[ausev] Toyota Landcruiser conversion

[Clendon Gibson]

Perhaps this would be a good vehicle to use wheel mounted electric motors in? Would that not do away with the 4WD transmission issue?

----- Original Message ----
From: Christopher Robison <eeyore at phototropia.org>
To: AustinEV News Announcements and General Discussion <ausev at austinev.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 11:29:13 AM
Subject: Re: [ausev] Toyota Landcruiser conversion

This could be a really fun project. I think the older jeep-style FJ40
Land Cruisers were a lot cooler than the current behemoth luxury SUVs
under the same name. A bit of attitude they're trying to bring back with
the FJ Cruiser. You probably won't find any OEM parts for it, but the
old style Land Cruisers have enough of a fan base that there are
companies making replacement parts. This typically means they'll be
available, but expensive.

The reality is that your two questions answer each other. Whether or not
your conversion will be able to keep up with traffic depends greatly on
how much money you have to spend on it. Plan your budget starting at
about $10k for the conversion, but more if you want to maintain any of
the FJ's capabilities in off-roading etc.

A couple things learned for certain in Nick's Cherokee conversion.
First, having a boxy vehicle with a lot of frontal area makes it more
difficult to have decent range.  Second, keeping the 4wd parts (transfer
case, front driveshaft and axle) makes it even worse.

How far is your commute?  Would you be able to plug in at work?  If
you're doing mostly 40-50mph, your range will be noticeably better than
having to drive 60-65.

Bottom line: this conversion won't be cheap to do, as you have many
factors working against you: Weight, aerodynamics, obscure and expensive
parts, inefficient 4WD drivetrain.  However, it would be a really cool
vehicle when complete, if enough money is spent to do it right.

  --chris



On Tue, 2007-02-13 at 16:13 -0600, charles winningham wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I am an aspiring electric car owner who has come into the opportunity
> to purchase a 1983 Toyota Landcruiser for next to nothing.  I would
> like to buy it and convert it to electric for the purpose of being a
> commuter car but I have some concerns and I do not know exactly how
> much it would cost to do a competent conversion of this particular
> model.
> 
> My main concerns are 1) will it be able to keep up with the speed of
> traffic on my commute? (does not include freeway driving but does
> include a short stretch of driving on the access road to MOPAC) 2) how
> much will it cost? (any range, however appoximate, would help)
> 
> Thank you all for making this community happen.  It's awesome to have
> something that actually enables me to do something about how much I
> hate driving a petroleum-fed car.
> 
> Charles Winningham
> _______________________________________________
> AusEV mailing list
> AusEV at austinev.org
> http://www.austinev.org/mailman/listinfo/ausev

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