Planned Suzuki Jimny conversion

[fffffred]

Thanks, looking forward to meeting you all

[T1 Terry]

I have a Suzuki Jimny here I would love to convert and also a Subaru Brumby. My wife let me buy a Kona EV, so I don't like my chances of her agreeing to any more EVs at the moment.
Have you seen these guys? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjY0nBIHpvA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=Iw ... e=youtu.be

I'd love to do a conversion on a Brumby, if you plan to move it on, any idea on price?
Had a customer here tell me they were selling their auto Jimny, low kms in good nick ... for $16,000 it would want to be in great nick, but I didn't tell her that

T1 Terry

[george]

Here's a photo of the 2001 auto I plan on buying. Getting excited!

It has a camp setup in the back that I will obviously remove. Main thing about this one is that it will need new springs and shocks. Better factor that into the price...

[T1 Terry]

If you do buy it, might be interested in the camper conversion you plan to remove .... just thought I should put my hand up early so I at least get a look in

T1 Terry

[george]

Absolutely mate, do you find yourself in WA very often?

[T1 Terry]

Absolutely mate, do you find yourself in WA very often?

Only when trying to sort RV system problems ...twice to often but I'm sure we can organise a trucking mob we use sometimes to get the stuff to their depot in Adelaide. I'd love to have the time to do an actual tourist type trip over that way so I could have a holiday/good look around, but the boss is also the wife, so no hope of getting any time off for such activities

T1 Terry

[george]

Well, I'm just about to make an offer on that Jimny now, and get the ball rolling. I had a chat with Graeme from Suzu Auto today, and he was able to answer lots of my questions.

One question remained unsatisfactorily answered though, with regards to charging. Will I be able to leverage the 50 kW charging stations I can see around the place? I'm happy to charge somewhat slowly at home (though, I may end up hooking up multiple chargers in parallel, perhaps one for each phase of my 3 phase home system). As I understand it, the fast chargers generally bypass the onboard charger, and so as long as the BMS supports it, then everything's good. Is my understanding correct? The Orion BMS system seems to support CHAdeMO, but I don't know about other protocols.

Would love hear your 2 cents @jonescg.

[Bryce]

Hi there-whilst technically possible to do CHAdeMO charging in a conversion (see last ever EVNews - Oct 2020 - for an article from someone who did get it to work), I think the take-home message from the article is 'don't try this at home'.
Cheers
Bryce

[jonescg]

I don't know much about it myself to be honest, other than to say that three 7 kW on-board chargers and a Type-2 inlet would make more sense. If you have room for them of course.

[francisco.shi]

I am planning to put DC fast charging on my conversion. I will keep you up to date on how it goes.
One thing you have to consider for fast charging is most fast chargers do not go below 250v. Your battery pack will need to be above 250v when it is flat. If you use NCMs you will need a 300v nominal and 350v charged. This pretty much rules out Hyper9 motors. You will need to use an OEM salvaged motor.

[george]

I've made an offer on the Jimny, and they've accepted. Just trying to arrange the time and place for the change of ownership now.

@Bryce: it is at least possible, as you say. That was a great article. https://aeva.asn.au/files/648/ is the link for those that are interested, start on page 49. I think I might leave this as a project for the future, perhaps after I have a working EV? This capability can seemingly be built in later, so long as the BMS is willing to play. I will probably go with the Orion BMS for this reason of future-proofing.

@jonescg: that sounds like a wonderful compromise. 21 kW would allow for charging at around about 100 km/h, which is definitely enough for most use cases. The trip to Perth would be possible in around 8 hours. I think this is acceptable as an edge use case. The Type-2 chargers seem fairly common.

@francisco.shi: please keep us updated! Is there a topic on the forum that you are posting to? It seems that the Tritium Veefil RT50, a fairly common 50kW charger (at least in WA), is capable of charging down to 50V DC, according to the author of the article I linked above:

Many DC Chargers only operate at minimum 200V, but not the Tritium Veefil 50kW
charger, which operates as low as 50V according to the specs.

So, I certainly wouldn't get a fast charge everywhere, but on Albany Highway I would at least be able to hop from fast charger to fast charger.

[francisco.shi]

I think I saw the 250v lower limit on the name plate of a tritium vfill while I was charging.
I am posting my conversion on the forum. You can check under member's machines and look for Francisco's electric Pajero.

[george]

OK, I will bear that in mind.

Wonderful! I've just had a quick read, lots of really good detail and photos. Perhaps I should migrate my forum topic over there then. Is "Member's Machines" the proper place for a build log?

[coulomb]

Yes, the members' machines don't have to be completed. In fact, the build stage is usually by far the most interesting stage.

[jonescg]

I only put the Prelude build in the technical section because it wasn't my machine... But it sort of belongs there anyway.

[T1 Terry]

Hi George, what battery chemistry are you planning to use? I'm still keen to do an LTO power conversion for my Prius and expand the traction battery capacity so the regen has somewhere to go on the long down hill run into Adelaide .... and a fast recharge so we can get back home, the 8 hrs on the 240v charger that is in there at the moment isn't practical for city trip recharging.

T1 Terry