mvadventure
1 kW
- Joined
- May 2, 2007
- Messages
- 419
My eagerly awaited 48 volt 20 AH Foxx LiPo's battery pack arrived after Thanksgiving in 2007 and I was a proud parent. The factory BMS quit a couple of months later but Zane at Foxx sent me a new charger with built in BMS and directions, and wire, to reconfigure and all went well for a couple more years until that suffered problems related to design and not the battery or charger itself. Since the male end of the 24 pin connector was at the battery end it was always live and caught a zipper on my battery cover and blew some of the pins out. Repairing that was a nightmare I won't go into again but helped by the wonderful folks here at Endless Sphere.
The bike is a Boss beach cruiser, 15 years old with it's second generation electric motor. The first was a ZAP friction drive with alternating 12 volt SLA's, this one is a Crystalyte 5304.
When first installed I had a confident 40 miles at 15 mph and very frequently did 20 miles at 20 MPH, no pedaling, and used 16 AH . The bike was my personal primary means of transportation and used daily. The last couple of years however have seen me older (68) and busier and toting grandkids but the bike still gets used frequently, over 4,000 miles on these batteries. Sunday mornings I join a group of folks for a normal 30 - 35 mile ride where we average probably 12 - 14 MPH (they all ride standard pedal bikes) and I pedal assist my beach cruiser. By pedal assisting at those speeds I try to limit my usage to 3 AH except when I have to catch up or go over a bridge and monitor carefully total AH used on my Watts Up meter, often I can travel quite a bit at just over 1 AH.
The Sunday morning rides generally take about three hours including a breakfast stop and if the wind is light on the return 1/2 of the trip I've been using around 8.5 AH and battery voltage has dropped from 53.4 at start to about 50 with a short rest. Last Sunday however the wind was about 14 MPH into the face, speed was down and battery usage up. The batteries were pretty much dead at 9.8 AH, voltage down to under 48 and now it's time to replace them with something else, either that or start riding my Trek and using all leg power and that ain't a gonna happen for those distances at that speed.
Foxx guaranteed the batteries for three years and for all practical purposes they lasted three years. Despite being hard to get hold of they did all warranty requests and I have NO problem with Foxx 'cept it appears even harder to buy batteries from them now then before and it wasn't easy then.
Anyone with suggestions on a replacement battery pack please let me know.
Endless Sphere Rocks.
Mike, 5304 w/48 Volt (used to be) 20 AH battery packs and two SLA powered scooters.
The bike is a Boss beach cruiser, 15 years old with it's second generation electric motor. The first was a ZAP friction drive with alternating 12 volt SLA's, this one is a Crystalyte 5304.
When first installed I had a confident 40 miles at 15 mph and very frequently did 20 miles at 20 MPH, no pedaling, and used 16 AH . The bike was my personal primary means of transportation and used daily. The last couple of years however have seen me older (68) and busier and toting grandkids but the bike still gets used frequently, over 4,000 miles on these batteries. Sunday mornings I join a group of folks for a normal 30 - 35 mile ride where we average probably 12 - 14 MPH (they all ride standard pedal bikes) and I pedal assist my beach cruiser. By pedal assisting at those speeds I try to limit my usage to 3 AH except when I have to catch up or go over a bridge and monitor carefully total AH used on my Watts Up meter, often I can travel quite a bit at just over 1 AH.
The Sunday morning rides generally take about three hours including a breakfast stop and if the wind is light on the return 1/2 of the trip I've been using around 8.5 AH and battery voltage has dropped from 53.4 at start to about 50 with a short rest. Last Sunday however the wind was about 14 MPH into the face, speed was down and battery usage up. The batteries were pretty much dead at 9.8 AH, voltage down to under 48 and now it's time to replace them with something else, either that or start riding my Trek and using all leg power and that ain't a gonna happen for those distances at that speed.
Foxx guaranteed the batteries for three years and for all practical purposes they lasted three years. Despite being hard to get hold of they did all warranty requests and I have NO problem with Foxx 'cept it appears even harder to buy batteries from them now then before and it wasn't easy then.
Anyone with suggestions on a replacement battery pack please let me know.
Endless Sphere Rocks.
Mike, 5304 w/48 Volt (used to be) 20 AH battery packs and two SLA powered scooters.
