Electric Powered Crawler

When I was gonna build a elec. truck my plan was to keep it simple. I was gonna get an old elec. forklift ( can be had pretty cheap with out a batt. ) and use it as a donor for the controller,potentiometer and motor. I had planed to use a small straight gear truck with a symmetrical bell housing bolt pattern. To hook the motor to the trans I was gonna get a second bell housing for the trans , flip it around and bolt it to the first and mount the motor where the trans was meant to be. I figured this would give me most of what I needed for cheap and keep fab work to a minimum. I never built it and my plan may have holes in it but it stays in the back of my mind.
 
GCncsuHD said:
I have very little solar panel knowledge, but just going off the specs you gave, at 480 watts, and lets just say for example a 36V golf cart setup, those 480 watts would provide 13 A of current for charging. Most 36V golf cart chargers are between 12-20 A and give a full charge overnight. While it absolutely wouldn't be nearly enough to run it off of solar, with the amount of sitting in place, waiting on others to move, looking for a line, sitting around while eating, and sitting on the trailer the crawler would do, it could definitely supplement the charge. Obviously something as large and as heavy as we are talking about would require more batteries and a bigger motor, therefore that charge would become less significant, but there is more useable real estate than just the roof, solar panels could occupy the "hood" area as well. Although with the cost and fragility of the solar panels that large it would not be practical.
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480W/36V=13.3A - which is two PV modules wired in a series... in complete theory. The majority of panels are 17-20A. You can really only wire up PV modules to 12, 24, or 48V, given that deep cycle batteries respond to the charge rate of PV well. Generic car batteries may work in a three 12V series, but I'm not as well versed in them and not sure how they would respond to a PV charge over time. As a reminder, this amount of 480 watts would be realistically closer to 430 watts, in the BEST conditions (no shading, 35 degree tilt here in NC, and facing south). How realistic would it be to find a shadeless, south-facing spot when trail riding to trickle charge the rig?

The chevy volt uses its' gas engine ONLY to power a generator to charge its' batteries, whereas the Prius uses both its' gas engine as well as the batteries to power the vehicle, depending on traffic conditions.
 
By the way, I'd love to see one built, but I do think that a small internal combustion engine to charge your battery bank is the most feasible way to accomplish this project. If you can charge your battery bank with a combustion engine, you get the benefits of electric power, without the massive battery bank you would have to have for a project this size, and do go four-wheeling for any length of time.
 
okay....are we talking briggs and stratton, or chevy 4.3L to power the battaries?
 
Here's a idea, find a Samuri, install a small 4 cylinder engine, 5speed transmission, transfer case and one battery and see how that works out.
 
The volt uses a 1.4 liter gas generator to charge its' lithium-ion batteries.
 
Dunno if any of you guys have dealt with wiring issues on the trail or not, I'm sure you have at one point or another...you know the random fuse, dead battery etc etc...it's a pain in the ass and even more of a headache to troubleshoot....I hate wiring...how bout lets figure out how to make an electricity FREE rock crawler :lol: I'm on board for that one :lol: last thing I'd be looking for is adding more wires & batteries...:beer:
 
336wheeler said:
The chevy volt uses its' gas engine ONLY to power a generator to charge its' batteries, whereas the Prius uses both its' gas engine as well as the batteries to power the vehicle, depending on traffic conditions.
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Not exactly. It mostly operates as a generator, but can power the wheels when required. I like that design better, but that's probably not something a home mechanic could pull off easily.

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/...-power-the-wheels-so-is-it-still-special.html

Also, I saw something that said the motors can't be submerged in water. Is that because of the high voltage and the potential for shock? From what I understand, an electric motor will still work under water.
 
Jmauld said:
Also, I saw something that said the motors can't be submerged in water. Is that because of the high voltage and the potential for shock? From what I understand, an electric motor will still work under water.
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our RC crawler motors ran under water. i used an ESC off of a boat (it was waterproof and used a balloon/zip tie on the receiver) and could drive it completely submerged.

but..that was small scale DC motors.
 
Reid said:
our RC crawler motors ran under water. i used an ESC off of a boat (it was waterproof and used a balloon/zip tie on the receiver) and could drive it completely submerged.
but..that was small scale DC motors.
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Yeah, I've ran my RC truck completely under water as well. That's why I think the concern is a shock hazard and not a hardware issue.

What kind of motors are being used for these electric vehicles? The only way I'd consider this is if they were using a Brushless DC (or a true AC) motor.
 
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Based on this, it shouldn't be able to. Would it not have to have a separate drivetrain, aside from the battery bank and electric motor to directly power the wheels?
 
One thing also I rember about this is keeping the batteries cooled so they do not over heat. For 4wheeling you want t seal everything so water does not get to the batteries making it tough to cool and keep sealed.
 
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