Buying Components

[joe.downing]

Well my EV has been done for a few months now. I ordered my charger almost four months ago and I'm still waiting. It's my own fault, I should have ordered it when I started my conversion. Anyone who is currently doing a conversion, take my advice....buy your components as soon as you know exactly what you want.

Splitting my pack with a Schumacher 72-volt charger, I'm tied to charging in my garage exclusively. I can't wait for the day to use the Avcon in Aurora (thanks Todd!).

If companies like Manzanita are that busy, maybe that's a good sign? 

[todd.dore]

Manzanita has been busy for the last 5 years.

I'll be ordering my charger from Zivan this time, unless somebody (EV America, etc.) has a Manzanita in stock, which I doubt.

[rich.carroll]

If you are serious about buying components, watch the EV ads on various places, religiously.  I have the EV TRadin Post as my startup screen.

http://tinyurl.com/2nq75g

I drop an email to people who post ads and ask what else they have.  Within the last four months, I have found two Zilla 1K HV's, a Manzanita PFC-30 charger, a Iota DC/DC converter, Rudman Regs, and lots of items I need to build my Corvair.  All very gently used, and most at very significant reductions in price.   

My advice:
Daily try the above link, plus:
http://tinyurl.com/yoboh2

http://www.oeva.org/forsale/

http://www.phoenixeaa.com/

http://www.evadc.org/for_sale.html  (empty right now)

My browser is set to open up tabs with all those sites (and some others) each time it opens.  I review what's there today, and one click closes that tab if I don't want anything.   If you hear of someone selling a part, ask what else they intend to sell soon. 

A high percentage of what I bought was not advertised, but available if you asked.   I also watched eBay regularly.  There was a 156 V completely rebuilt great controller that sold for a 30% discount off WHOLESALE last month.  It is a great controller, but only one person bid on it.  It was new, never used, complete with all paperwork. 

EBay lets you save a search and get an email daily of new items.  I watch Zilla controllers, or any vehicles with Zilla controllers.  There is a lot of stuff with zilla in the name, but eBay lets you create searches like:

zilla -(pixzilla, Truckzilla, Atlantis, music, hawg, e-zilla, Hagen, rug, techzilla, verb, maxxis, dog, quadzilla, Anderson, Traxx)

So I can get everything that is Zilla on eBay, but leave out the stuff with Pixzilla, the techzilla stuff, the maxxis stuff, etc.

If you know what you want, set up a search and likely you'll find it. It might take a couple of weeks, but the items are there.