# Planning Chevrolet S10 Blazer conversion



## Amorget (Sep 18, 2016)

Hi,
My Dad and I got talking about and it came up that he'd like to have an electric SUV down in Mexico for trips between their house in the jungle and the town on a rather bad dirt road. Because of the slow speeds and constant shifting their Jeep Wrangler gets horrible gas mileage for the short trip. Yes, he is aware that the ROI on this project is horrible.

I currently have a 1987 2 door 4WD Chevy Blazer sitting in his driveway that seems like a really good choice for a vehicle for this conversion. His goals are 35 mph with a 35 mile range, though those aren't hard and fast. It is an automatic, however I would convert it to a manual. It seems that since there's no clutch requirement it would be pretty easy. We also considered just doing a divorced transfer case to give them 2 speeds. Low would be about a 2:1 and high would be 1:1, so I don't know if that will work or not... it would basically be like just having 2nd and 3rd gear.

Batteries would be installed under the rear cargo area and sealed off from the passenger area. Steering and most likely brakes will be converted to manual.

Any opinions as far as a good motor and controller for something like this? Any other suggestions? Reading around on the site when most people asked about a 4x4 they were met with resistance (which I understand), however this would be used on a dirt road that turns into a dirt stream with large ruts during the rainy season. 4wd is basically needed to get in and out.

Thanks,
Douglas


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi Douglas

You have told us about the requirements - excellent
Now - the budget?

Battery
This is now the easy bit - a Leaf battery pack would be fine
A Volt pack would be marginal
About $2000

Motor/controller
DC a re-purposed forklift motor and a Paul & Sabrina controller $1000
Decent power but a bit unsophisticated

If you want AC - less power and $6000
More sophisticated - but less power for more money

Most sophisticated and potentially cheapest get a damaged Nissan Leaf and use all of its bits 
That would give the best outcome BUT it is probably the most difficult


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## Amorget (Sep 18, 2016)

Hi Duncan,
You are right, I forgot to mention budget. I have about 500 dollars to do this... ha, kidding! We didn't really talk budget, however 4-5K is about what I was thinking. He was looking at some Chinese SUV that was 6-8k that he'd have to have shipped over here. It seemed like a better idea to DIY because in case of something breaking we'd know exactly what we needed to get.

As far as the motor goes, i have no idea where to find a used Forklift motor. Same goes for the battery packs... is there a favorite place to buy? The one place I looked after a quick Google search had so many different configurations for Leaf and Volt "battery packs", like a 5kWh and 7kWh Volt battery pack, both from the same year Volt... and a Volt has like a 17 kWh battery pack.

I am fine with being unsophisticated on this. With the environment it's going to be in rugged beats sophisticated.

I do like the idea of a damaged Leaf, I will do some reading on what people are doing retrofit a vehicle with leaf guts. *edit* After looking at what would be involved to do a Leaf setup I think I'd rather stick with a more straight forward swap and not be worrying about BCMs, VCMs, etc.


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi
Battery
Have a read of this thread
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/2012-chevy-volt-battery-93101.html

Forklift motor
There is a long thread on using them in the motors section
Where to find?
You need to find out who repairs forklifts - any decent sized town will have a forklift repair shop
With electric forklifts the batteries die first - the motors are normally OK even after 30 years
Forklift shops tend to hang onto motors -Just in case - try offering to swap for beer


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## tommypress (Jul 20, 2016)

Other things aside, this option seems like a feasible one in terms of budget and reliability.


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## madderscience (Jun 28, 2008)

One good reason to consider AC might be the rough dirt road - DC systems are usually open frame motors meaning a lot of dust and grit will get into the motor causing rapid wear and possibly commutator failure.

A closed frame AC motor would be pretty much impervious to that issue.

The cheapest way to go with a closed frame AC motor and inverter might be the same solectria / azure dynamics system I have in my car. At least up here in WA these are trading under $1000 for motor/inverter sets. The down side is they are older systems and azure dynamics is out of business. However, if properly checked out and set up the motors and inverters seem to be pretty reliable. An AC55 motor hooked to a divorced transfer case would work quite well in an S10 blazer. Given your speed requirements you would ideally have 5.29 ratio axles assuming stock sized tires. That would give a top speed around 55-60mph in high range. These motors are often found with a driveshaft yoke on their output shaft, so a very easy mechanical adaptation given your thoughts. I have designs to do something very similar with a Toyota tacoma 4x4 one of these days. (though with either a remy double stack or siemens motor -- both available but much more expensive than the solectria stuff)

The only other major consideration would be good attention paid environmental and vibration issues. You might need to spend more effort on coming up with a battery pack and inverter mounts designed to withstand extra vibration, dirt intrusion, and such. Fully enclosed pack with filtered air circulation, shock mounted? You might want to ensure all your major electronic components (DC/DC, charger, inverter/controller) are all sealed units. Some of these sorts of components are open frame designs which are cheaper and easier to cool, but let in dirt and tarantulas.

Good luck.


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