Hi All,
Thanks for the thoughts, and I'm still thinking.
The Hyundai iX20, a lethal little toy ... we didn't know what it was when we bought it 3 years and only 10,000 miles ago. It doesn't matter how much power you have, by the end of the week it's not enough. This was Barbara's car.
Barbara's right arm was mangled when she was born, 1942, so during WW2. Nobody noticed until it was too late to un-mangle it. She cannot straighten her arm beyond 90*, her right shoulder virtually doesn't exist, she cannot lift her upper arm above horizontal, and she has virtually no grip in her right hand. She once accompanied me on my Sunday afternoon 3-hour pony trek over the sand dunes of Swansea Bay.
Despite that, I taught her to drive, in a Sunbeam Talbot 90, in Malaya. She passed UK driving test in South East London, in a £50 Mini that she drove for the first time the previous day. She drove my ex-Robin Rew Reliant Scimitar GTE racing barge ... pulled 30mph per 1000RPM, and red-lined at 6500rpm. (I never tried). She Historic Road Rallied her TVR Vixen, and was twice pulled at 115mph in her Honda CRX on the M4 ... told not to do it again. She once accompanied me on my Sunday afternoon 3-hour pony trek over the sand dunes of Swansea Bay.
At DVLC, she was given 20 minutes notice that she would be CHAIR at a meeting with Tom King (Sec of State for Transport). She passed a promotion board to SEO, but the DVLC Chief Executive wanted her to represent her on a Deputy Prime Ministers Task Force ... all Delegates to have equal status, and retain their existing grade and payscale. Most of the delegates were Police Chief Superintendents
Married for 57 years, and I still wake up screaming.
Barbara now has osteo-arthritis in both knees. She managed to remain mobile until her last fall, which was followed by a couple of weeks in hospital, then returned home by ambulance, and tucked into a hospital bed, which she has not left for several months. Barbara is a "tough cookie", but this is destroying her ... and nobody seems to care.
She voluntarily surrendered her driving licence.
I learned yesterday that my Freelander has failed it's MOT, to the tune of a guestimated £1500. I'm currently pondering on my next step. The car is still at the Testers. The car with a new MOT is worth probably a smidgen more than the cost of fixing it. I'll wait until I can check the failures on-line, before deciding my next move. I offered a straight swap with one of S2/S3 Cadevers that are sitting in his yard, but he wasn't interested. I suspect that weighing it in might be my best option.
I think I have executive matrimonial authority to do one more project ... a fully galvanised S2 or S3, or preferably an S1 (sorry) with a 40hp battery powered canal boat motor. And damn the expense!
Provided I have mechanical handling (crane and winch) available (maybe a couple of winches), and somebody willing to relieve me of the heavy mechanical stuff, like engine and gearbox, radiator, etc,
Some forty years ago, somebody converted a Triumph Herald to battery power. I'm trying to trace the magazine article. I think the write up was in a UK published Hot Rod, or Custom Car, magazine, or something similar. I think it must have run on four big 12volt car batteries, under the bonnet, and wired in series. It was adequate for the builders daily commute.
How many of our readers have investigated the cost of nailing a car charging point on their front wall? Or how much power can be generated from solar panels?
Doh! 06.10hrs ... and my Shower Maiden has just arrived. No sense of timing.
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Topic: TOWING WITH A ELECTRIC VEHICLE. (Read 1584 times)
