1996 Land Cruiser EV Conversion - EVJ80 Project (4 Viewers)

[sunrk]

I just saw a mention of a review done in the US between the three currently available EV pickups/utes - Ford F150 lightning, a Rivian, and a Hummer. The hummer has the biggest battery but the battery alone weighs almost 1.4 tonnes! Interesting that your EV 80 gets very low mileage but being as it's experiemental that's good just to prove it's possible.

80's here in Australia have a legal GVM of 2.96 tonnes, and I imagine that to make an 80 EV with 500 km of range (without towing a 3+ tonne load) that is the 'default' target range most vehicle makers work off for the Oz market it would need a battery capacity of at least 250 kWh usable charge, and the battery would weigh over 1 tonne probably not far off the one in the EV Hummer so it would probably not be feasible.

This would be the main reason Tesla can't make the Cybertruck or the Tesla Semi as operationally they are impractical with current battery technology.

There are no EV utes or 4wd's for sale here in Oz currently. And if there were, none could tow a 3 tonne load at highway speed (110 kph) for more than about 100 to 150 km without having to stop and charge for 2 or more hours! The Rivians are supposed to be coming here but I'm betting making them RHD and passing Oz compliance requirements are the main holdups.

Aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance of a big towed load are something an EV can't overcome.

 

[canman]

That is about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen done to an 80. Congrats on the out-of-the-box thinking. Still not a believer though in the whole EV schema when you look at the cradle to grave costs, incl mining of raw materials, solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing and disposal costs, but who knows.

 

[J1000]

I just saw a mention of a review done in the US between the three currently available EV pickups/utes - Ford F150 lightning, a Rivian, and a Hummer. The hummer has the biggest battery but the battery alone weighs almost 1.4 tonnes! Interesting that your EV 80 gets very low mileage but being as it's experiemental that's good just to prove it's possible.

80's here in Australia have a legal GVM of 2.96 tonnes, and I imagine that to make an 80 EV with 500 km of range (without towing a 3+ tonne load) that is the 'default' target range most vehicle makers work off for the Oz market it would need a battery capacity of at least 250 kWh usable charge, and the battery would weigh over 1 tonne probably not far off the one in the EV Hummer so it would probably not be feasible.

This would be the main reason Tesla can't make the Cybertruck or the Tesla Semi as operationally they are impractical with current battery technology.

There are no EV utes or 4wd's for sale here in Oz currently. And if there were, none could tow a 3 tonne load at highway speed (110 kph) for more than about 100 to 150 km without having to stop and charge for 2 or more hours! The Rivians are supposed to be coming here but I'm betting making them RHD and passing Oz compliance requirements are the main holdups.

Aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance of a big towed load are something an EV can't overcome.

Yeah it's just a matter of numbers and lithium batteries are still really heavy. Part of the reason I chose a Land Cruiser over something smaller like a 4Runner or god forbid a Jeep was because of the payload capacity. My current battery weighs 600lbs and I have 1300lbs of cargo capacity while staying within the GVWR. I can actually add a literal ton of batteries if I wanted to.

My battery is 30kwh, or about 1/3rd the base Rivian. This is what I consider the bare minimum for wheeling and it basically turns my truck into a trail-rig or city car. I built a supercharged V8 Cruiser on E85 to do long distance towing. Towing this 80 specifically to trailheads to wheel. In the future I'd like to get around 120kwh onboard but right now that's super expensive even with used batteries. Luckily with EVs they don't care what batteries are there as long as they have the right voltage and current. So in the future if new technology comes out I can just swap it in. If I could build my own radio-thermal-generator I'd never have to plug it in

I think when it comes to towing with EVs they will be limited to the cities/suburbs. Towing on the open highway uses too much energy. And as for converting a vehicle to EV to save money, fat chance. Converting to EV makes sense for a unique vehicle or something classic that you drive on weekends.

 

[J1000]

That is about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen done to an 80. Congrats on the out-of-the-box thinking. Still not a believer though in the whole EV schema when you look at the cradle to grave costs, incl mining of raw materials, solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing and disposal costs, but who knows.

Yeah part of the reason I am interested in converting existing vehicles to EV is to keep old cars on the road without the need for as much maintenance or finding unobtanium parts or waiting months or years on machine shops. Not only that but my truck was built from an old Cruiser with 325,000 miles on it that leaked every fluid all over the streets and highways and got the catalytic converters stolen out of it. The LEAF donor vehicle was a wrecked car that was a total loss. I was able to combine the two into a new vehicle that I will keep driving for the next x amount of years. On the other hand if you buy a brand new Tesla it causes something like 15 tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and uses 50,000 gallons of clean fresh water, not to mention all the other metals mined by hand across the globe. To be fair that's basically the same story for a brand new gas car as a brand new EV.

