full electric car conversion

I have no idea what section this should go in, but I plan on driving my electric car with my dreads, so.... Haters gunna hate.


Background: I'm looking into buying a 1988 isuzu trooper II from a friend for the remainder of college. It has 173k miles on it, and has been babied, awesome body with practically mint condition original paint, police scanner antenna built in, etc.

The problem: Isuzu's are expensive to service or repair and there aren't that many places that can do it, compared to other vehicles. This engine is obviously nearing the end of it's life, and while I can probably drive this vehicle through college on it's current setup, it's an awesome body, I see no reason to ditch it, and isuzu rebuilt engines are a scam... my grandfather got burned on an engine for his original model trooper II, they washed the thing in japan and sold it as refurb, while the inside was a wreck, and I saw some of these on ebay but no legit looking engines I'd want in MY car, at any rate.

My tentetive solution: I was thinking, why not just throw an electric motor in, it's an automatic, so it has the freewheel setup with the tranny, it shouldn't even matter if the motor just stops, right? you could have on demand power, and pretty much coast most of the time, and it would have MUCH MUCH MUCH better torque than the original engine, which is awesome for a 4x4. This is a small truck, it wouldn't be hard to build a false floor in the back and throw a whole ton of marine batteries under it.

My lazy attempt at research: I googled some stuff to do with electric car conversions, but I just found a lot of jerks trying to sell me stuff, I don't want to BUY a manuel/howto that does nothing for me, I want expertise and advise from people who have tried this or who know cars well enough to try this.

So, is there anyone who's turned their car into an oversized golf cart? what can you tell me about it? how much does it cost? Was your design or mod that efficnent, or did your electric bill end up costing more than gas? anything else? thoughts? suggestions? Oh, and did it run when you finished?

 

I doubt you will be able to do this cheap.

That being said, I live near CMU and when 'global warming' became a household name and alternative fuels were getting popular, they were selling super cheap natural gas conversions. Dunno if they still do it -- and they are a University, so they can do things cheaper.

 

To clarify, I'm not doing this because of gas, even though that would be a nice side effect. Just because I don't see a reason to scrap a great vehicle, just because of the high priced low quality engines available for it. I could be woefully ignorant, but as far as I can see, you could drive a chassis forever for not lots, once you got it set up, and if you wrecked or damaged it, you could get another chassis with no engine, and throw your motor in it.... Amirite?

I mean, tranny, axles/bearings, but.... that's about all that moves once you get the whole engine out of the way.... I would also be willing to do things like ditch power steering for this, if needed.

And this isn't a here and now kind of thing, it's a when my engine blows up kind of thing.

 

As long as you can get the parts to fit, yup.

I was just saying maybe there are programs that you can take advantage of, that might convert it for you or cheaply because of their environmental or alternative fuel advocacy.

 

Well I'll certanialy look into it, I appriciate the reply.

I'm finding a bit more on google now, but it's still all more or less faceless to me, and I don't want to go become a hardcore electric car forum member just to find out about this before even owning the gas powered vehicle in question... so I'm really hoping to find someone where with some experiance in this. I mean, we're a pretty big tree hugging community, gotta have SOMEONE with this idea/setup.... I'm seeing that there are a number out there.

If you couldn't tell from the rest of this thread, I also have absolutly no car know-how, although I'd like to learn enough to fix my own car at least, which is another reason that I'd like to get this simple analog vehicle, and go to electricity at some point.

 

Yeah, it's a shame how polluted Google's gotten over time.

It worked like a charm before web designer's started to exploit the system. And Google's too silly to do anything about it.

 

imho you got no chance.



I think your best bet would be to rebuild/recondition the engine yourself. I will be doing that to my car engine in the next few months. Probably end up being cheaper than installing you're electric engine

shouldn't be to hard if you got the right tools and take your time.

 

I don't see why you think that.

My whole problem is working with gasoline englines, it should be considerably easier to fabricate some sort of mounting plate for an electric motor and stick it in (at the most basic level of electric car-dom) than to pull and recondition an engine. I'm much more comfortable with electronics. And I don't really plan to do this until the engine would be an ireccoverable loss



"I'm leaving california, fuck this shit"-Afroman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_conversion

*edit* well what I really need is any expertise with this car, I can find one person asking about a trooper, but no one that's actully done it... it seems like a lot of people do the s10, and like the trooper's about the same weight, etc... but it's a lot higher I think, batteries and the center of gravity could be a bitch....

 

Get this book...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/051753990X?ie=UTF8&tag=prmyev-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=051753990X"]Amazon.com: How to Convert to an Electric Car: How to convert…


If you can't spend $10.00 on the book, then you can't afford to convert anything to anything...

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pMK-k3sRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

this book , if the other dont work..

