AlaskaEVA : Message: FW: [NEDRA] "Baker" our newest EV arrival(s)

New EV's in the shop :-D

One for parts, one for use

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Subject: [NEDRA] "Baker" our newest EV arrival(s)

Date: 6/16/09 12:36:40 AM

From: "Mike Willmon"

To:NEDRA@yahoogroups.com

Well I know Bill is proud of his new EV forklift, as well as John Wayland is of his many EV forklift conquests ;-)

I know these machines will perform well in their native EV environment for these gentlemen.

Seeing the thread reminded me of a 3 week old lead on an offer for two free forklifts if we would "just come get them outta the

yard". Well, that happened today. You may remember the miserable photo of "Yellow" (as its name is inscribed on the header bar in

indelible marker) and "Baker" as I have named it after its name plate (it's a '69 Baker Electric).

We did not know the plans for these machines at first but the lure was to recover them for their motors. After looking through them

in their so called final resting place I could see that Yellow had a nice 7.5" lift motor waiting to be plucked like a ripe fruit.

Hank is determined to turn this motor into an electric outboard conversion for his dip net fishing boat. Its tough to dipnet in the

river when clutch speed is faster than the current ;-)

I couldn't determine what Baker had in it but the owner said they both ran but had dead batteries. It was all he could do to charge

them for a while and get a couple minutes just to move them. But he said they worked. Well, after the Happy Hooker dropped of the

first one (Baker) I very shortly tore into her and pulled the old "refurb" set of measly 6V batteries. I put in the best of the

bunch of old Crown CR-225's from the Mitsubishi (recently got some new old stock batteries recovered from a preliminary attempt as a

UPS bank from the company I work for).

Anyway, got the batteries in, fiddled with the wiring a little, figured out the horn was incorrectly rewired through the E-

disconnect switch and would be always on when the machine was ON. So the horn got disabled very quickly. But don't worry the

reverse beeper does work still :-) Then she moves on her own. She got a hole drilled in one of the forks with a 2" ball inserted

to be able to jockey our trailer in and out of the shop. So Baker on her first day to her new home was put to work. Its likely

Baker will work around the shop for as long as we need her. Yellow on the other hand may wind up parted out to other EV's :-)

Here are pics.

How we found them:

The Happy Hooker Delivery truck:

The pair of ne EV's delivered:

The New (Electrabishi Takeouts) 36V plant big enough to work around the shop for odds and ends moving:

(note the proper safety support, for the times that Baker was produced, to hold the seat up while working on the batteries)

Baker already in service. Note the proper head protection as Baker didn't seem to be produced with seatbelts ;-)

Mike