Repair-It

Forklift motors eh?

Ok, I can do that... This guy ran a 10.2 at 129mph with two forklift motors mated together... In a 1972 Datsun.
http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/whitezombie.php

When I read through the whole thing years ago, the guy had set up a switch to go from having the motors wired in series to having them in parallel. This allowed him to combat the 'back emf' problem at higher speeds. As I recall, this gave him more amps through the motor at low speed (series config), then more voltage overhead at high speeds (parallel config).

I'm gonna say I don't understand the series vs parallel thing in that application.

When do parallel loads NOT result in more net current draw from the source?

Ok, so remedial EE-101...in series, the current is the same, and in parallel with two identical motors, the current would be halved between the two. And you're equating current with...torque output? Maybe that's the part I don't get. I thought it would still be an P=I*V thing to get to power output (and thus motive force).

The batteries in series would produce more voltage - additive, and the batteries in parallel would produce more current, basically a bigger pipe.

I don't think the motors were changing, I think the battery configuration was changing to change those properties. It did seem backwards though.

I thought he said the wiring TO the motors was series vs parallel (i.e. motors in series w/ each other, vs in parallel).