1996 Land Cruiser EV Conversion - EVJ80 Project (1 Viewer)

[Navyator]

Honestly, I prefer driving EVs. They just drive better. I have a lot of seat time under my belt, racing in SCCA and NASA and driving all sorts of cars at track events and auto-x etc. EVs just drive better. If you get the chance you should try to take it for a drive. The sound and feel and smells etc are not there, but the feeling when you move your foot is just awesome. Don't get me wrong, I will always keep my ICE cars and also have my EVs. My current "side" project is a Lotus 7 replica with a carb'd 4 cylinder and 5-speed...but EVs are awesome in their own right. I like EV conversions because you can keep the looks and handling of your favorite car and inject EV performance. And modern EVs are so full of "driver aids," traction control, stability control, blah blah blah so they don't let you get crazy. But if you put the EV performance into your favorite chassis suddenly you now have something totally awesome to drive. I've been kind of sidetracked by 4x4 EV stuff, but I really want to get myself an EV sports car conversion of some sort.

I’m sure you’ve seen this channel, but in case you haven’t.

https://m.youtube.com/@ElectricSuperCar

He made his own kit sports car, but now he’s doing a Porsche swap. Awesome to follow along his journey.

 

[gummycarbs]

Range is just a function of batteries. Batteries are a matter of kilograms and kilobucks. Expensive and heavy. I will probably be adding another battery soon which will double my range or more. Lots of space for it where the gas tank and exhaust used to be.

It's been awhile since I read through the thread, but where would an additional 800 pounds of batteries put you compared to your curb weight with the original drive train?

And no, a part time conversion would be unlikely to net you any meaningful gain. I've written about my own experience before. Basically, unless you're doing *long* freeway drives, you're not going to see any efficiency gains at all.

What donor EV are you using for the FJ40, and is there a thread about it?

 

[J1000]

I’m sure you’ve seen this channel, but in case you haven’t.

https://m.youtube.com/@ElectricSuperCar

He made his own kit sports car, but now he’s doing a Porsche swap. Awesome to follow along his journey.

Yeah I know that guy and car well. I actually got to ride in it earlier this year at State of Charge. Check out the video below.

Honestly, that car scares the crap out of me. It's some east-European fiberglass kit car with massive Tesla power and I don't think the lithium batteries are even in a waterproof box. Also while sitting in the passenger seat I could look over the top of the windshield frame. I probably won't ride in it again It was fun to experience though. It really is an insane rocketship of a car. I've driven and ridden in quite a few fast cars and legit supercars and that thing was up there with the fastest. The biggest strength is no gear shifting, the biggest weakness is traction. I am definitely looking forward to the Porsche AWD conversion (and seatbelts).

I also got to drive the Electrolite (silver Satellite with full P100D Tesla swap) and the red Mustang with Revolt Systems motor (500hp and 900ft-lbs). The red Mustang was my absolute favorite of all of them. I really liked the Plymouth but once I got a chance to drive the Mustang I was in love. It handled so sweet and had mad power. It is almost 1000lbs lighter than the Plymouth I think. Unfortunately, nobody got any footage of my driving it.

 

[J1000]

It's been awhile since I read through the thread, but where would an additional 800 pounds of batteries put you compared to your curb weight with the original drive train?

And no, a part time conversion would be unlikely to net you any meaningful gain. I've written about my own experience before. Basically, unless you're doing *long* freeway drives, you're not going to see any efficiency gains at all.

What donor EV are you using for the FJ40, and is there a thread about it?

Right now my 80 weights about 5200lbs so 800lbs of additional battery would bring me to 6000lbs. I think the 80 series has about 1600lbs of payload capacity built into its GVWR so I would still be well within the limits and able to fill it up with people and gear.

For the FJ40 I am using a Tesla Model 3 motor with about 300hp and Tesla batteries. I am planning on about 70-80 KWH worth of capacity which should easily go 200+ miles. It will have full time AWD with a limited slip center diff. It is going to be awesome!

