Corey Brown
11th September 2007, 20:29
Hi Gang,
Just thought I would chime in with my electric truck experiences. Last year I had the opportunity to help a friend construct an all electric Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. The conversion plans for the truck were supplied by EV America http://www.ev-america.com/ whom I highly recommend if you're in the market for electric vehicle plans. The plans were easy to read and the owner of EV America (Bob) was always happy to answer our questions.
Anyway, on to the project. The first step, of course, was the removal of the ICE or internal combustion engine components. This is an easy enough job if you have an engine hoist and a good set of tools. The next step involves removing some of the original cross members from the truck frame and welding in some new ones. The new cross members also double as components for the battery boxes. We decided that we would weld in our new cross members before cutting out the old ones. Actually, the original cross members are not actually welded in, they're held in with rivets. Easy enough, just grind off the rivet heads and the cross members pop right out. We decided that it was probably not a good idea to remove the original cross members without having the frame rails tied together with our new cross members. There's no telling whether the frame was under some form of torsional stress, and we didn't want it separating once we removed the original cross members. The next step was the completion of the battery boxes. This kit called for the installation of 20 Trojan-125 6-volt batteries. We built one battery box up front, where the radiator used to be, and installed 4 batteries in this location. The remaining 16 batteries were installed in our battery boxes between the frame rails in the back of the truck. One of the unique features of the truck is that the bed of the truck is reattached to the frame in the back with heavy duty hinges. This allows the bed of the truck to be tilted up for easy battery access.
The DC motor is connected to the manual transmission in a direct drive type of arrangement. EV America sells a two piece adapter that splines to the DC motor and then captures the original clutch plate, minus the friction material of course, between the two plates. The mount for the motor is constructed of 1/2 inch aluminum plate and a steel strap that fits around the motor housing and attaches to the original motor mounts on the frame. Once the transmission is out of the truck, it was a fairly easy job to turn it up on end, install the DC motor on top and trace the edges with a pen and mark where the mounting holes needed to go.
Once the motor was installed we turned our attention to the controller board. On the board we mounted the Curtis controller, the inverter for the accessories battery and all of the other little doo-dads that go along with the installation. The kit contains two large contactors. One contactor is energized by the ignition key and the other by the gas pedal. The gas pedal controls a small pot which feeds directly into the Curtis controller. We also wired in two very large disconnects for the traction batteries, you can see these in the pictures below. The traction system is not grounded to the frame in any way. This system floats on its own ground right there on the controller board. This circuit contains the DC motor too.
Vacuum for the original braking system is supplied through an aircraft style vacuum pump. There's a low vacuum switch on the line that kicks in the vacuum motor once the vacuum falls to a certain point. This was one of the more disappointing aspects of the kit that we feel we could have improved upon. The vacuum motor is really loud and was quite bothersome at times. Since this is an electric truck, we wanted to be able to glide around silently, but you could hear that vacuum pump half a block away. Next time, we'll mount the pump in the back in a more insulated position.
The batteries are charged with a rather large 220V external charger. We installed the charging plug behind the gas cap door, of course. The initial charge was quite something. Once the charger had been running for a bit, the batteries, which were at almost a full charge anyway, started to bubble slightly and we were producing hydrogen. Needless to say, we left the garage door open that night.
The next day was the big day. We rolled the truck out of the garage, checked all of our connections and then jumped in for the first ride. Turn the key, touch the gas and we were off. The Curtis control produces a slight whine when energized right off the bat. I thought the sound was rather cool. The truck accelerated better than I thought it would and we could easily get it up to cruising speed very quickly. No clutching involved, there's no more clutch! Just take your foot off the gas and push the shifter into gear. No problems.
We learned early on that you need to take it easy. The controller will allow the DC motor to consume all of the energy that it needs. On up hill climbs in higher gears (numerically) we could easy draw 400 amps through the system. That's a bunch of power!
As for performance, the truck will easily travel between 30 and 40 miles between charges. Top speed is well over 60 MPH. Here in Georgia, in order to get the truck licensed, we had to prove that the truck could at least make 60 MPH. Charging takes between 5 and 8 hours, depending of the depth of discharge.
There's actually a lot more to maintaining an electric vehicle than I first thought. The batteries actually require a break-in period before they will perform their best. Also, there's a good amount of maintenance involved. The batteries need watering, cleaning and tightening on a regular basis. The charging process is fairly lively and produces enough hydrogen gas as to need good ventilation.
The truck was fun to build and really didn't take that long. Be aware, if you're planning on building one of these things, you need to be a fairly good fabricator and welder. We built a lot of our own parts and also improved on the original instructions in areas we felt needed a little help.
Here are some pictures of the (almost) completed build. We left the bed off for the initial run. Enjoy!
