1996 Land Cruiser EV Conversion - EVJ80 Project

[J1000]

I been reading lots on EV conversions lately and dug this thread up to reread it.

A couple questions for you:

How is the power with that leaf motor? How are highway speeds? Is the gearing ok to get it up to freeway speed and leave it at that speed?

What do you figure your overall range (distance) will be with the battery packs you are running?

How does it handle with the weight change/shift? Does the whole thing feel lighter? Would you move the weight to the fuel tank was?

I'm trying to wrap my head around not having a transmission still. It seems like a 4 or 5 speed and a clutch would be nice. Like an H42f or something.

On my initial drive it felt like an 80 series in acceleration, honestly. It should have plenty of power (compared to a 1FZ). It is geared to go 65-70 MPH top speed at 10,000 RPM motor speed. It should be able to cruise on the highway but it will suck the battery down very quickly.

No clue on range. I am expecting 40-60 miles range around town at slow speeds less than 50 MPH.

Don't have enough wheel time yet to know. I will get it weighed as soon as it's roadworthy.

It has a transmission, but just one speed. The electric motor makes power and torque from 0-10,000 RPM and a typical gas engine makes power and torque from 1500-6000 RPM so the electric motor has approximately twice the power "under the curve."

 

[cody c]

On my initial drive it felt like an 80 series in acceleration, honestly. It should have plenty of power (compared to a 1FZ). It is geared to go 65-70 MPH top speed at 10,000 RPM motor speed. It should be able to cruise on the highway but it will suck the battery down very quickly.

No clue on range. I am expecting 40-60 miles range around town at slow speeds less than 50 MPH.

Don't have enough wheel time yet to know. I will get it weighed as soon as it's roadworthy.

It has a transmission, but just one speed. The electric motor makes power and torque from 0-10,000 RPM and a typical gas engine makes power and torque from 1500-6000 RPM so the electric motor has approximately twice the power "under the curve."

Ok thats very helpful. As much as I like your build I'm curious for the matter of car builds, but your thread is quite informative. All the wiring in the engine compartment looks a bit tedious by the way (credit to you for all the work!)

A few more things, are you driving it around town with one or both shifters in low? How does it preform on pavement in L-L? Any thoughts on adding the components to the black box for fluid capacity and over-heating issues? Would you consider something like a 4 speed manual trans if you did it again?

 

[J1000]

Ok thats very helpful. As much as I like your build I'm curious for the matter of car builds, but your thread is quite informative. All the wiring in the engine compartment looks a bit tedious by the way (credit to you for all the work!)

A few more things, are you driving it around town with one or both shifters in low? How does it preform on pavement in L-L? Any thoughts on adding the components to the black box for fluid capacity and over-heating issues? Would you consider something like a 4 speed manual trans if you did it again?

Yeah I am really interested in making a sportscar conversion or something like that next. I can see the benefits both ways for having a fixed ratio trans and having multiple ratios. For pure acceleration from stop to full speed; a fixed ratio is usually best, but on an autocross course or accelerating from different speeds then having different optional ratios would also have a benefit.

For my 80, the whole build is based around having the motor in the transmission tunnel. If I used a manual transmission then there's no way the battery would fit under the hood, for instance.

Around town I use the Blackbox in Low and the t-case in Hi. It has tons of torque and really smooth to drive in Low-Low. I think Low-Low on my truck is similar to the stock 80 2nd gear in Low range.

Yes I have a pump and radiator for the Blackbox. Working on that at the moment.

 

[SaturnAscends]

Ok thats very helpful. As much as I like your build I'm curious for the matter of car builds, but your thread is quite informative. All the wiring in the engine compartment looks a bit tedious by the way (credit to you for all the work!)

A few more things, are you driving it around town with one or both shifters in low? How does it preform on pavement in L-L? Any thoughts on adding the components to the black box for fluid capacity and over-heating issues? Would you consider something like a 4 speed manual trans if you did it again?

Earlier in the thread I remember @J1000 mentioning some people retain the gearbox when converting a 22r minitruck for example, but usually only 2 speeds are necessary, like maybe 2nd and 5th gear, I suppose due to the instant torque provided by the electric motor, as we; as it's ability to rev way higher than an ICE vehicle..

