The AC 3 phase motor is the workhorse of industry and now technology has
made Variable frequency/volts AC drives for these readily available and
affordable. Even forklifts use AC drives powered by the DC batteries. Even
VFDs that run on AC first convert to DC and then back to the variable
frequency/voltage to control motors.

True DC motors relay on magnets or field coils along with the commutators
and brushes. The brushes and commutators wear and add friction. While
permanent magnets are now getting strong enough to eliminate the need for
field coils on many applications, when massive torque is needed you end up
series fields, (starter motors), and when speed control is needed shunt
fields which often need a separate dedicated power supply. Many industrial
motors needed both. These coils need energy, sometimes a lot.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Alistair Bell
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 12:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: A totally "Shocking" story! NO VANAGON CONTENT, BUT ALL VW

It is impressive and i wonder if he gets a bulk deal on the batteries :)

Can someone school me why (apart from maybe it was available) he used an AC
motor (3 phase) rather than a hDhC motor? Is converting battery DC power to
3 phase AC more efficient than using a DC motor controller?

alistair

On Feb 21, 2014, at 6:55 AM, raceingcajun <raceingcajun@communicomm.com>
wrote:

> Next time you gripe about your Vanagon and its grounding and
> electrical system problems, leaking head gaskets, fuel leak fires,
> lack of performance, etc, etc, so on and so forth, just think about this!
>
> Is this the text book definition of the mad scientist, or great back
> yard tinker? You tell me.
>
> http://www.passatworld.com/forums/79-passat-month/291386-passat-month-
> june-2009-etischer-eric-tischer.html