Building an electric car is an aspiration that is growing more popular in today’s world, and rightly so; those who do know how to convert car to electric have a distinct economical advantage over those that don’t. Even though there are numerous versions of electric cars that are on the market today that are produced by major manufacturers, the vast majority of home made cars on the roads are those which are built at home. The advantages of building your own electric car are many. Besides being able to save tons of money on gas you are also able to contribute to the slowing of global warming on a large scale, reducing pollution in the atmosphere, and last but not least save the deterioration of the ozone layer.
Convert Car To Electric
These benefits alone would make any person jump at the opportunity to convert car to electric. There are a lot of kits that are out nowadays that teach people how to convert car to electric, but for the most part if you have a little mechanical background you can do this task in the comfort of your own garage with very outside help to assist you. This article in particular is one that will help you on the quest to make your own electric car in the privacy of your own garage. One of the first things that people have to realize about designing and building their own electric car, is that it does require a bit of time and effort. But aside from that let’s get started.
First of all you will need to pick a car that will suit your conversion needs, and you must remember that all cars are not made the same. In general, when you endeavor to convert car to electric, remember that the lighter the car the better. A heavy car will not be as efficient as a smaller, lighter car. This can impact the amount of drive time that you are actually able to use the vehicle immensely. The most common types of conversion cars use a DC controller and a DC motor. For the most part conversion cars are run off of anywhere between 96 volts and 192 volts, but the choice is up to you depending on how much power you need for your car.
The amount of voltage that you choose to use for your conversion car will directly affect the amount of batteries that you need for the vehicle and what type of motor that you will need as well. Most of the time, people opt out to use electric motors from forklifts because these motors are high powered applications that are built to last and are already installed in a sort of motor vehicle. Although there are several different choices that can be made in regards to what type of battery will be used, in most cases people choose top use lead acid batteries as they are the most reliable for this sort of job.
Also, to keep things simple it is best to use a vehicle that has a manual transmission when you decide to convert car to electric.Also batteries come in many different types, there are flooded, gelled or AGM (absorbed glass mat) electrolyte. Flooded batteries tend to be the cheapest out of all the types but they are not great on peak power capacity. Once you have made all the necessary decisions about what type of battery, motor, and body style will be used, it is now time to begin your project.
The first thing that needs to happen to your “donor car” to convert car to electric is that all the gasoline powered components need to be removed. This will include the engine, gas tank, exhaust system, clutch, catalytic converter and the radiator. Removing all of these components will make it easier to install your new components and this will reduce the total weight of the vehicle. take your transmission to a machine shop, its best if you can find one that is knowledgeable in conversion, have them to examine it and to attach an adapter plate to your transmission. the adapter plate allows you to be able to mount the motor to the transmission. This also usually requires mounting brackets that are customized.
Most of the time the electric motor will require a reduction gear in order to operate at maximum capacity. although you can purchase a customized reduction gear for this task, this option is usually too expensive to even consider. The easiest way to create a homemade reduction gear for your transmission is to lock the transmission that you already have into first or second gear. This is accomplished quite easily by having the transmission pinned. next you need to mount your DC controller.
Check out the interior of the car and find out where the best place is for your batteries. After this is done, build yourself some brackets to convert car to electric. The next step is to wire the batteries to the controller using #00 gauge welding cable. You also want to wire the motor to the controller using the same gauge wire. most people need power steering, and if you are one of those people you will also need an electric motor to power your power steering pump when you convert car to electric.
Convert Car To Electric – The Conclusion
You will need to monitor the power of your car when you convert car to electric so install some sort of voltmeter for this task. If you want to have AC in your car, that’s no problem, just install another electric motor that you can use to power this application. Your car will also most likely come with power brakes, so make sure that you install a vacuum pump that will help to boost your brakes when in use. Install your charging system and a converter that will assist in powering your alternate power source. You also need a way to turn your car on and off when you decide to convert car to electric so make sure that you install a rely, you should be up and running in no time.
