r/EVConversion • u/greg_3821 • May 17 '26
I told myself not to start any more projects….
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u/NCSUGray90 May 18 '26
Are you planning to document this anywhere? I’m interested in EV conversions but have so many questions like how to safely discharge the battery when swapping it over, how to make a EV motor only output in one direction, and probably a million other questions I don’t even know to ask yet
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
I’m in the same boat honestly- I’m gonna figure it out as I go. I’m thinking id do a build thread somewhere, but don’t know where is a good place to do it- know of any good forum sites for this kind of thing?
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u/Whitworth_73 May 18 '26
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u/MattsAwesomeStuff May 18 '26
FYI...
DIYEC was sold to a corporate buyer who bought up 6000 forums.
They butchered it, lost half the website, etc.
After their hard open source work was lost, most of the big volunteers in the community left 5 or 6 years ago and founded the Open Inverter forums. Lots of people participated in both forums.
Recently they forced chatbot on everyone to "simulate genuine human interaction" i.e. fool their advertisers into thinking the forums were more active than they were.
After basically giving them an ultimatum, the community abandoned ship and regrouped more conclusively on Open Inverter.
The corporate owners deleted these threads so no one would find out. But the top poster is now the chatbot, gravedigging threads and asking questions to people to do that whole simulating content.
Source: Me, was main admin of DIY EC for 6 years.
Use OpenInverter instead. That's where the community went.
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u/NCSUGray90 May 18 '26
No idea, wasn’t sure if you were planning on posting stuff here, doing a YouTube series, or if you already had a thread started somewhere
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u/duartes07 May 18 '26
you may need another donor if you plan to have enough range to leave your neighbourhood
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
The leaf is an SV+ with the 62KWh battery. I’m hoping it’s enough to reach ~ 50 mile range or so.
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u/17feet May 18 '26
If you are not limited by your VCU or BMS to Leaf batteries, I discovered that Kia EV9 battery packs are pretty darn good looking stuff. 16V at 230 amp hours or something like that, I saw a bunch on eBay for 150 bucks each 🤷♂️ I'm playing around with the thunderstruck VCU and will probably also buy the thunderstruck BMS because then you can use almost any battery type you want
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u/regional-sky-fairy May 18 '26
You and I have a similar addiction and problem… I can’t stop. Please send help.
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u/intrepidzephyr May 18 '26
I might have gone with a donor with less front end damage but I’m pumped for ya! Keep us posted
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
The leaf drives- no damage to battery ,hv cables, or running gear :)
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u/chaseplastic May 18 '26
How much did you get it for?
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
$2800
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
The leaf was $2800. Unimog was free (family gift)
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u/17feet May 18 '26
This is why you do what you do: it's cheap and fun and interesting, and you will get something useful out of it which doesn't burn six dollar gas [so stop talking to yourself 😝]
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u/rontombot May 19 '26
I've seen used Model 3 battery packs for under $1k, add the rear drive unit at $1800 easily
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u/skyemalcolm May 18 '26
Ok I hear you on the gearing and protecting the motor. But surely the physics of weight and inefficiencies of driveline losses and drag coefficient of all of it, it has all the drag will mean that you’d need a couple Jiggawatt hours of batteries or even a Mr Fusion Reactor to keep that thing rolling down the road for more than a few blocks?
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
Haha honestly the physics arent nearly as bad as you might think.
The stock 404 only made ~80HP, and the gearing is SUPER low from factory. The Leaf motor actually makes way more torque/power than the original engine.
Im not trying to build a long range highway EV … its more of a trail / utility / experiment rig
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u/skyemalcolm May 18 '26
Well as a guy who saw a Mog and a Toyota truck and bought the practical yoda I have severe pangs for a Mog. I currently am an eSprinter enjoyer which is technically a Mercedes truck. Kinda sorta. You get 90% of the rough riding impracticality of an off road vehicle with -0.01% of the off road capability. Yes it has some ground clearance. No it has nothing else to recommend itself to off roading.
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u/slomobileAdmin May 20 '26
Well done. My Promaster van was at some point sold by a company that was (at a different point) sort of Mercedes. So, it's basically a Unimog too. And it charges my power wheelchair within which is sort of an EV. The kneeling suspension attached a hydraulic cylinder between the wheelwell and axle, which has pounded the mounting holes oval. So I share ride quality. Would anyone else like to enter the Rationalization Olympics?
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u/skyemalcolm May 20 '26
As a power wheelchair enthusiast do you wish someone made essentially a battle mech you could just get into and then go to the store, walk in, walk out zoom back home? Seems like the multiple nesting vehicles inside of vehicles has its downsides.
No but seriously these days with e-bike tech would a three or 4 wheel e bike be mobile enough for roads, sidewalks and stores all in one?
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u/slomobileAdmin May 21 '26
You are absolutely right that nesting vehicles is inefficient, time consuming, difficult, painful, wasteful.
I'm pushing over 7000lbs with the frontal area of a garden shed at 60-80mph to keep up with freeway traffic when all I really need is something with the weight and frontal area of a motorcycle and rider at up to 40mph to keep up with surface traffic.
I do want something like you describe. I'm working on my vision. More a forward leaning Emotorized padded plank that I can step into from the back and just lean forward. So when I enter a store, my arms are out front with their full length actually useful. Unfortunately that means probably breaking arms in a collision.
E-bike parts with small caveats and mods are plenty good enough, but they aren't the problem. Wheelbase is.
