fix the speedometer cable in your Trabant!! It's the whole reason it's popping out of reverse!! The speedo cable is on the wrong side of the shifter! Edit: I was NOT the person who discovered this, I saw it on the final part of his engine/transmission rebuilt series. I’m just trying to see if he’ll notice.
Also there is a big reason why you shouldn't replace the cells with Li-Ion/Li-Po. They are way more unstable than LiFe. The latter ones are mostly very safe and don't need that much monitoring and such complicated BMS (Battery Monitoring System), while Li-Ion are very dangerous and you need a great BMS.
No, no, no. It's a "Weego NoWhere". Make and Model. As in "Why, yes, Officer. This is, in fact, a Weego. A Weego NoWhere, to be specific. ... Yes, I'll just sit in the back seat of your car, sir."
"I took that off, I didn't really need it anyway it was just gathering junk, because it's a horizontal surface." God, this is almost poetic. And I can't even figure out why. It's.. a *horizontal surface* it collects junk that is it's purpose
@@billh230 I'm mostly going off the un-masked rear pillars behind the Trabant, but like I said, long shot by absolutely not an expert. (Also not in US, so no idea what wonderful compacts did and didn't make it stateside)
I'm glad you appreciated my suggestion to put a Trabant motor into the Wheego. It's basically the inverse of my dream car project which would be to take something quirky and old and convert it to electric.
@@DasGanon 😆 For all of several seconds before the drivetrain's acceleration liberated it from the Trabant body and left the driver and body sliding down the road Looney Toons style.
I saw that comment and thought about how backwards that was to me as well. I’ve always wanted to see someone do an e Trabant. A body that should last forever with an electric motor. No more 💨
Just build a new battery pack. Its only 115V. Get on aliexpress, get some cells and build. Build one with double the Ah and you’ll get way more range You don’t need to use those crappy cells. Get better more modern ones
He doesnt even need to do the 3 parallel idea. There are a ton of ones available extremely close to original size with improved capacity such that they could be drop in replacements.
I would love to see a modern LiFePO4 cell replacing the older ones. I found one on AliExpress for half the weight, a third the size, just 23% less capacity and less than half the cost of the Winstons. These particular cells are the same thickness too, so could drop in place with a bit of side padding. It would be a great demonstration of the progress of battery technology.
hey, you should get in contact with rich rebuilds, he has a lo of experience repairing werked teslas, he maybe can help you with the weego so you can upgrade too the pixies in to a better awfull car
@@jojoposter No. You also need a balance charger when charging cells in parallel. If the internal resistance of the cells is off, even a little bit across a charger, they will get worse with every cycle. Within 5 or 6 cycles you will have serious problems. That is why battery management systems come in 2p6s, 4p5s and so on. The p stands for parallel and the s stands for series.
@@tarstarkusz mhm. And how exactly would you wire up said balancer? keep in mind that all battery minus poles are shorted and all battery postive poles are shorted as well
@@tarstarkusz battery management systems do not come in "2p6s, 4p5s" etc. They come in 6s, 5s, 6s...etc. Only the pack (or module) are measured /labeled like that.
are the 260Ah thundersky/winston cells used in any other EVs? (something from california perhaps?) would it be possible to find some other somewhat used (but not as much as the wheego) cells to replace them for cheaper? then put -a trabant- 24x 2-stroke line trimmer motors in tandem in the car you pull the batteries out of.
Captain Zoll Don’t think so. I think LiFePO4 cells are often used in deep cycle static storage applications, mainly because they easily drop-in as replacements for Lead Acid batteries. That said, I’m sure that Jehu had his Electric Samba (VW bus) running on a load of similar of cells at some point in the past; I remember the groves in sides of the cells, though I think his may have been a different colour, so could be a different chemistry.
I ran into a similar problem when the power cell on my e-bike died (I'm in Amsterdam, even your cars are awkwardly big here). In your case, don't use 18650s, use 32700's. You can find these on AliExpress, they come individual or prewrapped in packs of 2 to 10, but those are serialized, not parallel. Take the plastic outer casing off the dead bloated batteries and epoxy suitable 32700 packs to the inside. Problem: AliExpress can't sell you the amount of batteries you need in one order. The shipment would be too explody for transport. Talk to the seller about the 32700 pack config you need and a way take full advantage of China's state subsidized shipping, like sending one each day. You'll find them eager to do business. Or perhaps you have better means of getting mass 32700s in the States.
It'd be interesting to see if there'll ever be a time in history, when a well-preserved Wheego will worth something? Maybe in 50 years? Anyway, I'd just donate it to the Lane Motor Museum to take care of it. It's not worth further money and a lot of work to keep it running... the Smart is basically a more useable version of it, and you can't get rid of it anyway :)
you never know what the future has in store so maybe it will who knows after all they only made like 100 wheego lifes so it has scarcity working in it's favor for being a collectable
Could you maybe do a joint video with Jehu Garcia and rebuild/replace the packs as he has a lot of skills in making packs for all sorts of EVs and things?
Hey man I know you won’t see this but I love your speech, explainations, and just over all very thing. I know that this man be rude but your awkward speech pattern is so relatable to me, and probably so many more, that it really helps me in the real world. Anyways thank you and everything you do
"It was just gathering junk because it's a horizontal surface" I feel this so hard. If it's horizontal and won't fall over more than once a week, it's got junk on it.
