openinverter forum

Hello forum.

I am about to start a project based around leaf equipment. A little vague at this point as it could go either way between a L200 (Triton Missile) known as the, Long Range Pony, or a Landrover Discovery 2 aka Discoblue. More accuratly this could be a game of which one first.

The Disco is mine and my best mates it is often is my daily driver when its working (Max 50 mile one way with charge available at work). Capable of Southam (nr Coventry) to Wrexham (circa 100 miles) would be the ideal though this is an infrequent journey. This is also used for off roading/greenlaning/camping ect.

The l200 is currently a farm truck and registered accordingly. That would probably be used more like a test bed to see whether it suits mums needs of local trips to pickup feed/take goats to vets ect. Stretch goal with this truck would be towing livestock to the Royal Cheshire show 37 miles away.

I think regardless of which vehicle I would start with baby steps and look at the approach Damien Maguire has put forward of using smaller packs from hybrids and then increasing battery capacity from there. I might have access to some Lithium batteries to get me going.

Outline so far is...

160Kw leaf inverter/motor stack. (I want to go for best performance for the off road purposes).
Zombieverter controller.
Retain donor vehicle gearbox/transfer case.
Charging... Yes.
Regen.. Yes with variable Regen rates.

Vehicle to house (I think this means chademo is the only current option for this).
On vehicle Solar charging. Farm truck to test this to influence whether solar charging could work for wild camping 4x4 expedition stuff. Park up and charge the go for a bit more.
4x4 Winch... Hand winch as backup.

I think that's all I can think of for now.

If anyone's read this far, thank you. Any comments/advice would be welcome. Im a knats whatsit off stopping just thinking about these things and buying some parts and getting into it.

DJ

To give a rough idea on range with a truck like that. The ECC Defenders get around 2 miles per kWh.

I think on vehicle solar charging might be a bit of a challenge, might have to question if it is worth it or not as well. Have a look at the size of say a 200w solar panel, then figure out how many you can fit on the roof and how long that would take to put in any reasonable amount of charge. Not thinking about loses through solar controllers, inverters and chargers.
Although for camping purposes I think it would work well with a 12v setup.

This thread might be of interest to you!
viewtopic.php?t=2252

Discoblue,

I am considering converting my Mitsubishi Pajero Sport to an EV as well. It is based on a similar model, such as the Mitsubishi L200 or Triton, similar to yours.

My initial plan is to attach the electric motor to the transmission, which seems like the simplest solution. However, upon examining the underbody of my truck, I noticed that the transmission is positioned very low. The lower rim of the bell housing is nearly level with the front differential axle. Given the length of the electric motor, if I were to attach it to the bell housing, it may not clear the differential and would be positioned too close to it.

I am not sure how the issue was resolved in Damien's Triton conversion. Another possibility might be to attach the electric motor to the transmission without the bell housing.

Has anyone had experience with converting this type of truck or a similar model?
I would appreciate any insight or recommendations on this, thank you.

slackerEV wrote: ↑Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:51 am My initial plan is to attach the electric motor to the transmission, which seems like the simplest solution. However, upon examining the underbody of my truck, I noticed that the transmission is positioned very low. The lower rim of the bell housing is nearly level with the front differential axle. Given the length of the electric motor, if I were to attach it to the bell housing, it may not clear the differential and would be positioned too close to it.

i dont think you'll have any issue with a leaf motor mounted inplace of the engine. the leaf motor will take up much less space laterally compared to the original 3.xxl.

looks like full power tower may even fit.

Thank you for comments, Bratitude. That's good to hear.
I will make the mock-up of the leaf motor and try to fit it in.

I am contemplating between Em61 and Em57.


Bratitude, I will PM you at some point RE the coupler and the adapter plate.

Thank you for the posts on here.

Have already been in touch with marty he seems a good chap to know and hopefully one day soon be a customer of.

I had some time a few weeks ago pondering the question of which way to go. Discovery 2 or l200 conversion. After having a good look at the L200 I have decided not to use it as the basis of a conversion. It's a little rough and ready/rusty as hell. If I were to work on it I'd want to rebuild and refresh anywhere I touched. So this thread will focus on a conversion of the Disco.

I am currently looking for a workshop to rent/borrow in the Leamington Spa (UK) area as my first plan has fallen through. Initially I'm going to bench test out side of the car.

Just been looking on the forum at the freelanderconversion which looks very interesting/is at a very exciting stage.

DJ