 

[gummycarbs]

For the FJ40 I am using a Tesla Model 3 motor with about 300hp and Tesla batteries

OMG. And here I was just telling a friend that an electric conversion of an FJ40 using a donor like the Leaf would make an excellent in-town daily driver. That thing is going to be a beast!

 

[J1000]

OMG. And here I was just telling a friend that an electric conversion of an FJ40 using a donor like the Leaf would make an excellent in-town daily driver. That thing is going to be a beast!

Yeah a budget build with a 2nd gen LEAF 150-200hp and 40-62kwh would also be awesome. I considered that but want to make this thing next level.

 

[Navyator]

Yeah I know that guy and car well. I actually got to ride in it earlier this year at State of Charge. Check out the video below.

Honestly, that car scares the crap out of me. It's some east-European fiberglass kit car with massive Tesla power and I don't think the lithium batteries are even in a waterproof box. Also while sitting in the passenger seat I could look over the top of the windshield frame. I probably won't ride in it again It was fun to experience though. It really is an insane rocketship of a car. I've driven and ridden in quite a few fast cars and legit supercars and that thing was up there with the fastest. The biggest strength is no gear shifting, the biggest weakness is traction. I am definitely looking forward to the Porsche AWD conversion (and seatbelts).

I also got to drive the Electrolite (silver Satellite with full P100D Tesla swap) and the red Mustang with Revolt Systems motor (500hp and 900ft-lbs). The red Mustang was my absolute favorite of all of them. I really liked the Plymouth but once I got a chance to drive the Mustang I was in love. It handled so sweet and had mad power. It is almost 1000lbs lighter than the Plymouth I think. Unfortunately, nobody got any footage of my driving it.

So cool you met those guys (I've seen the Plymouth on YouTube too). I agree the supercar looks scary with it being a kit and all. Appreciate all the info you put out on the forum here!

 

[J1000]

The FINAL episode of the EV Land Cruiser build is now out: Building the high voltage battery pack!

 

[J1000]

Best 4x4 moments!

 

[Kernal]

If you had to do another would you choose a different donor vehicle ie: Tesla, Toyota Prius, Ford F-150 Lightening (or Lucid Air!) that just got totaled, or build from scratch using "kit" parts???

 

[J1000]

If you had to do another would you choose a different donor vehicle ie: Tesla, Toyota Prius, Ford F-150 Lightening (or Lucid Air!) that just got totaled, or build from scratch using "kit" parts???

Currently I am building an FJ40 using a Tesla Model 3 motor and Tesla batteries. I still think that using a salvaged OEM is best for cost and performance. The LEAF and Tesla all have a big following and lots of people are messing with them so the CAN Bus commands and everything is well understood. The rest of the OEM EVs are less understood so there aren't as many options to use them. Prius is basically a non-starter because it has a very small battery and the electric motor is built into the gas engine's case and transmission so you can't really use it on its own.

 

[Kernal]

Let us know when you start posting about the FJ40 EV thread, that should be interesting.

 

[yourID10Tdriver]

I am into classic Saab cars as well and I don't see my 80 or any older Toyota is a feasible EV convert here for Australian conditions but the Saab's might be. Some people have EV converted some saab classic 900's (the original non-GMified ones) like the ones I have.

It's really interesting that an 80 has been converted since it shows it's possible with existing componentry made for other vehicles to create a working solution.

One wonders if Toyota will release a full-electric only '400' or '500' series landcruiser within the next 10 years and try to ditch diesel altogether because of the virtue signalling and eco-warrioring that car makers are jumping on the bandwagon for at present.

The options with retro-fitting a big vehicle to become an EV are quite wide but you need to be a really savvy person to pick/choose what suits best.

Since there is an Aussie mob taking 79's and turning them into EV's for the mines, that presents a solution tailored to a landcruiser of other model series, and theoretically then is also releasing v8 diesel motors, etc. back into circulation as well.