I had the thought about the battery upgrade too, but didn't mention it because I assumed you had already explored that idea. Maybe a dumb question, and one I'm sure I could easily Google, and with fewer words than I'm writing here to preface the question I'm about to ask... any chance you could find a beat up Tesla, or some other car with battery packs today would possibly be compatible? I'm pretty sure you personally know someone who has (or had) a Chevy Volt, who is also good with technology and its many connections.
This is a golden change for battery manufacturers to help you out with the Weego and get free advertisement on your channel and they could provide you with stickers that you can put on the car as well. Just an idea, come on help Robert out!!
Oh dear, I was just about to comment on the Reliant Robin Mk 3 (facelift version with Vauxhall Corsa headlights), but it would appear about 10,000 other Brits have also spotted it 😂
I don't think so. he didn't blur the bits of the car you can see through the trabant, and from what I can tell, it doesn't match up to a regal. No triangle in the back, and too thin in general.
I think it is a late year Reliant Robin - 1997 onwards. The blurred part seems to show the facelift headlights. I wondered if anyone else had spotted it.
Put a large pole in the middle of your backyard with a electrical outlet sticking out of the top. you then have a really sturdy cable from that to the wheego giving it enough power to run without the batteries, then you can drive in circles however much you want.
Correct me, if I am wrong, because I want to learn! There are cells which are dead by now. There are ways to find cells in the used market. If I'm not mistaking medical equipment is using similar to identical cells. And in medical equipment the cells are changed in a regular basis so you could get good ones for rather cheap. The solar power community seems to like them very much.
Please keep in mind that Winstons are LiFeYPO and therefore can be charged below freezing temperatures. Most LiFePO4 can't. So if you replace the Winstons, you have to deactivate regen breaking in winter. I actually bought some of the no label "blue" LiFePO4 cells from china last year and built a DIY solar power station. They work pretty well and are definitely much cheaper, lighter and smaller compared to the Winstons. Especially the 100Ah cells seem to be popular and affordable. As a Renault Twizy owner from Europe, I can relate to your attachment to such a litte, quirky and flawed EV. Good luck and hope to see it on the streets again, soon.
I am reassured to hear your dedication to preservation of such a rare piece of trash, I actually feel relieved 😁 Now you just need to work on getting one of those service computers of your own so you can fix the bms modules when you eventually get new cells... Terrible-ness aside, the fact that these cells died so fast despite being the supposedly more durable lithium chemistry, does make me nervous about electric cars. That said, I'm not really going anywhere these days, so I'll just keep on using my cargo vehicle (2002 Saturn SL2) for occasional restocking journeys.
Why not try to retrofit in some nissan leaf batteries? Or message rich rebuilds and hit him up for tesla goodies.The used market has loads of cheap complete packs.
I would totally donate, but I kinda think Robert has other things he'd rather spend the $11,000 on. As in, raising the $11,000 is only problem #1, problem #2 being the other things that are more important. However, if we could brainstorm ways to make the batteries cheaper .... Like a collaboration. In the Wheego video's comments some folks mentioned RUclipsrs who do batteries. So we persuade one of them to bodge together a pack that fits Robert's needs (including making the computer think it is a factory battery pack), we fund that and have him give it to Robert. Or trade it for some eggs.
Thanks for the update on the Wheego. And who knows - maybe by the time you are ready to replace the cells maybe something better that can fit and work within the electrical requirements of the Wheego and not cost an arm and a leg will be out. Here's to hoping!
To summarize the Wheego project, the stock batteries are expansive, generic 1650 cells have a different set of voltages, and your going to wait on the “mechanical” restoration of the Wheego
Don't encourage him, he already has a bad idea about replacing single cells with multiple cells. It won't work. They will very quickly become unbalanced.
@@tarstarkusz It'll work. I've done it, twice. You just need to make sure the cells share the load. Admittedly I used ncm cells and lifepo is a bit harder (that's harder, which doesn't mean hard) to keep balanced in parallel but there is no reason it wouldn't work
@@Brendon_M If the cells are out of balance, they won't charge evenly. That will get worse with each cycle. But you're not the first person to say I'm wrong, so I may very well be. I really don't know how this works, but I assume that cells who don't have the same voltage will be charged at dissimilar rates.
@@tarstarkusz I wonder if when they changed from AGM to LiFePo they also changed the battery charger. A few minutes research says those cells should have lasted for 10,000 hours under normal conditions, and that would have taken 100,000 hours to charge (10 hours for a full charge, and 250 miles at 25 MPH = 10 hours for a full discharge). 110,000 hours is 12.5 years to use up the batteries. Having the batteries puff up suggests that they were overcharged, which can easily happen with an improper charger.
Love watching the Videos! Not familiar with the Wheego's electronics, but most electronic circuits are usually good for +10% or -10% on power. You mentioned the difference in nominal voltage and a quick back of the napkin the 18650s are aweful close to +10%. Might work out?
Maybe there will be a later/cheaper/more power dense technology available by the time he can afford something like that?? But that Wheego might not be the best target for such work?
I kinda agree with your parallel cells idea. While the car is out of commission though, you should probably unplug those BMSes and inert the thing, so it won't draw every cell down to zero like the last time. They can still serve as stationary storage / Powerwall style thing in the future.
One thing you could attempt for now, is just add 10 or so (to get to the right voltage) cheaper lead acid batteries in the car, and charge those through a separate charger. leaving the original charger intact (if the car can deal with power coming in from outside it's own computers) so you can at least drive it around a bit Maybe no long range travel that way, but at least you can check if the car is still usable before buying expensive lifepo4 cells at some point in the future..
