openinverter forum

Hi all I am Jimmy and I'm active in a few other places having converted a 1996 Land Cruiser with Nissan LEAF components. I've been hearing good things about this forum so I decided to sign up and share my latest project here.





The truck is a 1998 Nissan Frontier minitruck. It's a really cool truck with single cab and 2WD so it's really bare-bones and functional. It is owned by my client Dave who has been wanting to convert this truck for over 10 years but the timing was never right, until now. When it came to my shop it already had the engine removed and converted to a tilting-bed.

The components come from a 2019 Nissan LEAF SV. 110kw, 40kwh, L2 charging. I think that's the major specs. It will be using a Resolve-EV VCU to run everything. Unfortunately Chademo on the 2018+ LEAFs is not compatible with the Resolve-EV. I may change it to a 2017 or older PDM depending on what Dave says.












The motor mates to the truck's 5-speed with a set of Brat Industries adapter plates and motor spline coupler. Everything lines up really nicely and I was able to mount the full "motor stack."

Still deciding on radiator, we have the stock Frontier rad but are having trouble finding adapters or couplers for the LEAF's 3/4" tubing. Also I will be blocking off some of the bumper and grill openings for better aero.

Next steps include building the battery box and finishing out the wiring. The battery is going to take up every inch of space behind the cab and under the bed, but I think the final results will be worth it and it will still be very usable as a pickup truck.

Been trying to keep costs down by re-using as much as possible from the donor LEAF. We were able to save one of the radiator fans and the 12v battery and hold-down bracket were still good and it fits in the Frontier perfectly.

Welcome. Been following your videos for a while, good to see you here. Checkout the Zombieverter VCU if you want to branch out in future projects, it supports more motor/inverter setups as well as chademo/CCS probably a little more difficult to use than commercial VCUs though

Likewise, fairly certain one of your videos was the catalyst for me getting myself into this mess! Welcome!

Thanks dudes! I did consider Zombieverter and we may change in the future. Ripple VCU out of NZ also interests me. I like the Resolve-EV for a client build because they just work and there is nothing the end user can screw up. My next build will probably use something else.

Was also following your youtube videos, nice project this And the land cruiser is class

Thanks nkiernan!

I tried to connect the HV battery and power up the truck but ran into some issues.

The Resolve-EV will power up and show N on the OLED and 64% battery. All good. However, I wasn't able to select D or R. Lastly, and most concerning is that when I turn the key to off position the vehicle doesn't turn off! Everything HV is still alive, contactors closed, OLED on, DC-DC working, etc. The only way I could turn it off was remove the 12v positive cable from the battery and remove the service disconnect from the HV battery pack itself.

FYI the battery pack is not installed yet, it's just sitting next to the vehicle so I can plug it in and test.

Talking to Isak and @windraver hopefully it's something simple. I am going to put some more twists into the CAN wire pair to the BMS and also use my LeafSpy app this time. Also I am running beta firmware that Isak sent me so I am going to go back to the official version.

Figured it out! The pilot signals in the J1772 plug are apparently swapped around in the 2018+ PDM. So the car would power up and think it was plugged in so that's why it would stay on with the key removed. Wheels spin, battery charges! Now it's time to build a battery box.

Have you sorted out the hose adapter yet? I went with PVC pipe to hose barb adapters. Depending on the ID of the rad hose, there may be a PVC socket or spigot diameter that will fit nicely. Example: https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/3-4-x ... 2-131.html

Zieg wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 10:25 pm Have you sorted out the hose adapter yet? I went with PVC pipe to hose barb adapters. Depending on the ID of the rad hose, there may be a PVC socket or spigot diameter that will fit nicely. Example: https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/3-4-x ... 2-131.html

Yep we found a couple parts to fit, similar to what you showed but in brass. At least our fingers are crossed. Still waiting on shipping.

Getting back on track. Got all the tape I pulled off to diagnose put back on. Put the shifter together. Lastly, started on mounting the J1772 charge port. Still have to discuss with the owner about the final placement.

