Re: Batteries - EV Conversion

On 2/28/2025 7:09 PM, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> wrote:

On 2/27/2025 5:10 PM, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> wrote:

>
"The sheet metal behind it is all perfect for its age. 2013 Dodge Ram
1500 Extended Cab.  Its a Dodge.  I am sure there is stuff that doesn't
work, but cosmetically it could be a nice truck."  Yuma, Az
>

Apologies for the oversight....must have skipped it.

>
Its all good.  If it wasn't more a rant than a creative post it would
have stood out more.
>

>

I rarely if ever offer anything for free anymore.  To many vultures out
there who profiteer off of it, rather than people with a real need who
would appreciate it.

>
2013 is much newer than I imagined. Is scrapping it an improvement?

>
My initial thought was to be good to a renter who had been good to us,
and may come back to the area at some future date.  Disposing of a
vehicle without any cost to myself.  That it turned out to be a rather
nice truck was a bonus (and a curse).  Scrapping probably pays for the
time I will have in dealing with it since they gave me the title.
>
Its a curse because if it wasn't decent I would have no issue with
dragging it up on a trailer and hauling it to a salvage yard.  Straight
body, haven't noticed any rust, and the interior is intact.  All the
bits and pieces laying in the bed to put the grill back together look
okay too.  I have a hard time just "throwing it away," even if I'll get
paid for it.
>
>

I used to, but I grew weary of chasing off carrion
eaters.  If I stumble across somebody, but not to the general public
maybe.

>

>
There are people who cruise the marketplace, craigslist, next door, etc
looking for opportunities to profiteer.  I don't have an issue with it
on principle if they are not vultures preying on the weak or tweakers
looking for a quick buck to buy an 8-ball.  There are legit salvage and
rebuild buyers as well.  Unfortunately when I see far more of the former
than the later when I offer something cheap or free to help somebody out.
>
I'm not against a good deal, but I am against theft.
>

If you have the time that seems like the most productive use for it.
If it could be put back on the road for something close to the cost
of a similar used truck it sounds worthwhile. A straight, rust-free
body is irreplaceable.

>
Yeah, putting a new reman engine in it would the most labor, but the
least cost in materials to put it back on the road.

 Any hope of finding a decent used engine?

Its always possible, but the OEM for this was a 4.7L V8.  A remanufactured 4.7 is 3 grand or less.  The balance is that you aren't supposed to reuse the intake ($900), and you should use a new water pump, alternator, gaskets etc.  Stuff that can leave you stranded use new.  I figure with incidentals it might run another 3 grand in other parts.  6 grand.  Maybe less if I spend more time shopping.  I know plenty of people buy used engines or repaired grade engines, but I wouldn't go with less than a reman if I went that way.  Its to much work to have to do twice in short order.

 

I'm still actually
leaning towards an EV if I can find the right stuff.  The Chinese are
leaps and bounds ahead of the US EV market.  I can buy a new Chinese
200hp (which would be good for this application) even cheaper than the
Ford Mach-E, but I find the same problem.  A lack of supply (that I can
buy) for everything to make it work.
>

  An EV is a worthy experiment. Thought about it myself. But a handmade
conversion won't be worth much, even if it works, to anybody but the
originator once the experiment is complete. The learning curve for the
new owner is going to be steep.  From the numbers you mentioned
earlier that sounds like it might get pricey, ~20k or something. A
used standard production EV can be resold for most of its purchase
price unless the battery drops dead.
 I very much like the idea of an EV built with commodity components
as opposed to the proprietary designs prevailing in the marketplace.
A pickup truck seems on the face of it a good platform; lots of space
and no severe performance demands. But, it's a big project in time,
knowledge and money.

I asked one of my drive suppliers if an industrial high voltage inverter could be used for an EV controller.  Polyspede makes them rated upto 500HP and input voltage from 380-480.  A regenerative 200HP Polyspede sells for about 4 grand.  For the bigger ones the price jumps quickly. One rated at 400HP is almost 10 grand.  My thought was remove the rectifier, and tap in at the inverter with battery voltage, or atleast at whatever they use for a voltage regulator.  Should be a little cheaper to make, and have a much broader demand outside of industrial only applications.  They already have all kinds of control inputs and outputs designed in.  In application it should run from a standard pedal control (pot), or have a switch to a closed loop application for "cruise control" without any other expensive circuitry.  I have not heard back from them.  LOL.

One of my neighbors had a Tesla, which mysteriously dissapeared. When
I asked what happend, I was told that in hot weather the car turned
itself on when parked to run the AC to cool the batteries. That was
a wrinkle I never imagined.

I've never noticed my wife's Niro powering up anything to cool the batteries.  It gets parked in the garage, but this is SW Arizona.  The garage gets quite hot in the summer.  It has to park inside the garage, because that's where I installed the charging station.
FYI:  Anybody with fair to decent household electrical knowledge can install a level 2 charger.  I went with a Schumacher, because it was considerably less money than the Kia/Hyundai charger.  Level 1 chargers can just plug into a wall outlet.

 Likely there are more 8-)
 Thanks for writing, and good luck....
 bob prohaska

 

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff
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