Don't think I can't see that Reliant Robin! That shape is burned into the minds of every Brit, you can't hide it from me!

What about buy a very long cord extension and put it on the wheego and use it to run around your house?

fix the speedometer cable in your Trabant!! It's the whole reason it's popping out of reverse!! The speedo cable is on the wrong side of the shifter! Edit: I was NOT the person who discovered this, I saw it on the final part of his engine/transmission rebuilt series. I’m just trying to see if he’ll notice.

just drop the whole floor out of the car and push it around with your feet like in The Flintstones

I'm also the kind of person who rearranges the furniture every few months, my wife calls it "chimp enrichment procedures"

Build in a diesel generator and 2 batteries, like Geoff was built in Top Gear.

Also there is a big reason why you shouldn't replace the cells with Li-Ion/Li-Po. They are way more unstable than LiFe. The latter ones are mostly very safe and don't need that much monitoring and such complicated BMS (Battery Monitoring System), while Li-Ion are very dangerous and you need a great BMS.

spotted a wheego driving around advertising a yoga studio in Spokane Washington.

"I took that off, I didn't really need it anyway it was just gathering junk, because it's a horizontal surface." God, this is almost poetic. And I can't even figure out why. It's.. a *horizontal surface* it collects junk that is it's purpose

Have you considering reaching out to Rich Rebuilds to see if the electrified garage have any ideas on a bolt in replacment?

I saw it should be called "WheeNoGo"

I really like that you want to preserve the Wheego. I was thinking the same thing; not many were made and most of them will probably be destroyed.

I see that chrisfix license plate bracket behind u.

Just build a new battery pack. Its only 115V. Get on aliexpress, get some cells and build. Build one with double the Ah and you’ll get way more range You don’t need to use those crappy cells. Get better more modern ones

I'm glad you appreciated my suggestion to put a Trabant motor into the Wheego. It's basically the inverse of my dream car project which would be to take something quirky and old and convert it to electric.

I would love to see a modern LiFePO4 cell replacing the older ones. I found one on AliExpress for half the weight, a third the size, just 23% less capacity and less than half the cost of the Winstons. These particular cells are the same thickness too, so could drop in place with a bit of side padding. It would be a great demonstration of the progress of battery technology.

“WheeGO” and “yuGO” are the most misleading names ever, should’ve been”wheestopandfixthebatteryevery30miles” and “yustop”

Hmmm. that mystery car appears to be missing a wheel, clearly you intend to mend that now that you're moving to new projects

are the 260Ah thundersky/winston cells used in any other EVs? (something from california perhaps?) would it be possible to find some other somewhat used (but not as much as the wheego) cells to replace them for cheaper? then put -a trabant- 24x 2-stroke line trimmer motors in tandem in the car you pull the batteries out of.

There's actually a dealership near me which currently has 6 brand-new Wheegos for sale. Each one is $14,000.

hey, you should get in contact with rich rebuilds, he has a lo of experience repairing werked teslas, he maybe can help you with the weego so you can upgrade too the pixies in to a better awfull car

Ask Uncle Rich for help and advise. I’m sure he’s tired of his ICE project by now!

Could you maybe do a joint video with Jehu Garcia and rebuild/replace the packs as he has a lot of skills in making packs for all sorts of EVs and things?

Hey man I know you won’t see this but I love your speech, explainations, and just over all very thing. I know that this man be rude but your awkward speech pattern is so relatable to me, and probably so many more, that it really helps me in the real world. Anyways thank you and everything you do

It'd be interesting to see if there'll ever be a time in history, when a well-preserved Wheego will worth something? Maybe in 50 years? Anyway, I'd just donate it to the Lane Motor Museum to take care of it. It's not worth further money and a lot of work to keep it running... the Smart is basically a more useable version of it, and you can't get rid of it anyway :)

Many people done LS swaps all over the world, but no one done a Trabant swap, you should consider it

I ran into a similar problem when the power cell on my e-bike died (I'm in Amsterdam, even your cars are awkwardly big here). In your case, don't use 18650s, use 32700's. You can find these on AliExpress, they come individual or prewrapped in packs of 2 to 10, but those are serialized, not parallel. Take the plastic outer casing off the dead bloated batteries and epoxy suitable 32700 packs to the inside. Problem: AliExpress can't sell you the amount of batteries you need in one order. The shipment would be too explody for transport. Talk to the seller about the 32700 pack config you need and a way take full advantage of China's state subsidized shipping, like sending one each day. You'll find them eager to do business. Or perhaps you have better means of getting mass 32700s in the States.

