1st post

[Bebop]

From my perspective, EV tech allows me to design a powerful and efficient hydraulic system with none of the challenges that a traditional high-powered steering system presents:
Belt alignment issues... not applicable
Pump speed range (low flow at idle, smoking the pump at rev limiter)... not applicable
Managing waste energy/heat due to excessive pressure relief/flow regulation... Not applicable

Instead I get to play with flow on demand at any time regardless of vehicle/motor speed, digital pressure/torque limiting, and my biggest challenge is tuning pump operational characteristics to get satisfactory response with minimal energy waste.

Sure, it may better more efficient, easier, more reliable, better, whatever, but it'll never make your heart jump a beat like when a 14.5:1 compression 450+ci engine fires up.

I work with EVs every day. That's literally my job. They will absolutely destroy gas vehicles on every single point of comparison. Charging rate being the only one that needs improvement. But it's the same thing as comparing a gas stove and a microwave. One may be "better", but the result is a shit tasting experience.

Pyleit : Do you have non-eco friendly vehicles ?

 

[eacook1]

How long you been commuting with it? What kind of range you have on a charge?

What kind of maintenance it have? Other than typical suspension/steering, brakes (if ever?) and tires?

Your posts got me thinking. I searched and found there’s a cheap-ish 2017 nisssn leaf but with like 130,000 miles.

I have owned two of these. This one is a 2016 with the 40kwh battery. I can squeak 160 miles of easy driving out of it with limited climate control. Normal driving....120 miles with the heater or A/C blasting and still have a little battery left. Normal driving for me is 65 in the slow lane. I have been commuting with this 42 miles each way for about 5 years. I have about 110k on the clock. The only maintenance I have ever done is checking air pressure in the tires and putting new tires on it.

 

[350TacoZilla]

If someone made a non-fugly full electric or hybrid pickup that was closer to the 80s/90s Toyota truck/Ranger/S10 size that it could be a real hit. AWD with 31s

Little more subaru brat then 80's toyota but I always liked the looks of this alpha wolf concept. On the EV wheelers as a whole I can see it catching on for the rigs that are trailered to places already, that way you can run the trail etc without taking the range needed to get there and back. Stop by chargers on your way or have a charger at home and your good to go, even if you needed to top up with a generator at camp you would use less fuel I imagine.

Now my gripe about them is how every leader in the world seems to think because you can't afford $30 gas that means you can afford a $60k new EV to "save" money. I drive a 30yr old subaru I paid $500 for so I'm solidly out of their target market.

 

[Jeffh555]

I have owned two of these. This one is a 2016 with the 40kwh battery. I can squeak 160 miles of easy driving out of it with limited climate control. Normal driving....120 miles with the heater or A/C blasting and still have a little battery left. Normal driving for me is 65 in the slow lane. I have been commuting with this 42 miles each way for about 5 years. I have about 110k on the clock. The only maintenance I have ever done is checking air pressure in the tires and putting new tires on it.

You're doing way better than me for range. I have a 2013 with the 24 kWh battery and resistive heating. I think the previous owner of mine really abused the battery, it only has 5 battery life bars left, and has under 50k miles. It was also 1/3 the price of a similar condition Civic.

On a full charge, mine says it has 42 miles of range. That means it does about 30 miles before hitting 20% battery. That works for me, but I realize it doesn't work for everyone. My wife won't drive it further than to pick the kid up from school (3.5mi each way), because she's ran it out of battery twice.

I've had it for just over 2 years, only maintenance is checking pressure in the tires. Might be time for tires next year, and should probably check the brakes. It has a clicking CV, hasn't gotten worse, and it's pretty mild, so I haven't worried about it.

 

[EVolveRacing]

Thanks Irate! Excited to have a forum for us to showcase our FIRST Tesla Ultra4 Rock crawler we call TesTen. We were able to compete in this years King of the Hammers running EMC.
Trust us when we say, we are not the "EV" type. Born and raised gear heads, tractor pulling, street car racing, and combustion enthusiast. But, a challenge is always something we couldn't back down from. After attending KOH 2022 we had the itch to compete. Our original plan was to LS swap and design a 4500 traditional race rig, but after talking to our teammate and friend Kyle Segglin, who EV swapped a Nissan leaf into his 4 runner, we couldn't turn down the opportunity to compete in a class that doesn't quite exists yet. Realizing that EV has an obvious instant torque availability made the idea of rock crawling an EV build of our own explode ideas in our brain!
We started off using our S10, which was our original crawler that we took on the Rubican, ford Ice, and other well know trails for over 10 years. We figured that with its current set up, it was the best base to start with. We purchased a wrecked Tesla Model S from an online auto Auction out of Washington. We had NO IDEA if the motor, or modules were in tacked and safe to use. We were lucky enough to find that all the modules were there, complete, and undamaged. The motor was unknown until further dates.
Redesigning the entire roll cage and most of the fabrication of the body, we were lucky enough to have amazing sponsors such as Raceline Wheels, Mickey Thompson Tires, Yukon Gear and Axles , Rugged Radio, BendTec, Ruff Stuff, PRP, and Factor55 , to assist and help. Not to mention RadialDynamics for being our right hand guy in getting the Hydraulic steering pump built, designed, and tuned in this rig. Huge thanks!
We used AEM's System for the brains of this truck, and designed a direct drive from the transfer case to the Tesla motor. The motor sits where the transfer case should be, and allows the truck to run no transmission. We also have it designed to run 1 high and 2 low gears.

