Sunday, February 04, 2007


Okay, a couple of updates here. I've made quite a bit of progress. The most noticeable progress is the wood bed that I've constructed.

The bed tilts to allow access to the batteries. The rear battery box, right behind the cab, will hold 16 batteries. The goal was to keep them as far forward as possible, for C.G. purposes. I still need to add some reinforcements to the battery box. I'm planning on putting two metal L-brackets on each corner, and a few along the bottom edges. There will also be angle iron running underneath on top of the mounts.

I've also built a component shelf over the motor, and a front battery box. The component shelf holds the controller, charger, boost transformer, and a lot of the little stuff, i.e., contactors, circuit breaker, and that sort of thing.


The controller is the blue box on the left side of the truck. It is a DC Power Systems Raptor 600 controller, bought used. It is rated for 600 amps and 156 volts, more than enough for my truck. This controller is not as widely used as the Curtis 1221 and 1231 models, but I believe that it just as adequate. The throttle sensor can be seen just to the right of the brake master cylinder, mounted to the firewall. This attaches directly to the gas pedal on the other side.

The charger is the gold box on the right side of the truck. It is a pretty common model, the K & W BC-20. It will be using a boost transformer to allow it to charge the 120v battery pack in my truck off of 115v. This should be pretty handy for "opportunity charging" at work, the store, or pretty much anywhere. I believe that this outweighs the benefits of a 220v charger. Although it can charge the batteries faster, there are fewer locations to plug it in.

There will also be four batteries mounted up front, in a rack in front of the shelf. This should help keep the front wheels on the ground.

Currently I am waiting to receive the contactors, gauges, inertia switch, and a few other things. Once they arrive, I'll be able to start work on the wiring.

I am also very close to getting the batteries. I should have them in the next week or two.