing power. While I'm not a Td5 ECU 'expert' - I do have a record of diagnosing problems through a logical process of elimination.

I think, actually, this is a reflection of our distrust of what the Government says. The panic didn't start nationally when the story about possible fuel shortages leaked, it was after a Government Minister went on TV to say there was no problem and the public shouldn't panic buy. Unfortunately, Governemnts of all creeds have learned that blatently lying, continuously makes them popular - generally telling people what they want to hear. The flip side is, we automatically assume a statement lile that is a lie - and do the opposite! If they had ignored it, it wouldn't have become newsworthy and probably wouldn't have turned into a crisis! I noticed that Tesco still has lots & lots of Vegetable oil on the shelves. 50l of that went in my van this weekend. It's nice to have that as a backup option when these types of things come to pass.

Will - that's an amazing resource. A really nicely constructed website too. Do you plan to extend it beyond Defenders - or is that just too mammoth a task to consider? I wonder how I'd missed this!

I'd seen them - but figured it looked like a slightly ugly Ibex. Then figured, maybe just build something out of an Ibex and avoid the ugliness.

Thanks Mike - that's roughly what I would have guessed. My thinking on building one was along the lines of SWB with D2 running gear and a Tesla powertrain!

I've had a saved search on eBay for maybe a decade. Only seen one or two in that time. Maybe people just keep them, having spent so much time & money building them, that they'll never see back if they sell it.

I agree. OME Dampers are a great replacement for OE. The valving has enough bandwidth (that probably isn't the right term applied to dampers) to work well with a wide variety of vehicle masses and spring rates. Fox on the other hand (at least, the ones I've had) are quite narrow band - so you have to be prepared to play with the valving to achieve critical damping and don't have enough bandwidth to cope with the difference between empty & fully laiden. When you have set them up right - they're blistering. However, for most people, it's not worth the time / hassle of rebuilding the shocks several times to get it spot on. So, in conclusion, unless I became a lot less busy, I'd fit OME! Edit: Having clicked on Daan's link, these are not the same kind of Fox dampers I'd used. Mine had spherical joints on the ends - and they don't seem to sell anything like them any more!

I've always rather liked Ibex's - and particularly like the newest shape (Mk4?). It's a shame their website is so dreadful & gives away absolutely nothing useful. When you compare it to most kit-car makers who's sites give indications of cost, time, build options, donor cars - even photos, theirs looks particularly shabby. It makes me worry that they will be similarly unhelpful if one day I decided to take the plunge! Is there anywhere in particular, used ones come up for sale?

With the pressure it delivers, I wondered if it might be useful for Hydroforming? I've seen people (on youtube) doing it with a pressure washer - but I think the material they were forming must have been particularly squashy (technical, engineering term there). When I tried it, it did nothing!

It does indeed sound a lot like a replacement for the original Defender! It is cheap - I'll give them that. I can see these being ragged around pay & play sites in years to come, like people did Suzuki SJ's in years gone by.

Serious answer (to everyone) is to do a bit of research to find the name of a department head and a movie in production via IMDB - and write them a letter care of the studio at which it's filming (also from IMDB). The whole industry is very short of people at the moment - so, even if you wanted to work in costume or hair & makeup and have some useful skills, now is a good time to enquire. PM me if you're interested - I can give you some contacts & tips on how to write to them. The work is hard & the hours are long but the rates are good - and it's fantastic fun! I can't believe anybody wants to pay me for what I do!

I don't actually know if it's the 'proper' gas - but I just googled for it. "2-3% Co2 In Argon is the correct gas to use for welding Stainless Steel" However, Argoshield will work fine - but the 2% Oxygen content will cause surface oxidation. Apparently not a problem structurally, but it doesn't look as nice.

You can weld stainless with mild steel wire - but it's bad practice as the two steels cool at different rates, leading to fractures in the weld. I wouldn't do it on anything structural - but for an exhaust, the only real down side is a rusty patch. You can buy stainless wire (308 is used to weld 304 IIRC) - so, for the limited cost of 1/2 kg of the right wire, you might as well go with that! I've only used it once, and it was very similar to weld with, perhaps a bit hotter for a given power.

Naaa, you'd hate it - playing with cool toys & blowing stuff up - it's terrible

I've made a couple of exhausts out of mild steel, CDS tube (which I had lots of at the time). The wall thickness was about 2mm. I figured that it would take a lifetime to rust through. You can buy swept elbows to weld on, if you don't have a tube bender. The connectors are easily available - but I just went to the local ATS and asked if I could raid their skip. It usually had stainless bits, including muffler boxes that can be adapted to fit. I'm much too tight to pay for a custom exhaust! Making one out of 304 Stainless would be easy. It's not worth using 316 as it tends to suffer more from fatigue. A 304 exhaust, even in 1mm wall will last decades, if not centuries!

Personally, I would start with the engine wiring. At this stage, just strip back any cables that look singed & temporarily replace the individual cores where they are damaged. I would just temporarily bridge the melted connectors at this stage. Then see if it will start. Once you have the engine running, it's worth addressing the mechanical components that may have been damaged - as you know that with the wiring fixed properly, you'll have a running car. If you can't get it running - there's no point in doing much more to it. Replacing whole looms will be difficult & expensive. If you have the time & money, do that. However, just replacing the individual cores and connectors will likely be enough for the remaining life of the vehicle. I've had good results with heat-shrink solder connectors long term, in wet environments. They are ideal for replacing cores without adding too much bulk to the cable. Looks like a nice project!

We have one of them in the workshop - it's awesome! I used it on some big steel on steel pin hinges that someone had forgotten to grease before assembling. With 32 Ton on the hinge, we couldn't push in any grease with a hand grease gun, just couldn't get enough pressure. The battery gun squirted a whole tube in, in no time. The bad squealing noises went away as if by magic!