# S10 Pickup conversion



## Mr. Sharkey (Jul 26, 2007)

S-10's seem to be popular for electric converions, and I'm told that they have more room between the frame rails than a Ranger, for example.

There's a feature article on an S-10 conversion in the latest Home Power magazine, issue 122, as well as an in-depth article about the country's first dedicated retail biofuels filling station (ask me why I care about that...).


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## Cornelius (Sep 15, 2007)

Hi Ben,
I did an 1997 S-10 pickup as my first conversion. There's the picture in the upper left. The truck you describe is basically what you want as a donor vehicle. Specifically: 4 cylinder engine, two wheel drive, standard transmission. You want the 4 cylinder engine for the flywheel. The V6 engine is internally balanced, so you would need to get a flywheel off a 4 cylinder at a salvage yard if you use an S-10 with a V6 as the donor vehicle.

Both EV America and Canadian EV provide parts for S-10 conversions. Canadian EV sells a complete kit, although it is expensive. I purchased their transmission adapter and motor mount parts which are made to work with an Advanced DC 9" motor. A friend helped me with welding battery racks to fit under the hood and pickup bed. The Canadian kit uses a battery box in the bed. Shipping on the large metal battery box is costly, as it has to ship by motor freight.

EV America will provide you with a detailed S-10 conversion guide when you purchase a motor or controller from them. They use an aluminum plate that you cut to make your own transmission adapter. The tolerances are critical. Where this was my first conversion, I preferred purchasing the cast and machined adapter from Canadian EV, which bolted on perfectly.

The frame rails on the S-10 are wide enough to fit the battery racks under the bed. The drive shaft is not centered, so it's a little tighter fit on the passenger side, and plenty of room on the driver's side where the fuel tank was located. Some converters notch the S-10 frame to fit in the battery rack, but I did not do that.

I'm glad I chose the S-10 as my first conversion. It's a bit more forgiving design when I was learning how to do everything. I'm still amazed that everything works as well as it does considering I had never done more than change oil and filters on a car!

Both Randy Holmquist at Canadian EV and Bob Batson at EV America are great people to deal with.

Cornelius

http://www.canev.com/
http://www.ev-america.com/


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## BenNelson (Jul 27, 2007)

Thanks Cornelius!

That's encourgeing. Anyone else have some advice?


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## Cornelius (Sep 15, 2007)

Canadian EV has the S-10 article in Home Power Magazine that Mr. Sharkey referred to posted at their web site:

http://www.canev.com/PressRelease/BornToBeWired_HPIssue122.pdf


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## dataman19 (Oct 7, 2009)

I am just curious... And I juast gotta ask...
...
Is there an AC Conversion kit for the Chevy S-10?
..
Any recommendations?
..
Thanks
Dataman19


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

FWIW: it is bigger and heavier than a ranger.. up side there are more custom chromed stuff, lift kits, slam kits, you name it. Rangers seem to mostly be stocker work trucks. Trannies are sort of universal, BOLT up to a 350 block if you want, diffs seem beefy. Parts abound in the wrecker yards, because they get trashed often, more than Rangers, which are often ridden real hard till they die.

A grand for a straight roller, not a bad deal. Yes, I believe there are AC kits.

Really old post here. Went zombie I guess.


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## BenNelson (Jul 27, 2007)

Wow, yeah. Total zombie thread.
I originally posted this after building my motorcycle, but before building my electric Geo Metro.

I also hybridized the Metro for a while there.

I AM however slowly chipping away on building a Plug-In Diesel/Electric Hybrid S-10.


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

Srebbaywer is a spammer.


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## Caps18 (Jun 8, 2008)

I made more progress on my S10 conversion this weekend.


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