Knowing your luck with the Bus, the battery tender on that 12 volt is flashing orange for bad connection again

He should do a Kickstarter to try and get the money for the Wheego, I'd defineitly kick in 5 or 10 bucks

Is that blue blurred car a Reliant Regal?

"It was just gathering junk because it's a horizontal surface" I feel this so hard. If it's horizontal and won't fall over more than once a week, it's got junk on it.

I am reassured to hear your dedication to preservation of such a rare piece of trash, I actually feel relieved 😁 Now you just need to work on getting one of those service computers of your own so you can fix the bms modules when you eventually get new cells... Terrible-ness aside, the fact that these cells died so fast despite being the supposedly more durable lithium chemistry, does make me nervous about electric cars. That said, I'm not really going anywhere these days, so I'll just keep on using my cargo vehicle (2002 Saturn SL2) for occasional restocking journeys.

I had the thought about the battery upgrade too, but didn't mention it because I assumed you had already explored that idea. Maybe a dumb question, and one I'm sure I could easily Google, and with fewer words than I'm writing here to preface the question I'm about to ask... any chance you could find a beat up Tesla, or some other car with battery packs today would possibly be compatible? I'm pretty sure you personally know someone who has (or had) a Chevy Volt, who is also good with technology and its many connections.

When is "Raw & Unseasoned" chicken life vlog coming, Robert? 😉👍

Very satisfying update! Glad you are going to preserve the Wheego without going crazy.

This is a golden change for battery manufacturers to help you out with the Weego and get free advertisement on your channel and they could provide you with stickers that you can put on the car as well. Just an idea, come on help Robert out!!

Reliant Robin? I really didn’t expect to see that one, probably the most British car I know

I'm guessing that's a Robin Reliant. Top Gear did a GREAT episode on them. And one was Mr. Bean's arch driving nemesis

im actually greg . the guy who bought out wegos neighbor i heard from him at one point he was gonna try and build a couple of more out of parts but he doesn't talk about it much. he's been busy doing electric conversions to full size cars.

Please keep in mind that Winstons are LiFeYPO and therefore can be charged below freezing temperatures. Most LiFePO4 can't. So if you replace the Winstons, you have to deactivate regen breaking in winter. I actually bought some of the no label "blue" LiFePO4 cells from china last year and built a DIY solar power station. They work pretty well and are definitely much cheaper, lighter and smaller compared to the Winstons. Especially the 100Ah cells seem to be popular and affordable. As a Renault Twizy owner from Europe, I can relate to your attachment to such a litte, quirky and flawed EV. Good luck and hope to see it on the streets again, soon.

The wheego with lion cells is still a wheego in my eyes. Would be a lot to learn, and the car is full power ready

Here we go. Reliant Robin. -Jeremy Clarkson.

I would suggest at least as a semi permanent fix, to find a salvage wheego if those are even available and steal good cells from that

Fall is almost here perfect bus working weather!

I'm putting money on a Mk 4 Golf.

the obvious thing to do is a trabant with a zero motorcycle swap a la rich rebuilds.

Why not try to retrofit in some nissan leaf batteries? Or message rich rebuilds and hit him up for tesla goodies.The used market has loads of cheap complete packs.

Oh dear, I was just about to comment on the Reliant Robin Mk 3 (facelift version with Vauxhall Corsa headlights), but it would appear about 10,000 other Brits have also spotted it 😂

Cut the footwells out of the Wheego, change your name to Fred Flintstone and get a friend called Barney, problem solved ----- LOL

Get a new battery pack and motor from something like a Nissan Leaf, Robert

Good to hear you are keeping the Wheego. Yay!

Put a large pole in the middle of your backyard with a electrical outlet sticking out of the top. you then have a really sturdy cable from that to the wheego giving it enough power to run without the batteries, then you can drive in circles however much you want.

I smell Cummins swapped wheego

Why not call wheego and see if they have a battery pack they could sell you?

I kinda agree with your parallel cells idea. While the car is out of commission though, you should probably unplug those BMSes and inert the thing, so it won't draw every cell down to zero like the last time. They can still serve as stationary storage / Powerwall style thing in the future.

I should have watched this video before I left my comment on the other one! Good luck with the eventual fix.

START A GO-FUND-ME FOR THE BATTERIES!

