to get back on track, (like you did here) i would put the EPJ batteries, if they are the smaller ones, under the hood, if you can... there will be plenty of room under there once the motor and plumbing is gone... are you going to use a clutch system for your transmission? you will kill your syncros if you shift without one (which i'm sure you knew) as for your brakes and steering... if you are putting this much work into it, go change the master cylinder to a manual master, like they used to use on the old old vehicles, they are much softer than the power braking masters we have now (when there is no vacuum) but not as soft as when it does have vacuum... and same with the steering, switch it to an armstrong steering box (the power comes from how strong your arm is, get it?) this will make your batteries last longer... no sense in running power down you don't have to... the non power steering box will have the same effect as the non power braking master...

 

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I've seen a couple random thingsl like this before. The link on the first page about the metro is pretty similar to what your looking to do, but even that little metro isn't getting much range and is only getting up to about 35 miles per hour. I can't remember the link but there is a guy who made his one EV ranger from scratch and was selling a basic kit for it online. Would be worth checking out for ideas. Good luck!

 

the electric pallet jack batteries he is referring to are huge, they hold a charge for ever too... i used to work at costco's cross dock here in canada, they have tripple long EPJ's (ones that can hold 3 pallets) with material weighing i think up to 2500 lbs each (7500lbs total) and generally had a life span on the batteries of about 6 hours... top speed on them was around 20 km/h which would be about 12mph... and i'm sure they weighed (no load) about the same as a ranger... so with no real weight it's carrying, and the gears that our truck has, i could see it doing 70mph for 3 hours or so or in city driving of 8 hours

if you get the batteries that are used for the electric forklifts, they are about the size of an engine compartment... they would last forever, they power a fork lift for about 4-6 hours, which weighs easy, double to tripple a ranger... also not using the battery to run booms, your battery would last a lot longer

just so you all know what i am talking about, here is the EPJ battery: it's the black part, the whole thing


and the forklift battery: this spans the entire width of a standard fork lift

 

IDK. I think 60 miles on a charge is pushing it for most guys. I don't see anywhere near 70mph X 3 hours = 210 miles.... Unless he carries a generator in the truck or attach one to a trailer to take on long trips.

 

the difference i see, is in the batteries... most people use car batteries, which give a lot of power, for a short period of time, or golf cart batteries, which give a little bit of power for a long period of time, fork lift batteries put out a lot of power, for a long time... the batteries in a fork lift last minimum 4 hours, unless they are trashed... and that is working much harder than i think it would in this truck

 

I agree that getting 70 mile range is going to be difficult. No offense but at the moment its just a best guess as to what its capable of. I just know that any electric car on the market or coming out is barely capable of a 70 mile range, and that's with full blown engineering departments and large budgets.

 

people have been converting since the 70's. This won't be the first one to use FL batteries, or golf cart batteries, etc. 200+ miles at 70 MPH will not happen with that setup.

The battery is a good reason we don't have electric cars from the big 3. The technology isn't there. Lithium Ion is where the hopes are in the near future.

 

I think this would shift like a tractor, pick a gear before you start moving. could be cumbersome when deciding to go from city to highway. The clutch is completely unnecissary, however I will keep the clutch as a saftey disconnect if a contactor gets stuck closed. you can't stall an electric motor by standing on the brakes like a fuel engine. there will also be a master battery disconnect close at hand in the event of an emergency but sometimes you don't want to lose important things like lights and radio etc. The EPJ batteries I will use are about 500Lbs. each. I think what ever range i can get with 3 is what I get, 70 would be nice, or about one hour on the highway. Yes to the green people who understand this type of convertion, 70 miles is very optimistic.
I have heard the consperiacy theorys about how the good battery technology pattents have all been purchased by the oil companies and will never be released because it's good business for oil sales to not have battery cars on the road.
I know I may fail this endeavor, I have failed alot of great projects (anybody want a 10' tall catapult that can throw a paint can 60'?) but i may succeed. It's better to be a failure than to never try anything.
any

 

Heres a good site for you, I read through it about a year ago. This guy mounted all the batteries under the bed though, so it wasnt use all the bed space.
EV Ranger

 

A few years back in popular science mag there was an article of a college that converted a expedition to EV and it put out so much power it would snap the drive shafts clean if they didnt accel slowly.. i mad because i can find the article.

But i watch a video in high school of a jap company thet made an electric car that would go something like 300 miles on a charge and it could also do like 200mph... I am trying tpo find the video

 

Good luck.. You can use a forklift motor but it will take alot of modification to get it where you would need it. I wouldn't tackle this unless I was an electrical engineer because its not as simple as hooking the the batteries up to a switch then to the motor.

Also most DIY electric cars that would perform the same as a stock engine usually have a motor worth around $50,000. They can go alot higher then that as well.

If you get it hooked up and what not, I'll be waiting for pictures of your snapped axles and broken drive shafts because an electric motor doesn't have to get up to speed like on a gas engine, they can get up to there max. RPM pretty damn quick.