Feel free to ask questions about our build! We are happy to share our knowledge that we learned, and more on how we designed this build!

follow us in Instagram/ Facebook and TikTok: EVolveracing2022

 

[chaplinfj60]

now that may deserve its own thread. awesome

 

[AgitatedPancake]

That's awesome man. Definitely worthy of a build thread if you have the motivation, I think all of us here are eager to see and discuss anything and everything!

 

[EVolveRacing]

Heres more of our Ev utra4 truck. Its the Tesla large motor redesigned to be direct driven into a magnum drive and 205 transfer case. We did race it at hammers we didn't finish this year truck had only 35 miles on it before the big race and only 7 days out of the shop. The big aluminum box in the back is our batteries. Its designed to change the hole battery pack out in 10 min. We would have done that this year at hammers but our deal feel through for more packs. The drawback for Ev is every pack is the price of a built Ls having to be swapped at every pit stop. If things work out in our schedule were going to be racing NorCal season this year with it.

 

[Will Scarlet]

EVolveRacing As others have already suggested, make a build thread or at least a thread about the vehicle so people can ask questions. It would be interesting for sure.

 

[vetteboy79]

That's pretty funny to see all that hi-tech modern stuff in the engine bay, next to a booster/master cyl design from 50+ years ago

What are you using to get vacuum, and is that booster the only vacuum-powered component?

 

[EVolveRacing]

That's pretty funny to see all that hi-tech modern stuff in the engine bay, next to a booster/master cyl design from 50+ years ago

What are you using to get vacuum, and is that booster the only vacuum-powered component?

Its what we used for now but only vacuum part. Has a vacuum pump mounted below it but were either going to an Iboost or hyd power boost. Its still changing as we build it more and work on making it more efficient.

 

[2big bronco]

Awsome, you should definitely start a new thread specific to this truck. Ill bet a ton of people would find thier way here just to follow along

 

[vetteboy79]

Its what we used for now but only vacuum part. Has a vacuum pump mounted below it but were either going to an Iboost or hyd power boost. Its still changing as we build it more and work on making it more efficient.

Would hydroboost run from the same pump for the steering, or is it easier (or even possible) to spec an 'on demand' kind of pump for that circuit?

Is there any kind of regenerative braking that can be applied here too?

Thanks for sharing it here, and yeah definitely put a dedicated thread together when you can 🍺

 

[EVolveRacing]

Would hydroboost run from the same pump for the steering, or is it easier (or even possible) to spec an 'on demand' kind of pump for that circuit?

Is there any kind of regenerative braking that can be applied here too?

Thanks for sharing it here, and yeah definitely put a dedicated thread together when you can 🍺

Off the same pump. That hyd pump from Radial Dynamics is bad ass. Its Can bus controlled so it only turns on by a signal on demand. Were going to go run a hyd winch off that pump next too. The more things I can run of the high voltage side the more energy we save in the pack.

 

[aczlan]

Off the same pump. That hyd pump from Radial Dynamics is bad ass. Its Can bus controlled so it only turns on by a signal on demand. Were going to go run a hyd winch off that pump next too. The more things I can run of the high voltage side the more energy we save in the pack.

Why not a full electric booster like this"iBooster" from Bosch? That can supposedly integrate with a regenerative brake system to allow Regen brakes to do as much braking as possible before putting much pressure to the hydraulic brakes:

iBooster

The iBooster is a vacuum-independent and electromechanical brake booster.

www.bosch-mobility-solutions.com

Aaron Z

 

[EVolveRacing]

Were running our regen through our vcu. Same concept as the Iboost.

 

[Pyleit]

Pyleit : Do you have non-eco friendly vehicles ?

Yes, 2 GMC denalis with 6.2s have had 2017 Z06, 2010 Z06, 2020 ibex with a LQ9, 2020 gladiator on tons and 40s gets the worst mileage of all of them! 😆

 

[Bebop]

Why not a full electric booster like this"iBooster" from Bosch? That can supposedly integrate with a regenerative brake system to allow Regen brakes to do as much braking as possible before putting much pressure to the hydraulic brakes:

iBooster

The iBooster is a vacuum-independent and electromechanical brake booster.

www.bosch-mobility-solutions.com

Aaron Z

Tons of people use it in EV swaps. Good boosters.

 

[350TacoZilla]

Anyone remember year ago there was a company that was trying to come out with a add on hybrid system that replaced the alternator and starter with a big electric motor? Maybe 100-150HP if I remember correctly and it worked kinda like the Ram system except you selected when to get the extra power almost instant like nitrous, could also help mpg when leaving lights and such. I keep thinking it was at sema on a 57 Buick or something similar.

 

[chaplinfj60]

so what kind of torque numbers are you estimating going to through the drive train, i feel likes it has to be quite high if your using a 205 tcase and magnum..