Things are going well

I haven't posted for awhile but the truck is working good. After getting it running life caught up with me and I haven't really done much since. I still use it several times a week around town but I haven't figured out my gauges yet, the dash needs to be reassembled, and other miscellaneous tasks remain uncompleted. I am hoping sometime in the near future I will be motivated enough to finish a few of these.

The only critical problem I am facing right now that gets in the way of using the truck is my 12 V battery. I have the Iota DLS-55 charger that is recharging my old 12 V battery from the main traction battery pack (144V pack) while I am driving. This was doing ok until I started noticing on long trips the battery would start to overheat and smoke (boiling). It isn't clear to me if this is the fault of the old battery, which came with the donor car, or that I am pushing too many Amps into it. I am worried it is the latter but went ahead and picked up a new 12 V battery to replace it. The new one is a much smaller battery made for a moped but because I am not running a starter the reduction in size should not cause any problems.

The best thing that happened since my last post was receiving my Illinois Green Fleets conversion rebate check from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. This is a program in Illinois that provides money back for 80% of your purchases made in the conversion of an ICE vehicle to an alternative fuel vehicle up to $4,000. I didn't go into this project expecting this rebate, although I did know it existed, but it was a wonderful surprise to see a check for $4,000 in the mail. I must admit that I felt a little guilty receiving this money from the State of Illinois knowing the financial trouble they are in. They have laid off over 50 teachers in my area due to funding issues but I didn't lose too much sleep over it. I figured if I wouldn't have received the money budgeted for the program some company probably would have.

Other updates: My melted battery fix is still holding without issues. The NetGain Controller's charger I am using has been working great. I don't have a 220 V plug yet in the garage so I haven't tested the chargers ability to do 220 yet. 110 works great!