Hi to you all

I have been showing off my ute and I have even had a go at burning rubber still going well and still making improvements along the way

I have changed the diff to a limited slip so both of the wheels turn and smoke 

and after the wood, tail lights and mud  guards where on I did some testing to see if the ute did anything different than before
to start with I went around town to compare the amps used and I was just under half the old setup was,as I was informed.
then a drove out of town over a few hills and back without any glitches.
I got a weight and was happy to see I had only gained a small amount(old set up 1400kg the new set up is 1560kg).
Once I was happy with the batteries etc I did the long trip I had set the ute up for 90 km round trip minimum and to my surprise I used about 75 amps to do 100 km/h compared to 170 amps in the old setup,and I did the whole trip in 66amp/hours out of 90 nice
Once that was done a speed test was needed so to the track and I was off with the amps set to 600 out of 1000 and 270amps out of the batteries I got to 150km/hour so if I turned every thing up to full I will be over 100miles/hour nice!

and once all the batteries were connected I got a friend to weld up the deck and head board.





  

 and while doing that I needed to sort out the tipping mounts and rams with a few hiccups along the way but I got there in the end

 After putting glue on the walls and the rails on the bottom I put thin rubber on them to insulate the batteries from the steel and to add some small amount of  thermal insulation.

Once I got all of the batteries in I had to make sure that they were set up from the big battery box to the small and then I had to think about the wiring and when I was happy I put the rods in to clamp the them in place after that to put on the connectors.

once the battery box's were in in needed to sort out the box for the relay's and fuse's,
I have put it on the left of the ute for no other reason than weight the main pack of batteries is slightly right and with me on the same side I decided to put it left to even things up,
after that was made I got it sand blasted

 and painted with the lid on it looks good

 in the bottom there is heater relays,charge relays,the silver box is the dc to dc converter with the small fuse holder ,the shunt to work the meter and the main relays that turn on with the ignition

and on the right side a small plug for the battery charger to connect with a micro switch to keep the ute from starting while plugged in

 78 batteries in the left box with the last 22 in the other and the pump to lift the deck in between them

 On the left is both the original bateries with the new ones being charged to 3.6 volts each

and I know its not 3.4 volts that I said in my last post but the originals where 3.5 so I thought that 3.6 would be ok and all i needed to do is turn on the heater(bottom left image) to use up the 20 extra volts (100 x 3.6 =360 -20=340) speaking of witch the heater is 3000 watts at 230volts but I can't waste energy stepping down the battery voltage so the heater does not burn out so I put them in series so they now become less than 3000 watts at 460 volts once I got them running the meter showed that they where about 2000 watts thats enough to warm the cab but not to much if it gets to cold it will take the chill off the air but around here we only get to -4c not like in the usa of -30c
 

once the deck was off I set about making a bolt on frame to put all the batteries etc in(mind you it took a while to make sure they all fitted safely )

and because I was putting the batteries under the deck I may as well make it a tip deck





I fitted rib's to the bottom of the battery box for allowing air flow and if needed the addition of warm air later on,

as you can see I have only fitted 3 sides the lithium batteries need to be under compression while in use so one side will float a little to allow compression 

december 2015

after 10,000 km and 2 years I started to strip the old battery box down and take the deck off to make a new battery box for plan "B" to go to riverton and back(90km) on one charge, I had thought long and hard about if I should go higher than 155 volts and as I was wanting more pickup and less power loss from battery sag ( which happens when you can not get the amps to the motor fast enough) so I maxed the voltage and I will let the controller step it down to the motor so now I'm at 340 v (100 batteries at 3.4v each ,I could have gone less batteries and gone 3.8v per cell but as I have learned the 170 volts I had soon dropped to 155 volts just getting out of the drive and since I was at the maximum volts of the controller at 340 volts I needed to keep it up there)

Day 209

I got the ute legal and now to fill in the gaps in the blog
I made a battery box

and fitted the batteries,relays and fuse 

 

put the cables in a shielding tube  

under the ute to the engine bay

day 111

oh my I am going so slow
I am doing it on saturday mornings.

As you can see with a little help from mark (co-worker) the front mount has been made and I made a shelf for the controller and vacuum pump (if you notice the vacuum reserve is a fire extinguisher )

I put in the main battery cables to the deck I looked at the tool box for weeks to see if I could fit all the parts and batteries in it and gave up trying to fit it all in it was 200 mm to small so I am going to make a wooden tool box to put all in ( batteries,contactors,fuse and dc (150v)to dc (12v) converter.)
Tested the water pump and had a bad day ( put the power in the wroung way and cooked the circuit    board ) so I needed to get a new pump to cool the controller,
A fellow ev builder said that toyota prius cars have a 12v pump on them so I looked in to that and got a surprise to get a new pump for a $109 sweet,the hose fittings on it was 16mm and the controller hose I had put on was3/8( about 10mm) so I put a reduser in the line after the pump and tested it without the controller hooked up (just in case it put out to much pressure ) all whent well so I am going to use it,
Put the vaccum pump through its paces and it fell flat (it took 30 seconds to recover for just one pump on the foot brake) now to get a replacement , did some trading and got a better pump (it only takes 3 seconds to recover now )

I have spent a few days thinking and planing
And then I put in the relays to run the two pumps and the contactors (in the battery box ) and a fuse box for all the new wiring

Day 40

As you can see it has been a while since my last chat so here is whats been done so far,
I got over to the engineers to chat about the bill, they came to the party and reduced the clutch and engine mount to less than I was expecting so the bill is bearable and a big thanks to them.
My work mate finished the frount motor mount today so I will bolt it in on monday and then I will post some pictures.

