Electric M37

[Mullaney]

Whoa, Ferroequinologist! That‘d be handy for heading off a head on!

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I bet so! Wouldn't want to find a locomotive traveling at 40 or 50 - and all you could do is 45.
And in reverse. How exciting that would be...

 

[nattieleather]

50 mph in reverse just like the Austin Champ...lol.

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

I’ve got the front battery pack installed. It was real tight in my battery box - connecting some of the bus bars was like solving a 3D puzzle! The little wires are for the battery management system. Soldering all thos little guys was a challenge for me. It all checks out at 66V (the batteries need charging) and almost 500 amp-hours. I’ll essentially duplicate this setup in the rear where the gas tank was and then I’ll have 144V and 500-ish amp-hours. According to the numbers, that should power the truck for about 100 miles on a full charge. In reality, I’ll probably only discharge the batteries 10-20% before recharging them just because I drive it shorter distances.

 

[John Mc]

Glad to hear you are making progress.

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

Thanks! I’m learning a lot about electricity. The charger will be next after the batteries are connected and it has some wires that I haven’t figured out yet. It is an on-board charger that will allow the truck to be plugged into public charging stations. All this stuff is a mystery to me right now. It’s been a steep learning curve.

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

Thought I’d posted this one above. This is the business end of the Tesla modules. The top connections are the negative side and positive is on the bottom. This is a 2P3S configuration, meaning 2 batteries in parallel times 3 and each set of 2 parallel batteries is connected in series. Connecting in parallel doubles the amperage and in series, the voltage is doubled with each connection. That makes these 72V, 500amp-hour packs. By connecting the front one with an identical rear pack in series, I’ll get the 144V, 500 amp-hours I need.
it took me awhile to get this straight…

 

[nattieleather]

There is a guy on Youtube his channel is JerryRigEverything and he is converting a HMMWV to electric in the same way your are doing the M37. Don't know if you've seen it or not, but I thought I'd mention it in case you want to compare notes with what he's doing.

 

[GT4U]

How much does this setup cost? I'd be interested in looking into it with current gas prices...

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

The components I’ve bought cost $10,000. That was not including the batteries, which were $18,000. This is not a cheap project and is pretty involved, technology-wise. But try and find a $30,000 electric truck with the style and guts of an M37. I’m doing it for posterity and to keep my truck alive for the next 60 years. I’ve owned it since 1967 and gasoline as we know it won’t exist in 2067.

 

[John Mc]

I'd love to hear an update on your progress on this project.

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

I'd love to hear an update on your progress on this project.

Well, I have everything connected and running with the rear wheels off the ground. It was very satisfying to see it actually run after all this time. Electrical troubleshooting has been an interesting experience. First, the electric motors had their encoders wired incorrectly at the factory, causing the motors to go into ‘limp’ mode, about 20 rpm. Brian at HPEVs walked me through the procedure for connecting the encoder correctly. Next, the primary motor didn’t recognize the secondary one, so now I was able to get full rpm but only half power. Again, Brian walked me through troubleshooting steps for CANBus wiring and I found the baud rate on the secondary motor to be half that of the primary one. Changing the value was simple and I finally had full power and speed!
Next, my BMS wiring was done incorrectly on the last battery in each of my two battery packs. I hadn’t terminated the wires the way Dilithium Designs instructed me to. Oops. Fixing that was a pain because I needed to partially disassemble the rear battery pack to access the wiring. I finished that a few days ago and yesterday I spent tidying up all the wire runs. The truck has all new 12volt wiring including a fuse panel for the first time in its life.
I hope to have it all back together for the 4th. I’m thinking of entering our local parade as the “green berets”...

 

[John Mc]

Well, I have everything connected and running with the rear wheels off the ground. It was very satisfying to see it actually run after all this time. Electrical troubleshooting has been an interesting experience. First, the electric motors had their encoders wired incorrectly at the factory, causing the motors to go into ‘limp’ mode, about 20 rpm. Brian at HPEVs walked me through the procedure for connecting the encoder correctly. Next, the primary motor didn’t recognize the secondary one, so now I was able to get full rpm but only half power. Again, Brian walked me through troubleshooting steps for CANBus wiring and I found the baud rate on the secondary motor to be half that of the primary one. Changing the value was simple and I finally had full power and speed!
Next, my BMS wiring was done incorrectly on the last battery in each of my two battery packs. I hadn’t terminated the wires the way Dilithium Designs instructed me to. Oops. Fixing that was a pain because I needed to partially disassemble the rear battery pack to access the wiring. I finished that a few days ago and yesterday I spent tidying up all the wire runs. The truck has all new 12volt wiring including a fuse panel for the first time in its life.
I hope to have it all back together for the 4th. I’m thinking of entering our local parade as the “green berets”...

