[ben-jeep]

I decided to convert a 1975 jeep CJ5 to 100% electric.

First I have to do restorations on the jeep. He is more than 40 years old.

 

[SemperFiGuy]

Why?

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[skizriz]

Why?

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100% torque at any RPM.....
Its a rock crawlers wet dream.

Ill be following this.

 

[StoneTower]

100% torque at any RPM.....
Its a rock crawlers wet dream.

Ill be following this.

Unless you are running around your own property, it sounds like "I ran out of charge and my friends had to tow the heavy pig back". If you want it for economy it might be one thing. If you want torque, install a diesel.

 

[skizriz]

Unless you are running around your own property, it sounds like "I ran out of charge and my friends had to tow the heavy pig back". If you want it for economy it might be one thing. If you want torque, install a diesel.

Stinking, rattling diesels out in the woods aint my thing. If one shows up to wheel with us, they have to be at the end of the line. And a new guy gets stuck being in front of them. Lol

On an average trip, we do about 10-15 miles. I burn about 10 gallons of gas, depending on terrain.
I think it could work.

 

[StoneTower]

Stinking, rattling diesels out in the woods aint my thing. If one shows up to wheel with us, they have to be at the end of the line. And a new guy gets stuck being in front of them. Lol

On an average trip, we do about 10-15 miles. I burn about 10 gallons of gas, depending on terrain.
I think it could work.

Anything can work but you are talking many hundreds of pounds of batteries. Batteries are not cheap and they age. A good gas of diesel motor lasts many years and if you do not use it, it does not degrade like electric batteries will. If it is what you want, more power to you. I like the security of knowing that I can carry 5 gallons of fuel as a reserve for my 20 gallon tank and I will be able to make it back to the road even after a long day.

 

[CSP]

There was an old Land Rover in Moab EJS several years ago that was all electric. It was super cool and just made a humming noise. He ran all day on Hell's Revenge when I saw it.

 

[ben-jeep]

I do not want to start a debate on ecology. I chose to make an electric jeep for the challenge.

It is not my first jeep that I restore and I would say that at least 75% of my pleasure is to disassemble de jeep and modify it.

Here is the adess of my website: http://www.blafleur.net/benjeep/html/liens.html

At the bottom of this page there are videos of jeep that have been converted 100% electric. I would like to do something that resembles the CJ7

 

[hp_lovecraft]

I do not want to start a debate on ecology. I chose to make an electric jeep for the challenge.

I love the idea of electric vehicles. But I think the resistance here has to do with the fact that the CJ is extremely heavy, but has very little storage. That link you had of someone with an Electric CJ5- it was a fiberglass body on a VW chassis, and he still had to charge it at every short trip.

You would probably need 30 deep cycle batteries, distributed evenly. An easy shortcut would be to mount the DC motor directly to the trans input shaft. But having all that running gear would take up lots of space where the batteries would need to go.

I guess its the age-old argument. How much are you willing to throw at it? Lots of $500 conversions/guides on the internet using basic motors, controllers, and lead-acid batteries. But that might not be usable. However,
with a custom, ultra light chassis, lithium batteries, etc, sure that would work pretty fantastic.

 

[Chrisfol82]

Will be interesting to see, good luck with it, ill be following along.

 

[ADDZ71]

l am all in on this. I have also wanted to do this. I am in the battery market sector (Li-Ion) and I think this is a fantastic application particularly rock crawler for the reason Skiz Riz pointed out of 100% torque at any rpm. You will not need near as much battery as a Volt/Leaf/Tesla as you really don't need the range or speed of these vehicles. I am curious of your choice of motor and number. It may may make sense to go with hub motors at each wheel but I have not found any that were durable / cost efficient. I think it definitely makes sense to go Li-Ion as I think you could go with about 12 kWh and probably keep the weight under 1,000 Lbs.

 

[skizriz]

l am all in on this. I have also wanted to do this. I am in the battery market sector (Li-Ion) and I think this is a fantastic application particularly rock crawler for the reason Skiz Riz pointed out of 100% torque at any rpm. You will not need near as much battery as a Volt/Leaf/Tesla as you really don't need the range or speed of these vehicles. I am curious of your choice of motor and number. It may may make sense to go with hub motors at each wheel but I have not found any that were durable / cost efficient. I think it definitely makes sense to go Li-Ion as I think you could go with about 12 kWh and probably keep the weight under 1,000 Lbs.

My thought on how to do it simply, would just be the electric motor coupled to a manual transmission and transfer case. That way you could pick the optimal RPM range for the motor to work in while crawling. Being able to lay out the batteries for weight bias would be a big plus in a crawler.

I'm definitely fascinated by this project, and can't wait to see it unfold.

 

[kennyb001]

Interesting project. Looking forward to see how this goes. Good luck.

 

[STJP]

Ignore the naysayers. Seems they missed the fact that you were not asking for their opinions. Wonder what motivates their need to deride?

An electric CJ! Great idea and project. Look forward to seeing how it turns out. We will all learn something.

Cheers,

JS

 

[keith460]

I hope you can pull it off, it's an interesting project. With today's small and powerful electric motors and batteries, there's no reason you can't.

 

[ben-jeep]

---. How much are you willing to throw at it? ---

My budget for this project is $ 10,000.

I paid the jeep $ 1,000
I plan to invest more or less $ 3,000 to restore it.
$ 4,000 for the jeep, not show room but clean.

I think I could get away with $ 6,000 for the engine, the batteries and all the rest of the equipment for my electric conversion.

I might have some surprises. I only hope that they will be on the side of saving money rather than spending.

 

[scoutboater]

I hope you can pull it off, it's an interesting project. With today's small and powerful electric motors and batteries, there's no reason you can't.

I'm interested as well.

 

[ToddPaul]

Having been around electric vehicles for the better part of twenty five years, and seeing where the industry is at today, it sounds like you have risen to quite the challenge

 

[danielbuck]

Looking forward to watching the progress

Are you going to leave the axles and transmission/TC? or what's the plan?

 

[ben-jeep]

Small update

I should be able to start working on the frame this weekend