Ev Jeep

I know this may be considered heresy among some, but is anyone else considering this? Some of the newer motors are putting up Dauntless numbers and prices are dropping.

 

If I purchased an old Jeep that was in need of a power plant, I’d certainly consider going EV. But I wouldn’t toss a working gas engine just to go EV.

 

Got a link to one of these motors you’re talking about?

 

Ayuh,.... Where ya gonna put the batteries,..??

What are the batteries gonna weigh,..??

 

I’d definitely consider it if I had the know-how.
But electricity and me go together like… electricity and human flesh.

 

Not in any serious manner, no, and not for anything I'd take offroad. The power storage just isn't there yet, to make it feasible, as far as I can tell. I'm certainly open to being proven wrong.

 

This would be cool, but having 4 individual motors would be really cool. Need better battery technology first.
https://chargedevs.com/newswire/ev-west-unveils-tesla-crate-motor-for-ev-conversion-projects/

 

Please don't.

 

I would love to do a bolt-in conversion to the '69. We just use it on the farm and around the neighborhood. A puny 100 mile range would be fine since never goes farther than that and can plug in every night. Full torque from 0 RPM would be amazing in a Jeep.

However looking into it, a controller, motor, batteries, and a charger is looking like $7K plus and it's just not worth it to me. Maybe the stuff will get cheaper over time.

 

I'd do it in a heartbeat if I had money to burn. The performance potential is excellent, and you can fit in a lot of batteries for the weight of the original drivetrain.

For an off road vehicle, range should be pretty good even with modest battery size. Most of the energy necessary to move a EV down the highway is due to air drag, which is negligible at trail speeds. This is where electric propulsion efficiency really shines and ICE propulsion is at its worst. I'm confident that a relatively small pack (Nissan Leaf base model, for example) would have more range on the trail than a stock CJ5 with 10 gallon tank + 5 gallon jerry can.

That said, EV components, whether new or from a wrecked vehicle, are still prohibitively expensive. It will be a few years before they make any sort of financial sense for conversions. Until then, you would need to be willing to shell out big money for the sake of the cool factor.

 

Iv had this idea to use possibly a golf kart motor off the pto. They are about 12hp and run on 36-48v. You could use it as a hybrid. It would be alot of juggling of leavers and switching the ignition on and off at the right times but it would probably work ok

 

https://www.evwest.com/catalog/prod...d=482&osCsid=3b7254524a839f36c0088b8603b2927b

Dyno Graph at bottom of spec sheet.

 

I'm afraid the range offroad will disappoint you on trails. Take this for example, the offroad power consumption was great enough on the 4xe it couldn't do redcone on battery alone.
Air resistance is exponential and a wall at 45mph but the actual work of climbing is still there.

I still want a 4xe with a 3rd row.

 

Less than than my F134!

 

Thanks for the feedback. Still working on understanding what it will take. Cost is definitely an issue, but I think it’s the smart play long term. My biggest concern is not burning the house down or frying myself during the build. Lots to learn.

 

Saw a show on the "Green Channel" a long while ago.
Guy took an old Land Rover and made it battery power.
Really cool, and he destroyed the factory 4X4's in the drag race, hill climb, and rock crawling. Never talked about charging or the range on a charge.

Would be cool, if you could make it cost effective.
Would hate to run out of juice out on the trail.
Cool engineering, but not easy, or cheap.


Dave

 

The idea of an EV swapped compact classic car has been appealing enough to me lately I’ve begun researching the process. In a jeep I’m afraid I wouldn’t be super interested. This could certainly be swayed but two issues I see. Battery placement to ensure balance is maintained, as well as protected. And how would the rigors of off-road affect the complex controllers that operate and manage power as well as other EV systems. On that same note you’re looking at lots of voltage but north of 400 amps depending on battery setup. The cable routing would need to be very very well laid out accounting for the movement/vibration and rub/pinch points.

More importantly as previously mentioned I don’t feel battery technology is there. I’m no expert on the subject but I feel like swapping 1200lbs of battery would make that 100 mile range feel very disappointing. Of course that ranger could be increased, with more batteries and weight. I think I saw swapping 2 Tesla batteries, the gear and motor in a classic VW bug from the stock motor gained about 900lbs. Although the battery packs (under the front hood and rear luggage area) improved the bugs balance and performance of course, that’s a significant weight gain.

 

I'm sure you guys have seen this one:



There's not much info on it, but I think it's pretty cool. I'd definitely consider one, especially for a "ice cream run" jeep. Would be a perfect use case for a Surry or tuxedo park

 

A fair point, and I'll admit to thinking from a flatlander's perspective.

But the 4xe is a bit of a different animal. At 5150 lb, its about twice the weight of a CJ5 and I'm not surprised that its very small 17 kWh pack didn't take it far. Base model Nissan Leaf packs, which are a popular candidate for low performance / budget EV swaps, are over twice the size at 40 kWh. The 4xe's hybrid architecture hurts its range performance too, since you have to haul around all the extra dead weight of an ICE drivetrain that isn't doing anything in electric only mode. Not to mention the extra drivetrain losses resulting from the motor's position before the transmission.

I think a swap could be done without adding too much weight to a CJ5.

F134 with accessories is ~475 lb
Gas tank is 60 lb full
Misc other parts (air cleaner, exhaust, clutch pedal and linkage, radiator) 40 lb?

40 kWh Leaf pack 650 lb
Electric motor 125 lb
Inverter and wiring 35 lb
Cooling system 20 lb

That's an additional 255 pounds, assuming the transmission was left in place (ideally would be removed, but depending on the motor selection some gear reduction is needed). Lighter batteries are available too, for example a Tesla based pack of the same size would close the gap to only 170 lb difference between stock and the theoretical EV conversion.

 

My Daughter has a Hi Bred Jeep both a motor and electric .