Hi all.

A friend has the buck$ to pay for a Plug-in conversion of a 2008 FEH.
The stock pack will need to be totally removed.
The original battery has only ~1500 miles on it and is in "like new" condition.
( maybe better than new since it has been "conditioned". )

Is anyone interested in buying this stock FEH pack?
New ones cost something like $7000, but I don't think many people have had the cars long enough to need replacements yet. The same battery is used in all model years, including the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, and Mazda Tribute Hybrid.

Keep in mind you cannot let it sit around for more than a few months without some use or manually charging it or it will self-discharge on its own. This is why my friend wants to sell it, since you really can't let it sit around for years for possible later use. So if you get it, you'd need to use it within ~6 months or take it apart for other purposes within that time frame.

I have never used eBay and neither has my friend. Plus, we'd hate to see some dealer buy it for $3000 and resell it to someone else for full retail ( $7000? ). I said I know where to find a bunch of actual "people" online, (here) so that's the purpose of this message.

Anyone want to entertain bids in the $3000 range for a basically new, stock Ford Escape Hybrid battery pack? That's more than half price!

If not, after a while, this will turn into a "strip for parts" operation.
Anyone interested in just some of the internal parts? Just the cells? Just the modules? Just the fans? Etc.

Contact me here, on the board, or via personal email. Don't PM me, the GH mailbox is very small, and mine is full already!

Thanks!
-John
gpsman1@yahoo.com

P.S. Since the whole thing is pretty heavy, I will provide free delivery between the states of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, SOUTHern Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, SOUTHern California, and any other area I routinely travel by car for business purposes. You can arrange transport if you live outside this area.

 

No offence, but what the heck would someone do with it? Our FEH already have a battery, warranted to 150K / 10 years. We would void the warranty by replacing the battery...

 

The only market I can imagine for this would be a taxi company. I think there are a lot of FEH taxis in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Those vehicles will be off warranty in the first two to three years and might want a spare battery in stock.

 

Well, if someone can figure out how to combine two hybrid battery packs with the existing software, there might be a larger than expected market for something like this.

By the way, how would someone trickle charge a spare hybrid battery pack? 24V connection? If this is correct, then there has to be a way to do the same with the hybrid battery pack inside your vehicle.

 

In order to charge a 330V pack you'll have to generate >330V... so a 24V connection is going to need a step up conversion...

The FEH generator must either produce this voltage OR it is steped up with electronics... likely the second since the voltage produced by the generator would be related to its RPM.

 

Yikes.... be Careful gpsman.... don't get you or your friend fried if you start pulling things apart..

 

Our cars have AC motors and AC "alternators". The car runs off AC not DC. Just you can't store AC in a battery! So that's how you can get a constant charge at any speed ( rpm ) because speed does not equal volts.

To "trickle charge" you can buy off the shelf high Voltage DC, low current DC chargers. Since these put out milliamps, not amps, they will not heat up the battery, and you can generally set 'em and forget 'em. They are not practical for daily 'PHEV' use Billy because they are very low power. High power chargers will cost some bucks. 4-digit bucks.

It is hazadous, yes, but only a little more so than your household 120 VAC.
How often do you get worried about plugging in a lamp? Cell Phone charger?
Your home Air Conditioner uses 240v, as well as an Electric Range, and Electric Clothes Dryer. Plus, "we" are "experts" in this field so you need not worry about us. I would not let childern "play" with it.... no....


This is an option for the technically inclined, the hybrid hobbiest, or someone who has a battery they need or want to replace soon. One option would be to rotate two batteries every 4 to 6 months, like rotating tires. Then, you would keep both in good shape, and both would only get half the miles. You'd have 300,000 miles worth of battery! I don't think it would take you very long to do it, either. The cables are quick-disconnect, there is the fuse you pull first to make it safe ( the orange circle on the pack ), and you only need a method to lift 200 pounds without hurting your back! Something like an engine lift ( $200? ) works very well. The battery has built-in lifting straps.

Following a step-by-step process, it is safe and easy to disassemble the battery if you want just the cells. I checked, and I can ground ship these cells via UPS or FedEX since they contain no liquid acid. They are not Haz-Mat. If you want some and they are less than (70 lbs?), I can just ship them. If you want the whole HV battery in one piece, ready to drop-in, then I would drive it to you if you are along my business route. ( I provide personal customer service for a major corporation. ) These would be great high power cells, cells you generally cannot buy online or anywhere else. They would drive circles around anything else on the market for projects, camping, R/C cars, or yes, a plug-in hybrid booster pack... if you know what you are doing. Each cell can handle 100 amps. And they are "vibration-proof" which makes them very durable, indeed, for rough applications.

I'm thinking $4 per cell would be reasonable. There's 250 cells in each car.
Each cell is 1.3v and 6Ah and suitable for 100amps Max.

 

Yes... I knew that but to charge the battery you would have to convert AC to DC just as you say... but then in order for current to flow INTO the battery you have to produce a higher DC voltage than the battery already has. You charge a 12V DC battery by putting about 13V on it... yes.. in reality you trickle charge it and control the current but all that means is you have a circuit that is adjusting to put the right amount of current in and the voltage you'd see at the output of the charger would be slightly higher than the battery voltage when its disconected... just enough to put the make the current trickle in the right direction...

So in the end any charger you use from the wall will be producing ~300+V... it can be current limited and quite safe. Thats not what I'm thinking of.... I'm just thinking its going to be hard to find an off the shelf charger that puts out 300V+... you'd have to make your own I'd think.

Not difficult really, but unless you follow the right charge profile you can certainly reduce the life of the battery.

 

The are lots of options for high voltage DC, low current DC chargers that you can buy off the shelf. Most are for industrial and scientific applications, and those are the suppliers you'd need to google online. They are pretty common actually, and most come with a dial for variable voltage like a toy train transformer, so you can dial in exactly what you want.

-John

 

That would certainly make things easier!