# Ford Econoline Van with ramp EV conversion?



## subcooledheatpump (Mar 5, 2012)

Man with van here

My Thread 

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forum...ed-chevrolet-express-van-converted-70662.html


My best advice


Big industrial AC motor + big industrial VFD with torque control. Search Ebay for deals on these. old industrial stuff is cheap compared to "made for EV" stuff

Transmission is optional with AC but required for DC, though keeping it might be a good idea either way. 

I have my AC motor hooked right to the driveshaft. 

Do you know your differential ratio, original engine power, gearbox/transmission ratio?

The batteries will be the killer, not really much advice I can give there. They are expensive, and for your range requirements, they will be very expensive 

Best of luck


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

subcooledheatpump said:


> ...
> Transmission is optional with AC but required for DC, though keeping it might be a good idea either way. ...


Whether or not you need a transmission depends less on the type of motor used and more on how much power you have available... 

Also, the bearings in the typical industrial ACIM shouldn't spin up above 6000-7000rpm. If you have a decent power to weight ratio in the vehicle that might be enough of an RPM range to get good acceleration AND a reasonable top speed (defined by me as 75 mph), but it's not ideal; even just having two different gear ratios available will allow for much better drivability and overall performance.


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## subcooledheatpump (Mar 5, 2012)

Tesseract said:


> If you have a decent power to weight ratio in the vehicle that might be enough of an RPM range to get good acceleration AND a reasonable top speed (defined by me as 75 mph)



Thats my point exactly. 

In my case, my driveshaft will rotate at 3000 RPM at 75 MPH. Perfectly reasonable for an industrial motor. 

Again, I say in either case (AC or DC) a transmission may be a good idea just for more low end torque. 

The only real problems I have with the transmission, the energy it wastes, and the clutches that eventually turn to dust. The transmission in my donor was almost completely destroyed, the clucthes/bands/whatever wouldn't grab for a few seconds between gear changes.


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