Wish I had good news about the electric truck conversion project. But the truth is that the Toyota pickup truck fell through, because the owner of the vehicle could not come up with the title. Thank God I did not start pulling it apart before I had the title in hand. I was very tempted to jump in because of my excitement for the electric vehicle conversion task.

electric truck motor

As I stated in my last post I purchased a how to conversion guide. I e-mailed Les, who put the manual together to ask him for some advice about the vehicle selection process. The vehicle you start with is the most important decision you will make. After talking with Les he recommended that I find an S10 pickup truck with a 2.5 L engine and a manual transmission.

When I started to do some research on converting this vehicle I found a lot of support and information available. In fact, they make high line electric conversion kits for this vehicle that contain everything you need including a 9 inch motor capable of 70 mph and all the parts and brackets pre-made. There is no question that these complete kits would be the way to go, but they are expensive.

As a side note, Les provided me with a sample of his conversion guide to give to visitors. Here is a link to my You fix cars website were you can grab it. This free electric vehicle conversion guide is only 12 pages. I am also going to post the video that has been my inspiration to continue with this electric truck conversion project right here. This is an amazing must see video.

Electric vehicle conversions video

There is no question that this project is not for the faint of heart or someone that has no experience at all working on vehicles. The task is still within reach of people that do their own oil changes or change their own car batteries. The bulk of the work is the removal of the parts that you will not be using after the conversion from the donor vehicle. This is considered the demolition process and does not take a lot of skill, but is heavy work.

In this video to follow, you will meet a guy who has been doing these electric vehicle conversions for more than a decade. Since he does this for a living his shop is extremely well equipped. But take a look at the video to see some of his completed projects and also a look at why he has chosen to do this full time.

Electric vehicle conversion

Electric motor installation image

You can see from the video that there is a lot of work involved. But you can also see that the finished product is well worth the time and effort. A converted electric vehicle can provide a lot of fun as well as a lot of financial gains as well. 70 MPH and a round trip range of 40 to 50 miles will be sufficient for most motorists.

Remember that you will want to keep your newly converted electric vehicle for many years to come. This is why you must take your time in the original vehicle selection process. I am now hunting for a 1985 through 1995 S10 pick-up with a 2.5 L four-cylinder engine and a manual transmission.

I would like to find one with a blown engine and a perfect body. I have seen plenty of these vehicles on eBay, but since the engines are still running, the prices are a little high. If you know, where there is such a vehicle with a blown engine and in excellent condition. Please leave a comment for me below. Also if you have converted any vehicle to a fully electric one please leave a comment with your overall view of the experience.

The idea of an electric vehicle conversion has sidetracked me from my water4gas ongoing project. I’m hoping that this post will bring Bob back around to comment on the subject. But first let me start by telling you how this happened.

I live in the South East part of the United States. For the last three weeks we have been going through something that I have never seen in my entire life. Gas stations are out of fuel to pump. Long lines and high prices are breaking records in my area. In many cases, you can wait in a gas line for an hour or more only to be disappointed when you finally make it to the nozzle.

As I sat in line in my water for gas converted blazer, my overwhelming thought was. I don’t care how many miles per gallon I’m getting. I don’t want to buy fuel at all. The only way for me to accomplish this goal would be an electric vehicle conversion. Note I may not be the average citizen because my daily commute is less than 20 miles round trip. This makes me a perfect candidate to be behind the wheel of an electric vehicle.

I would like to buy a Chevrolet Volt but this vehicle is 2 years away from production and will most likely be out of my price range. So I have acquired a 1987 Toyota pickup that will be the target of my first electric vehicle conversion. This is what I think will be the perfect platform to carry the batteries and also has room for the modifications required. I’m hoping that this post will attract readers that have experience at this conversion. And that they can provide some tips in the comments area.

I purchased an electric vehicle conversion guide and I am currently reading through the 5 e-books. So far I like the material in the main book and will provide a full review in my next post. My 2004 Chevrolet Blazer will not be the vehicle I will convert. So my water for gas testing will be put on hold for now, but I am not giving up on it and will continue to test and improve it in the future.

Electric vehicle conversion guides

There are lots of choices when it comes to purchasing one of these step-by-step how-to guides. A family that lives completely off the grid writes the one I purchased. They use wind and solar power to operate everything in their home. They have been doing this for 15 years. They use large banks of batteries to hold the energy created by their generators. They have become experts at reconditioning batteries.

This is what attracted me to their stuff over the other ones that were available. They also provided 4 bonus books that explain in detail how they created a life that is not only environmentally friendly, But is free of electric bills. Like I mentioned earlier, I will provide a full review on the complete package that I purchased in an upcoming post.

But so far the most interesting section has been about reconditioning batteries that will be needed to convert a vehicle to electric power. Deep cycle batteries can be very expensive and have a short life span. The ability to recondition the battery saves a lot of money, and also helps the environment by avoiding disposal of the toxic substances that are contained in batteries.

You can take a visit to the website by clicking on the book image. I am looking forward to your input and comments on this electric vehicle conversion subject. I’m also looking forward to possibly hearing from people that have already completed this task. And if I’m really lucky, I hope that Bob will resurface and provide some of his own input on this subject and also give us an update on how he made out with his water for gas system.

For new visitors who don’t know who Bob is. Bob is a chemist that is dead set against the theory of hydrogen generation for cars and the entire water4gas project as a whole. On Bob’s last comment, he had decided to purchase the water for gas guide and build his own test vehicle. We never heard back from his progress. Read through Bob’s comments it’s worth the time!