[petalumapaul]

This is my first post. I am hoping to start a project, either on my own or with some serious help.
I'd like to embark on an EV conversion of an old pickup truck. My goals I think are quite realistic, keep an original manual transmission and rear end, add a modest battery back and motor and get perhaps 100 miles of range.
I'm hoping to get some advice from this forum.
One question I have is I believe I have seen some conversions that use two J1772 chargers. (?)
I believe if you put on CD fast charging it heats up the battery and therefore you need to add active cooling. So most folks just use J1772, which is pretty mellow and you could use for example a passively cooled battery like a Nissan Leaf. But the downside is it takes five or six hours to charge.

So assuming it's possible to wire dual J1772 chargers, do you have to put in dual onboard chargers? Dual batteries? Thanks for the advice.

 

[brian_]

100 miles of range in a pickup which uses (for example) 450 Wh/mile requires 45 kWh. Round that down to 40 kWh (an available battery size from some production EV models) and yes, you need about six hours at a peak of 7.2 kW (the common onboard charger size, which requires 30 A @ 240 V from a 40 A circuit).

A single AC charger using a J1772 connection can deliver 19.2 kW with an 80 A 240 V supply (on a circuit with 100 A capacity). Do you really need more than one of those?

Also, even a Leaf, despite the lack of any kind of active cooling, can fast DC charge at up to 50 kW (or even higher with the optional 62 kWh battery).

I'll stay out of the discussion of how two onboard chargers could be arranged.

 

[petalumapaul]

Thanks for the reply. I think what you are saying is that a 40Kw battery should come close and be readily available and would take 6 hours to charge on a single J1772. Thank you.

Yes, ideally I'd like to charge in 3 hours rather than 6 on a road trip using dual J1772's rather than Chademo.

I have had two Nissan Leafs and I believe using the Chademo quick chargers contributed to battery degradation. Of course I might be misinformed on this.

The project truck would weigh about 3,000 pounds.

 

[brian_]

I think what you are saying is that a 40Kw battery should come close and be readily available and would take 6 hours to charge on a single J1772.

Yes, using a typical onboard charger.

Yes, ideally I'd like to charge in 3 hours rather than 6 on a road trip using dual J1772's rather than Chademo.

Have you checked the capacity of public charging points? If they have enough capacity (and they vary a lot), simply putting one larger charger onboard would get you the same improvement, without the complication of dual chargers and trying to plug into two charging points at the same time (and annoying other users while you're at it). I realize that most public charging points are limited to less than 8 kW, but it couldn't hurt to check.

Another solution would be to use DC charging, but just request a lower charging rate - all vehicles which fast-charge communicate with the EVSE (charging station) to tell the charger what the vehicle's limit is.

I have had two Nissan Leafs and I believe using the Chademo quick chargers contributed to battery degradation. Of course I might be misinformed on this.

That's true, but whether the charger is in the charging station or onboard, fast charging has the same effect. You're really just looking for a charging power that hits the right compromise for you between the time taken (more power means faster) and battery life (more power means less life). If trips long enough to need charging away from home are infrequent enough, the effect of the occasional fast charging won't matter.

The project truck would weigh about 3,000 pounds.
View attachment 123206

The weight isn't the big issue for energy consumption - the horrible aerodynamic drag is what will require twice as much energy per distance as modern compact car.

It's not the style of truck that I like, but that's a nice example of the era (other than the missing headlight ring, of course ) It appears to be a Chevrolet "Advance Design" 3100 ("1/2 ton") from 1954 or 1955. The floor is quite low by modern truck standards, so fitting in enough battery might be a challenge (there's so little space underneath that Chevrolet put the fuel tank inside the cab)... but that's another topic for another thread.

 

[electro wrks]

This is my first post. I am hoping to start a project, either on my own or with some serious help.
I'd like to embark on an EV conversion of an old pickup truck. My goals I think are quite realistic, keep an original manual transmission and rear end, add a modest battery back and motor and get perhaps 100 miles of range.

ideally I'd like to charge in 3 hours rather than 6 on a road trip using dual J1772's rather than Chademo.

You're asking for a lot here. And, as brian has alluded to, it's going to be a lot of work, a lot of money and difficult to do. This being a truck, you'll probably want to carry something in the bed, maybe tow something=even less range. Like brian says, intact Leaf packs will not fit easily under the vehicle. One or two Leaf packs will barely fit in the bed. Two would be close to maxing out the rear axle(?). But with the pack(s) exposed, you could take a stab at your own active cooling system. Chiller plate extensions of the AC system? Huge finned heat sinks and fans?

Or, you could wait like the rest of us for the cab and bed on frame truck and van EVs to become available on the salvage market. Ford has the Lightning. GM has something. I'm sure the others will too. The competition for the frames of these vehicles, with their built-in EV running gear and batteries, to put it mildly, at least initially, will be a Mad Mad Mad Mad World! People with a body on frame, most likely low use, vanity EV project are going to compete with the more realistic, best use EV utility vehicle people, for these EV frames. History tells us the people with more greed, power, and wealth will initially always win this kind of competition.

So pp, good luck with the path you choose.

 

[brian_]

Or, you could wait like the rest of us for the cab and bed on frame truck and van EVs to become available on the salvage market. Ford has the Lightning. GM has something. I'm sure the others will too. The competition for the frames of these vehicles, with their built-in EV running gear and batteries, to put it mildly, at least initially, will be a Mad Mad Mad Mad World! People with a body on frame, most likely low use, vanity EV project are going to compete with the more realistic, best use EV utility vehicle people, for these EV frames.

People with a real need for a working utility vehicle and wanting battery-electric will likely just buy a Ford eTransit, rather than buying a Ford F-150 Lightning or building anything themselves.

But I agree, the Lightning and similar vehicles should be popular salvage sources... although they will be useless for this sort of project unless the builder is willing to keep nothing of the original vehicle other than the body. There may be lots of people will to do that - aside from the EV conversion world, it is reasonably common for "street rod" style trucks of this era to be old cabs and boxes sitting on completely new chassis... you can even buy the chassis ready-to-go from various suppliers, typically with very different suspensions from the original. This era of Chevrolet truck body specifically is routinely mounted on an chassis from another model, such as an old S-10 pickup, recent full-size pickup, or even a Caprice (big sedan) chassis. It actually wouldn't work on a Lightning chassis, because the 1955 truck wouldn't be long or wide enough to cover the Lightning parts (which are the same length and width as a regular current F-150).

If someone has an original Ford Ranger EV (1997-2002) with a rotted-out cab who likes the style of these old pickups, they likely could drop the old cab and box on the Ranger EV chassis (with some significant work) to revive the Ranger EV. I don't see it as worth the effort, but it's a matter of personal tastes and objectives.

Anyone willing to build a custom frame in a vehicle with a long enough wheelbase can use the complete powertrain (including intact battery pack) of any current production EV (it doesn't need to be body-on-frame). The big design challenges come from trying to fit available EV components into a chassis (like this old pickup) which was not intended either for drive units made for independent suspensions or for huge battery cases in the middle of the chassis under the floor.