Cool!

Would love to see pictures if you have time. Defintiley want to see pics/video of it in the parade, if that happens.

John

 

[ToddJK]

Well, I have everything connected and running with the rear wheels off the ground. It was very satisfying to see it actually run after all this time. Electrical troubleshooting has been an interesting experience. First, the electric motors had their encoders wired incorrectly at the factory, causing the motors to go into ‘limp’ mode, about 20 rpm. Brian at HPEVs walked me through the procedure for connecting the encoder correctly. Next, the primary motor didn’t recognize the secondary one, so now I was able to get full rpm but only half power. Again, Brian walked me through troubleshooting steps for CANBus wiring and I found the baud rate on the secondary motor to be half that of the primary one. Changing the value was simple and I finally had full power and speed!
Next, my BMS wiring was done incorrectly on the last battery in each of my two battery packs. I hadn’t terminated the wires the way Dilithium Designs instructed me to. Oops. Fixing that was a pain because I needed to partially disassemble the rear battery pack to access the wiring. I finished that a few days ago and yesterday I spent tidying up all the wire runs. The truck has all new 12volt wiring including a fuse panel for the first time in its life.
I hope to have it all back together for the 4th. I’m thinking of entering our local parade as the “green berets”...

That would be awesome to see in the parade! In the memorial day parade, we had two M37's and the stories behind them were amazing. Can't wait to see this M37 roll down the road, parade or not!!

 

[ldmack3]

The components I’ve bought cost $10,000. That was not including the batteries, which were $18,000. This is not a cheap project and is pretty involved, technology-wise. But try and find a $30,000 electric truck with the style and guts of an M37. I’m doing it for posterity and to keep my truck alive for the next 60 years. I’ve owned it since 1967 and gasoline as we know it won’t exist in 2067.

I suspect a lot of us won't be here is 2067. I certainly won't. But what a cool legacy to pass down for generations!

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

Thanks! Yeah, I’ll be long gone in 40 years myself. I’m hoping the truck‘ll be in a position to survive that long though.

 

[Travlr]

Well, I have everything connected and running with the rear wheels off the ground. It was very satisfying to see it actually run after all this time. Electrical troubleshooting has been an interesting experience. First, the electric motors had their encoders wired incorrectly at the factory, causing the motors to go into ‘limp’ mode, about 20 rpm. Brian at HPEVs walked me through the procedure for connecting the encoder correctly. Next, the primary motor didn’t recognize the secondary one, so now I was able to get full rpm but only half power. Again, Brian walked me through troubleshooting steps for CANBus wiring and I found the baud rate on the secondary motor to be half that of the primary one. Changing the value was simple and I finally had full power and speed!
Next, my BMS wiring was done incorrectly on the last battery in each of my two battery packs. I hadn’t terminated the wires the way Dilithium Designs instructed me to. Oops. Fixing that was a pain because I needed to partially disassemble the rear battery pack to access the wiring. I finished that a few days ago and yesterday I spent tidying up all the wire runs. The truck has all new 12volt wiring including a fuse panel for the first time in its life.
I hope to have it all back together for the 4th. I’m thinking of entering our local parade as the “green berets”...

I hope you've been filming as you go or have a good written record. If it turns out as good as I'm hoping... I'd consider doing it myself and contributing to your "restore the bank account" fund by purchasing a "how to" copy.

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

I’m writing a users manual for my completely re-jiggered truck drive system. Labeling all the components and wiring is also in the works. I haven’t videoed the work because most of the time I need both hands and all you would here are swear words as I barked knuckles, bumped my head of dropped another g##$&mn bolt.

 

[Mullaney]

I’m writing a users manual for my completely re-jiggered truck drive system. Labeling all the components and wiring is also in the works. I haven’t videoed the work because most of the time I need both hands and all you would here are swear words as I barked knuckles, bumped my head of dropped another g##$&mn bolt.

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Sad but true. Seems like all the things I should take pictures of cause greasy hands or as you said - two hands to do the task. Several before and after pictures, but rarely if ever any of the task at hand.

 

[Johnbyrdgates]

Has anyone figured out how to post a video on this forum? I’m striking out.

 

[Mullaney]

Has anyone figured out how to post a video on this forum? I’m striking out.

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Yes and No.
There is nothing here (on this site) that will allow you to host a "movin picture".
Need to create your movie, then post it on YouTube or some place similar.
Then create a link (Copy then Paste the link into a thread here) and all (some?) of us will come clamoring to see it!

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