# 1976 ford f100 good for conversion ???



## Pushthatbolder (Mar 30, 2011)

Has anyone done it??? 
Is it a good idea ??
Was thinking around 200AHA
got any advice??? 
I can get a beaut of a thing from a guy for $900 it's in very good nick..


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

Used to have a neighbor that owned a sweet long box F100 of that year. 3 on the tree manual and 351 engine. Really nice truck and it always ran like a top.

Whats great about old fords like this is they have a lot of meat in them to carry the weight but they can be a bit heavy. I know ford started trying very hard to lighten their trucks toward the late 70s and into the 80s but I'm not sure if that year of truck is late enough to benefit from some of the changes.

200ah, but what voltage?


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## Pushthatbolder (Mar 30, 2011)

200aha @ 144-160 volts


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## gdirwin (Apr 7, 2009)

I have a 75 F250 highboy - looks the same, but beefier suspension etc... Our trucks are built like tanks - very heavy, but lots of room to work with.

My RAV4 EV uses about the same voltage and AH as what you are planning, with a Netgain 9" motor - it moves the small/light RAV nicely, but it would not be good for a bigger truck (too sluggish in my opinion). 

If you are considering the F100, a much bigger motor would easily fit (just about anything would fit!) so consider higher power if possible... There also would be oodles of room for batteries - you could even mount them under the bed (between the frame rails - cut open the bed from the top, make a battery box, drop in the batteries, then replace the metal lid - out of the way, low center of gravity, plus you keep the pickup functionality...


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

I would agree it might be underpowered but it depends on what the top speed goals are. With low gearing it would probably be satisfactory up to 40 MPH. Also, if you believe the claims, lithium batteries are getting to the point where running them above 1C isn't as big a no-no as it used to be so if used with something like the soliton controller, it could move pretty well.

Range however will likely be under 50 miles.


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