Thursday, August 11, 2011

Parts arrive!

The new fuel tank for the truck.
32, 3.2 volt lithium batteries.
The parts have started to arrive.  It's like Christmas in August!  I picked up the batteries from the local distributor today--all 450 lbs of them. The battery pack consists of 36, 3.2 volt, lithium batteries connected in series for a total nominal voltage of 115 v.  The batteries are rated at 180 amp-hours. If my calculations are right, this should give about a 50 mile range on a fully charged battery pack.  Now I have the task of designing the fixtures and boxes to hold the batteries. As I mentioned in an earlier post, most of the batteries will be going under the bed of the pickup between the frame members.  I've made a SktechUp model of the frame and the drive train, which you can see below.  It's a little crude but accurate enough to determine the basic battery layout. The layout below shows all 36 batteries under the bed.  I think I'll move some of the batteries up to the engine compartment to help with weight balance. The electric motor I'm putting in weights quite a bit less than than the gas engine I removed, so it will help to put some of the batteries up front.


First option for battery placement under the truck bed
I've also received a lot of the miscellaneous parts including, vacuum pump (for the power brakes), DC/DC converter (to run the 12 volt accessories off the 115 volt main battery pack), wiring, relays, fuses, contactor, throttle control box, & tools.  I'm still awaiting three major parts:  the motor, the motor/transmission adapter, and the battery management system.

Well I'm off to design some battery boxes.

4 comments:

  1. Pretty cool Kitch. Can't wait to see the finished product.

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  2. It's been great following, Bill. Looking forward to seeing the work-in-progress! Well Done!

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  3. How much did the batteries cost? I have the same truck and i am looking towards doing just like you!

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  4. Guibrou, I was able to get the batteries for about $1.25/AH each. So do the math, it's a little over $8,000 for the pack. That's the single most expensive component. I did save about $600 - $700 in shipping because the importer's warehouse is just a few miles down the road from me, so I was able to pick the batteries up directly from the warehouse.

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