[Driving] Freelander EV With Gen1 Leaf electrics and EVBMW VCU [FINISHED]

[Alibro]

Used the car again for the sort of jobs I built it for.
Yesterday I drove to the airport to pick up my Mrs and daughter, and today I borrowed an old horse trailer and used it to bring home two large round bails of hay.

The trailer is stupidly heavy and the wifes Ford Kuga really struggles to tow it as it's clutch is on it's last legs and the engine hasn't much torque.
Normally in the Freelander I don't use first gear as it isn't necessary but when towing this trailer I use first to get moving and cross roads quickly. Pulling through slow traffic was a breeze however I don't like pulling up long fast hills with the constant high current load. Maybe I'm being silly but I was glad to get it back to it's owner.

[Alibro]

New - Old Vid
I recorded this a few months ago but only got around to editing and releasing it now.

[Alibro]

Last night I towed brother in law's Golf to the mechanic with it.
Funny thing was his Golf clutch pedal was stuck to the floor just like mine. His didn't go as well like that tho.

Who said EV's can't tow!

The best bit about towing the Golf was the route to the mechanic has a fairly long and very steep hill which I was concerned about. I just dropped from 2nd (which is good for up to 45mph) to 1st and the car sailed up the hill like it wasn't there doing around 20mph.

[Alibro]

So this week I decided it was time to secure my power steering pump properly instead of just jamming it in with foam packing.

I never got a photo of it installed like this but this is the foam I was using. It worked surprisingly well for a couple thousand miles.

So I started by cutting a hydraulic pump shaped hole in a bit of 1.5mm steel then welded a lip onto it.

Before grinding my Fugly welds.

Then I welded on some angle supports.

Before final grind and paint

I then drilled and tapped holes to secure the pump and welded it into position. It is welded to my battery bracket, not to the car so no issue with DVLA

Nice and solid now.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out but I currently don't have any rubber mounts holding it. I just used M8 bolts and washers so I find it much louder then it was before. Hopefully with rubber bushings it will be a bit quieter but I need to figure out a way to make them as they didn't come with the pump.

[Alibro]

I happened across this video I took back in May and had a second look. Turns out my car is putting out a little more power than I expected when I started this build.
I'm using the inverter and motor from a 2011 Gen1 Nissan Leaf which had a claimed power of 80kW. In this video I'm using a high quality shunt made by Isabellenhütte so I think the numbers are accurate.
I watched carefully and saw a peak power of 89kW but a constant power for several seconds of 85/86kW.
TBH this is pretty much how it feels but with the instant torque of electric. It's not a power monster but I'm very happy with how it goes.

[Alibro]

The PAS pump is much quieter now with these, I think they're called bobbins but they make a big difference.

https://ebay.us/IgouJS

Not quite as quiet as the foam but not as bad as bolting in directly.

[Alibro]

Last week I used my Freelander EV to tow a mates motorbike (on a trailer) to a repair shop. Only problem was the shop is 30 miles away and my car has a range of up to 100 miles on a good day. In the winter at around 3 Deg C with a large trailer and a motorbike it could not be called "a good day". I wasn't sure what the range would be but decided 60 miles should be OK if I took it easy. If I had figured out how to implement fast charging I would have been able to stop and recharge enroute but I haven't, not yet anyway. In fact my ac charging is pretty slow too at 3kW so I can only add around 9 miles per hour to the range, probably less while towing but at least it was an option.

Anyway we set off and apart from one of his securing straps breaking resulting in the bike almost falling off the trailer we made it there and I made a quick calculation that we should be able to make it home too.
The only issue we had on the whole trip was the cold. The heater uses 2kW which is around 5% of the battery capacity per hour. On a journey that lasted 1.5 hours that would be approx 7.5% reduction in the range or 7.5 miles so went without.
In the end we probably could have had the heater on at a low temp and still made it back but I didn't feel confident to do that, however I was delighted that my dodgy home built Frankenstein EV conversion was able to do the job at all.
Sadly I forgot to take photo's but it was a fun trip and confirmed the car is still a practical workhorse.

[marcexec]

Probably not much point, but are there any aero mods you could do on the underbody to increase range? E.g. cover the sections that are now open and thus messy where the exhaust went?

[arber333]

Probably not much point, but are there any aero mods you could do on the underbody to increase range? E.g. cover the sections that are now open and thus messy where the exhaust went?

I think one inconsiderate press of the throttle would annul everything you save by painstaking aeromodding . Better use low rolling resistance tires and drive slower...

[Alibro]

Probably not much point, but are there any aero mods you could do on the underbody to increase range? E.g. cover the sections that are now open and thus messy where the exhaust went?

I had considered this but the Freelander is not too cluttered underneath and on the day I suspect the slab sides of the trailer were the major problem.
Someday I'll upgrade the old Leaf Gen1 VCU to Zombieverter and use the regen to claw back a few miles, I know it won't make a huge difference but every little helps.

I think one inconsiderate press of the throttle would annul everything you save by painstaking aeromodding . Better use low rolling resistance tires and drive slower...

I drove the whole time treating the throttle like it had eggs under the pedal.
The tyres are new but finding EV tyres for a Freelander is not easy, 215-65-R16.