 

[concretejungle]

very cool! There is a guy on YouTube that is a battery guru and has converted an old VW bus to electric.

https://www.youtube.com/c/jehugarcia/videos

Can't wait to see people build from what you have started.

 

[sunrk]

Bet it would get a lot of funny looks around here (as there is only one EV charger in a supermarket carpark) pulling up with my 80 and plugging it in.

I wonder if it's worth keeping the drivetrain and just replacing the engine with a big motor module and design the control system to 'know' that it has to torque-limit the motor output to not break stuff!

It would be very difficult to engineer an 80 ev conversion and actually have motors at all four wheels but I bet someone with enough savvy could make it happen.

 

[J1000]

It already gets enough funny looks here

 

[clx16]

I live in a high density Tesla area. Even see a lot of Rivian and other EVs. Knowing several people with EVs the Leaf owners seem to have theirs in the shop for fixes the least. Something about the simplicity that makes them more reliable i guess. I get why some people love all the additional gadgetry but it seems that having all controls, even for vents being in a menu on your single screen interface device, ends up meaning it is overly complicated. I like the simplicity that is kept with saving an old vehicle and i generally think it is better to reuse than replace. This is why I liked this conversion more than most I've seen. Now that being said it would be cool to see someone marry a Toyota Mirai system to a older vehicles.

 

[sunrk]

There are no EV ute/4wd vehicles available here in Oz yet. Tesla's are around. and a few other ev's. Ute/4wds are impractical because towing (or just heavy duty load carrying) range is basically the big killer. EV cars are rarely if ever being used for towing so the massive loss of range due to massive chewing up of stored energy to haul extra mass is normally not entering into the mindset of a suburban EV car owner.

Fuel cells instead of massive lithium battery modules are an interesting option though I expect for a ute/4wd required to be capable of towing something heavy behind over long distances there'd be similar limitations involved.

 

[concretejungle]

There are no EV ute/4wd vehicles available here in Oz yet. Tesla's are around. and a few other ev's. Ute/4wds are impractical because towing (or just heavy duty load carrying) range is basically the big killer. EV cars are rarely if ever being used for towing so the massive loss of range due to massive chewing up of stored energy to haul extra mass is normally not entering into the mindset of a suburban EV car owner.

Fuel cells instead of massive lithium battery modules are an interesting option though I expect for a ute/4wd required to be capable of towing something heavy behind over long distances there'd be similar limitations involved.

I've always found it amazing how much stuff you Aussie's take with you on a camping trip. I know we are pretty bad here in the states but you guys might as well just hook up to your house and pull it behind you.

 

[J1000]

I made a little Q&A video to answer questions I've gotten and give some updates on the Cruiser:

 

[J1000]

Getting started on CNCing the new motor adapter!

 

[DannyG]

Getting started on CNCing the new motor adapter!

View attachment 3135405

So, will this allow one to bolt the motor directly to the transfer case?

btw.. Very nice!

 

[J1000]

So, will this allow one to bolt the motor directly to the transfer case?

btw.. Very nice!

Yep pretty much! This should eliminate all vibrations and it should be as smooth as a Tesla...well a lot closer.

 

[tetelestia]

How's the stall torque of your motor? I would've thought you'd need to gear it down before the transfer case

 

[mudgudgeon]

I've always found it amazing how much stuff you Aussie's take with you on a camping trip. I know we are pretty bad here in the states but you guys might as well just hook up to your house and pull it behind you.

Ughhh! We aren't all like that.

I prefer to travel light and camp rough.

Many times I've exchanged looks of disbelief as I watch a family spend literal hours unloading and setting up a household worth of crap, and they stare in disbelief as I set up in minutes with a hammock and a tarp.

 

[sunrk]

How's the stall torque of your motor? I would've thought you'd need to gear it down before the transfer case

With an electric motor maximum torque occurs at zero rpm. One of the few advantages of an electric motor over an internal combustion engine that can't output any torque or power at zero rpm as it's impossible for the motor run.

The trade-off is back-emf.

 

[J1000]

How's the stall torque of your motor? I would've thought you'd need to gear it down before the transfer case

I do have a Blackbox doubler before the transfer case. I can start from a stop up to at least a 45 degree angle.

With an electric motor maximum torque occurs at zero rpm. One of the few advantages of an electric motor over an internal combustion engine that can't output any torque or power at zero rpm as it's impossible for the motor run.

The trade-off is back-emf.

That's not actually true. It is true of DC brushes motors, forklift style motors but it is not true of a modern induction or brushless AC motor.

 

[PIP]

Getting started on CNCing the new motor adapter!

View attachment 3135405

As a machinist, that looks good to me. Assuming there will be another piece that will have the HF2AV pattern in it? Then my question is why not make it one piece?

 

[J1000]

New adapter is nearing completion! @PIP, the reason it's not one piece is because the motor itself won't fit that far back into the trans tunnel so it needs to be towards the front end where the bellhousing fits. It should be smooooth and strong as.