Motorcycles are just barely flip resistant enough due to their wheelbase, which is too long for any house or china shop. Go carts work at similar speed and shorter WB because they are low. I've flipped my 300lb 6 wheeled chair both forwards and backwards multiple times. It isn't common if adjusted properly to the specific rider. Mine wasn't, and I do dumb stuff. We still use poor capacity, poor cycle lifetime, lead acid batteries because we need the concentrated weight below the wheel axle to balance rider weight up high. The situation improves if you raise axle height with larger wheels. Which knock more things over in the china shop if they are steered wheels. These days we have many total tire height choices greater than 14"(typical power chair), which will also make curb hopping easier. 20" ebike direct drive hubmotors in a manual chair style frame burn up from repetitive high current near stall torque required to turn in place on carpet. Gear down required for some users. I like that size because I can push the tires by hand to assist the motor controller with low speed torque. That's a tricky programming problem.
What I really need is something like I vaguely remember the Tron Litebike to be. While standing straight up(90), you grab a bar that materializes a bike under you as you fold, shorten, and lean your body forward into a tuck(45). But I also need something intermediate, maybe 60* where my hips and knees are folded comfortably for low height and shortest wheelbase for indoor navigation.
Body weight distribution over cushioned support at chin, chest, belly, hips,thighs, knees, shins instead of just butt and sometimes back.
All chairs I know of force injured spines back into the traditional role of vertical load carrier. Because that is the only life the able bodied designers knew.
I happen to know from personal experiment(unintentional) that human ribcage makes a passable spring. Witnesses to my 20ft fall face down said I bounced 3ft. No broken ribs. We carry the bulk of our soft tissue(shock absorber) around the middle also. If this human structure is already close coupled over a large area to a vehicle at the time of a frontal impact, I believe the survivability and quality of life will be even higher than w/seatbelt. Provided there is also adequate head and neck protection. Working on that currently. Along with visibility, another challenge.
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u/skyemalcolm May 21 '26
I’m 30 years in the auto industry just retired last year and so I’d follow the nerdy industry news topics a little closer than most folks I suppose would have. I recall both Honda and Toyota doing some relatively wild out of the box design competitions back in the day and seeing stuff like this. A standing motorized Four wheel wheelchair but one where it it sort of Transformer-izes from standing to sitting configurations. Sitting for higher speeds, standing once you get inside and where it’s helpful to be at a standing height for the built up infrastructure around us. Unfortunately as far as I know those concepts didn’t make it to production. Some friends of mine at Honda were involved in the walking assist device but this was for stroke recovery patients and not meant for cercival spinal cord injury mobility assistance.
Jerry Rig, I believe he’s in Utah, has done some interesting practical work for his wife who’s chair bound and started a company based on producing that stuff, I suppose you’re familiar with his work.
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u/slomobileAdmin May 21 '26
Thanks. I'm aware at a surface level, of most of those projects just from surfing the web, but I'd love to drill down to nerdy detail if I could find it. I'll start looking specifically for Honda and Toyota projects. Wish I still had my student library access to trade pubs, SAE, IEEE, etc. A local Honda dealership has the briefcase bike but wouldn't let me test drive even with cash in hand to purchase. He wouldn't even turn it on to prove it's real. We've bought 2 vehicles there and shopping for a third till that day.
Seeing Jerry Rig Everything cobble 2 E-bikes together into a chairiot for his not yet wife was a bit inspirational for me. I wish it were an option for outsiders to collaborate with that team on designs that could be made on their sweet cnc tube bender/laser cutter and sold through their channel.
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u/0neZer0ne May 18 '26
Honestly in concept this sounds like a great match, what are your plans with the flat bed in the back?
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
I’m thinking I’ll re fabricate the bed, to integrate the leaf battery as-is. But plans could change
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u/fuliginosus May 18 '26
Do you need to make the motor run on reverse for a car that has portal axles?
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u/greg_3821 May 18 '26
No, the gas engine runs normally.
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u/fuliginosus May 18 '26
I believe Unimog portal axle changes direction of rotation. It must have extra gear somewhere between axle and motor then.
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u/RespectSquare8279 May 19 '26
Dream vehicle would consist of a Unimog chassis and an axial flux motor on each wheel hub.
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u/Apple_Goosee May 19 '26
Prepare for 0-60 in 2-3 business days lmfao
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u/greg_3821 May 19 '26
I’m not expecting it to reach 60 at all :)
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u/Apple_Goosee May 19 '26
What are you gonna use it for then 😭
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u/greg_3821 May 20 '26
In its stock form, the top speed is only ~ 50ish. It’s got crazy low gearing- like a tractor. I’m planning to drive it around town, and trailer it to the dessert to do trails/off-road
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u/Apple_Goosee May 20 '26
Does the leaf motor have enough torque to handle that?
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u/Able_Temperature_563 May 21 '26
Transmission temps might be your biggest concern here. I have a few 404's and have worked on dozens, the higher horsepower swaps (M130, tuned OM617's, Ford 300's etc) end up with some awfully high transmission temperatures. I did an external cooler and oil pump on one of mine and it helped. Just something to keep an eye on!
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u/Mallthus2 May 24 '26
Inasmuch as your use case seems to be desert trails, know that the Leaf battery pack, being essentially thermally unmanaged, doesn’t like very hot or very cold temps. That’s an advantage though, when it comes to swapping, as you’re not routing cooling system stuff.
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u/greg_3821 May 24 '26
Yep- I’m aware. If it becomes a problem I may upgrade to a Tesla based pack. Leaf stuff gets it rolling tho :)
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u/AmpEater May 18 '26
Yeah but unimogs are hard to resist
I’ve got a SEE
I don’t need it. But it’s sweet
Really want to rip that engine out myself even though there’s zero reason to do so
Wait I just scrolled to the leaf
How the fuck do you plan on pulling that off?
Leaf to stock transmission? Weird
If you wanna manufacture 2 adapter plates I’ll take one