Just thought I would chime in with my electric truck experiences. Last year I had the opportunity to help a friend construct an all electric Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. The conversion plans for the truck were supplied by EV America http://www.ev-america.com/ whom I highly recommend if you're in the market for electric vehicle plans. The plans were easy to read and the owner of EV America (Bob) was always happy to answer our questions.
Anyway, on to the project. The first step, of course, was the removal of the ICE or internal combustion engine components. This is an easy enough job if you have an engine hoist and a good set of tools. The next step involves removing some of the original cross members from the truck frame and welding in some new ones. The new cross members also double as components for the battery boxes. We decided that we would weld in our new cross members before cutting out the old ones. Actually, the original cross members are not actually welded in, they're held in with rivets. Easy enough, just grind off the rivet heads and the cross members pop right out. We decided that it was probably not a good idea to remove the original cross members without having the frame rails tied together with our new cross members. There's no telling whether the frame was under some form of torsional stress, and we didn't want it separating once we removed the original cross members. The next step was the completion of the battery boxes. This kit called for the installation of 20 Trojan-125 6-volt batteries. We built one battery box up front, where the radiator used to be, and installed 4 batteries in this location. The remaining 16 batteries were installed in our battery boxes between the frame rails in the back of the truck. One of the unique features of the truck is that the bed of the truck is reattached to the frame in the back with heavy duty hinges. This allows the bed of the truck to be tilted up for easy battery access.
The DC motor is connected to the manual transmission in a direct drive type of arrangement. EV America sells a two piece adapter that splines to the DC motor and then captures the original clutch plate, minus the friction material of course, between the two plates. The mount for the motor is constructed of 1/2 inch aluminum plate and a steel strap that fits around the motor housing and attaches to the original motor mounts on the frame. Once the transmission is out of the truck, it was a fairly easy job to turn it up on end, install the DC motor on top and trace the edges with a pen and mark where the mounting holes needed to go.
Once the motor was installed we turned our attention to the controller board. On the board we mounted the Curtis controller, the inverter for the accessories battery and all of the other little doo-dads that go along with the installation. The kit contains two large contactors. One contactor is energized by the ignition key and the other by the gas pedal. The gas pedal controls a small pot which feeds directly into the Curtis controller. We also wired in two very large disconnects for the traction batteries, you can see these in the pictures below. The traction system is not grounded to the frame in any way. This system floats on its own ground right there on the controller board. This circuit contains the DC motor too.
Vacuum for the original braking system is supplied through an aircraft style vacuum pump. There's a low vacuum switch on the line that kicks in the vacuum motor once the vacuum falls to a certain point. This was one of the more disappointing aspects of the kit that we feel we could have improved upon. The vacuum motor is really loud and was quite bothersome at times. Since this is an electric truck, we wanted to be able to glide around silently, but you could hear that vacuum pump half a block away. Next time, we'll mount the pump in the back in a more insulated position.
The batteries are charged with a rather large 220V external charger. We installed the charging plug behind the gas cap door, of course. The initial charge was quite something. Once the charger had been running for a bit, the batteries, which were at almost a full charge anyway, started to bubble slightly and we were producing hydrogen. Needless to say, we left the garage door open that night.
The next day was the big day. We rolled the truck out of the garage, checked all of our connections and then jumped in for the first ride. Turn the key, touch the gas and we were off. The Curtis control produces a slight whine when energized right off the bat. I thought the sound was rather cool. The truck accelerated better than I thought it would and we could easily get it up to cruising speed very quickly. No clutching involved, there's no more clutch! Just take your foot off the gas and push the shifter into gear. No problems.
We learned early on that you need to take it easy. The controller will allow the DC motor to consume all of the energy that it needs. On up hill climbs in higher gears (numerically) we could easy draw 400 amps through the system. That's a bunch of power!
As for performance, the truck will easily travel between 30 and 40 miles between charges. Top speed is well over 60 MPH. Here in Georgia, in order to get the truck licensed, we had to prove that the truck could at least make 60 MPH. Charging takes between 5 and 8 hours, depending of the depth of discharge.
There's actually a lot more to maintaining an electric vehicle than I first thought. The batteries actually require a break-in period before they will perform their best. Also, there's a good amount of maintenance involved. The batteries need watering, cleaning and tightening on a regular basis. The charging process is fairly lively and produces enough hydrogen gas as to need good ventilation.
The truck was fun to build and really didn't take that long. Be aware, if you're planning on building one of these things, you need to be a fairly good fabricator and welder. We built a lot of our own parts and also improved on the original instructions in areas we felt needed a little help.
Here are some pictures of the (almost) completed build. We left the bed off for the initial run. Enjoy!