I agree it'd be cool to keep the manual gearbox, of nothing else, just to keep the fun aspect of shifting your own gears, maybe add in some 22re sound effect for old times sake.

 

[cody c]

Earlier in the thread I remember @J1000 mentioning some people retain the gearbox when converting a 22r minitruck for example, but usually only 2 speeds are necessary, like maybe 2nd and 5th gear, I suppose due to the instant torque provided by the electric motor, as we; as it's ability to rev way higher than an ICE vehicle..

I agree it'd be cool to keep the manual gearbox, of nothing else, just to keep the fun aspect of shifting your own gears, maybe add in some 22re sound effect for old times sake.

Ya, depending on weight and ratio in the diffs but it sounds like 2nd and fifth would be good.

The cruiser 4 speed manuals are 1:1 in fourth, probably adequate for gearing and fairly compact. I suppose with the fuel tank gone someone could shift the transfercase/crossmember back as well as the motor to make space in the engine compartment and you'd have a longer front DS. A person could also chop the floor in the back and create a battery compartment where the fuel tank and spare tire exist.

 

[SaturnAscends]

Ya, depending on weight and ratio in the diffs but it sounds like 2nd and fifth would be good.

The cruiser 4 speed manuals are 1:1 in fourth, probably adequate for gearing and fairly compact. I suppose with the fuel tank gone someone could shift the transfercase/crossmember back as well as the motor to make space in the engine compartment and you'd have a longer front DS. A person could also chop the floor in the back and create a battery compartment where the fuel tank and spare tire exist.

Sounds like you've got a plan for your next project!

 

[J1000]

Ya, depending on weight and ratio in the diffs but it sounds like 2nd and fifth would be good.

The cruiser 4 speed manuals are 1:1 in fourth, probably adequate for gearing and fairly compact. I suppose with the fuel tank gone someone could shift the transfercase/crossmember back as well as the motor to make space in the engine compartment and you'd have a longer front DS. A person could also chop the floor in the back and create a battery compartment where the fuel tank and spare tire exist.

That sounds feasible but another issue with that layout would be weight distribution. The battery is by far the heaviest piece of hardware going in and the motor is one of the lightest so if the battery is in the back then you got a massively tail-heavy rig which is no good for offroading. If you split the battery to put half under the hood and half in the back now you doubled the complexity of the hardest part of the build; the battery.

 

[J1000]

Slowly chipping away at the to-do list preparing for CM. Picked up some wheels and tires from @natkidder which should work out perfectly for me. They are 295/70/17 (33x11.5) Ridge Grapplers on JCS 17" rims. I have Ridge Grapplers on my 100 also and I absolutely love them. They are on the heavier side of 4x4 tires but the performance has always been excellent for me.

I also replaced a cracked headlight. Overall it's starting to look like a handsome truck!

 

[ylexot]

Loving your build. Very impressed with how much you've done in so little time.

I'm working on an EV conversion on a 62 right now. At my current pace maybe I'll drive it next year.

I will have an adapted 80 series front suspension. I expect to run a lighter battery pack than the Nissan beast. The weight of your rejiggered Nissan pack worked out well to offset the weight of the 6banger. But, did you look at all at running front springs with a lower spring rate to offset potentially lower weight under the hood?

Why the drive shaft and u joint going into the blackbox vs mounting the motor directly?

 

[J1000]

Loving your build. Very impressed with how much you've done in so little time.

I'm working on an EV conversion on a 62 right now. At my current pace maybe I'll drive it next year.

I will have an adapted 80 series front suspension. I expect to run a lighter battery pack than the Nissan beast. The weight of your rejiggered Nissan pack worked out well to offset the weight of the 6banger. But, did you look at all at running front springs with a lower spring rate to offset potentially lower weight under the hood?

Why the drive shaft and u joint going into the blackbox vs mounting the motor directly?

Thank you. I have been working on it for about a year straight and for the past 6 months or so been treating it almost like a job. The amount of effort really surprised me. I knew it was going to be tough, but fabricating every single thing and figuring out all the little details just takes forever.

As far as suspension goes, no I didn't calculate anything. I just put it together in the way I think will work out best for weight distribution. Will get it on the scales soon. Overall the whole truck is lighter so I should reduce the spring rate in the front and rear. I think the front is actually close to stock but the rear is much lighter, just a hunch.

I chose the driveshaft method because it was something I could manage myself. After getting it together it is definitely not a long-term solution. Now I am working on a bolt-together precision machined solution with a solid driveshaft but at least with my homemade setup I'll be able to do some shake downs at Moab.

Speaking of which I am now instituting a MEDIA BLACKOUT for the Electric Land Cruiser project until our team arrives in Moab! There will be some straight up unbelievable developments happening shortly so stay tuned!

Follow me @EVSwapdenver @Electriclandcruiser and subscribe to www.youtube.com/UniqueMobility for the Moab Reveal!

 

[ylexot]

Looking forward to your EV moab debut.

I expect your right about the weight distribution being lighter than stock in the rear. Time for a drawer system or RTT.

Thanks for info about time on task. I know the LOE is high. Lots of fiddly, and not so fiddly, stuff after the mechanicals are handled. Given your time, maybe I'll be driving in 2024. Hopefully sooner.

Happy crawling!

 

[J1000]

Looking forward to your EV moab debut.

I expect your right about the weight distribution being lighter than stock in the rear. Time for a drawer system or RTT.

Thanks for info about time on task. I know the LOE is high. Lots of fiddly, and not so fiddly, stuff after the mechanicals are handled. Given your time, maybe I'll be driving in 2024. Hopefully sooner.

Happy crawling!

Hopefully I can add a 2nd or maybe 3rd battery pack in the rear. That's a stretch goal at least. For the time being I really am looking forward to using it to move stuff around town or tow my trailer to the dump or small stuff like that so I want to keep the back open. Also I still have all 7 seats so I can take people for rides or take the nephews to the lake or something.

 

[ylexot]

Love the goal.

Adding HV batteries in parallel is trickier thanon might think. Keeping all the cells In a xPyS pack is has fairly manageable Battery Management Issues. Parallel packs requires even more BMS. Orion has a concise white paper about this on their site.

 

[J1000]

Love the goal.

Adding HV batteries in parallel is trickier thanon might think. Keeping all the cells In a xPyS pack is has fairly manageable Battery Management Issues. Parallel packs requires even more BMS. Orion has a concise white paper about this on their site.

Yeah it's not so trivial just to hook another battery up. My plan would be to just have a set of heavy duty switches, bring the vehicle to a stop and turn it off, and throw the switch to physically switch everything to the next self contained pack. They would each have to be charged individually alao. Perhaps in the future that could change, the creator of the Resolve-EV controller is working on adding multiple battery support.

 

[Kernal]

What do these abbreviations mean?

HV (HugeVolts)
LOE (LossOfElectricity)
xPyS (Xenon-Promethium-Ytterbium Separator)
BMS (BigMassiveSwitchgear)


Maybe someone could add a Glossary of EV Terms for us ICE (internal combustion engine) gear heads.

Great thread, taking notes for the future.

 

[J1000]

HV - High Voltage (over 100 volts)
BMS - Battery Management System
VCU - Vehicle Control Unit
PDM - Power distribution unit
SoC - State of Charge

 

[ExplodingCubes]

I hate EVs.
That said, I've been waiting for someone to do this.
Gotta say tho...the output shaft size between the 1FZ and the EV motor would have me concerned.
Beyond that, can it charge by means of solar??

Normally it's incredibly impractical to charge an EV by solar, I believe Hyundai tried it with one of their vehicles, looks like it gets +2 miles a day in good sunlight, with a cruiser you'll need much more power to move that, so I'd be doubtful that you can get much juice for it.

source

 

[J1000]

On that topic I saw this out driving around one day. I left a note and the owner emailed me and said he gets about 10-15 miles of added range with the solar in the summer. That is definitely better than I would have guessed. Also that's just with the panel flat and not angled for more power. He says it's just a neighborhood car on surface streets so it never goes over 45 MPH so aero drag is not a factor. It has bad battery degredation and only gets 20-30 miles on a full charge so this is a stop-gap measure to keep the car usable.

 

[davidp14]

Those are either really big panels or a really small car.

How many watts is that?

 

[J1000]

Those are either really big panels or a really small car.

How many watts is that?

500 watts. Nissan Leafs can generally get 5-6 miles per KWh if driven carefully. I'm guessing my LC will be more like 1-2 Mi/Kwh