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Sure...Is there any reason why not many people use the GS 450h transmission as a motor for conversions?
1 - Projects take years to plan and execute. There were people this year still spending $10,000 on used CALB LiFe cells, buying Warp9 and Hyper9 motors, etc, presumably because projects they planned years ago are still being taken to completion.
2 - It takes a while for people to catch up to what's popular.
3 - Most DIYers tend to be 1 generation behind the leaders and 2 generations behind pioneers. Damien is a pioneer, him completing a 450H gearbox build inspires other EEs to use his hardware but you have to be pretty smart and ready to go to use it right away. But when those next generation of projects start being shown off, that's when the rest of the crowd starts adopting what they've seen demonstrated to work.
We are just barely seeing vehicles rolling using the Prius Gen 2 platform Damien already had working in a not-very-user-friendly-way 2+ years ago. When this next gen of leaders start showing off their builds more, we're going to see an explosion of DIYers adopting the Prius hardware. Damien's GS450H build is a year or two behind his Prius ones, so, I haven't yet seen a single other person get a rolling vehicle with one and translate the high-tech to the for-Dummies proofs. This'll happen, and then boom we'll see an explosion of that hardware being adopted by DIYers.
Compared to the price of even a DIY inverter from just a couple years ago, or any other purchaseable AC system ($5k minimum, plus motor), it's extraordinarily reasonable. Practically free, relatively speaking.Total of around $1900 seems reasonable.
No, it's perfect. And ridiculously, absurdly powerful.I have a RWD 88 Toyota pickup that I'm looking to convert. Am I crazy for considering the 450h?
You know of the gearbox oilpump fatal flaw and the difficulty and expense of getting one right? That kind of stuff needing a cheap workaround is what holds back the average DIYer from jumping in. It's a solvable problem (it's an oil pump, not rocket science), but it's still intimidating.