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As a kid, I sometimes went to my grandparents farm in the summer. Plenty of downtime for chores and some fun. The summer I was detassling corn, Grandma said it was okay to start the old 52 International up (if I could) and drive it around. No experience previously with old trucks or cars, but I was able to get her running and cruised the pasture. Drove it home the following summer, leaking oil at a rate of 27.5 miles to a quart, about two and a half gallons. Rebuilt it, put in two new main seals before getting one that held. It was my high school vehicle. 45MPH was about it for feeling safe. I did many of the things a teenager without much sense did, donuts out on the frozen lake, driving to school in -20F temperatures, running out of gas in the countyside. It got 12 MPG with a 12 gallon tank, but dad observed I that I only put in $5 worth of gas at a time.
Parked her back on the farm after it was clear I would get a job in a big city and have no place to keep her. Last time I left a trail of oil on the road was 1992.
Circumstances have changed. We moved to a place with a barn, and hauled the old girl out to Washington state. My pandemic project was to overhaul the barn enclosing and insulating it. There's a 1980 chevy truck that's nearly done. I was originally going to use the drivetrain for the '52, but that was a mistake, so I just decided to fix that up for a farm truck.
Enough history! Grandpa was an inventor and it's time to put some lightning under the hood!
I've spent over a year gathering information, debating what to do, what type of motor, goals for the truck etc. This is such a big undertaking to restore the truck and convert to electric that I've decided to make it the way it should be. It will be a multi year effort. I also understand what it will cost.
Goals - make this truck fun to drive again. 4x4 able to go in the mud and snow a few times a year. I've never raced on a track or strip, but want to try someday. That's not a motivating factor. It would be super nice if I could make a 300 mile trip over the mountains to visit friends.
Motor - dual Ford E-crate. This will have a lot of get up and go with two motors. Two motors also mean I can set the gearing to get a little better for the long road trip. I'd signed up on Ford website to get notified of when they become available and am thrilled to hear from another thread that you can buy directly through summit.
Chassis - the 52 is a low profile straight rail truck, making most independent rear suspension options difficult or requiring big tubs to be built into the bed. The suggestion here to look at Ford Expedition is a great one as it is low profile suv with IRS. I can buy a chassis from Ford directly, start welding on the straight trails, chopping off what doesn't fit. This is intimidating, actually, but I have a friend who is a professional welder and will offer training and advice for beer.
Battery - I haven't done much research yet, spent all my time so far just trying to figure out the motor. I do have a lead into Xing Mobility XING Mobility | Immersion cooling leader in EV battery from Taiwan that builds a modular system that you can put into different shapes. The batteries are immersion cooled, which I now have a lot of work experience with. I need to dig further into exactly which fluid they use, battery chemistry, etc, before considering it. Of course, if the pricing is outrageous, that's also a factor. But it would be nice to build two or three battery packs for the spaces available. Given the multi year project, will move slowly on this part.
For those of you still reading this long-winded post, I wanted to let you know how excited I am to be part of this online community. There are a lot of really innovative folks here with a ton of experience. Also a huge variety of projects by EV enthusiasts. My posts and progress will be slow to start, but I wanted to start it to stop hijacking other threads with my endless questions. I'm looking forward to this journey!
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Parked her back on the farm after it was clear I would get a job in a big city and have no place to keep her. Last time I left a trail of oil on the road was 1992.
Circumstances have changed. We moved to a place with a barn, and hauled the old girl out to Washington state. My pandemic project was to overhaul the barn enclosing and insulating it. There's a 1980 chevy truck that's nearly done. I was originally going to use the drivetrain for the '52, but that was a mistake, so I just decided to fix that up for a farm truck.
Enough history! Grandpa was an inventor and it's time to put some lightning under the hood!
I've spent over a year gathering information, debating what to do, what type of motor, goals for the truck etc. This is such a big undertaking to restore the truck and convert to electric that I've decided to make it the way it should be. It will be a multi year effort. I also understand what it will cost.
Goals - make this truck fun to drive again. 4x4 able to go in the mud and snow a few times a year. I've never raced on a track or strip, but want to try someday. That's not a motivating factor. It would be super nice if I could make a 300 mile trip over the mountains to visit friends.
Motor - dual Ford E-crate. This will have a lot of get up and go with two motors. Two motors also mean I can set the gearing to get a little better for the long road trip. I'd signed up on Ford website to get notified of when they become available and am thrilled to hear from another thread that you can buy directly through summit.
Chassis - the 52 is a low profile straight rail truck, making most independent rear suspension options difficult or requiring big tubs to be built into the bed. The suggestion here to look at Ford Expedition is a great one as it is low profile suv with IRS. I can buy a chassis from Ford directly, start welding on the straight trails, chopping off what doesn't fit. This is intimidating, actually, but I have a friend who is a professional welder and will offer training and advice for beer.
Battery - I haven't done much research yet, spent all my time so far just trying to figure out the motor. I do have a lead into Xing Mobility XING Mobility | Immersion cooling leader in EV battery from Taiwan that builds a modular system that you can put into different shapes. The batteries are immersion cooled, which I now have a lot of work experience with. I need to dig further into exactly which fluid they use, battery chemistry, etc, before considering it. Of course, if the pricing is outrageous, that's also a factor. But it would be nice to build two or three battery packs for the spaces available. Given the multi year project, will move slowly on this part.
For those of you still reading this long-winded post, I wanted to let you know how excited I am to be part of this online community. There are a lot of really innovative folks here with a ton of experience. Also a huge variety of projects by EV enthusiasts. My posts and progress will be slow to start, but I wanted to start it to stop hijacking other threads with my endless questions. I'm looking forward to this journey!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk