Project Land Yacht (BMW 5-series EV conversion)

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by mechman600

When is your EV build starting?

Not so soon, but a friend of mine has been lurking around it for quite a long time.

[jackbauer]

Latest update :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os8GtMsCxAo

Thanks for the comments guys. I had never driven a 5 series before and the comfort and smoothness even on ICE power was very impressive. The thing just glides over bumps and potholes that would rattle the teeth in a dfferent car.

Regards the clutchless coupler I had a couple of reasons. First my experience with clutchless shifting in the e36 has been very good. Nice and quick with no snatching or grinding of gears. Unfortunatly in Ireland there are very few engineering shops that would do the work of making up an adapter plate and coupler and those that might would be prohibitively expensive. So i'm kinda training myself and building up the necessary equipment to do this work myself. The 5 series uses the exact same gearbox so i'm not anticipating any problems. I have also removed the motor fan as it will be externally forced air cooled so this should help allow the armature to change speeds easier when the synchros mesh. This gearbox is also very light. I can carry it one handed so the weight penalty versus having 5 speeds to choose from is very slight.

[Daox]

I was just wondering if you were planning on doing anything interesting with the motor controller for shifting. I don't know if you did anything with the E36. But, since you have an rpm sensor on the motor you could also install one on the transmission input shaft. When shifting it would be fairly easy to rev match the motor to the trans for very smooth shifting. A friend of mine sort of did something similar with his EV. The difference was he just had a button to make the motor spin ~2k rpm which made it easier to shift (it was an AC motor setup).

In any case, the adapter plate looks pretty good. Can't wait to see that engine ripped out!

I also added some additional description to your thread title.

[mechman600]

Looks amazing. Pretty good for "a complete amateur at this", as you put it!
Once again I am completely jealous of another man's EV build.

[Daox]

Agreed, you already built one EV, you're no amateur.

[jackbauer]

thanks for the kind words guys I must do a video of shifting in the E36. Its really smooth and to be honest easier in my opinion than the conventional clutch shifts in the ICE version. The way the power comes on after a shift is just a million times better than the rattle and roar of the ICE!

[jackbauer]

Though not quite related to the build here is a high discharge test of a 180Ah CALB grey cell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyYfFeWwd9I

[allen_dodge]

I always thought that the old e30 chassis would be a good EV platform, even the 5 series look big in comparison. If it originally had the ETA motor then the gears would probably be about right for electric, plus they are surprisingly cheap for a rolling chassis. Never been in a newer bmw like yours so I cant wait to see more video, they always speak for themselves

[SwamiSalami]

subcribe.

[unheardofinstruments]

1500 kg roughly, less than I thought for that sized car. I guess not all german cars are as heavy as my diesel merc! Should make for a nice ride. Amazingly small gearbox.