wilderness bl-36 voltage

[rjarois]

i am a noob electric biker....i am installing a wilderness bl-36."brushless".... it came with a 36volt controller, and my question is will it handle 48volt? i was reading that the controler from the bd-36 "brushed" will. ther must be a little head room on the controllers voltage rating. but i really donno. can someone help me get a grip on this? thanks, god im so stupid........

[karma]

not a stupid thing to ask :)

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3264

you can simply replace the 36volt controller with a 48volt controller, or you can overvolt the 36 volt controller.
if you do its a good idea to open the controller and look up the rating on the caps and fets just to be sure you dont blow it up. also its allso a good idea to monitor the motor temp after a ride.

cheers

[rjarois]

karma, i know nothing about caps or fets...... i have no idea what your talking about. thank you for the link, reading things like this hopefully i can get more insight for my new kit. peace, randy.

[rjarois]

opened the controller, to see if i could see any voltage specs.......ther are two rather big can looking things with 63volt on them. could this controller take 48volts? i need some help from the electrical experts here.....on the top of controller it says 40watts....god, im a idiot.........

[karma]

yup those caps are fine. 48volts should work. got a pic of the complet controller i just wana see the heatzinc.

cheers

[rjarois]

top

[rjarois]

top agian

[rjarois]

karma, thanks for taking the time to answer my noob questions. need to get another 12volt and a 48volt charger.......looking foward to spring in michigan......thanks agian. randy.

[meanjoegreen]

I would call WE, the staff are pretty helpful. I have a WE 48 volt (extended pack) I have no idea what controller they gave me. It's brushless, for all I know its the same.

Heres a link to the link to the WE sight.

http://www.ebikehub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42

[rjarois]

meanjogreen, they were my first contact with my question.......ther has been no answer from them. i kinda figured i purchased a old kit from a company that went under.....thre isnt much talk about this wilderness kit.

[greenmeanie]

I am awaiting delivery of a WE 36v kit ... the anticipation is killin' me ..

BTW, hi all . Have enjoyed reading the detailed posts with pics in this forum and hope to contribute something too. :)

[rjarois]

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[rjarois]

I would call WE, the staff are pretty helpful. I have a WE 48 volt (extended pack) I have no idea what controller they gave me. It's brushless, for all I know its the same.

Heres a link to the link to the WE sight.

http://www.ebikehub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42

meanjoegreen, does the controller have the same numbers as mine on the top? it came with 4-12volt batterys?. thanks, randy.

[greenmeanie]

My BL 36 700c kit arrived yesterday. The throttle and brake levers and rear rack look pretty cheap. The 3x12v 12ah batteries are as heavy as advertised. When I plugged in the charger that came with the kit the light on the charger turns red for a few seconds and then shuts off. Not sure if this means they are fully charged or if there is a contact problem. Will have to get a multimeter in the next few days.
I intended to use an old Norco road bike for the conversion but have run into a few snags. They dropouts on the forks will have to be widened slightly and the forks will need to be spread a bit. I am going to need to replace the old rams horn type handle bars because the throttle and brake levers are too small in diameter to fit. Hopefully I can find some handlebars that will fit the bike and accept the brake and throttle. Bad time of year to be trying to scavenge bicycle parts. I now regret giving away 3 old bikes last year. I will also need to get a tire for the new wheel because my kit didn't come with a tire mounted on the rim. All this means I won't be taking my bike out for a spin as soon as I would like.

[happyJohnrn]

Not to worry about the charger, the batteries come fully charged. The red light on the charger lights when it is charging. It turns off when it is fully charged. Check the the rim to be sure its true, I am having trouble with mine being unbalanced even after 2 trips to the bike shop for adjustment. I am going to attempt to return it in March after I return from a trip. I will call those guys at WeRelectirfied, as they dont seem to answer emails.

[greenmeanie]

Not to worry about the charger, the batteries come fully charged. The red light on the charger lights when it is charging. It turns off when it is fully charged.

Came with a Soneil 30602S 1A charger. Just turns off when charged? The Led indicator info says green= charged, orange=charging?

