hey travis, that's great, did you use a kit or totally DIY it? i've got the biodiesel jetta going again, but may want a new money pit. a pickup would be cool to call pv gear in.
james
Alt-E staff
I purchased a number of the parts from one place, but not really in a kit. I designed a few of the parts myself on a CADD and had a machine shop make them for me. Aside from that, I did all the work myself. The truck didn't leave my garage from the time I drove it in under gas power to the time I drove it out 12 months later under electric power. I did a number of things I hadn't seen done elsewhere, including using 14" tall floor scrubber batteries (Trojan J185H) for the propulsion pack- times ten for 120vdc. The bed tilts up for battery access, and is totally empty, so you can still use it to haul. Our longest range test so far is 28.8 miles. We're going to try to find a flatter place to test it this weekend, so we can see what kind of range we'll
really get with it.
If you do an EV, pick a '91-'96 Dakota long-bed (ours is a shortbed) with the regular cab and bench seat (seats 3), and you should be able build an EV with a 50+ mile range and a 65+mph top speed, without sacraficing bed space for batteries. With the longbed, you may be able to use Trojan's J305H 6v battery.
I'm hoping to have more pictures in my gallery soon, but I've had other projects taking my time as well, like our Jetski and off-grid garage, where the Dakota was put together.
It is my intention to build a 120mi. EV. This was the first one, and I did not expect to reach that goal the first time. I'm happy with the >30 mile range this one has for a first attempt, and will be using this one as a reference while i build the next one.. after which time the first one will be for sale