0:49 That looks alot like a Reliant Robin over there

Robert, interesting idea. When you're ready to pony up thousands of Dollars. Have a great weekend!

Cremation and scattering of the ashes appears both appropriate and respectful. RIP Wheego!

Casual and unscripted is good! Do it more often. Leave the Weego against the wall and work on THE BUS!😄

Why aren't you calling it wheegone

Dude you are a pioneer in EV battery refurbishment. This will be a huge industry in the coming decades!

Correct me, if I am wrong, because I want to learn! There are cells which are dead by now. There are ways to find cells in the used market. If I'm not mistaking medical equipment is using similar to identical cells. And in medical equipment the cells are changed in a regular basis so you could get good ones for rather cheap. The solar power community seems to like them very much.

An unusual engine swap will be good :))

You are holding the solution in your hands as you speak. Use the ryobi batteries to power the Weego. You seem to be an engineer figure it out.

To summarize the Wheego project, the stock batteries are expansive, generic 1650 cells have a different set of voltages, and your going to wait on the “mechanical” restoration of the Wheego

Option 1. Put the Trabant engine in a trailer behind the wee(no)go - either hooked up to a generator & the wheego provides motive force; or hook it to a transmission & have it push the wheego along.... Not practical, but then, what's practical about a Trabant OR a Wee Go? Option 2. Build a Li-ion battery pack from 18650 cells as you've decided not to - but add some fancy shmancy electronicals to convert the incoming power from/outgoing signals to Wheego compatible levels. i.e. do all the mods in the battery pack (if I recall correctly, the BMSes were all in the battery pack, weren't they?), then you've got yourself a plug-and-pray drop-in replacement (drop-up, whatever). So you can pootle around using the power of Lithium (Ions), but you can return it back to "original" without changing anything other than the battery tray.

love to see jenny from accounting

For any Aussie fans here, how about a Barra swap?

The thing you need to know about hiding a Robin Reliant is that "blurring" it will not work. Most people with any experience with these care are used to seeing them blurry as in drunken, hung-over, way too early too be awake, way too late to be awake, or any combination above.

Good to see Jim's Throne sign is still there.

I think a good idea is to convert it to Lithium Ion if that's possible. Should work out cheaper than LiFePo4.

OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT HAIRCUT!

So just an idea, as you don't want to hack up the Wheego. Why not just build a whole new battery tray and slap whatever you want in there. Might have to run a new charger cable up through the floor, just ignore the current on board chargers and then you are free to use whatever as long as the voltage matches. Couple Leaf / Tesla packs, a charger and BMS, whole thing drop in and out.

One thing you could attempt for now, is just add 10 or so (to get to the right voltage) cheaper lead acid batteries in the car, and charge those through a separate charger. leaving the original charger intact (if the car can deal with power coming in from outside it's own computers) so you can at least drive it around a bit Maybe no long range travel that way, but at least you can check if the car is still usable before buying expensive lifepo4 cells at some point in the future..

I havent watched the video yet but obligatory “LS swap bro”

Li-pol batteries are complete trash. They are veeery prone to "puffing" up.

I felt that water cooler talk you had with yourself. Mostly because I do the exact thing at work

Thanks for the update on the Wheego. And who knows - maybe by the time you are ready to replace the cells maybe something better that can fit and work within the electrical requirements of the Wheego and not cost an arm and a leg will be out. Here's to hoping!

Am so glad i found your sort of thing.

I told to you on last time, put all batteries parallel and let them balance 24 hours. I seen many "bad" cells what was actually good ones after "proper" balancing. You can not install the unbalanced cells and hope the original balancer/charger does the rest of the job. No, it does not wok that way. Be sure what type of balancing/charger your car have. lifepo4 batteries needs every single month re-balancing (the deep cycle). If it does not have that program you get again and again the bad battery pack or need open the battery pack every single month. These days you can DIY very powerful BMS. The ready made for car can cost way too much money.

Something about the thought of shoving the guts of a Model S into a Wheego tingles my synapses most pleasantly.

Most chargers for Lifepo4 cells support Li-ion (Lipo) cells. Look up the datasheet for the charger. Also most motorcontrollers can life with a little bit more voltage. Only the BMS need to be configured (or replaced). Or you could, if you want to stay with Lifepo4, make your own pack with good used 38120 cells. These have often screwterminals at the ends, so you can screw them with a metall plate together. Or you try to get used server ups with lifepo4 cells and try to make them fit. If you want to salvage good used Li-ion cells (for a cheap Li-ion conversion), genuine Makita batterypacks and genuine Lenovo Thinkpad batteries have high quality cells in them (and the are mostly 18650 cells). There are often a lot of good cells in these batterypacks (mostly 1 or 2 are junk and the rest are good). And sometimes you can get these, if you are lucky, for free.

You should create a Wheego Conservation Society and try to rescue as many of them as possible. Try to gather as many Wheego vin numbers as you can and make a registry. That would be an unusual quirky project.

Ebay: "Limited edition Wheego Nowhere. One careful owner (at some point). Works the same, no matter what the weather. Awesome consistency."

FYI: You can still use the old BMS with 18650s without changing the voltages. It will just under charge the 18650s, which is better for them anyway.

Have you checked Ali express? Just a cursory search turned up 200Ah (I know, a little less than 260Ah) for some reasonable prices. One vendor had offers for "custom" battery packs. Worth a look!

Does this give you any ideas? A three-seat clockwork car was built by Ingersoll Moore, of Bloomimgton, IL. It was driven by four clockwork motors, each having three flat coiled springs. These were connected by gearing and all could be wound up by a lever on the driver's right side. Double action ratchets allowed the lever to wind the springs as it was moved in either direction. This must have been extremely hard work as you were effectively rowing the car along with one hand. No details of its range are currently known.

I kept thinking, "Why don't you... oh, you thought of that." Seems like finding a wrecked Wheego to salvage a new battery from might almost be easier than dropping 11k... that or a reeeally long extension cord.

Can’t wait for the Reliant video Robert!

the amount of 1850 lithium battery options on the web is insane. You can now get pre built 1850 battery modules with programmable (Arduino IDE compatible) discharge/charge controllers. If you where clever you would build a basic unit and leave the door open to add extra modules as your finances fell in line. You can also look on auction sites for battery packs being sold off in bulk and strip the 1850's from them and use one of a dozen pre made $3 modular battery controller units out there. The later would be better as it ideal for a youtube content producer. You need to start thinking of your projects as "what allows me to produce a story", not "what is the easy way".

Why not replace the batteries with just 36 x 100 Amp Hour ones and have a vehicle with a 40 ish mile range (be lighter and faster too) and then do a Go fund me, or separate Patreon and ask us fans to pay for it. :-)

I wonder if when they changed from AGM to LiFePo in the car design that they also changed the battery charger. A few minutes research says those cells should have lasted for 10,000 hours under normal conditions, and that would have taken 100,000 hours to charge (10 hours for a full charge, and 250 miles at 25 MPH = 10 hours for a full discharge). 110,000 hours is 12.5 years to use up the batteries. Having the batteries puff up suggests that they were overcharged, which can easily happen with an improper charger. Replacing the original batteries with 18650's: Currently there are 32 3.2V batteries. You can get about the same voltage with 28 3.7V batteries. Each original was 260AH. Using 130 2000maH 18650's, they take about half the space of the original battery. Which is probably about the amount of space free inside those corrugated cases. So you could in theory get 18650-based batteries that were the same shape and just a slightly higher voltage, which could be compensated by dropping out four of the original cell cases from the string. Of course you would want to use a different battery charger to keep from having the same fate all over again. But something to charge 30 lithium batteries in series could be designed, probably really without that much work. I'd be inclined to have it be a new wart in a case somewhere and leave the original in the vehicle and just not use it. The end result would be an essentially unmodified vehicle (except for the contents of the battery cases, which wouldn't be visible). But then that many 18650s will be $20K, which doesn't sound like a good deal.

A marketing Idea. Take a page from Green Peace. "Save The Weego!" Make one of your great shirts with a anthropomorphized Weego with huge Seal like eyes. Create a really sappy sad add showing The Weego as a poor helpless car, on the verge of extinction. Some how make the viewer feel responsible for the Weegos fate. Watch the money roll in. It worked for Green Peace, it will work for you.

The New Presentation Area™ sure feels like it has far better lighting than the previous one, so that's a good change imo

Love watching the Videos! Not familiar with the Wheego's electronics, but most electronic circuits are usually good for +10% or -10% on power. You mentioned the difference in nominal voltage and a quick back of the napkin the 18650s are aweful close to +10%. Might work out?

If all else fails, I am sure you can donate it to the Museum of Transportation here in SOCO. It would fit very well with some of the other automobiles they have on display.

Nice Reliant Robin. Nice blur job :)

Keep up the awesome work thanks for the content