[jerryt]

Heres my experience with WE BL-36

My WE instructions were incorrect on motor installation instruction; my wire bundle drops out on the RIGHT side rather than the left side.


They dropouts on the forks will have to be widened slightly and the forks will need to be spread a bit


I had same problem and was advised (endless-sphere forum) to file down axle on motor rather than widen dropouts (don't want to weaken them). I wound up filing my axle a bit and removing paint on dropouts.

Also had to spread my forks using my Honda car jack.

Soneil smart charger is great - red light when charging and light turns green when fully charged and turns off automatically

Recommend you install a torque arm on the motor axle.

[greenmeanie]

thanks jerry,

Hadn't considered the necessity of a torque arm, but now that you bring it up I think it's definitely something I should add.

[rjarois]

got my kit mounted today. cool i found a use for my old high sierra. installed continental town and country 2.1 tires and got a double kickstand, its real nice. didnt ride yet, but spun up and speedo reads 24mph. donno how much it will drop with load. never heard back from wilderness about slapping 48 volts to it. i gues i just gotta get some gonads and just do it. randy.

[jerryt]

I believe the WE site is now info only and for dealers only. I bought mine from itselectric.com and Ken Cheung was very helpful with my email requests.
ken@PowerInMotion.ca
I believe someone referred the endless-sphere thread but heres another you can study
http://pages.videotron.com/guizzmo/

Good Luck

[meanjoegreen]

rjarois, sorry I directed you to the wilderness energy website. I called the we R electrified guys when I set mine up. I got a refurbished so I wanted to make sure it was 600W and brushless, nothing was labeled. They talked me through it. 4 batteries = 48V extended pack. The 48V controller is smaller than the 36V (about the size of a pack or cigarettes) and brushless hubs have 3 wires going into the hub. Unfortunately on mine, the wires were reveresed to the right side which was confusing- probably the reason somebody returned it. As a refurb kit, I still saved about $250 so for me it was worth it. Good luck to you anyway. I would read more on endless sphere if you have technical questions. they tend to have a lot of engineering types over there.

Best wishes

www.ebikehub.com (http://www.ebikehub.com)

[rjarois]

we got up to 50 deg. today here in michigan........took the bike out for the maiden ride.......all went well, it goes 19 m.p.h. on flat ground with my 350# lard ass on it. rode 7 miles. pulled me around better than i expected. now i will have to try 48volts. actually its really allrite at 36volt. maybe i will try at 48v, or just upgrade to a crystlite cruiser or somptin......peace, randy.

[rjarois]

so far so good.......got to ride today with my 48volt set-up.....top speed, no pedal is 23mph with my 350lb. lard ass on it. it was 19mph before at 36volt. i made a carrier for my rack outta 1/4 plywood. i am very pleased with the results as of far......peace, randy.

[rjarois]

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[rjarois]

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[karma]

nice thats one problem i allways had when i used a rear rack with led acid, it would bend out of shape hiting potholes. that should do the trick.

[jerryt]

Randy I may have missed this but did you use your 36v controller with your 48v battery set-up?

[rjarois]

jerry, yes i did. so far so good......still waitin on this michigan weather to break......only got two rides on it as of now. i will report back as the weather changes, and i ride more. peace, randy.

[rjarois]

i have around 15 rides as of now......with my 350# lard ass on it, it goes around 24mph......seems great with no trobs....no cut out's or nothing......love it....peace, randy.

[bigbirdlover]

Hi, I'm new to the forum, haven't really been on a bike in years, I bought a Giant Revive & put the wilderness kit on it, it seems pretty fast for an old fart like me, my question is, how hard would it be to upgrade to lithium batteries? I'm reasonably handy with wiring & electronics, (for a girl!:lol:) and I've been looking at some other posts where people have adapted drill batteries as a way to same some of the cost, Bosch has a slim line cooled batt for under $100., 36 volts, would the existing controller run it? And is there anything else I should consider before attempting it. I've actually seen a pack of two of these on ebay new for even less with a charger.