Love your new workshop! I want to have one too now :) I am also very impressed by the broad nature of skills spanning woodworking and car mechanics. Very cool. Did you attain this knowledge through formal education or is it self-taught?
That’s lithium polymer he’s talking about LiFePO4 or lithium iron phosphate. The different chemistries and charging parameters make them very different despite containing lithium and holding a charge.
The thing you need to know about hiding a Robin Reliant is that "blurring" it will not work. Most people with any experience with these care are used to seeing them blurry as in drunken, hung-over, way too early too be awake, way too late to be awake, or any combination above.
Option 1. Put the Trabant engine in a trailer behind the wee(no)go - either hooked up to a generator & the wheego provides motive force; or hook it to a transmission & have it push the wheego along.... Not practical, but then, what's practical about a Trabant OR a Wee Go? Option 2. Build a Li-ion battery pack from 18650 cells as you've decided not to - but add some fancy shmancy electronicals to convert the incoming power from/outgoing signals to Wheego compatible levels. i.e. do all the mods in the battery pack (if I recall correctly, the BMSes were all in the battery pack, weren't they?), then you've got yourself a plug-and-pray drop-in replacement (drop-up, whatever). So you can pootle around using the power of Lithium (Ions), but you can return it back to "original" without changing anything other than the battery tray.
Most chargers for Lifepo4 cells support Li-ion (Lipo) cells. Look up the datasheet for the charger. Also most motorcontrollers can life with a little bit more voltage. Only the BMS need to be configured (or replaced). Or you could, if you want to stay with Lifepo4, make your own pack with good used 38120 cells. These have often screwterminals at the ends, so you can screw them with a metall plate together. Or you try to get used server ups with lifepo4 cells and try to make them fit. If you want to salvage good used Li-ion cells (for a cheap Li-ion conversion), genuine Makita batterypacks and genuine Lenovo Thinkpad batteries have high quality cells in them (and the are mostly 18650 cells). There are often a lot of good cells in these batterypacks (mostly 1 or 2 are junk and the rest are good). And sometimes you can get these, if you are lucky, for free.
im actually greg . the guy who bought out wegos neighbor i heard from him at one point he was gonna try and build a couple of more out of parts but he doesn't talk about it much. he's been busy doing electric conversions to full size cars.
So just an idea, as you don't want to hack up the Wheego. Why not just build a whole new battery tray and slap whatever you want in there. Might have to run a new charger cable up through the floor, just ignore the current on board chargers and then you are free to use whatever as long as the voltage matches. Couple Leaf / Tesla packs, a charger and BMS, whole thing drop in and out.
I wonder if when they changed from AGM to LiFePo in the car design that they also changed the battery charger. A few minutes research says those cells should have lasted for 10,000 hours under normal conditions, and that would have taken 100,000 hours to charge (10 hours for a full charge, and 250 miles at 25 MPH = 10 hours for a full discharge). 110,000 hours is 12.5 years to use up the batteries. Having the batteries puff up suggests that they were overcharged, which can easily happen with an improper charger. Replacing the original batteries with 18650's: Currently there are 32 3.2V batteries. You can get about the same voltage with 28 3.7V batteries. Each original was 260AH. Using 130 2000maH 18650's, they take about half the space of the original battery. Which is probably about the amount of space free inside those corrugated cases. So you could in theory get 18650-based batteries that were the same shape and just a slightly higher voltage, which could be compensated by dropping out four of the original cell cases from the string. Of course you would want to use a different battery charger to keep from having the same fate all over again. But something to charge 30 lithium batteries in series could be designed, probably really without that much work. I'd be inclined to have it be a new wart in a case somewhere and leave the original in the vehicle and just not use it. The end result would be an essentially unmodified vehicle (except for the contents of the battery cases, which wouldn't be visible). But then that many 18650s will be $20K, which doesn't sound like a good deal.
I kept thinking, "Why don't you... oh, you thought of that." Seems like finding a wrecked Wheego to salvage a new battery from might almost be easier than dropping 11k... that or a reeeally long extension cord.
I told to you on last time, put all batteries parallel and let them balance 24 hours. I seen many "bad" cells what was actually good ones after "proper" balancing. You can not install the unbalanced cells and hope the original balancer/charger does the rest of the job. No, it does not wok that way. Be sure what type of balancing/charger your car have. lifepo4 batteries needs every single month re-balancing (the deep cycle). If it does not have that program you get again and again the bad battery pack or need open the battery pack every single month. These days you can DIY very powerful BMS. The ready made for car can cost way too much money.
Have you checked Ali express? Just a cursory search turned up 200Ah (I know, a little less than 260Ah) for some reasonable prices. One vendor had offers for "custom" battery packs. Worth a look!
They’re clickbait, but other than that, eh. The only difference between one and any other Toyota is there’s a battery in the back, the transmission has been replaced with a series parallel hybrid power split device, and said transaxle has an inverter slapped on the top. Plus lots of stuff you’d usually power from the engine are now 12v/high voltage. If you’re really curious, the Weber Auto channel can teach you everything you need to know about them , through and through. Hope you like planetary gearsets.
A battery pack for a Prius can be rebuild pretty cheaply (at the least the cells can be), I think for 1 or 1,5k if you can do the work yourself, I don't know how much charge that holds compared to the Wheego battery, but maybe it could work as a replacement in some way and at least make it usable for short trips.
If all else fails, I am sure you can donate it to the Museum of Transportation here in SOCO. It would fit very well with some of the other automobiles they have on display.
