[m38mike]

Next week we leave CO to join up with many other old military vehicles in Dawson Creek, BC, to drive the Alaska Highway as part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the construction of the highway. Electro-Willys will drive the 4,100 mile convoy route in 26 days, along with the other vehicles. But Electro-Willys is the only ALL ELECTRIC vehicle making the trip. I built a generator trailer, called the "Juice Box" to provide power to recharge the battery pack while we're travelling. So with the Juice Box in tow, Electro-Willys will behave like a hybrid. The big difference is the generator in the Juice Box will run all the time, but it will only provide a recharge when the EMW 10kW charger senses that one is needed.



My wife built a blog site about the trip, and the vehicle, and it's online at: http://m38mike.blogspot.com/2012/07/welcome.html

It has links to the web site describing the construction of both the Jeep and the trailer. It also has a link to the website for my SPOT GPS transeiver, so you can follow my progress along our 4,100 mile journey in real time. The SPOT device reports my location every 10 minutes, and the web site keeps a log of it for up to 7 days. You'll be able to see my locations on satellite photographs for northern Canada and Alaska.

The convoy will start on August 4th, in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

Why am I doing this trip with an EV? To demonstrate to anyone who's interested that a simple generator trailer can be added to any EV and allow that EV to travel anywhere a regular ICE car can go, and on the same schedule. No long stops needed for recharging. Recharge capability anywhere you'd care to park. Go electric-only for short side trips or running errands. Hook up the trailer and do the long vacation with your EV.

The Juice Box is bigger than a typical generator trailer needs to be. 1st, it's an Army surplus jeep trailer. 2nd, it's designed to carry not only the generator, fuel cell, and a 10kW charger, but it also carries a power distribution panel box, 12v batteries, tools, spare parts, an air compressor, air hose, extension cords, portable work lights, and extra wires. All the stuff I might need for a roadside repair if something goes wrong.

It's been fun, and challenging, getting the Juice Box built. I've got a few more modifications to make in the next few days, but it's basically ready to go. And I've been very happy with how well it's worked.

[major]

Originally Posted by m38mike

Next week we leave CO to join up with many other old military vehicles in Dawson Creek, BC, to drive the Alaska Highway as part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the construction of the highway.

Good luck, dude

[Woodsmith]

YAY! Road trip!

Any way to auto start the generator when a recharge is needed rather then running all the time?

Good luck with the trip.

[m38mike]

Thanks Major!

Woodsmith, I probably could by extending the wiring for the starter into the Jeep. The problem I might have then is all the other things that I turn on after the generator is running. I'd need a bunch of relays to get the other stuff working.

[Qer]

Really, really cool! I like. Have fun.

[Jimdear2]

Mike,

Sounds like a wonderful trip.

I can't do things like this anymore so I will have to be with you in spirit only.

I'm so glad that you had the stick-to-it-ness needed to complete your project after all of the problems you had in the beginning.

I know that I, as well as all of the others, that followed your build and offered our opinions and advise will be with you in spirit and wish we could be with you in reality.

Be well;
Be safe;
Lots of photos and videos;
Have a wonderful time.

You have your orders sir,
JIm

[mhud]

This is so cool! I can't wait to follow your progress as you make the trip.

[m38mike]

Thanks everyone for the good wishes and interest. I've got my orders Jim! I plan to post photos and videos as I go, when I have internet access. My SPOT tracker will post my location every 10 minutes of every day so you all can follow along. This will be my 3rd trip on the Alaska Highway, but probably the most memorable simply for the crowd that I'll travel with. Right now we have 118 vehicles going, 80 of them are old military surplus trucks. And one WW2 Harley WLA motorcycle. That guy's got to have an iron butt to take 4,100 miles on one of those cycles. We have about 220 folks going. I think we'll be the 4th largest community in the Yukon where ever we park at night.

We've got about 30 "Jeeps" going, including some M151's and one modified CJ2A. But to park our whole convoy in one location takes about 1.5 football fields. So any where we stop for lunch or breaks, has got to be either big, or long, or both. In a few places we'll use abandoned air strips, where we'll drive up one side and down the other until we all get off the highway.

Our travel permit with the Yukon Gov't says we need to travel in March units of up to 10 vehicles, with 5 minute spacing between march units. So that's 13 march units of like-sized vehicles for our entire convoy. With a 5 minute gap between units, we will be spread out over about 40 miles from front vehicle to back. It'll take up to 70 minutes from the time the first guy leaves until the last one can go. That means it also take about 70 minutes for us all to arrive at any destination.

Yup, this will be quite the invasion.

Qer, I hope you wrote good code, so my Soliton Jr will get me there and back again without any problems. I'm pretty sure that the WarP11 will be able to pull me up and over the Canadian Rockies. But the big unknown that I'm testing will be the Electric Motor Werks 10kW charger. Most folks using one use it in a static mode. That is that the car is parked and there is no drain on the pack when the charger is working. I will be using it in a very dynamic mode. It will be charging my pack while I'm travelling, so the loads it sees will be different from minute to minute. I haven't been able to test it as much as I wanted to before the big trip, so I'm working in uncertain conditions.

One thing I do know, heat has become my big concern. With the generator and charger both inside my trailer, there is a lot of heat created. And the more they both work, the more heat accumulates. To that end I'm adding 4 more louvered vents to the top to let heat out. between the ventilation fan, the engine fan, and the generator head fan all pulling cool outside air into the trailer, I'm pulling about 4-5,000 cfm of air through the trailer. Hence the need for more vents to let air out.

[Caps18]

Originally Posted by m38mike

Thanks Major!

Woodsmith, I probably could by extending the wiring for the starter into the Jeep. The problem I might have then is all the other things that I turn on after the generator is running. I'd need a bunch of relays to get the other stuff working.

With all the beautiful work you have done, I think that wouldn't be much of a challenge.

Good luck, and it sounds like a very fun trip. I hope to take one like it someday.

I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't the northern most EV in North America either at some point in your trip.

[m38mike]

Well, I've got the heat problem solved. I ran the trailer yesterday for 3 hours on the road and didn't have any overheating problems with anything. I now have 5 fans pulling outside air into the trailer, and 8 vents to let all the hot air out. It seems to be working.

Now my problem is the EMW 10kW charger. It's running on about 50% duty cycle or less. That's a lot lower charge than I need. That right there could kill the trip. I don't know what to change to make it work better. I'm waiting to hear from Electric Motor Werks to see if they have any words of wisdom why I'm getting 3kW from a 10kW charger.

Have any of you ever put two chargers on one pack at the same time? Did it work? I'm thinking I may need to do that to keep the volts up.

One day to go before departure!