THE I-MiEV STILL AMAZES

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siai47

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 14, 2013
Messages
367
Just went to buy a new clothes dryer. Took the I-MiEV when I made my purchase and was going to return with my Chevy van to pick it up. Then I looked at the Dryer, then at the I-MiEV and thought I would give it a shot. This is a full size 7.3 cubic foot LG steam dryer. Putting the dryer on it's side with the control console on the passenger side of the car, with the passenger seat forward, I was able to slide the Dryer all the way in to the car and close the tailgate! The driver's seat was still in the normal rearward position and the Dryer had about a 1/4" of clearance at the top of the tailgate opening. On the way home, I was thinking about my LEAF and that there would be no way to put something that big inside unless you crushed it first. Like I said, the I-MiEV still amazes me with the things it can do.
 
Impressive. I've used my i-MiEV to help move two people, and the amount of stuff (and the size of some things, too) that an i-MiEV can swallow whole just blows my mind. Perfect little electric cargo van.

Today I got gutsy and took the highway north into Pittsburgh. Doing that required destination charging, and as luck would have it, the only parking spaces available were the two EV spots, both with level 2 charging stations :p :D . It pays to not buy gas. Surprisingly, the highway does not take much more energy than Main roads, even at 65-70 MPH. Everybody was googly eyes on the highway. My favorite was a car full of kids all looking out the window at me.
 
Hope you took a picture. I considered taking the i Christmas tree shopping, but it's less painful to scratch the minivan roof!

My 2" receiver hitch has served well, but now I wanna find a roof rack, since my 'lil bro passed down his old rooftop tent. It literally deploys in about 45 seconds, from fully tarped to ready for slumber! (Ideal for L1 opportunity charging ;-)
http://ct-web2.unh.edu/mangler/ctt.htm

For those of you using the Thule 454 and similar roof rack mounts- any mishaps or cautionary notes? The tent itself fits within the weight restrictions, and I've no doubt the car and rack could support the 'stationary load'. I've got a 34 year old Thule gutter-mount rack that has been past the published limits many times!
 
Well, it finally happened. Here in Brisbane the cost of public transport just overtook using the iMiev.
My 80km commute costs AU$14.10 in bus fare and AU$4.08 in fuel to drive to the station when using the ICE (as my wife insists on driving the iMiev!)

If I use the iMiev I use less than a half charge to get to work and AU$17.50 for parking which includes a free level 2 charge, once charged on a Monday I am then effectively driving free by using the at work charge :)

Like you say, the iMiev still amazes and as other costs rise the relatively stable cost of electricity will see us benefit even further!
 
As our only vehicle in Honolulu, our i-MiEV has had to rise to every cargo challenge thrown at it. On Black Friday, I thought our cargo demands had exceeded our i-MiEV's capabilities. We bought 2 8' kayaks at Sports Authority which is about 22 miles round-trip from our apartment. Still having no charging circuit in our condo parking stall (long, painful story :( ) and having only 1 busy public charger nearby, we must strictly limit our driving. So I wanted to load both kayaks into our i-MiEV to avoid a second round-trip.

Fortunately, these kayaks are only 10" deep, so by folding down both rear seats (our normal configuration), removing the headrest from the front passenger seat and reclining the seat back fully, I was able to slide in one kayak until its bow touched the windshield and slide the second kayak on top of the first. I was unable to close the hatch, but I had the necessary rope to tie the hatch down so that my license plate remained visible from the rear. My wife had no seat, so she sat behind me next to the kayaks on the back side of the folded down rear passenger seat back. We always carry a couple of large beach towels in our i-MiEV, so she was able to fashion a soft enough seat for the 11-mile ride home. The police would probably have not been happy with her seating arrangement, but, heh, they could read our license plate number, so how much more do they want? :) Fortunately, no police bothered us.

We also used our i-MiEV to help us move to our current apartment, but 2 kayaks has been our most audacious load. Indeed, our i-MiEV continues to amaze!
 
Making more highway trips into Pittsburgh, I've found that driving in traffic at 60-65 mph uses LESS energy than main roads at 35-45 mph.

Caught up with a Model S on Thursday. Once he got into the left lane, he was gone. No way was I going to keep up with him. I thought it was pretty neat running along side another EV on the highway, although briefly.
 
I fitted the thule roof racks , quiet and no noticeable difference in consumption. They are crash tested to 100kg.

10767861436_bc5b542b44.jpg


Kurt
 
Yesterday, I transported a Jersey cow in the back of my Miev! Of course I had to put the back seats down. The cow didn't like having to hunch down and fold her legs, but I did get the back hatch door down. Not much fun driving down the road with her bellowing. Her breath wasn't the best, either. Tomorrow I am going to try to transport her boyfriend - a Brahman bull.