Do like Jehugarcia does: Scavenging old laptop batteries! When people throw away old computer battery packs, there are always some cells in the pack that are still good. Jehugarcia gets the battery packs for free and tests each cell individually. Now the problem is only to source the battery packs.
Авто/Мото
Don't think I can't see that Reliant Robin! That shape is burned into the minds of every Brit, you can't hide it from me!
omg yes that's it! I couldn't place it! Oh man... this is gonna be good...
as a Brit .... i saw exactly the same thing - put a football on the back seat and its a whistle !
Looks like a MK3 with the Corsa B headlights...
Yep, every brit is trained from birth to recognise a reliant robin from 300 miles away, we cannot be fooled!
I was thinking it was a Renault 5 but now it seems pretty clear it's a 3 wheeler
What about buy a very long cord extension and put it on the wheego and use it to run around your house?
Worlds fastest garage door opener is at least a step closer.
Hear me out. Bumper cars. A prong trought the roof and an electrified chicken net. Bam.
@@TheAndre8900 good idea!! It will keep the wheego running in a secure place.
@@TheAndre8900 I was thinking of a catenary/pantograph set-up myself! 😁
@@AJ_ghdhejsien Good Idea, but... quite heavy. Maybe a small Honda Gas generator.
fix the speedometer cable in your Trabant!! It's the whole reason it's popping out of reverse!! The speedo cable is on the wrong side of the shifter!
Edit: I was NOT the person who discovered this, I saw it on the final part of his engine/transmission rebuilt series. I’m just trying to see if he’ll notice.
@rogue one bit can make a huge change.. as FS says..
I did notice that it ended up on the other side, but I never thought it would matter
I've passed this along to him via Patreon
Nicholas Howard aw, coolbeans! You’re awesome!
@@JoeyLovesTrains 🥰
just drop the whole floor out of the car and push it around with your feet like in The Flintstones
YES
Yabba dabba DO IT!
Yabbadabbadoit
Build in a diesel generator and 2 batteries, like Geoff was built in Top Gear.
Because that turned out really well, what with gassing The Stig to death (allegedly) and deafening anyone within a 5-mile radius of it...
@@gosportjamie Still better than Cybertruck
@@mastermindd Well, yes, but anything is pretty much better than testicular cancer...
@@gosportjamie xd true
Wow, other people remember geoff
I'm also the kind of person who rearranges the furniture every few months, my wife calls it "chimp enrichment procedures"
My wife does that, too. I told her last week that she should've married a mover. Getting pretty sick of it.
@@rudolphguarnacci197 💀
spotted a wheego driving around advertising a yoga studio in Spokane Washington.
Not a Yugo studio?
@@TheOtherBill
Oh snap
Also there is a big reason why you shouldn't replace the cells with Li-Ion/Li-Po. They are way more unstable than LiFe. The latter ones are mostly very safe and don't need that much monitoring and such complicated BMS (Battery Monitoring System), while Li-Ion are very dangerous and you need a great BMS.
I saw it should be called "WheeNoGo"
No, no, no. It's a "Weego NoWhere". Make and Model. As in "Why, yes, Officer. This is, in fact, a Weego. A Weego NoWhere, to be specific. ... Yes, I'll just sit in the back seat of your car, sir."
@@jackielinde7568 WeeGo NoWhere 😂😂 nice one
Wheegone surely
@@jackielinde7568 *Hands you the mic to drop*
WheeGone!
Have you considering reaching out to Rich Rebuilds to see if the electrified garage have any ideas on a bolt in replacment?
I doubt reaching out would do much of anything. Rich doesn't strike me as the charitable time that would lend a hand to a 151k subscribers channel.
"I took that off, I didn't really need it anyway it was just gathering junk, because it's a horizontal surface."
God, this is almost poetic. And I can't even figure out why.
It's.. a *horizontal surface*
it collects junk
that is it's purpose
I see that chrisfix license plate bracket behind u.
I clocked that too.
Secret Cars?
ChrisFix?
WHAT COULD BE IN STORE?!
I belived it was a vw polo but the hood is to long
@@LasVegar Longest of long shot guesses: Is it a Renault 5?
@@tychothefriendlymonolith Don't think that's an R5- the nose is too flat. I could be wrong, and maybe a European R5...
@@billh230 I'm mostly going off the un-masked rear pillars behind the Trabant, but like I said, long shot by absolutely not an expert. (Also not in US, so no idea what wonderful compacts did and didn't make it stateside)
I'm glad you appreciated my suggestion to put a Trabant motor into the Wheego. It's basically the inverse of my dream car project which would be to take something quirky and old and convert it to electric.
Like an electric sleeper Trabant.
Can you imagine the look of absolute terror on both the driver and the opponent, if you had ludicrous mode on it?
@@DasGanon 😆 For all of several seconds before the drivetrain's acceleration liberated it from the Trabant body and left the driver and body sliding down the road Looney Toons style.
@@jgt2598 while still doing 30000 miles a second. XD
don't ruin a classic vehicle by putting a DIY electric system in it.
I saw that comment and thought about how backwards that was to me as well. I’ve always wanted to see someone do an e Trabant. A body that should last forever with an electric motor. No more 💨
I really like that you want to preserve the Wheego. I was thinking the same thing; not many were made and most of them will probably be destroyed.
Just build a new battery pack. Its only 115V. Get on aliexpress, get some cells and build. Build one with double the Ah and you’ll get way more range
You don’t need to use those crappy cells. Get better more modern ones
He doesnt even need to do the 3 parallel idea. There are a ton of ones available extremely close to original size with improved capacity such that they could be drop in replacements.