 

There are a couple of electric bike conversions on instruct ables, you should go have a look. Most of them use battery packs assembled out of NiMH C or D cells (D cells are often just C cells in over sized packaging) You can occasionly get them reasonably priced, 1 4000mAh C cell provides about 4.8 watt - hours, so you need say 150 to make a 1-horsepower-hour battery pack, you'll need several Hp/h to run a car any distance. Alternativly you can get individual 2v lead acid cells, but even "deep cycle" lead acid batters arnt too keen on being deep discharged.

As for motor, it seems to be common practice to overvolt a reasonably large DC motor (with additional cooling) you'd probably be looking at something like a forklift motor and then run it at 2-3 times it's rated voltage. If you can get a 4 wire motor then you can build a DC faceplate starter, or something similar to control the torque / speed, otherwise your going to have to just be content with a big PWM controller, but that wont give you the low rev / high torque you can get with a proper 4 wire DC motor starter

 

It's more that I have an issue with paying for a compilation of general, well known electrical and mechanical knowledge before I even make up my mind on this.

That said, I've found some good online communities and resources, and while I'm not buying this vehicle with this being the express purpose, it is a project I have in mind once I do need an engine rebuild. And to me, the idea of a 4x4 being silent sounds awesome....

now it's all tentitive, and literally at least 4 years off (something some of you maybe didn't see I'm planning to acquire the know how and parts in this time... and maybe convert a little, 200 dollar junkyard job first ) But in the future, I'd like to, while preserving the 4wd drivetrain with all its options, fill the back with lead acid and do a pretty standard conversion, and put a generator with an alternator under the hood, to make it a series hybrid, and thus be able to get help from anyone with a gas can, etc....

Still, if anyone with a conversion in their portfolio sees this, PLEASE, show us, this stuff's got me fascinated.

 

You just had one who does have one of these 'in their portfolio'... who gave you the best advice you will get, unless of course you expect someone to do it for you. You basically told them off...

On the matter of book vs person... I would guess that you also don't drink cow's milk, just store bought, and don't eat animals, you just buy meat from the store?

 

Sounds kinda like you're looking for a keyboard duel, but I'm an online persona of peace.:coffee:

I'm going to assume that you've had a hard day, happens.

I didn't tell you off, (though you where a bit aggressive in your first post, you could hardly blame me if I HAD) I just said at the moment, I'm not going to plop down money for a book that I honestly don't need yet. I am researching this, but there's no reason that research should cost me before I really even know if this is going to happen. I'm sure that if I can't torrent it, when I need it more, I'll try to find it at the lie-berry, but not at this time. The internet is the most powerful research tool/system in the world.

As for your analogies, someone wrote the book, I don't know, maybe there's someone with more electrical/mechanical understanding than you. I mean, I talked to my dad, he sure didn't read that book, but works with various electric motors and their controllers for a living, and explained a good deal to me.

If you've done this, can we see it? do you have a showcase thread? What kind of vehicle? Do you still own/use it, and does it satisfy you?

Of course I appreciate your expertise and reply, but not the confrontationalism, I don't think I'm doing much that's offensive here, I'd tend to think there's others oh HF who might have the same curiosity in the matter as me.

 

You don't understand the analogies?

I'm shocked... How's this... it doesn't matter if your information comes straight from a person's mouth, or straight from the book they wrote... The source is the same.

My first post was a bit aggressive? Here is my first post...

That wasn't hostile, that was you getting the best advice you will get... But I forgot, you are part of the 'instant generation'... Too bad for you.

As for answering any of your questions... why would I after the response you have given what I have said?

 

Oh and as for this... no, I don't look for fights with unarmed people.

 

I don't like fighting amputees either

 

Dude, you just tripple posted to tell me that you wern't being aggressive.

If you re read my post, you'll see that about your analogy.... nope. doesn't work. Someone had to have the knowledge to write the book, and I know there are quite a few books of the same information, both relating specifically to electric cars and relating to electronics and mechanics individually. I'm looking for a helpful person who knows the subject well... all you can tell me is that if I don't buy a particular book, I don't stand a chance.

I can't, again, for the life of me, see how or why I should go buy a book 3 days after first thinking of doing this, when there are large groups of people online who ARE willing to help me, can tell me the information I need at the stage I'm at, and help me decide if this is really what I want to do, before I spend money on a possible project years in the future.

There's sites with people who have done this, who are chomping at the bit to show off their work and explain it, you don't have a monopoly....

Again, I appreciate the help and time you spent to help me learn and decide about this, tough guy

 

Christ, you can't even count and you expect to be able to build an electric car?

I never once said you don't stand a chance, once again you are full of shit.

As for the rest of your bullshit, why would anyone take a single second to talk to you about something you don't even have the ambition to read about first?

I told you to read that book, because out of them all, it will provide you with the basic knowledge you need in order to even talk about this shit without sounding like a complete moron....

But I see that sounding like a moron isn't a worry for you, its a past time.

 

Well first of all, my posts go through a building process.... so you've missed a bit.

What you imply, you say..... get this... by implication.

I probably sound like a complete moron, but you haven't done anything to fix this, while others have and I'm a world ahead of where I was. Am I very far along? nope.... And that doesn't concern me.