# 1971 VW Bus conversion, version 1.0



## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

Nice, get us more photos and video if you can. Another VW. How sweet.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

This is WAY cool!


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## Yabert (Feb 7, 2010)

Awesome component choice!... an electric VW bus with a potential of over 160 hp 
Good work.


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## jehu (Oct 28, 2012)

Nice!! Yes please let us see where you put all those batteries


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## bhayman (Feb 17, 2011)

jehu said:


> Nice!! Yes please let us see where you put all those batteries


My bus is a westfalia - campmobile (sans the pop top). As such, it has a fold out rear bench seat with under-the-seat storage. This is the location I am using for the batteries. While the footprint is slightly larger than the original rear bench, it makes for an ideal location. I'm redoing the interior, anyways, so this works out fine. IIRC, limiting myself to 44 cells would have fit within the original under-the-seat footprint. 

For now, I am just using a temporary wooden frame, but I will be creating a metal enclosure and frame welded to the chassis to prevent from being "airborne" in an accident. Then, I'll have the modified rear bench seat encase the metal battery box, such that you wouldn't even know it is there.

-Bryan.


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## AndyG (Dec 15, 2012)

Really cool! My girlfriend and I are going to convert our Westy to electric soon. What was the cost of the system you put in?


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## bhayman (Feb 17, 2011)

AndyG said:


> Really cool! My girlfriend and I are going to convert our Westy to electric soon. What was the cost of the system you put in?


Sorry it took so long to reply (work and holiday stuff). I have not totaled all my receipts, and there are lots of them, but here are the big ticket items.

Controller - ~3000
Motor - ~1800
Adapter - ~1000
Wiring, relays, contactor - ~500
Batteries - ~7400
Charger - ~2000

Luckily, for my build I decided what I wanted and then just saved up the money to get my desired components instead of rushing the build. I accumulated components over the period of about 16 months. 

Come spring, my attention will turn to repainting the exterior and refinishing the interior.

Good luck with your build and plan appropriately for moving a "big steel box on wheels". So far, mine is proving to be more fun than the original.

Bryan


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## jarobson (Jul 21, 2012)

Hi there
well its a a year on from this post just wondering how you have found your system as i am looking at converting a 63 crew cab, what sort of range are you getting and if you could change stuff what would it be
jamie


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## bhayman (Feb 17, 2011)

jarobson said:


> Hi there
> well its a a year on from this post just wondering how you have found your system as i am looking at converting a 63 crew cab, what sort of range are you getting and if you could change stuff what would it be
> jamie


So far, I have been quite pleased with my component selection. At 80% DOD I get around 39 miles for highway driving and for city driving around 48 miles with a nominal 16.6 Kwh pack. Being in Boulder, I don't put on all that many miles on a vehicle. So even using the VW as a daily driver, I still only have to charge once a week. I have a Brusa charger (which I highly recommend) and I limited my first several charges to daytime in order to monitor the charging, but it did not take long until I just plug it in and not worry about it.

I really like the performance potential and configuration of the Soliton with the Warp9 in the VW, but with the AC-76 becoming available I would have strongly considered that as an option. With the weight of the VW Bus, having regen available for additional braking would be nice. I'm considering a couple of other builds where I might consider swapping out the Soliton/Warp9 to another conversion and get an AC-76 for the bus.

With the current configuration, I will probably add forced air cooling for the motor as it can get quite hot during summer highway driving.

I would say, just research your options and do what you think will work best.

-Bryan.


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## jarobson (Jul 21, 2012)

Hi there thanks for getting back to me, i have also been looking at the AC-76 with a curtis controller looks pretty cool.
i have also found a brusa charger for a good price however I was advised to keep away from discontinued lines however the quality and write up looks good , what voltage pack are you charging as i was wondering if the brusa would be ok on a low 144 v system 18.72KWh as it seems better suited on larger packs? and how long does yours pack take to charge?
regards jamie


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## bhayman (Feb 17, 2011)

Jamie,

I actually have 2 Brusas. I originally bought a NLG503-Lite from metricmind. Then I bought a NLG513 from EVTV (when it was on sale). I don't recall the low end DC output voltage, but I think it is around 100 or 120v. I have a 52 cell system (166v nominal) and it works just fine. Right now, I still charge off of 110 outlet. So, I only average about 5.13ah per hour into the pack. My cells are 100ah, thus at 50% DOD it takes around 10 hours to charge. Even though the NLG513 are discontinued, I would still buy another one when doing another conversion. It is easy to configure and supports a large voltage range if I change my pack voltage.

Bryan.


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