He says you can't do it because of battery chemistry being wrong. Can you explain to someone who isn't an engineer?
I would love to see a modern LiFePO4 cell replacing the older ones. I found one on AliExpress for half the weight, a third the size, just 23% less capacity and less than half the cost of the Winstons. These particular cells are the same thickness too, so could drop in place with a bit of side padding. It would be a great demonstration of the progress of battery technology.
Or he could add more of those cells which would increase the capacity
“WheeGO” and “yuGO” are the most misleading names ever, should’ve been”wheestopandfixthebatteryevery30miles” and “yustop”
Lol
Wheepush and Yupush
Ynnel?! LMAO PERFECT😂😂
Yushouldvesavedupmore
Yer pronouncing Yugo wrong, its "Y U Go?" :P
hey, you should get in contact with rich rebuilds, he has a lo of experience repairing werked teslas, he maybe can help you with the weego so you can upgrade too the pixies in to a better awfull car
Yeah, because what he wants to do absolutely will not work. You cannot charge lithium batteries in parallel without a balance charger.
@@tarstarkusz of course you can. You need a balancer when charging batteries in series
@@jojoposter No. You also need a balance charger when charging cells in parallel. If the internal resistance of the cells is off, even a little bit across a charger, they will get worse with every cycle. Within 5 or 6 cycles you will have serious problems. That is why battery management systems come in 2p6s, 4p5s and so on. The p stands for parallel and the s stands for series.
@@tarstarkusz mhm. And how exactly would you wire up said balancer? keep in mind that all battery minus poles are shorted and all battery postive poles are shorted as well
@@tarstarkusz battery management systems do not come in "2p6s, 4p5s" etc. They come in 6s, 5s, 6s...etc. Only the pack (or module) are measured /labeled like that.
are the 260Ah thundersky/winston cells used in any other EVs? (something from california perhaps?) would it be possible to find some other somewhat used (but not as much as the wheego) cells to replace them for cheaper?
then put -a trabant- 24x 2-stroke line trimmer motors in tandem in the car you pull the batteries out of.
Captain Zoll Don’t think so. I think LiFePO4 cells are often used in deep cycle static storage applications, mainly because they easily drop-in as replacements for Lead Acid batteries. That said, I’m sure that Jehu had his Electric Samba (VW bus) running on a load of similar of cells at some point in the past; I remember the groves in sides of the cells, though I think his may have been a different colour, so could be a different chemistry.
Ask Uncle Rich for help and advise. I’m sure he’s tired of his ICE project by now!
Maybe Rich has an old Tesla battery pack lying around... ;)
Was thinking of suggesting just that!
More importantly he was giving away a lot of his EV stuff. I don't remember seeing any lifepo packs in his give away but maybe worth the enquiry
I was going to say get Unkie Rich to help build a Teslago. Tesla pack, motor and bmc. I bet it’d be a rocket ship 😂
I would suggest Jehu Garcia instead. He knows his batteries and might be able to suggest something that would work and be cost effective.
Hmmm. that mystery car appears to be missing a wheel, clearly you intend to mend that now that you're moving to new projects
Many people done LS swaps all over the world, but no one done a Trabant swap, you should consider it
No way it hasn’t been done.
There mere millions of trabants no?
LS swap. I love it.Get LegitStreetCars involved!
There's actually a dealership near me which currently has 6 brand-new Wheegos for sale. Each one is $14,000.
I ran into a similar problem when the power cell on my e-bike died (I'm in Amsterdam, even your cars are awkwardly big here). In your case, don't use 18650s, use 32700's. You can find these on AliExpress, they come individual or prewrapped in packs of 2 to 10, but those are serialized, not parallel. Take the plastic outer casing off the dead bloated batteries and epoxy suitable 32700 packs to the inside.
Problem: AliExpress can't sell you the amount of batteries you need in one order. The shipment would be too explody for transport. Talk to the seller about the 32700 pack config you need and a way take full advantage of China's state subsidized shipping, like sending one each day. You'll find them eager to do business. Or perhaps you have better means of getting mass 32700s in the States.
He should do a Kickstarter to try and get the money for the Wheego, I'd defineitly kick in 5 or 10 bucks
It'd be interesting to see if there'll ever be a time in history, when a well-preserved Wheego will worth something? Maybe in 50 years? Anyway, I'd just donate it to the Lane Motor Museum to take care of it. It's not worth further money and a lot of work to keep it running... the Smart is basically a more useable version of it, and you can't get rid of it anyway :)
you never know what the future has in store so maybe it will who knows after all they only made like 100 wheego lifes so it has scarcity working in it's favor for being a collectable
Could you maybe do a joint video with Jehu Garcia and rebuild/replace the packs as he has a lot of skills in making packs for all sorts of EVs and things?
Knowing your luck with the Bus, the battery tender on that 12 volt is flashing orange for bad connection again
the obvious thing to do is a trabant with a zero motorcycle swap a la rich rebuilds.
Here we go. Reliant Robin.
-Jeremy Clarkson.
Promptly followed by immediately falling over in it...
Very satisfying update! Glad you are going to preserve the Wheego without going crazy.