After a chat with my work mates I am putting in a shelf across the engine bay to mount the controller and vacuum pump and tank (as for the vacuum tank its an old fire extinguisher ) it was also mentioned that I should rubber mount it to allow the gards to move other wise they may crack.

After a bit of thinking I am going to cut a hole in the back of the battery box slightly bigger than the battery so I can put the last set in the box the whole will also there to let the main power cable out also.
I am looking into flexable sheath for the main cable as I am required to have the main high voltage in orange sheath and the price is the same( almost I have to buy 50 meters of flex for the same price as the solid and corners I may end up with 20 meters left over)

Day 29

I have got the motor and gear box adaptor made (a sore point at the moment as I have 30mm more than I should have if you notice there is a bearing in the middle of the flywheel mount I asked them to bush the centure of the motor sharft as it was made to take the gearbox sharft tip 

and a bill way to large I am cooling down before I talk to them 

my suggestion if you are going to get work done make sure you give it to them as a drawing and get a price before they start)

and I got the engineer to trim the flywheel they took the ring gear ( the starter motor uses it to turn the old motor) and some of the back to lighten it ( thats why its shiny ) got it balanced 

and then on saturday I put them together with the clutch then put it in now to make the front mount and controller mount

Day 19

"The pump is ordered for cooling the controller, I will need to remove the heater core in the ute as it leaks. The plan so far is to pump the water/coolant though the air con radiator at the front of the ute though the controller to the heater core (inside the ute) and then back to the pump ( I may put a 100 watt water heater in the line for a bit more heat if needed )
(edit: I was told that I will need two pumps and circuits as the heater will need 80 c to warm the ute so that half will be done later )

Day 17

So far I got the welding done but I still have to sand and paint the chassis in places( the dirt was on the metal for a long time and that meant the dirt kept the moister on the metal giving the rust somewhere to start) I have made the decision to remove the power steering pump and later I will replace it with manual steering.

As for the vacuum for the brakes I will use the alternator/vacuum pump with a oil feed to the pump to keep it lubricated (as the oil goes out of the pump it will go into a container with a small amount of pressure to push it out to the pump again )and because I am connecting the belt to drive the alternator/vacuum pump I may as well use the alternator to charge the 12v battery.

The pump is ordered for cooling the controller, I will need to remove the heater core in the ute as it leaks. The plan so far is to pump the water/coolant though the air con radiator at the front of the ute though the controller to the heater core (inside the ute) and then back to the pump ( I may put a 100 watt water heater in the line for a bit more heat if needed )

I will put the controller in the ute this week and I will get the motor and gearbox back this week to so it will be a full on week
The rules say that I must be able to kill the power between the motor and the controller if any thing goes wrong so I have arranged for a emergency disconnect (not that I will use it because when the key is turned off the relays will kill the high voltage and then there is the foot on the clutch and take it out of gear) in the form of two Anderson 350 amp connectors with four 95mm2 cables (2 + and 2 -) all I need to do is find where to put the pull cord.
After a lot of thinking ( which will be my downfall )I am a little closer to how the batteries are to restrained I have always been going to strap them in groups but that's not the problem its when they are all in the tool box how do you hold them down without using steel ( and risk shorting out to the tool box) the answer is to put ply wood or thick plastic on top of the sets and then clamp that down with tie-down or something

Day 10

Day off today
I am going to use this tool box for the batteries 8 rows of 6 batteries each set of 6 will be strapped together and then they all will be held down ( just how is a mystery as there is live wires in there so steel marginal ) I am going to put the wires out the back and as I need to have a disconnect for certification ( I need two splits to have 3 packs of 60v or less )I am going to use two Anderson connectors as seen on diy ev it will come off the battery thru the connector loop around back thru the connector onto the next battery so if I pull the loop it will kill the power as it pulls the connector apart.

Day 9

I took the fuel tank and lines off today,cleaned out the dirt in hard to reach places and did a really good steam clean so it look good now,I found a couple of rust holes to fix ( 30 min work) so I will do that on Monday.

this is a spanner with 800amps@3.2 volts

(from a youtube clip)

I am putting in 47x 3.2v=150 v

I must be very careful and NOT drop the spanner!

Day 8

I got the electric motor,gearbox,and (after a decision at work) the clutch with the flywheel to the engineers to get them put together.
I did little in the way of removing stuff today I still have the fuel tank and hose to take off,the grill will come off so I can get at the air con hoses ( I have been blessed with the entry and exit being at the top and bottom of the air con radiator so that will become part of the controllers water cooling system)
Tomorrow I will take my 12v vacuum pump to see if it works well in the ute, other wise I will need to use the utes belt driven vacuum pump more mounting and pulleys to drain the power of the motor.
as for power steering I may use one off a toyota prius or mr2 as they are electrically driven ( if not put a pully on a 12v motor and drive it and a vacuum pump together)

Day 7

Undone the drive shaft this morning ,at lunch time I took out the last bolts and lifted the motor and gearbox out, another 6 bolts and the gearbox was off the motor, only to show an almost new clutch, now the decision to go clutch less is going to be a lot harder I think i will get a quote for the adapter plate, with or with out the clutch to see how much extra cost is involved.
The Ute needs a really good clean so all going to plan on Saturday I will put the Ute outside and lift it up as high as the jacks will go put the axle stands under so I can steam clean every thing !

Day 6

Took the wiring off the motor and as it is a column change I needed to remove all of the linkages so they would not get broken when the motor comes out, I drained the gear box and was happy to see clean oil in it (the sump plug has a magnet in it to collect any bits of  lose metal in the gearbox and that was not clean but what was there was small and due to normal wear )

Sweet wants to drive the ute so I may have to leave the clutch in but i have a few days to decide if I want to have the extra weight and cost for her to change gear when she could use just put it in third and drive.