# 2013 Nissan Leaf Conversion Into a Tube Chassis Rock Crawler



## Slicknessindustries (Dec 25, 2016)

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster!

I have been working on EV's for a bit of time now, protested the EV1 returns and crush in highschool, in college I helped convert an EV ranger from Avcon to J1772, met Mitch at torque trends, built a trailer with homemade 3 phase axial flux wheel generators, leased a Leaf for three years and did the Openevse kit.

I love anything offroad, built a couple capable vehicles of my own.
A 2001 Solid Axle swapped camper I made from a 2wd Dakota.
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http://www.fourwheeler.com/features/1603-a-crawling-and-camping-2001-dodge-dakota/











And a HEMTT cab converted 5 ton based expedition vehicle I call the Dragon Wagon, kinda my house. 










Then at "job", converted a RallyFighter chassis to electric for a technology loan thing at work, got to take it to Leno's garage! Met Michael, Hutch and the crew at EVwest, they provided the components, cells, HPEVS AC 51 etc and I led a community driven open house to build it.​










Then we got a Twizy, I got to tear that down, modify it's harness and put it into a 3D printed car we called the Strati at IMTS in 2014... it was nuts but we pulled it off.​


























Then things started getting crazy. We bought a brand new BMW I3, I led the team to delete as many components as possible to get it driving and then we put a 3D printed body on it. 
Lots of carbon fiber to cut through... and a very angry BMW, but it drove just fine in the end​

























Things started to get a bit crazy at work, 6 years, 60-100+ hr work weeks with unpaid overtime and no promotion, haha I was literally living in the parking lot. 
It became too corporate, lots of higher ups pushing good people that I respected completely off the ladder... lots of people got hired that liked money and hated cars, I got burned out and resigned with no plan. 
After Local I went on to work in the heavy bus transit industry in the bay area and ended up at Robby Gordon's shop. Been couch-surfing for the past few months, it has been interesting and fun, been learning lots! 



But back to now,
In the early 2000's a guy built a few dedicated tube chassis DC forklift powered rock crawlers but I have yet to see a modern one. I figured re-using a LEAF drivetrain would be the best move in terms of cost, timeline and simplicity. I was totally inspired by Rob Smith's leaf teardown and the other "pegboard leaf" drivetrain video, so I took the next move. 

I bought a Salvage 2013 Leaf at auction and plan to turn it into a rock crawler. Full-time on this mixed with some side work, I am taking a break from the corporate life right now and wish to visit some family in Hungary at the end of April


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## Slicknessindustries (Dec 25, 2016)

*Chassis*-The crawler will be tube chassis, A mixture of DOM and ERW. "transverse honda powered buggy style", single seater. I will sit on the passenger side and have the Nissan inverter/charger/motor/gearbox combo on the drivers side mounted in line with the differentials. 

*Drive Train*-using only the leaf drive-line components and directly driving a pair of solid axles. I will have to modify the battery pack configuration to package the vehicle the way I want. The motor stack will be turned in a longitudinal orientation.

*Speed*- I calculated that it should have a max speed of 43.81 MPH 39" tall tires, I am driving 3.54 ratio axles directly from the leaf drive axles, it will have plenty of torque to turn them and hopefully blow some stuff up too! 

*Range*- With a 30% battery loss, giant tires and just horrible drive-line and vehicle characteristics I expect a range of 15-20 miles, I will be towed from a trailer to the trailhead by fellow rock crawlers and have a genset on the trailer. 

*Steering*- To keep it quiet (no electro-hydraulics) I want to use the Leafs electric power assisted column driving an oldschool manual gearbox, likely sourced from a large vintage truck (like an old C60) I will probably use a steering quickener post assist to keep the clock-spring and Leaf EPAS happy 

*Suspension*- Three link with panhard front and rear with air shocks

*Tires*- 39" tires on double beadlocks

*Axles*- A high pinion, 1989 F350 kingpin Dana 60 and GM 14bolt I have lying around, modifying the 14bolt to drop the differential at the drivers side. I will be running stock 3.54 gears. 

*Street Legality*- after helping to register some ~100 specialty construction Rally Fighters at the DMV I know the ins and outs, this will have an Arizona SPECO title and a hard plate


Building the entire thing out of my mothers garage in Phoenix Arizona! 

Many of the trails that I dreamed to wheel on got closed down since I completed the Dakotas solid axle swap in 2010. Trails get closed down because of noise/air pollution, environmental spills and general carelessness of not treading lightly. I noticed that there is a large "gap" between the OHV/offroad community and the EV community, I wish to close this and bring viewpoints from both sides of the table to light and start opening trails. I also have been itching to build a tube chassis crawler for quite some time now and right now is certainly a good time to start!

It all starts with this little Leaf, its a 2013 base model S with the slow charger, 39,000 miles, the auction place stated it does not turn on.


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## Matej (Dec 4, 2015)

You have probably already seen this YouTube channel, but these rock-crawling EV-converted Jeeps are pretty neat:
https://www.youtube.com/user/snuelpl/videos


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## nucleus (May 18, 2012)

*Wow, just Wow*

Your projects are spectacular. I look forward to watching this new one progress.

When you said a "very pissed off BMW" did you mean the car or the corporation?


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## Slicknessindustries (Dec 25, 2016)

*Re: Wow, just Wow*



Matej said:


> You have probably already seen this YouTube channel, but these rock-crawling EV-converted Jeeps are pretty neat:
> https://www.youtube.com/user/snuelpl/videos


Yes I have, inspiring for sure! 



nucleus said:


> Your projects are spectacular. I look forward to watching this new one progress.
> 
> When you said a "very pissed off BMW" did you mean the car or the corporation?


Thanks! 

A combination of both! 
When you remove the door, airbag and other sensors the vehicle loves to throw itself into PARK under 14MPH. I figured out that with a constant closed loop to the brake pedal position sensor it will keep moving regardless of what you do to it.

But yea, took all the fenders, doors and my buddy came over to help me take the rear hatch off. 
The car is still functioning normal~ish. The doors have airbags, so it is throwing airbag codes and junk, wants you to put it in park and throws the ikey error code, but functioning fine otherwise. 

Some language in the video, I was excited. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP84XT5plUI


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)




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## edvin.j (Jul 22, 2018)

Slicknessindustries said:


> *Chassis*-The crawler will be tube chassis, A mixture of DOM and ERW. "transverse honda powered buggy style", single seater. I will sit on the passenger side and have the Nissan inverter/charger/motor/gearbox combo on the drivers side mounted in line with the differentials.
> 
> *Drive Train*-using only the leaf drive-line components and directly driving a pair of solid axles. I will have to modify the battery pack configuration to package the vehicle the way I want. The motor stack will be turned in a longitudinal orientation.
> 
> ...


Wow! Good job on all those cars, really inspiring work! 
You don't happen to know what the minimum hardware the BMW drivetrain needs to work?  Would be really helpful!


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