Sudden drop in range !!!!

[chatwindows]

This is all so interesting & is the antithesis of what this club is all about. I had the sh**s about a light on during last winter & was dreading it being something like this. It was just the cold in the end & I'm now back to 55 mile average again. I am printing this current article off for future reference though. I really do wish you all the best & will watch this space with enthusiasm.
I've been in Australia for a few months so have lost touch with you all for a while. I left my Blingo with a friend who runs a new Land Cruiser Amazon. I found that he had used the Blingo all of the time & is now looking for one for himself. He fell in love with it. His comment was, "until you drive one, you don't realise just how nice & theraputic electric driving is"!
Well, we all know that, don't we?
All the best & "no" I don't want to go & live in Australia.
chatwindows

[mattcarr]

Hi Chris, I was wondering how your van is doing. Did you get round to swapping out any cells or is the range still enough for your needs?

Cheers

Matt

[ChrisB]

Sadly she's been sat on the drive since and only used for very short trips, me being a fair weather mechanic its way toooooooooo cold for me to start wealding spanners currently

Also during the winter period I tend not to use it that much in anycase due to the amount of salt on the roads anything to try and stave off the rust not helped by living on the coast

Hope to take a look at her March time I suspect.

ChrisB

[julian295]

I've had the same problem with my Berlingo in the last week or two, with the low voltage lamp coming on at about 53% & also it's only charging to about 95%. Maybe it's just the very cold weather?

Julian

[highend]

what you mean by "very cold weather"?

In last FREEZING days in POLAND (minus 15 degrees during day, up to -25 deg night)
I was testing Berlingos... range 25 miles, eco lights in 30-40% range, charge to full.

in zero degrees they had 40 miles range.

yes - that what I call VERY cold weather ))

[chatwindows]

It's what I call f****g cold. It fascinates me how we grind to a halt in this country at anything around freezing and yet when I went to Poland, nobody even mentioned how cold it was at fifteen below. Mind you, I never felt that it seemed as cold as England. Maybe it is a dryer sort of cold. I have been making sure that my Blingo has been run right down before charging. Seems to help, although I seldom get more than about 35-38 miles before the light comes on during this cold spell. Charging from this low does seem to keep the light on point, to around 20%. Bloody heaters started to play up again though. Four days as good as new, blowing me out of the cab with heat. Filled up with petrol + 10 squirts of oil (after fill). The next day, it just gets to the point when the warm air is coming through and it stops clicking. Switch off and on again and off we go through the same cycle. Did this for two days and today I went out with the heater on and it was perfectly alright again. I cannot see any rhyme nor reason for this.
All the best, and keep the gloves on I suppose.
chatwindows.

[highend]

in both blingos I drive - heater works... I always preheat cab (10 mins is enough) - and is very hot inside, but after driving it is going colder and colder and after 20 miles - little warm blowing from vent holes... I covered cooler with paper rectangle - didn't helped.

I was thinking as blingo batts are cooled - to inverse that in winter, so cooling liquid could actually warm batteries to get better range and keep them warm & happy Any ideas?

And about winter in Poland... it is FAR FAR much better than Norway for example. People from Norway/Sweden have even lower tempertures... And here frost is strong for a few days then returns to normal -5 deg C.
Anyway we had very warm december and january (0 to +5 deg or warmer) and no snow. Only FEB is soooo cooold