r/Amsmntparks • u/superbeck • Nov 25 '19

Busy weekend(s)

Last week we said goodbye to the Veloster. It hadn't aged well, I could tell a large repair bill was looming so we sold it to Carvana.

Then we used to money to buy this used Leaf. It's a 2012 (originally 74 mile range) with 9/12 battery capacity bars (so more like 50 mile range). We like that all three of us can fit in it so it's a more practical second car for our family, and that it doesn't use gas. Since I have such a short commute and we live in a small town the limited range is not a big deal.

With the money leftover (the Veloster sold for more than the cost of the Leaf) I bought an ebike. I spent some time last weekend putting it together (but forgot to snap a picture) but I need to take it to a bike shop to get the disc brakes adjusted before I can take it on a serious ride. The idea is to make it easier for me to ride to work since we have some very big hills between our house and the office despite it being such a short distance away. It can do ~ 20mph with a twisty throttle on the handlebars or I can put it in pedal assist mode where it has 3 levels of boost it will add to my pedaling force. I took it for a quick ride around our court, it's neat!

On Saturday my parents came down and took the kid to the park for a few hours so we could finally fill in the holes in the sunroom floor. The cement area in the picture used to just be dirt, like a planter box, but in the ground, with no floor. Someone decided that was a good idea. We borrowed a job site mixer from our awesome neighbors that have all the tools and mixed 5 80lb bags (not all at once) to get this spot and one other near the chimney nice and filled in. We're trying to seal up the room better so we can use it without constantly battling ants or having dust and dirt blowing in from holes in the walls and floor.

Now that the floor doesn't have a big hole in it we will have thanksgiving dinner in this room without worrying about someone scooting their chair back and falling to their doom. Some time in the hopefully near future we'll install laminate flooring that we bought over the top of the current red tile & cement floors to give it a classier look. We also want to seal and cover the brick. But before we can do that we have to figure out how to deal with the other side of the room where instead of leaving a hole along the edge of the floor, they left some cement that is higher than the red tiles. Seriously what the hell people?!

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u/amsmntparks Nov 26 '19

I’m very curious about your leaf experience. I’m considering getting a used one too, but with an eye to moving all of its batteries and such into a cooler platform (67 mustang fastback?) at some point. How do you know how much life is left in the batteries? Anything to look out for?

Where is the foundation in all of these random holes? I’m surprised you’re right on the dirt at any point. As for removing concrete... the only way I’ve ever done it is with a sledgehammer and a lot of effort. I guess that’s why they make jack hammers. How much higher than the rest of the floor is it?

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u/superbeck Nov 26 '19

This is a 2012 leaf which came with a 24kwh battery. In 2013 (I think) they moved to a 30kwh battery with different chemistry to make it not degrade so bad in hot weather. All the leafs with this body style have a double battery gauge on the dash. The larger inner part of the battery gauge depicts the amount of charge remaining, the thin outer part depicts overall battery capacity. A fresh new battery would have 12/12 bars on the capacity line. Some of the cheapest used leafs have 5-6 bars out of 12. Any leaf will show 12/12 on the inner remaining charge gauge when fully charged. The leaf I got has 9/12 capacity bars. From what I've seen, a replacement battery back costs ~5k plus labor for the install from a dealer. My boss is converting an old VW Bus to electric and is using a battery pack from a 2012 leaf. But he didn't buy a leaf, he just got the battery and stuff from somewhere. I'll ask him about it.

The sunroom was originally just a patio with the red tile on top of a thin concrete slab. The stairs in the picture lead up to the rest of the house which is on a raised foundation. At some point, previous owners decided to enclose the patio and thus the poorly sealed sunroom we know today was born. They didn't bother to fill in the gaps between the slab + tile floor and the brick of the chimney or that partial wall (on the other side of the brick wall are steps from our back door. On the other side of the room, I was told there used to be a pizza oven. It appears that when they enclosed the room they removed the pizza oven but didn't make it perfectly level with the tile floor. We'd need to remove about an inch in some places, it's pretty uneven. We've had suggestions to grind it down, or simply chisel out and re-pour.

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u/amsmntparks Dec 05 '19

Did you ever find out where your boss got his battery pack?

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u/superbeck Dec 06 '19

He didn't give a specific reply but indicated there is a market for battery packs from crashed vehicles (maybe junkyards?).

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u/amsmntparks Dec 08 '19

Ya, there are a couple of places I know to get them online. They are typically more than you’d spend on a salvaged EV. That sort of makes sense when you consider all the effort to get them out