mail@travisstrain.ca – Page 3 – Electric Vehicle Conversion

Back at it – the 4×4 became a 2×4 today

Posted on March 1, 2016

I’ve been going back and forth in conversations with people about whether to leave the 4×4 in, or take it out. After a lot of discussions… it’s coming out.

The thought process was we need the vehicle to be as light as it can be (as it’s not a skinny vehicle to begin with), and I already own a 4×4. We have a big truck for camping and off-roading. The Vitara is strictly a commuter and I’ve been driving a car for the last 7 years that is only 2 wheel drive. Also here in BC we don’t get a lot of snow so that shouldn’t be a problem. One thought I did have was putting an LSD in the rear so that if it was slippery (or I just had to do a burn out) it would be more functional. Turns out I can get one in the $500 range. Definitely a want not a need but I will be keeping that in mind for the future.

2 Hours, and I dropped the front differential and removed the CV axles. The front drive shaft is still connected… I’ll need to get to that later.

Headliner is still drying out from the second cleaning, but the truck is starting to smell a lot better. very fresh now!

Batteries… Get the LEAF!

Posted on February 24, 2016

Now that I’ve come up with the truck idea I’ve gone back to the drawing board about the batteries. This is coming together so fast that I will be driving an EV by summer. I need batteries… fast and cheap. Went back to my support group and asked. Why not a leaf? There are lots of wrecked ones, and they can be had cheap!

Open up Google and here we go. There are a lot of people doing this. Looking at some forums, I stumbled on this: http://media3.ev-tv.me/news031414-1280.mp4 (Leaf portion starts @ 1:24:08). They test the batteries, and show you the good and the bad. Seems like the perfect fit for a daily driver to me! Now to find one.

On to http://www.autobidmaster.com/, type in Nissan Leaf and find one close. Be sure to read the rules here and a few people’s experiences and you’ll be good (although at the point of writing this I have no experience yet!)

Then the gold mine… http://insideevs.com/putting-nissan-leaf-battery-modules-chevrolet-s-10-truck-video/ This guy Jay, lays out everything I need to do to this S10 to get it running on leaf batteries. WOW! I’ll do it slightly differently, but this is a great place to start.

One hiccup is that I doubt the leaf will give me enough range on it’s own. The S10 I have coming is setup to run at 156 Volts. I can get the leave to 128 volts, 144 volts and 160 volts with setting them up in 16 volt packs as Jay does. I’ll have to make some decisions. I’d like to get 100 miles out of the leaf as I’ll need some extra for the AC, but that means I need 60 cells. That’s 1 and 1/3 of a leaf (more than 1). How to sell this one to the wife. My plan of attack currently, is set it up so that I can add the extra 2 16 volt packs, and just start with 1 set of leaf cells. See what I can get for range, and plan from there.

With this, I’ve discovered that I need to be able to access level 2 chargers on the road. Back to the research. I found out that from the Leaf I’m buying I can just take the J1772 connection port and hook it up. The S10 though has a 2008 PFC-30 Charger so it won’t talk to the EVSE… Damn. Alas, I found the AVC2. This little baby tell the EVSE when the car is ready and let the juice flow! Woohoo! Future problem solved! I can get around with a leaf pack, even if I can’t quite get my 85 km day on one charge. Guess I’ll have to stop for coffee that day 🙂

Onwards!

S10? Huh

Posted on February 24, 2016

I’ve been going back and forth with a few different people about my conversion. I’ve been pricing things out and with the US Dollar being so strong (and the Canadian Dollar being so crappy), everything has gone up in price dramatically.

One of the people who has helped me a lot suggested I pick up an old conversion. I could then take the parts and put them into this car. What a great idea! I started looking. I checked into http://www.evtradinpost.com/, http://www.evfinder.com/classifieds.htm and many forums. Through one of those I found an S10 that was converted by someone I trust, and it has everything I need! Only short batteries. Well… It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but after going back and forth we settled on a price. I go and pick it up on Friday March 4th 2016. So excited and so scared. This is coming together.

What I’ve had to sell the wife on is how to do this. I’ve decided that I’ll get the truck and get it working, more to come on the batteries soon, sell my car (which will pay off the truck purchase) and then pay off the batteries with my fuel savings. Good plan. Problem, there is no AC in the truck and I work in a suit. Crap. Guess I’ll be motivated to get the vitara done.

Headliner… So GROSS!!!

Posted on February 20, 2016

The headliner has been a huge battle. I’ve looked at everything online on how to clean these headliners and what not to do. I’ve tried Folex, Borax (and vinegar), and oxy clean. Although the car smells better, it is still stained.

I decided to do exactly what everyone says not to do… use a carpet cleaner. I filled it up as you would to clean a carpet and started soaking the roof in 2 foot square spaces and cleaning it out. They say not to soak it, but I had nothing to lose. If this didn’t work I was going to go and get a new one (at a significant cost and pain). To my shock… it cleaned it… really well. Oddly enough it didn’t do as much damage as the scrubbing with the previously mentioned microfiber clothes and cleaners. After I just threw the dehumidifier back in, and let her go. A few days later… no delamination and it looks and smells night and day better. I’ll need to do it once more to get a couple more stubborn stains, but I feel so much better now. The car is really coming along.