Messed around with LeafSpy and the battery is reporting 98.5% SOH! It has a sticker on the box stating it is a refurbished battery dated June 2023 so that's pretty awesome and lucky.

For whatever reason the owner brought me a 240SX transmission. Seems to work fine but the shifter is short. Maybe that's a benefit because it won't be needed very often.

Oh yeah and the truck only has 116k miles!

Made a video update of the spin up. Showing off it working and checking out the battery health.

Made some progress on the battery box. My buddy, Woody of Electromod Garage let me use his plasma table to cut up some aluminum. That thing rules.

Used 5052 1/8" for the sides and 1/4" for the bottom and end plates. His table cut the parts absolutely perfect.

Super pleased with the results so far. This is my first project welding aluminum and also doing more complex bends.

This is the passenger side battery box, next I need to build the driver side box.

Nice! I'm working on a similar box right now. What are you welding with? How's it feel to weld, compared to steel?

Zieg wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 4:42 pm Nice! I'm working on a similar box right now. What are you welding with? How's it feel to weld, compared to steel?

I bought a secondhand Miller 180 that included a spoolgun setup. I am using 5356 wire which was recommended to me. I did a class at General Air to get a feel for it and of course Youtube. It's different than steel for sure. Less forgiving you kinda have to go once and get it right whereas with steel you can kind of play with the weld pool to do what you want.

Making progress. 2nd box is now coming together. Each box will hold the same number of battery modules but the driver's side will also house the BMS, contactor box, connectors, and fuse which is why it's wider.






The two stacks are shortened to 10 long with 2 on top. Re-used the clamping brackets from the OEM LEAF assembly and welded a structure to tie everything together.

Stack 1:



Stack 2:




Cooling system is finished up. Was able to use one of the fans from the donor LEAF. Well, still waiting on the hose clamps. The internet person sent the wrong size.

Nice work, should make it a bit easier to retain parts of the stock bus bar layout.
You'll likely never run that fan with a huge radiator like that

johu wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 7:36 pm Nice work, should make it a bit easier to retain parts of the stock bus bar layout.
You'll likely never run that fan with a huge radiator like that

Yes indeed, I actually bought a new factory bus bar from Nissan to use which makes it so much easier and tidier. That's my thoughts about the cooling too, which is why I didn't bother making a larger shroud for the fan. This is the OEM radiator for the truck and there's nothing wrong with it. Also we will be blocking off 90% of the openings on the front end for better aero. Dave actually started by installing some cool LED driving lights.

Would you mind attaching the pictures to your posts instead of linking to them? They have a tendency to vanish otherwise

johu wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:59 pm They have a tendency to vanish otherwise

And they are loading veeeeeeeeeeery slowly.

Ok sure I can do that from now on. I am using the default add an image button on the post control panel with my own image hosting service, thought I was doing it right

Got the bus bars trimmed down and BMS wiring all finished up.

The attach file method is pretty poor on this website compared to others I've used.

Got the battery boxes mounted in the truck! Had to cut some of the cab but otherwise they fit nicely. Less than an inch of clearance to the driveshaft, but it does clear!

That tilt bed sure makes it look easier to work on!

Good to see the boxes just fit. I’ll be replicating the same with my 720.

I got the modules loaded into the battery boxes and all the accessories like contactors, fuses, current sensor, etc. Boxes are sealed up and in the truck!

I misjudged the height of everything so when I went to lower the truck down over the batteries I couldn't get it low enough, oops! I was able to stack some 2x4s and make up the height needed. After that the boxes bolted up just fine with no dramas! Just crossing my fingers that everything is going to work when I plug it in!

Ride height looks pretty decent. The front is a bit high but after we put the bumper back on I think it will have the perfect mini truck stance. The front has t-bars anyway so it'll be easy to dial in the ride height.

The battery boxes altogether weigh 604 lbs. I put the truck on the scales and it's currently at 2964 lbs with no interior or front bumper. I think the original curb weight is 2911lbs so we're going to be a bit heavier but not much.

Very tidy install and great re-use factor!
Are you using the stock battery-to-drivestack cable as well?