[Cobbler]

Hello there. I just purchased a AVS22 bus. All the EV components are Missing. It has a Dana 70 rear axle. I need some advice on repowering it with motors and batteries. It has a propane powered Nissan power pack in the side that runs the air conditioning and 12 volt system. It used to have a used to have a solectra system in it. I guess it has a bunch of deep cycle car batterys that were run is series to make 300v dc for the drive motors and the air compressor. The air compressor is needed for the suspension, breaks, and power steering. This bus is really weird and really cool at the same time.

 

[Isaac97]

Man that looks cool! 300V is easily achievable with modern lithium -- you could use a bunch of Tesla modules (probably a couple in parallel) or some other salvaged car batteries (Jaguar I-Pace, Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf) and just build up what you need.

Motors will be fun. A couple of large DC motors could work (probably arranged in series because of that high voltage) or you could use a big Siemens motor or about 4 Leaf motors ganged up.

I guess a bus is pretty cool, do you just want a weird and awesome and complicated vehicle? It would be real fun pulling up to Starbucks in that.

 

[Cobbler]

Man that looks cool! 300V is easily achievable with modern lithium -- you could use a bunch of Tesla modules (probably a couple in parallel) or some other salvaged car batteries (Jaguar I-Pace, Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf) and just build up what you need.

Motors will be fun. A couple of large DC motors could work (probably arranged in series because of that high voltage) or you could use a big Siemens motor or about 4 Leaf motors ganged up.

I guess a bus is pretty cool, do you just want a weird and awesome and complicated vehicle? It would be real fun pulling up to Starbucks in that.

Honestly I want to make it into an EV camper. I'm going to go have to go to my local salvage yards. I never thought about salvaging batteries out of leaf or volt. Thanks for the advice.
I'll have to do more research into drives and motors for these. I'm used to 480v 3phase air-cooled motors and drives work.

 

[Isaac97]

Ah okay, the big industrial stuff. That sort of motor used to be the standard for EV conversions -- people would run 750v batteries in order to get any real power. Now that there are more EV specific motors you can get water-cooled motors which are much better suited to the variable load of a vehicle.

EV camper -- awesome. You'll never run out of space. And I guess you don't need a ton of top speed or acceleration.

What sort of range are you looking for? With a vehicle that big you can have as much as you want -- if you can afford enough batteries.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

I love the idea of an EV camper! Other than that I can't really offer any help haha. Plenty of room for solar on the roof and if you stay at RV parks then you can plug into 30a service.

 

[brian_]

... and if you stay at RV parks then you can plug into 30a service.

... or 50 A, 240 V service, which is more expensive and less common, but still widely available. Four times the power might be useful if the intention is ever to recharge enough overnight for significant range.