The interior colours now are the next problem. The exterior will be a burnt orange, and black. I’d like to match the colours on the interior, and I’ll keep the light headliner and darker grey carpets. The seats will be black but maybe have a burnt orange highlight. I need to get these seats figured out next before I can start prepping the interiour for paint… Onwards.

PROBLEM! MOLD!!!

Posted on January 24, 2016

So, I have no pictures (of the mold)… But this is by far the worst thing I’ve had to deal with thus far…

When the car was outside, I was playing around and I had a brain fart. I took off a few of the door panels and removed the vapor barrier. Here in BC, we get a lot of rain. When I took the Vitara into the garage, it ended up warming up, and now there is white mold throughout the car. I was dumb and hadn’t cleaned out the car yet, so there was a lot of mold.

I searched the web, and found the best solution (apparently) is a Borax, vinegar solution with hot water. I started taking the entire car apart. Seats out, seat belts out, carpets and all the side panels. I then vacuumed out the entire car and then took to soaking every piece of furniture and scrubbing the whole thing down. Once I was done with that, I put a dehumidifier into the car and let it run for 4 days. Then the carpet cleaner came out to clean the seats and carpets. Again, dehumidifier for 4 days. Car has no mold now and the carpets are spotless! The seat belts are stained though so I’ll need to replace them (at least the front ones. The seats are pretty worn out and I’ve decided I want power seats, heated seats. Problem is I can’t find any… So the search begins.

I’ve decided that I’ll need to go through the wreckers and find seats that are close and make the bolt holes line up. Then after all that is done, I’ll send them off to be re-upholstered at a local shop. That way I can get new, comfy seats rather than the rat bagged ones that are in there. My first thought is Dodge Durango seats, as I have a lot of experience with them (being that is my other vehicle). We’ll see what I come up with.

Moving into the Garage

Posted on January 14, 2016

So now it’s time to give the Vitara a permanent home in the garage. Problem is my 3 bay garage has a bathroom in the 3rd bay and although it was close I needed an extra few inches to get it to fit.

So the rear tire comes off, and the bumpers come off. This is when I realize that the “bump” the old owner talked about of the barn, was actually more of a slam into the barn. The left rear bumper (the metal part) was bent and quite rusty, and the pieces that secure the plastic under the bumper were broken off. Seems like it’s fixable but I’ll see what the wreckers have to replace these parts. May just be easier to buy a new couple pieces.

Once the bumpers were off, I have 2 inches to spare and pull the vehicle into it’s semi permanent spot.

Cleaning

Posted on December 29, 2015

My plan with this Vitara is for it to be a nice vehicle that I’m going to drive on a daily basis. I spend a lot of time in my car (25 km commute each way) and then usually more on top of that. My busiest day of the week is 84 km Round trip. I usually put on 25,000 km+ per year. I want to paint the engine bay black to make it look clean. In order to do that I had to clean it. 2 days of scrubbing finally got it to this point…

Lesson learned. Oil leaks suck.

Dismantling the Vitara

Posted on December 23, 2015

Christmas time now and I’ve taken a week or more off work, so time to go to the garage.

When you are buying a $1000 vehicle, you figure you are going to find things that you maybe didn’t see the first time. It’s not like you’re seeing it multiple times (especially when it was over an hour from my house).

Now was time to take it apart. I’ve never taken an engine out, but I was lucky to have easy access to an engine hoist so that made the job easier. Started at the back of the car and removed the gas tank, then made my way to the front. Just started unhooking (and labeling everything I could just in case). Took two days, but the engine is now free! That’s when I really found out how bad that oil leak was. They must have been dumping oil in for a long time as it was everywhere.

Luckily found a story of a guy changing the engine out of one of these to figure out why it was so tough to lift out. The front Diff needed to be dropped. Once that was out of the way we were good to go.

Got it out of there and onto a skid in the back of the truck to be transported to storage. After about a month and no bites on Craigslist I took it to a wrecker for $46. Good thing it was aluminum or I would have received $10!

All the rest of the parts were listed on Craigslist and sold to buy tools that I would need in the near future!

I disconnected everything except the A/C compressor. That was for a couple reasons. 1 is that it’s charged and really bad to discharge it without the proper tools, and 2 I’m hoping to keep it in my conversion afterwards. Leaving the system in tact hopefully I can do that. Everything else was removed… what a mess the engine bay is. All that dark stuff in there is a slick of old burnt up oil. Nice and thick.

Purchasing the 2000 Grand Vitara

Posted on October 30, 2015

Well the story starts with the purchase of a donor vehicle. After a few months of looking at multiple cars, I decided on a mini SUV (as they are known apparently). I decided against a car as it just doesn’t seem to fit my lifestyle. Looking at the future, a 4 door is a necessity in case I have kids and I mountain bike a lot and run a soccer team. These all demand space, so a mini SUV is a good compromise.

I found this Grand Vitara on Craigslist and I’m pretty sure the guy thought I was crazy. Engine made quite a racket when it ran (good old timing chain issue) and had a massive oil leak, but I was more concerned with rust, and shape of the vehicle.

Overall the vehicle had never been in a serious accident, had always been maintained by the same family and the son who owned it now was moving away in short order. $1000 and the car was mine. Drove it home and parked it in the driveway till I could deal with it.