Hey man I know you won’t see this but I love your speech, explainations, and just over all very thing. I know that this man be rude but your awkward speech pattern is so relatable to me, and probably so many more, that it really helps me in the real world. Anyways thank you and everything you do
Reliant Robin? I really didn’t expect to see that one, probably the most British car I know
When is "Raw & Unseasoned" chicken life vlog coming, Robert? 😉👍
"It was just gathering junk because it's a horizontal surface" I feel this so hard. If it's horizontal and won't fall over more than once a week, it's got junk on it.
I would suggest at least as a semi permanent fix, to find a salvage wheego if those are even available and steal good cells from that
I had the thought about the battery upgrade too, but didn't mention it because I assumed you had already explored that idea.
Maybe a dumb question, and one I'm sure I could easily Google, and with fewer words than I'm writing here to preface the question I'm about to ask... any chance you could find a beat up Tesla, or some other car with battery packs today would possibly be compatible? I'm pretty sure you personally know someone who has (or had) a Chevy Volt, who is also good with technology and its many connections.
oh, the toaster guy!
@@NicholasHoward lol I'm guessing you saw the Tom Scott video
@@2ManyGoats Alec will always be the toaster guy
@@2ManyGoats Which Tom Scott video?
@@laserspaceninja his most recent Thursday one, disconnected ep 2.
The wheego with lion cells is still a wheego in my eyes. Would be a lot to learn, and the car is full power ready
This is a golden change for battery manufacturers to help you out with the Weego and get free advertisement on your channel and they could provide you with stickers that you can put on the car as well. Just an idea, come on help Robert out!!
Oh dear, I was just about to comment on the Reliant Robin Mk 3 (facelift version with Vauxhall Corsa headlights), but it would appear about 10,000 other Brits have also spotted it 😂
Is that blue blurred car a Reliant Regal?
I don't think so. he didn't blur the bits of the car you can see through the trabant, and from what I can tell, it doesn't match up to a regal. No triangle in the back, and too thin in general.
@@deefdragon Excellent point
I think it is a late year Reliant Robin - 1997 onwards. The blurred part seems to show the facelift headlights. I wondered if anyone else had spotted it.
I had a similar thought but it kinda looks to be a bit too long to be one
I’m calling it right now that it’s a Renault 5
I'm guessing that's a Robin Reliant.
Top Gear did a GREAT episode on them.
And one was Mr. Bean's arch driving nemesis
@Lassi Kinnunen He didn't blur out the bits you can see through the Trabant's windows. Looks like a match to me.
Put a large pole in the middle of your backyard with a electrical outlet sticking out of the top. you then have a really sturdy cable from that to the wheego giving it enough power to run without the batteries, then you can drive in circles however much you want.
Am so glad i found your sort of thing.
I'm putting money on a Mk 4 Golf.
I smell Cummins swapped wheego
Small Kubota diesel!
Nice
Or according to him a drill battery swapped wheego
And have the engine where? Behind him in the trunk?
@@Stoney3K Thats where the engine goes in the Smart and the Chinese knockoff.
I felt that water cooler talk you had with yourself. Mostly because I do the exact thing at work
Correct me, if I am wrong, because I want to learn! There are cells which are dead by now. There are ways to find cells in the used market. If I'm not mistaking medical equipment is using similar to identical cells. And in medical equipment the cells are changed in a regular basis so you could get good ones for rather cheap. The solar power community seems to like them very much.
Good idea.
Get a new battery pack and motor from something like a Nissan Leaf, Robert
Nissan Robert
I would drive a Nissan Leaf-Robert
or maybe tesla components
I changed it so you lot can shut up
@@anonymous-vo2rd comma in between the "Leaf" and "Robert" to end the jokes mate
Cut the footwells out of the Wheego, change your name to Fred Flintstone and get a friend called Barney, problem solved ----- LOL
na he's just putting a coda battery pack into the Wheego to bring it back to life after reconfiguring it to Wheego Standards
Please keep in mind that Winstons are LiFeYPO and therefore can be charged below freezing temperatures. Most LiFePO4 can't. So if you replace the Winstons, you have to deactivate regen breaking in winter.
I actually bought some of the no label "blue" LiFePO4 cells from china last year and built a DIY solar power station. They work pretty well and are definitely much cheaper, lighter and smaller compared to the Winstons. Especially the 100Ah cells seem to be popular and affordable.
As a Renault Twizy owner from Europe, I can relate to your attachment to such a litte, quirky and flawed EV. Good luck and hope to see it on the streets again, soon.
I am reassured to hear your dedication to preservation of such a rare piece of trash, I actually feel relieved 😁 Now you just need to work on getting one of those service computers of your own so you can fix the bms modules when you eventually get new cells...
Terrible-ness aside, the fact that these cells died so fast despite being the supposedly more durable lithium chemistry, does make me nervous about electric cars. That said, I'm not really going anywhere these days, so I'll just keep on using my cargo vehicle (2002 Saturn SL2) for occasional restocking journeys.
Why aren't you calling it wheegone
Because it isn't wheegoing anywhere
0:49 That looks alot like a Reliant Robin over there
I don't see the shadow of a front left wheel. You might be right!
absolutely
@@Caeleb1234563 Yeah
Good to hear you are keeping the Wheego. Yay!
Why not try to retrofit in some nissan leaf batteries? Or message rich rebuilds and hit him up for tesla goodies.The used market has loads of cheap complete packs.
START A GO-FUND-ME FOR THE BATTERIES!
yes let's raise $11k!
Hella! Ive been enjoying my EV so far and id def toss a few bills his way to help run this silly little car.
I would totally donate, but I kinda think Robert has other things he'd rather spend the $11,000 on. As in, raising the $11,000 is only problem #1, problem #2 being the other things that are more important.
