DIY Electric Car Forums banner

John Deere Gator EV conversion to LiOn

1837 Views 21 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  pottscb
5
Hey all,
I just bought a “for parts” heavy duty ATV for use on my place. It’s basically just a frame and bed, all the batteries were gone and most of the plastic, rubber, brakes, suspension, needs replacing, or so I thought. After getting it apart I found an aftermarket motor that is high torque (600A) and an aftermarket Curtis 600A motor controller so I can afford to throw a little money at the batteries (and I’ll have to as that motor will crush most 48V batteries, or at least the BMS of light duty batteries) I haven’t put the inrush amp load logger on it yet but I’d like to spec batteries that can handle 600A for a few seconds on startup (and 200A continuous) as I’ll be hauling/towing with it at low speed. It has a 24”x27”x12” battery compartment under the bed so I’ve got room. The battery compartment has openings on most sides and vent in front to let airflow through so cooling shouldn’t be a problem. I’m looking for enough capacity that I only have to charge 1xWk at most so probably 200Ah+. This limits my choices and makes them much more expensive, you can either have high amperage or long range relatively inexpensively, not both.

As I’m new to this, I started out looking
for the easiest PnP solution I could find, such as kilovault HLX+ 48V-300Ah but these run $6K MSR. Then I migrated to Nissan Leaf, but I’m having trouble finding them worth the money that aren’t at less than 50-70% capacity (which is when Nissan warranty replaces them). So now I’m at Tesla S modules which are the best bang for buck as far 48V-250Ah…but implementing them isn’t for the faint of heart. I’m not an engineer but I can read a schematic, the problem is, the current electrical system has been piggybacked/spiced for several small accessory switches and implementing the BMS and contactors complicate things and I can’t find a schematic for specifically what I want to do, which would be 2X 24V Tesla modules, fairly simple BMS (SimpBMS?), onboard charger with 12V shunt for lights, commercial sprayer, etc.

Anyone have feedback on this? Am I barking up the wrong tree with Tesla modules for a first time build? Anyone interested in me posting my build pics?

Attachments

See less See more
1 - 1 of 22 Posts
IMO, those tesla cell monitoring boards are really high quality with some unique features that i've not seen on any other cell monitoring boards, OEM or A/M; i think some folks may have figured out the code needed to use them, might be worth keeping and using for your modules.

i hope the modules fit, or you can make them fit, that will be a cool little work truck.
1 - 1 of 22 Posts
Top