J writes – “This is fast becoming my favorite show on televison and the Make ethic is very strong. They pick a long-distance trucker with an old beater, loan him a truck and completely redo his. But they also pick a theme and mod the hell out of the original truck. Mods include a hardwood floor on one truck, a flat-screen tv made into a 1950’s style I-Love-Lucy tv, onboard computers, a truck with a dog-wash station, one with a bbq grill, and kick-butt beautiful painting. While it’s a little like Home Makeover, there’s some pretty substantial differences: nearly everything on TMT has to be custom made, and you watch them doing it. The spaces either have to work mechanically, or fit into the cab or the 4′-6′ sleeping box. And the long-distance guys are a pretty taciturn species, so even though they’re sooo happy, they’re not the screechy weepy kind of happy–they’re the belly-bump high five happy which is, frankly, a lot more fun to watch.” – Link & one of the customizer’s pages.
8 thoughts on “Trick My Truck”
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WARNING! – This is a fire hazard waiting to happen.
Battery chargers are designed for a specific type of battery (there are multiple types and grades of Ni-Cads). Battery chargers for NiMH use a different technology for charging and detecting a full battery. There are chargers that will do both, but these are designed to work with specific battery systems.
If the charger improperly detects (some chargers will charge packs from 7.2 – 18 volts) the battery voltage type, and charge current levels required for charging, the battery charger may cook the battery or itself to death.
Also if you look at the 2nd illustration, the link between the batteries with the hole in it is a fusable link designed to blow at a certain current level. The overvoltage or over current in the modified pack may destroy the switch and cause a short circuit. Without this link, the battery may catch fire, and/or explode because of a short.
If you do try this mod, NEVER leave a charging battery unattended.
This is a dangerous mod, as the guy below states. Another risk is that the battery shorts itself because you did something wrong, and the next thing you know, there’s a big fire.
If you want to do this, stick with swapping NiCd cells for better NiCd cells. The 700mAH cells can easily be swapped for 2000mAH ones, giving near three times the run time.
Re: Atouk: I’ve added some more safety notes to the instructables site – including the need to use the existing fusable link, and a reference link for charging info (www.batteryuniversity.com) (I didn’t want to go into too much detail there myself). Thanks for the feedback.
1) NiCd chargers WILL NOT overcharge NiMh batteries. They most likely will be undercharged by the NiCd technology charger.
2) NiCd batteries are chosen specifically for use in cordless power tools for a reason.
As Soapy says, replace with higher capacity NiCd batteries for the best results.
Bringselpup is right NiCd chargers do usually never overcharge any NiMH battery. There electronic sensor usually prevents this.
I would always recommend using NiMH using the appropriate battery charger just to make sure you are not running into any trouble.
Karl,
http://www.insidewoodworking.com/cordless-drill-batteries.html