I've got a late 80's Toyota pickup with a blown engine that, to me seems like a perfect candidate for an electric conversion. What concerns me is that I have not seen much talk about converting Toyota pickups. Am I just not looking in the right places or are they just difficult to work with? I am willing to gut the entire truck for the project and will most likely need to as it is 4-wheel drive and autmatic. Can anyone point me in the right direction on this one?
newb: Considering a project
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The 4wd and Automatic are traditionally a problem for Ev converters. 4wd and auto conversions certainly do exist, but using a manual tranny is easier, and converting a 2wd truck will "free up" some GVW for batteries.
Your Toyota should be about perfect other than that though. It' pretty light, has a killer GVW, it's Toyota reliable, has lots of after market support, the list goes on for ever. Oh, and since it's a truck, it is also useful.
You could pull the tranny with the motor and simply install a manual. You would not need a clutch pedal or hydraulic if you do the conversion without (which is quite common). You could also remove the front axle and find a 2wd front end at a scrap yard.
That's all a bit of work though. maybe the best way to go would be to trade your 4wd truck (which is very desirable for off-roaders) for someone else's 2wd vehicle. That would involve much less work. Heck, since you are technically down grading from 4wd to 2wd, you might be able to get a slightly nicer car.
Lots of possibilities. Have fun researching
Your Toyota should be about perfect other than that though. It' pretty light, has a killer GVW, it's Toyota reliable, has lots of after market support, the list goes on for ever. Oh, and since it's a truck, it is also useful.
You could pull the tranny with the motor and simply install a manual. You would not need a clutch pedal or hydraulic if you do the conversion without (which is quite common). You could also remove the front axle and find a 2wd front end at a scrap yard.
That's all a bit of work though. maybe the best way to go would be to trade your 4wd truck (which is very desirable for off-roaders) for someone else's 2wd vehicle. That would involve much less work. Heck, since you are technically down grading from 4wd to 2wd, you might be able to get a slightly nicer car.
Lots of possibilities. Have fun researching
One thing I saw mentioned in another thread is to remove the tranny and just hook straight up to the transfer case. That gives you two gears, and lets you uncouple the front as well.
Makes me want to just find a small transfer case for a car and replace the engine/tranny with that...
Makes me want to just find a small transfer case for a car and replace the engine/tranny with that...
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Most transfer cases are not designed to shift in motion. Most transfer cases are designed to disengage the gearbox from the front axle, but locking hubs disconnect the wheels from the front axle. Some front axles don't have locking hubs, instead having an axle shaft disconnect, that, when coupled with the t-case disconnect allows one axle shaft to spin freely, while the other axle shaft spins the spider gears in the differential.
Also, most transfer cases are designed to attach directly to the transmission ("married") and don't provide much support in themselves for supporting the transmission or engine weight, and would need to be reinforced to support its share of the motor weight. Other transfer cases attach to the transmission by a "stub" driveshaft ("divorced") and may be a better candidate for EV converion in that method.
Quite some time back when my jeep's factory transmission gave up the ghost, I toyed with the idea of mating a motor direct to the t-case, but gave up on the idea because I would either have to run in low gear (which that tcase is not designed for extended periods of high shaft speeds in low gear) or greatly lower the differential gearing. In addition to that, it's a short wheelbase CJ5 already prone to rollover, and several hundred or even 1000 lbs of batteries would only serve to make that worse.
As I always say- nobody is stopping anyone from converting whatever they want to convert, but as they say in the ICE world... your mileage may vary.
Also, most transfer cases are designed to attach directly to the transmission ("married") and don't provide much support in themselves for supporting the transmission or engine weight, and would need to be reinforced to support its share of the motor weight. Other transfer cases attach to the transmission by a "stub" driveshaft ("divorced") and may be a better candidate for EV converion in that method.
Quite some time back when my jeep's factory transmission gave up the ghost, I toyed with the idea of mating a motor direct to the t-case, but gave up on the idea because I would either have to run in low gear (which that tcase is not designed for extended periods of high shaft speeds in low gear) or greatly lower the differential gearing. In addition to that, it's a short wheelbase CJ5 already prone to rollover, and several hundred or even 1000 lbs of batteries would only serve to make that worse.
As I always say- nobody is stopping anyone from converting whatever they want to convert, but as they say in the ICE world... your mileage may vary.
Hi, well I am about 3 days behind you. My donor vehicle is a 1985 Toyota 2wd 5spd/std pickup (fortunately) in excellent shape. Allison (her new name) will be delivered here in about 2 hours.
FYI, paid $1,000 for this non-running donor, which includes delivery.
I'm in Lakewood, CO.
FYI, paid $1,000 for this non-running donor, which includes delivery.
I'm in Lakewood, CO.
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