Electric car electrifies class

It went zipping around the Wahkiakum High School running track at 10-15 miles per hour.

The Tri-Magnum three wheeled electric vehicle made its first shake-down run last Friday to determine stability and where any adjustments might need to be made.

The car was built by instructor Tracy Schoeffler’s Tech Ed class.

Schoeffler said the project started as a means to get students to think about alternative ways of looking at things like transportation.

“If students can build a car out of simple materials that can travel on two car batteries for an hour” said Schoeffler, “then perhaps they can develop other methods of transportation.”

The electric vehicle came as a partial kit. It took the students about a month to research how to assemble it.

“The wiring was the hardest thing for them.” Schoeffler said, “They had to research on the internet and come up with the solution.”

Students assembled the car for its test run in the school’s Tech-Ed shop. Project coordinator Justin McClain said the car is made of fiberglass, steel and bicycle parts.

“We had to buy the motor, batteries, controller and wire the thing up. The diagram that came with it wasn’t that great so we had to research how to wire it,” he said.

The car’s construction and technology team consists of Cody Olsen, Mitch Moonen, Zach Schneider, and Joel and Justin McClain. Justin said they began the project in September.

“Our intent is to enter the car in the Electrathon America competition at the Portland International Raceway at the end of May,” he said.

Justin said he hopes the car can maintain a speed of 40 mph. The competition at PIR will be tough. Their car has to race around a track and maintain the speed for one hour powered by two 12 volt batteries.

“I guess the record is 52 mph,” said Justin, “I don’t know if we’ll get it but hopefully we’ll come close.”

The school’s Tech Ed courses provide hands-on experience building projects and using concepts and principles gained through math, sciences, and vocational courses. Schoeffler said his class likes to work on large scale prototype research, development, and project management.

“Some typical examples of projects the students get involved in are the Pegasus hovercraft, building wind tunnels, and the three wheeled electric car. We also have a solar panel experiment that ties directly in with the electric car program,” said Schoeffler.