MONGOOSE CB24V450 modification

[Mongoose01]

Hi,

I own a MONGOOSE CB24V450 and I'm rather satisfied except for the fact that I need more autonomy.

Is there a way to replace the battery with a Li-Ion battery or any other battery to increase range? And where can I buy it?

And btw, how do you change the battery? You open the container and you change the batteries inside or what? Sorry if it's a stupid question but I've never done it, and I have no documentation.

Also I read on the forum that someone increase the voltage from 24 to 36. How is it possible to do that? You put 3 12V batteries inside instead of 2 or what?

Thanks a lot.

 

[gone_fishin]

wish i could help, i still have a long way to go (like actually having an e-hub, for starters) so for now i just read. while you wait for some definitive answers, i hope you browse what we do have here in the "electric" forum...maybe something will help, and if you find an interesting topic please "bump" it (reply) with your fresh input

 

[Mongoose01]

I opened the battery container and there are 2 12V lead batteries.

Looking in the forum to find if I find any info..

 

[sabrewalt]

Mongoose Electric CB24

I own one as well and it is a very limited range bike out of the box. They do have good low end pulling power due to the gearing. You should be able to change out the Lead Acid Batteries with any battery that will fit. NIMH LIthium etc. You will save a lot of weight. You may need to add some thick foam to fill the voids. The guys over at endless sphere have even overvolted them up to 36 volts reporting that the motor gets hot. There are several schemes involving drilling holes in the moter housing.

I am thinking about building a hybrid out of my Mongoose if the revopower wheel ever comes out so I can sneak out of the neighborhood on electric and then fire up the 2stroke when I get away from the houses.

 

[Mongoose01]

Ok.

I checked this page: http://www.ebikes.ca/store/index.php#Batteries

I think I could modify my container to fit the B3614MHR2-NX 36V 14Ah Nexcell NiMH battery.

According to their calculation that would increase the range to 36x14/10~= 50km, almost the double of the original ( 24x12/10~=29km).

I'll have to drill some holes in the motor housing and I will avoid using the maximum power.

I'm gonna try to find if there wouldn't be batteries that could fit directly in my battery housing..

 

[sabrewalt]

Send us Pictures

When you get it working. Closeups of battery installation, Motor mods etc.

thanks

 

[Mongoose01]

I just found these Lithium cells :
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3389

I should be able to fit 25 of those in my battery housing and build a 36x23Ah.

That would give 25x33 = 825Wh! So an autonomy of about 80 km..

I checked on batteryspace and they make customized batteries. I'm gonna ask if they can build on for me.

 

[SirJakesus]

I dont think that will work well. Those batteries only have 9ah which will give you less than ideal range. If you were to use them you would have to make a bunch of packs to get to 36v per pack then string those packs together in parallel (2 for 18ah 3 for 27ah etc) but each pack will require its own 36v 3a (or so) chargers which means you wont be able to make use of the charging port already made into the currie battery enclosure. You'd also have to wire in battery protection circuits to prevent the batteries from over discharge or overcharge. This is very important since lithium batteries can explode or catch fire if they're treated wrong... or you could just destroy hundreds of dollars worth of batteries really fast. Remember, these currie controllers cut out at 20 or 21 volts to protect SLA batteries at 24v.
I'd personally go with NiMH batteries since they're cheaper and more able to handle abuse. however they're not as light or small. To achieve your goals you will probably have to fit all the cells you can in the currie box and augment that with a rackmount or thin framemount secondary battery pack. I've seen NiMH cells that have up to 14ah and they're a ton cheaper, by more than half.