However, if we could brainstorm ways to make the batteries cheaper ....
Like a collaboration. In the Wheego video's comments some folks mentioned RUclipsrs who do batteries. So we persuade one of them to bodge together a pack that fits Robert's needs (including making the computer think it is a factory battery pack), we fund that and have him give it to Robert. Or trade it for some eggs.
Why not call wheego and see if they have a battery pack they could sell you?
Thanks for the update on the Wheego. And who knows - maybe by the time you are ready to replace the cells maybe something better that can fit and work within the electrical requirements of the Wheego and not cost an arm and a leg will be out. Here's to hoping!
Cremation and scattering of the ashes appears both appropriate and respectful. RIP Wheego!
Casual and unscripted is good! Do it more often. Leave the Weego against the wall and work on THE BUS!😄
An unusual engine swap will be good :))
Your workshop is so cool. I will strive to achieve the same
To summarize the Wheego project, the stock batteries are expansive, generic 1650 cells have a different set of voltages, and your going to wait on the “mechanical” restoration of the Wheego
You are holding the solution in your hands as you speak. Use the ryobi batteries to power the Weego. You seem to be an engineer figure it out.
Don't encourage him, he already has a bad idea about replacing single cells with multiple cells. It won't work. They will very quickly become unbalanced.
@@tarstarkusz It'll work. I've done it, twice. You just need to make sure the cells share the load. Admittedly I used ncm cells and lifepo is a bit harder (that's harder, which doesn't mean hard) to keep balanced in parallel but there is no reason it wouldn't work
But he addresses that, wrong chemistry. And also it would cost a fortune to get the same capacity
@@Brendon_M If the cells are out of balance, they won't charge evenly. That will get worse with each cycle.
But you're not the first person to say I'm wrong, so I may very well be. I really don't know how this works, but I assume that cells who don't have the same voltage will be charged at dissimilar rates.
@@tarstarkusz I wonder if when they changed from AGM to LiFePo they also changed the battery charger. A few minutes research says those cells should have lasted for 10,000 hours under normal conditions, and that would have taken 100,000 hours to charge (10 hours for a full charge, and 250 miles at 25 MPH = 10 hours for a full discharge). 110,000 hours is 12.5 years to use up the batteries. Having the batteries puff up suggests that they were overcharged, which can easily happen with an improper charger.
For any Aussie fans here, how about a Barra swap?
They are VERY hard to come by in the US
@@toddmccarter45 Which makes it all the better. Australia meets China in the US.
Fall is almost here perfect bus working weather!
Love watching the Videos! Not familiar with the Wheego's electronics, but most electronic circuits are usually good for +10% or -10% on power. You mentioned the difference in nominal voltage and a quick back of the napkin the 18650s are aweful close to +10%. Might work out?
love to see jenny from accounting
I think a good idea is to convert it to Lithium Ion if that's possible. Should work out cheaper than LiFePo4.
Maybe there will be a later/cheaper/more power dense technology available by the time he can afford something like that??
But that Wheego might not be the best target for such work?
I kinda agree with your parallel cells idea. While the car is out of commission though, you should probably unplug those BMSes and inert the thing, so it won't draw every cell down to zero like the last time. They can still serve as stationary storage / Powerwall style thing in the future.
I should have watched this video before I left my comment on the other one! Good luck with the eventual fix.
OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT HAIRCUT!
The Corona cut
@@MiniCerberus991 I was just thinking the same... This is what you get if you cut your hair in the mirror. Don´t ask me how I know it :D
I havent watched the video yet but obligatory “LS swap bro”
update: darn
One thing you could attempt for now, is just add 10 or so (to get to the right voltage) cheaper lead acid batteries in the car, and charge those through a separate charger. leaving the original charger intact (if the car can deal with power coming in from outside it's own computers) so you can at least drive it around a bit
Maybe no long range travel that way, but at least you can check if the car is still usable before buying expensive lifepo4 cells at some point in the future..
Love your new workshop! I want to have one too now :) I am also very impressed by the broad nature of skills spanning woodworking and car mechanics. Very cool. Did you attain this knowledge through formal education or is it self-taught?
Li-pol batteries are complete trash. They are veeery prone to "puffing" up.
That’s lithium polymer he’s talking about LiFePO4 or lithium iron phosphate. The different chemistries and charging parameters make them very different despite containing lithium and holding a charge.
The thing you need to know about hiding a Robin Reliant is that "blurring" it will not work.
Most people with any experience with these care are used to seeing them blurry
as in
drunken, hung-over, way too early too be awake, way too late to be awake, or any combination above.
Keep up the awesome work thanks for the content
Option 1. Put the Trabant engine in a trailer behind the wee(no)go - either hooked up to a generator & the wheego provides motive force; or hook it to a transmission & have it push the wheego along.... Not practical, but then, what's practical about a Trabant OR a Wee Go?
Option 2. Build a Li-ion battery pack from 18650 cells as you've decided not to - but add some fancy shmancy electronicals to convert the incoming power from/outgoing signals to Wheego compatible levels. i.e. do all the mods in the battery pack (if I recall correctly, the BMSes were all in the battery pack, weren't they?), then you've got yourself a plug-and-pray drop-in replacement (drop-up, whatever). So you can pootle around using the power of Lithium (Ions), but you can return it back to "original" without changing anything other than the battery tray.
Can’t wait for the Reliant video Robert!
FYI: You can still use the old BMS with 18650s without changing the voltages. It will just under charge the 18650s, which is better for them anyway.
