Hello,
I’m new to the forum, as well as new to EV’s, I just started researching last week.
I have a 1993 jeep wrangler that I’m thinking about converting to electric. In my searching, I have found some info on a few jeeps that have already been converted.
However, these other jeeps are pretty much stock, and only see street driving.
My jeep on the other hand is lifted, has larger tires(33”presently, but hoping to go bigger), and is mostly driven off road. I realize that the conditions off road could pose some problems with an EV, but I’m sure that with some creative thinking, I should be able to work around most of those problems.
Here are a few of my ideas, feedback/criticism is welcome and appreciated.
1: totally enclose the motor, basically in a box to keep out mud, water, and anything else that could damage the motor wile off road.
2: vent the motor enclosure with two snorkels(one for intake, and one for exhaust) and put a small fan on the intake side to circulate the air through the enclosure to hopefully help keep the temperature at an acceptable level.
3: instead of running an electric vac pump, and separate electric motor for the power steering, what about just running the power steering pump off of the front of the drive motor(assuming you have a motor with the shaft extending from each end), and switching to a hydro boost breaking system that could be powered off of the same pump as the power steering?
I’m also concerned a little about the range, a typical day of off road driving for me consists of 15 miles of highway driving(to get to Badlands off road park) driving around the park for 7 to 8 hours, and then a 15 mile road trip back home.
Is this to much to expect from an EV?
Any and all comments are welcome, like I mentioned, I’ve only just started looking into converting to electric, and I’d like to here from people with more experience to see if this is even something worth pursuing or not.
Hey, I’m still in the middle of my conversion, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to be disappointed in range for your off roader. With the size of your wheels and the rolling resistance of those off-road tires, you’re going to be using up a lot of your juice just driving on the roads. And seeing as how there is not a lot of coasting when driving off-road you’ll be drawing power from your batteries constantly. Maybe if you went lithium and really put a lot of time into making the jeep light weight. Really spend a lot of time cutting back on power draw wherever possible. I know there are lots of replacement body parts made of fiberglass, and you can put on the summer doors which weigh next to nothing. But I still don’t know what you can expect if your trying to keep the 4X4.
I just started contemplating converting my '93 wrangler to electric. One thing I had been considering was converting to the old Willy’s style thin wheels. I’m not sure it it’s even possible but I think it may be worth a try, the thinner wheels would help reduce rolling resistance, I think.
thanks for the replies.
as far as weight, by the time you figure in a roll cage, spare parts, and all the things needed, the jeep is just plain heavy!!! going to fiberglass body pannels might save some weight, but in the long run, I think it would be more trouble than it’s worth.
with proper axle gearing, I don’t really think that the large tire size will be that much of an isue(even with the little 4 cylinder gas engines in some jeeps, with the correct axle gears, guys are running 35" and larger tires just fine).
I just need to do something, with the way gass prices are going up, it won’t be long before I won’t be able to aford to pull the jeep out of the dirveway, let alone go off roading with it all day.
[QUOTE=muddy;2120]thanks for the replies.
as far as weight, by the time you figure in a roll cage, spare parts, and all the things needed, the jeep is just plain heavy!!! going to fiberglass body pannels might save some weight, but in the long run, I think it would be more trouble than it’s worth.
with proper axle gearing, I don’t really think that the large tire size will be that much of an isue(even with the little 4 cylinder gas engines in some jeeps, with the correct axle gears, guys are running 35" and larger tires just fine).
I just need to do something, with the way gass prices are going up, it won’t be long before I won’t be able to aford to pull the jeep out of the dirveway, let alone go off roading with it all day.[/QUOTE]
i know how you feel. i’m into auto racing and its killing the wallet with prices of fuel lately. so i’ve taken it upon my self to find ways arround that. its not cheap and its not easy… but there are things you can do. just pay attention to the basic rules of physics and you’ll do well… in cars your always batteling that power to weight ratio from handeling to what ever. just make sure to always keep that in mind.