Hey guys, I am planning my electric conversion project and wanted to run my plan/ideas by you to make sure its all reasonable/feasible? I will talk about what the project is, my goals, what components I was thinking of using, and a few questions I had:
The vehicle is a 1957 Chevy Truck. I already removed the engine/transmission, converted it to front independent suspension (mustang II), installed a ford explorer 8.8 (4.11 gear ratio) rear end with limited slip differential, boxed the frame, and large disc brakes on all 4 wheels. It is now ready for electrical components and fabrication to support those.
My goal is that I want the system to be done properly & reliably, because I plan on driving the truck a lot. I feel that brake regeneration is important, that it should accelerate quickly if you want it to, be able to go highway speeds, and range being at the bottom of the list (hopefully at least 100 miles?). I also plan on charging it over night, and I already have a solar system installed to supplement charging costs.
Motors:
If brake regeneration is as important as it seems, then it really seems like this system should be based off AC motors right? It seems I should use 2x Siemens 1PV5135 mounted back to front. I also found that 2x Hyper 9 motors might fit the bill but combining the motors into a single shaft will need additional fabrication.
The dual warp 11 setup seemed really appealing at first, but it doesn't seem I can do brake regeneration as easily with this? Or is it still possible to make it work with this setup? I searched around but couldn't find much info on it.
Also, full throttle on this setup would most likely break the current rear-end... I was planning on upgrading this in the future however.
How useful is the brake regeneration? It seems like a good thing to do, but if it doesn't add much should I just ditch the idea?
Drive:
I was planning on mounting a U-joint directly to the output shaft of the dual motor setup, and running a drive shaft directly to my rear-end. The rear-end is 4.11 gear ratio. I have seen people use a power glide transmissions as well, but this seemed unnecessary
- Siemens 1PV5135: Max RPM of 10,000, and it looks that the majority of the torque is under 6,000 RPM. Running 6,000 RPM through 4.11 rear-end looks to be about 117 MPH. So I'm thinking this gearing will work?
- Hyper 9: Seems to be about same as Siemens motor.
- Warp 11: Max RPM of 5,000, continuous max RPM of 4,000. 4,000 RPM through 4.11 rear-end looks to be about 78 MPH, so this will still probably work here too?
Accessories:
I have been contemplating using a separate small DC motor to power the power steering pump, and air conditioner compressor. The IFS conversion I already did now has rack & pinion steering, but maybe it would be best to switch over to electric power steering instead? And in that case I could power the air conditioner compressor off the main drive... but it would only operate while in motion. For power brakes I was just going to use an electric vacuum pump & reservoir.
Motor Controllers:
This is the point where I am really not sure what rout to go with, and would definitely appreciate your advice here. I was searching around for DC controller that had functions for brake regeneration, but didn't have much luck.
Batteries:
I am still working out the details for batteries. There is so much room under the bed of the truck, under the hood, etc. that I'm not worried about space. It seemed to either go for Lead-Acid type batteries, or LiFePO4 batteries. I don't mind doing maintenance on the batteries, I just want them to last as long as possible... whatever the best value is of life vs cost. I will still continue to read more on this.
Cooling:
Depending on the motor will most likely depend on the cooling. I can use a radiator for liquid cooling, or fans for forced air cooling.
I know there are a lot of smaller items to work out that aren't listed, but I figured these were the main points that are the foundation for the system.
I would definitely appreciate your advice and input, thanks again for taking the time to check it out!