My personal take is that I would prefer to keep all the existing driveline, replace the existing motor with one single big electric motor (since it preserves the weight balance), and adapt to the existing gearbox but mine is a manual and manual boxes might hate the full-torque-at-zero-rpm aspect of electric motors. The other issue I see is that it's probably not feasible to come up with a single large battery module to replace the dual fuel tanks because of how they are positioned in the chassis relative to the body and rear driveline.

However another take would be to get rid of the gearbox as well and not have any, providing the electronic control for the drive motor has plenty of safety features built in.

Has anyone considered just how much torque an 80 series driveline can take without breaking as that sets the theoretical limits on what sort of power can be fed in from the drive motor(s).

if I was a silicon valley tech-head with unlimited finances I'm sure it'd be easy to design and create an almost off-the-shelf solution to EV an 80 or 105 series.

I asked CruiserMatt this same question and it is a matter of how much you thrash your beast. You could probably get away with a thousand pound feet of torque as long as it is smoothly applied torque and is on an already moving driveline. The moment a jolt is introduced, you'll shatter your rig's driveline quickly. You can get away with a lot of torque so long as your gentle.

 

[J1000]

My truck got featured in EV Builder's Guide! So cool!! It was awesome to meet Jerome and show off my truck. His writing and photos are really great too.

 

[J1000]

Big day up on Argentine Pass with the Rising Sun 4x4 Club!

 

[concretejungle]

noticed in the article you have a highway range of 50 miles! I guess you have solar on the roof rack and I guess it kind of trickle charges your batteries while sitting?

 

[Broski]

noticed in the article you have a highway range of 50 miles! I guess you have solar on the roof rack and I guess it kind of trickle charges your batteries while sitting?

How to Flat tow your 80 series... safely.

@SHREG please stop posting for sale stuff in tech. I have deleted the same post twice in this thread

forum.ih8mud.com

More then one way to get to the trail head

 

[concretejungle]

OK if she is a trailer queen I get it. I was just curious about using the truck as a more rounded fun vehicle. Long offroad trips, I was curious if it could sit at camp and recharge enough to take on a 3-4 day overlanding trip?

 

[nakman]

OK if she is a trailer queen I get it. I was just curious about using the truck as a more rounded fun vehicle. Long offroad trips, I was curious if it could sit at camp and recharge enough to take on a 3-4 day overlanding trip?

I can actually answer that... the solar produces up to 20-25% of the battery per day. Starting around the 18:00 mark of this video for more detail...

 

[J1000]

noticed in the article you have a highway range of 50 miles! I guess you have solar on the roof rack and I guess it kind of trickle charges your batteries while sitting?

Yeah on the highway the range is pitiful. If my truck still had the 1FZ I'd get, what, maybe 15 MPG at the best on the highway? If you figure the equivalent of a Nissan LEAF getting 30 MPG and a Land Cruiser getting 15 MPG, then 50 miles highway in the 80 is 100 miles in a LEAF, which is about right.

How to Flat tow your 80 series... safely.

@SHREG please stop posting for sale stuff in tech. I have deleted the same post twice in this thread

forum.ih8mud.com

More then one way to get to the trail head

This is kinda my long term goal with this truck, experiment with EV conversions, have a cool 80, and go wheeling with my wife. All around wins. She got flustered this trip while reversing for impatient Jeep drivers (NO WAY!) and drove into a tree. Glad she did that to the 80 than the 470.

OK if she is a trailer queen I get it. I was just curious about using the truck as a more rounded fun vehicle. Long offroad trips, I was curious if it could sit at camp and recharge enough to take on a 3-4 day overlanding trip?

It is kind of a trailer queen right now, but I do plan on upgrading this truck as I go. I am planning a battery upgrade to take me over the 100 mile range mixed driving mark next. I am also looking into a different gear reduction setup as I think the BlackBox unit I am using is not very efficient at higher speeds. Another long term goal of mine is to do an "overland" trip using solar power like you describe. Currently the solar panels do not directly charge the battery, it requires some user input to hook everything up and the solar can't charge while the vehicle is running. In V2.0 of the solar setup I plan to change all of that. A small wind turbine or a river water generator are not out of the question either.