Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - 2001 Chevy Suburban conversion to Electric PHEV Project

tlh129 · 06-29-2014, 10:11 AM

Thanks for your reply Vskid3,

My daily commute is 15mi one way, when I am not picking up my 2 kids. I use my car to make that commute most of the time without my kids. However, whenever I have my kids, Wednesday night, Thursday night and every other Saturday and Sunday, I have their friends for team sport practices and games. I also coach little league flag football and basketball during the seasons. I also travel to other cities up to 4 hours away to put on adult flag football tournaments and I take my officials with me along with some players. Normal weekends, I do trips to Lowes picking up things for home improvement project. Sometimes I need my trailer, sometimes I just need my Suburban, sometimes I just need my car.

I want to be a little more clearer than I was in my original post. I actually want to do this. It is an attractive experiment to me. I have no interest in another vehicle or going full EV with this one. Therefore the budget will be whatever it takes over time. I did some preliminary calcs about 4 weeks ago and they come up to about $25K. I know people spend this one bathrooms, kitchens, yards, vacations, other vehicles and enhancements to those vehicles, art, weddings, off-road vehicles, model airplanes, RC airplanes and vehicles, video games and other forms of wants and entertainment. This is actually my desire. I just want proof of concept for version 1.0. In version 2.0, I plan on doing things like finding places to shave weight such as removing my spare, possibly shrinking the tank, getting a carbon fiber hood fabricated along with replacing the real chrome bumpers with carbon fiber, replacing all the seats, with lighter weight seats, finding lighter alloy rims, removing the outside mirrors, possibly downsizing to a smaller engine, and adding lightweight 300W solar panels to the roof and possibly the sides of the vehicle. Now the Suburban has just become an attraction or monstrosity, depending on who is looking at it. So in other words, I just think this would be a really cool project I want to undertake. Thanks.

06-29-2014, 10:11 AM	#5 (permalink)
tlh129 EcoModding Lurker Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: tallahassee Posts: 7 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks for your reply Vskid3, My daily commute is 15mi one way, when I am not picking up my 2 kids. I use my car to make that commute most of the time without my kids. However, whenever I have my kids, Wednesday night, Thursday night and every other Saturday and Sunday, I have their friends for team sport practices and games. I also coach little league flag football and basketball during the seasons. I also travel to other cities up to 4 hours away to put on adult flag football tournaments and I take my officials with me along with some players. Normal weekends, I do trips to Lowes picking up things for home improvement project. Sometimes I need my trailer, sometimes I just need my Suburban, sometimes I just need my car. I want to be a little more clearer than I was in my original post. I actually want to do this. It is an attractive experiment to me. I have no interest in another vehicle or going full EV with this one. Therefore the budget will be whatever it takes over time. I did some preliminary calcs about 4 weeks ago and they come up to about $25K. I know people spend this one bathrooms, kitchens, yards, vacations, other vehicles and enhancements to those vehicles, art, weddings, off-road vehicles, model airplanes, RC airplanes and vehicles, video games and other forms of wants and entertainment. This is actually my desire. I just want proof of concept for version 1.0. In version 2.0, I plan on doing things like finding places to shave weight such as removing my spare, possibly shrinking the tank, getting a carbon fiber hood fabricated along with replacing the real chrome bumpers with carbon fiber, replacing all the seats, with lighter weight seats, finding lighter alloy rims, removing the outside mirrors, possibly downsizing to a smaller engine, and adding lightweight 300W solar panels to the roof and possibly the sides of the vehicle. Now the Suburban has just become an attraction or monstrosity, depending on who is looking at it. So in other words, I just think this would be a really cool project I want to undertake. Thanks.