# 1968-1972 VW Bus conversion advice



## Mastiff (Jan 11, 2008)

You want to convert this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Type_2

Forgive me for being blunt with the following:

This vehicle is about as Aerodynamic as a rounded brick, if you want it to travel 60 miles with a top speed of 70mph you'll need a lot more than that " E-volks electric conversion kit #4".

It's also heavy so loading it full of lead-acid batteries just makes it heavier thus adding more strain on the motor especially up hill.

About the solar panels, no, they're not worth the cost or weight, put the solar panels on your house, they'll be of better use.

Here are some parts suppliers:
http://www.electroauto.com/catalog/ackits.shtml#heavy

http://www.metricmind.com/index1.htm

http://www.beepscom.com/

If your looking for a kit, the only one remotely powerful enough that I know of is the "Heavy Vehicle Manual Transmission" kit from Electro Automotive.

Using a spreadsheet I obtained from:
http://www.cameronsoftware.com/ev/Welcome.html

I entered in the values needed for converting a Hummer H2 the closest thing I have values for to your VW bus.

The results aren't good.

It tells me to maintain a speed of 60mph you'll need 62+ continuous horsepower which is 46 kilowatts (kW) of power.

Electro Automotive's kit I recommended uses a motor with 34kW of continuous power, so you'd be over working it to power your bus to 60mph, so you see the problem.

You can achieve the power you require though, it would just cost a lot more money upwards of $35,000+ in parts and lightweight lithium batteries.

Now if you're ok with paying this much money, I can recommend to you some possible ways of achieving this goal.



At the moment I'd recommend converting anything else than a bus, it's much cheaper and easier and you'll get a useful vehicle out of it.

You can check out a bunch of finished conversions here:
http://www.evalbum.com/

I hope that answers your questions and I don't want to be crushing any of your dreams here, I just wanted to show you how much your goals would probably end up costing.


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## pmatos (Feb 3, 2008)

Thanks for the reply Mastiff!

But are you certain about the calculations you provided? Take a look at the following link:

http://www.evalbum.com/384

This is very similar to my proposed EV, with very similar range (49 miles) and top speed (70 mph). I'm thinking a vw bus doesn't weigh as much as an H2 and may have skewed your calculations a bit.

Thanks again!
Paul


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## Mastiff (Jan 11, 2008)

I guess my spreadsheet isn't too accurate.



> 49 Miles _(78 Kilometers)_
> at 80% DOD on a city/hwy mix loop


A city/highway mixed loop probably means he isn't traveling 60mph at all times, so I'm not so sure about that.


Though I guess it is more possible than it seems.

That conversion used an ADC FB1-4001, which is used in Electro Automotive's Deluxe DC conversion kit it's the 9" version.

Imo this motor seems underpowered for the job, he could be putting it under strain which means it will have a shorter life span.

He also doesn't specify the Amp hour rating of his batteries, or how many, but judging from the picture of his battery box it looks to be two sets of 12 batteries he'll have each set of 12 wired in series then the two sets wired together in parallel.

Now I don't know his battery's AH ratings but assuming they where 50 AH
he'd have 14400 watt hours of total energy.

Now if his VW used 300watt hours per mile of travel that would be theoretical max distance of 48 miles which would be closer to 35-40 real life usable miles.

So his batteries must be higher amp hour or he has a third group of 50 AH batteries giving him 21600 watt hours which would realistically be good for 60-65 miles.

This is assuming his VW bus uses 300-watt hours per mile, I'm unsure what it uses.

So it seems it could be possible, I would email him if I where you and ask him what kind of speeds he travels at and how much power he has in his batteries and how many he has.


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## mattW (Sep 14, 2007)

Here is my calculations using the famous EV calculator from EV convert:
http://evconvert.com/tools/evcalc/?...wnd=0:sec=195:asp=60:rim=14:rr=0.015:bs=0.003:
Thats with a final weight of approx 4000lbs, 9inch motor, 144V, zilla controller etc. Just for comparison change the car from a non-aero truck to the honda insight and it triples the range at highway speeds (not that an insight can carry that many batteries but you get the idea of the problem). With Lithium Ion Batteries and some extra cash you could possible get the range you want in that bus and it would be a cool conversion but if you are just using it for a 1 person commuter there are much better donor vehicles for you to start with. Sorry to be a un-optimistic but we're only trying to help. If you could rank your priorities of range, cost, top speed or it being a vw bus that would make it easier to make suggestions.


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## pmatos (Feb 3, 2008)

Hi guys,

I really do appreciate the input so far, I would much rather find out what I was proposing won't work on paper rather than buying the parts and finding out first hand .

How about a vw beetle or geo metro conversion? What kind of motor and batteries would I need to hit 60 mile distance/70 mph?

Thanks again!
Paul


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## Mastiff (Jan 11, 2008)

Ahh, a Geo Metro, one of the more popular EV conversions:
http://www.evalbum.com/type/GEO

Here's an excellent example of what different types of batteries can do:
http://www.evalbum.com/602

They are all the same car but each with a different type of battery.

So if you could build a 144 volt DC system with probably a 8" or 9" motor and some "quality" lead-acid batteries you could make a Geo Metro do 50-60ish miles.

You'll probably need some aerodynamic enhancements though, like a belly pan, maybe some rear wheel covers ect.

If you went with a kit that has regenerative breaking, like the AC kits from Electro Automotive then you could get even better city mileage.

If you chose to buy a battery pack from LionEV you'd also easily get 60 miles of range out of the car and it will accelerate faster


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## mattW (Sep 14, 2007)

There are a few Geo conversions that claim similar stats but i doubt their stated range was at their top speed:
http://www.evalbum.com/541
http://www.evalbum.com/1343
Your specs are sort of on the edge of lead acid capabilities. An Aero-modified pick-up could potentially make that sort of distance. The biggest thing influencing range (besides batteries) at highway speeds is the aerodynamics. If you look at our Donor Car Selection page it gives the stats of various vehicles. If you have the money to go with NiMh or Lithium batteries then that sort of range is much more doable, do you have a budget for your conversion?


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