Most chargers for Lifepo4 cells support Li-ion (Lipo) cells. Look up the datasheet for the charger. Also most motorcontrollers can life with a little bit more voltage. Only the BMS need to be configured (or replaced).
Or you could, if you want to stay with Lifepo4, make your own pack with good used 38120 cells. These have often screwterminals at the ends, so you can screw them with a metall plate together. Or you try to get used server ups with lifepo4 cells and try to make them fit.
If you want to salvage good used Li-ion cells (for a cheap Li-ion conversion), genuine Makita batterypacks and genuine Lenovo Thinkpad batteries have high quality cells in them (and the are mostly 18650 cells). There are often a lot of good cells in these batterypacks (mostly 1 or 2 are junk and the rest are good). And sometimes you can get these, if you are lucky, for free.
You can get LiFePO4 batteries in an 18650 form factor. They're like $3-5 each for 1-1.5 Ah.
im actually greg . the guy who bought out wegos neighbor i heard from him at one point he was gonna try and build a couple of more out of parts but he doesn't talk about it much. he's been busy doing electric conversions to full size cars.
Good to see Jim's Throne sign is still there.
So just an idea, as you don't want to hack up the Wheego. Why not just build a whole new battery tray and slap whatever you want in there. Might have to run a new charger cable up through the floor, just ignore the current on board chargers and then you are free to use whatever as long as the voltage matches. Couple Leaf / Tesla packs, a charger and BMS, whole thing drop in and out.
Something about the thought of shoving the guts of a Model S into a Wheego tingles my synapses most pleasantly.
I wonder if when they changed from AGM to LiFePo in the car design that they also changed the battery charger.
A few minutes research says those cells should have lasted for 10,000 hours under normal conditions, and that would have taken 100,000 hours to charge (10 hours for a full charge, and 250 miles at 25 MPH = 10 hours for a full discharge). 110,000 hours is 12.5 years to use up the batteries.
Having the batteries puff up suggests that they were overcharged, which can easily happen with an improper charger.
Replacing the original batteries with 18650's: Currently there are 32 3.2V batteries. You can get about the same voltage with 28 3.7V batteries. Each original was 260AH. Using 130 2000maH 18650's, they take about half the space of the original battery. Which is probably about the amount of space free inside those corrugated cases. So you could in theory get 18650-based batteries that were the same shape and just a slightly higher voltage, which could be compensated by dropping out four of the original cell cases from the string.
Of course you would want to use a different battery charger to keep from having the same fate all over again. But something to charge 30 lithium batteries in series could be designed, probably really without that much work. I'd be inclined to have it be a new wart in a case somewhere and leave the original in the vehicle and just not use it. The end result would be an essentially unmodified vehicle (except for the contents of the battery cases, which wouldn't be visible).
But then that many 18650s will be $20K, which doesn't sound like a good deal.
You could use the Weego like a sail plane. Use a tow vehicle to get it up to speed and then coast down a long hill or mountain.
I kept thinking, "Why don't you... oh, you thought of that." Seems like finding a wrecked Wheego to salvage a new battery from might almost be easier than dropping 11k... that or a reeeally long extension cord.
Dude you are a pioneer in EV battery refurbishment. This will be a huge industry in the coming decades!
I told to you on last time, put all batteries parallel and let them balance 24 hours. I seen many "bad" cells what was actually good ones after "proper" balancing. You can not install the unbalanced cells and hope the original balancer/charger does the rest of the job. No, it does not wok that way. Be sure what type of balancing/charger your car have. lifepo4 batteries needs every single month re-balancing (the deep cycle). If it does not have that program you get again and again the bad battery pack or need open the battery pack every single month. These days you can DIY very powerful BMS. The ready made for car can cost way too much money.
what you need is another wheego to strip parts off of to use on the dead wheego and reanimate it like a Frankenstein monster
Have you checked Ali express? Just a cursory search turned up 200Ah (I know, a little less than 260Ah) for some reasonable prices. One vendor had offers for "custom" battery packs. Worth a look!
Buy a Prius, I'd love to see how one of those works
*Plus they've gotta have a huge diy community & they're more relatable to a much wider audience
They’re clickbait, but other than that, eh.
The only difference between one and any other Toyota is there’s a battery in the back, the transmission has been replaced with a series parallel hybrid power split device, and said transaxle has an inverter slapped on the top.
Plus lots of stuff you’d usually power from the engine are now 12v/high voltage.
If you’re really curious, the Weber Auto channel can teach you everything you need to know about them , through and through.
Hope you like planetary gearsets.
A battery pack for a Prius can be rebuild pretty cheaply (at the least the cells can be), I think for 1 or 1,5k if you can do the work yourself, I don't know how much charge that holds compared to the Wheego battery, but maybe it could work as a replacement in some way and at least make it usable for short trips.
@@uselessDM you could buy a rebuilt pack for that money. Also, a traction battery is more involved than what is tossed around.
It just so happens that I know one of the guys from Wheego and he has three of them. One of them still runs and the other two are for spares.
If all else fails, I am sure you can donate it to the Museum of Transportation here in SOCO. It would fit very well with some of the other automobiles they have on display.
Robert, interesting idea. When you're ready to pony up thousands of Dollars. Have a great weekend!
Do like Jehugarcia does: Scavenging old laptop batteries! When people throw away old computer battery packs, there are always some cells in the pack that are still good. Jehugarcia gets the battery packs for free and tests each cell individually. Now the problem is only to source the battery packs.