I'll be glad to get my pick-up out of the shop next week.....
 
At least you put the Jersey cow in head first. It could have been much worse if you had put her in backwards. There's a lot worse things then bad breath :lol: !
 
psyflyjohn said:
Yesterday, I transported a Jersey cow in the back of my Miev! Of course I had to put the back seats down. The cow didn't like having to hunch down and fold her legs, but I did get the back hatch door down. Not much fun driving down the road with her bellowing. Her breath wasn't the best, either. Tomorrow I am going to try to transport her boyfriend - a Brahman bull.

I'll be glad to get my pick-up out of the shop next week.....

I must see a photo of that :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: .
 
offgridQLD said:
I fitted the thule roof racks , quiet and no noticeable difference in consumption. They are crash tested to 100kg.

10767861436_bc5b542b44.jpg


Kurt
Is that the Thule 480R?

John- please post a photo of your cattle hauler in action!
 
Hummm... Couldn't get a picture of her. Everytime I went to snap a photo she licked the camera. Know how cows are. She's a classic back seat driver, also - constantly "mooing" that I was going to fast. Hope her Brahman bull boyfriend is a better rider.... ;)
 
psyflyjohn said:
Yesterday, I transported a Jersey cow in the back of my Miev! Of course I had to put the back seats down. The cow didn't like having to hunch down and fold her legs, but I did get the back hatch door down. Not much fun driving down the road with her bellowing. Her breath wasn't the best, either. Tomorrow I am going to try to transport her boyfriend - a Brahman bull.

I'll be glad to get my pick-up out of the shop next week.....

Wow, that's a first! Do you do much hauling with your iMiev (besides livestock)?
 
Yep, sure do. I want to get the most value out of this car! Should have seen it when I hauled 20 50 lb. sacks of cement. It did exhibit some slowness on acceleration. ;)
 
psyflyjohn said:
Yep, sure do. I want to get the most value out of this car! Should have seen it when I hauled 20 50 lb. sacks of cement. It did exhibit some slowness on acceleration. ;)

That's awesome! Have you ever thought about using a small utility trailer to get the weight out of the car? Could also smell better while you're driving ;)
 
February began with one of the largest natural disasters ever in Slovenia. A few days ago a beautiful landscape now looks like in the movie The Day After Tomorrow. Almost the entire country is trapped in the ice. Forests, one of our greatest natural resources, are seriously damaged. Cracking of the wood in the forests is really scary. It sounds and looks like the warzone:(

Fallen trees and the weight of ice on the wires damaged many power lines. One fifth of the population is without electricity. I'm really down these days. It would take decades forests to heal and be as 5 days ago again.

video1
video2

Why I am writing about this? Because the only bright spot in these bad days is my C-Zero. 300W inverter connected to a 12V battery allows us to have electricity all the time. I just left it in ready position, so main battery constantly charges aux battery.
 
WOW Zelenec, I'm sorry to see that! :( We had a lesser ice storm two winters ago that wiped out power for three days and I used a large 48VDC input inverter to tap power from my EV conversion's pack. The DC-DC converter would max out at what, 500W continuous? The little lead battery won't buffer a larger load for very long. I hope that the DC-DC converter holds up under continuous usage, but at least it's operating below max load and in low ambient temperatures!
Anyway, good luck on the cleanup and recovery. You might be surprised by how quickly the hardwood trees recover, and how awesome the blooms on any flowering trees are two years later!
 
PV1 said:
Making more highway trips into Pittsburgh, I've found that driving in traffic at 60-65 mph uses LESS energy than main roads at 35-45 mph.
Can you share your secret? This definitely isn't the case with my car - I can go almost 50% farther at 35/40 than I can at 60/65

Don
 
Follow a pickup truck. ;) I'd recommend a semi, but that's overkill, not to mention very turbulent. A pickup leaves a draft that suits the i-MiEV well.

Like I said, in traffic. When you're in decently heavy traffic, you're only pushing air at about 30 mph. Don't really have this advantage red light to red light. If you're on your own, though, forget it.

The fastest I've ever had my i-MiEV, I did it in neutral while coasting on the highway, drafting an SUV.

One of the benefits of rush-hour traffic.

Zelenec, I can't believe that ice. Hope your battery pack holds out.
 
Zelenec, sorry to see such widespread damage to your environment - to console you, it is still far less than one of our forest fires. BTW, that second video was very nicely done, even if the topic is sad.

Glad to see an inverter helps out - one of the problems with leaving the iMiEV in 'Ready' is that the car itself consumes a fair amount of power just sitting there, although CaniOn is probably not accurate as IIRC it shows 1.2A (at 350v).
 
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