[fativan]

Hi everyone,

Been reading the forum every once in a while and have been thinking about EV conversion for a long while, close to a decade, but haven't had too much time and especially not money to put to it.

However, I have managed to collect several donor vehicles in my garage to wait for the opportune moment.

My vehicles and plans for them:

• Husqvarna Rider lawnmower - We live in an old farm, so there is a lot of grass to cut. Our Husqvarna Rider engine broke down by flywheel hitting the alternator which was then ripped off the block, breaking the casing in the process, so there is no point of repairing it. Doing the lawn now with pushmower, which is a good exercise but a bit too time-consuming. Been considering here a 3kW motor from Golden Motors and DIY li-ion battery pack.

• Suzuki S1 moped - An old enduro-style moped in pieces. Been considering whether using the same motor than above, also with DIY battery pack. 25km range would be just fine.

• Citroën Berlingo 1998 panel van - Got this for free, a head gasket was blown. Been considering putting some simple DC motor straight to gearbox. I might be getting an used forklift motor soon, but don't know the specs for it yet. To cover 90% of my driving, a guaranteed range of 25km in every kind of weather is needed (in Finland one must be ready for -20C - below that is rare and then I can resort to ICE). Since it would be mostly driven in town and village roads, top speed of 60km/h (40mph) is very much enough, but the ability to carry some load would be good.

• Toyota HiAce First Generation (H10 - 1967-77) flatbed truck - Got this beauty for a case of beer. Surprisingly little rust in the cabin, considering that it had been few decades laying on the fieldside. The bed had rusted off but the frame is good. Needs a bit of preparation first and is stacked on the farthermost corner behind everything else. I wouldn't mind if this could be made for the road but the primary usage would be for flatbed in the farmwork. Heaviest load would be carrying firewood from the forest roads. Speed and range is not much of an issue here. Not really considered much implementation details yet, maybe a forklift motor straight to differential.

I am somewhat familiar with electronics, have built a bottom balancer on arduino, some stuff directly on AVR microcontroller and I am a software engineer by trade.

It seems that the world of EV conversions is changing quite rapidly so it is a bit hard to keep up on what is the most cost-effective option of today and not of the yesteryear. Also, it seems that sourcing salvaged EV parts is not that easy in Finland and if there are some, they seem to be dirt expensive.

So feel free to comment on the feasibility of my projects and all the recommendations on how to proceed with them will be greatly appreciated.

 

[brian_]

That sounds like an interesting set of projects. I hope you start with the smallest and simplest, and work your way up.

Husqvarna Rider lawnmower
...
Been considering here a 3kW motor from Golden Motors...

Is this only a 3 kW (or about 5 horsepower) riding mower? That just doesn't seem like enough power, even to turn the blade(s), let alone propelling it as well.

 

[fativan]

Thanks for the quick reply, that's always the best welcome to a new forum

That sounds like an interesting set of projects. I hope you start with the smallest and simplest, and work your way up.

Yep, that's why I was thinking to start with moped and lawnmower and their batteries, which brings us to this:

Is this only a 3 kW (or about 5 horsepower) riding mower? That just doesn't seem like enough power, even to turn the blade(s), let alone propelling it as well.

The normal motor is ca. 10hp, so that would be underpowered, but the idea was that I could start with one motor and test it both in moped and lawnmower, and if the motor is not powerful enough for the latter, the basic setup is still there and I just need to upgrade the motor on the mower. But maybe some salvaged forklift or other motor might be better in the mower if one comes by.

With the moped 3kW is the legal upper limit so I was considering starting there, while looking at the setups here. But, since there might be no point of trying to use same motor in different setups, it seems that 1.5kW motor is enough for the moped - original Suzuki pv50 engine is 1.1kW) and costs $142.

With batteries it looks like I'm going to build my own pack from 18650 cells because in the long term the ability to build your own packs seems to be useful when you need them to power different machines and the powerwall.

 

[brian_]

Is this only a 3 kW (or about 5 horsepower) riding mower? That just doesn't seem like enough power, even to turn the blade(s), let alone propelling it as well.

The normal motor is ca. 10hp, so that would be underpowered, but the idea was that I could start with one motor and test it both in moped and lawnmower, and if the motor is not powerful enough for the latter, the basic setup is still there and I just need to upgrade the motor on the mower.

Perhaps consider two of those motors - one to run the blade (at constant speed) and the other to propel it. If you do that, you may be able to get rid of the original transmission, using a fixed-rate reduction drive (belt, chain, whatever...) instead.

 

[[email protected]]

Hi everyone,

Been reading the forum every once in a while and have been thinking about EV conversion for a long while, close to a decade, but haven't had too much time and especially not money to put to it.

Hi Fativan, it sounds like we are at similar stages. I am looking to convert my first EV too. So far I have only built a couple of ebike batteries from 18650 cells and I just completed Great Scott’s DIY Battery Tab welder build, but like you I’m looking to move on to my first full EV conversion. There’s loads of good reading material out there, www.electric-cars-are-for-girls.com has some very good book recommendations that are definitely worth looking at.

For the mower, it sounds like a forklift traction motor would have more than enough power available. You could have a go at making your own circuit to control it for a low power application, but for my first build i’m looking at some of the cheaper dc controllers on AliExpress to keep things simple:
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/XnxM3La

Anyway, if any of that is useful let me know. Hope it all goes well and looking forward to hearing how you get on. ATB, James