DIY Electric RV?
 

Hi Folks!

It seems to me that among the various vehicles that don't exist in an electric version are Recreational Vehicles! (Campers, motorhomes, etc.)

There have been electric delivery trucks out there, and many of those are now available on the second hand market.

While an electric RV would have a very short range, nearly every RV park out there has 50A 240V electric service anyways, so the RV could always be charging any time it's at a park.

So, here's my concept...
Buy an existing electric delivery truck, convert it to an RV (including the proper DMV registration) by building out the inside with bed, kitchen etc.
A number of years back, I built a "Teardrop" trailer. It was a great experience, and I learned plenty about AC, DC, Solar, batteries, cabinet-making, etc. A good friend of mine is an RV master mechanic, and can get all sorts of parts cheap/free.

I would install solar on the roof of the RV. Although it wouldn't be practical for charging the drive system, it would always keep house batteries topped off. In addition, it might be completely possible to tap into the main battery pack and use that as the electrical source for house power. Grid-tie solar inverters run in the same range of voltage as electric vehicle batteries. "Hybrid" inverters could draw high voltage power and convert it to 120V/240VAC without requiring grid power. An 80kWh battery pack would provide power for a LOT of off-grid camping!

I also have a CHAdeMO inlet and believe we could set it up with the right CAN control and software to allow for CHAdeMO charging.

The RV would be used for travel adventures and education in EVs, Renewable Energy, and all the S.T.E.M. concepts that go into the design and construction of the project.

They type of vehicle I'm thinking of would be something along these lines...
https://300mpg.org/smith_big_white/

In fact, there are so few electric RVs out there, that I could probably get some excitement behind it with sponsorships, donations, and people helping me with the build!

Your thoughts?
Crazy, I know, right?

I just want to see you tow the electric lawn mower behind.

No reason why it couldn't tow a vehicle behind it.
It certainly could be set up as a toy-hauler.

I'm imagining a big bike rack on the back, maybe a lift for a motorcycle.

crazy
 

works for me!
The existing performance values for the box truck could be converted to electric-equivalents and allow insights into motor/battery requirements for a given speed/range target.
Electric motors have the equivalent of around 0.15 lb/bhp BSFC where a diesel might be on the order of 0.40.(we'd want to do the homework)
We know NASA got Cd0.238 out of their 'Shoebox' project,and we could improve on what they did.
Regen would really be a game-changer in an RV.They have such a huge penalty in stop-and go,which a BEV could take advantage of.
Downhill regen instead of braking.
As Volkswagen gets their 1,000, fast charging 'Electrify America' stations installed,that opens up even more options for BEV RVs.
If you don't do it,I suspect it won't be long before someone else does.;)

IIRC a few years ago VW rumors floated around re: e-RV. Public perception of range anxiety was huge.

I don't like RVs in principle, so I don't have much to contribute as far as if a terrible thing should be electrified.

What I always tell my wife when we're camping: "That's what we forgot to bring, our house!".

How big is the battery going to be?
I have noticed a fair number of RV parks that do the plug share thing ask that charging be limited to 40 amps.
There is a guy on ebay who sells a chademo kit for old rav 4 electric vehicles, I think he has the after market chademo protocol figured out.

The type of truck I'm looking at has a 80kWh battery on it. Charging is 240V only at anywhere up to 75A.

One upside to RVs is that they are parked a lot, and there's no reason they can't simply be charging the whole time.

Redpoint5: I don't disagree with you. RVing is a different thing than camping. I'm almost thinking more "Tiny House Movement" than anything else.

I bet most RV hookups top out at 30-40 amps tops. I probably wouldn't get a faster L2 charger since they probably aren't common or affordable.

Ability to DCFC at a CCS charger is probably wise.

It would probably be CHAdeMO for fast charge.

CHAdeMO uses CAN for communications. CCS uses Power Line Communications.

Looks like it's probably much easier to do CHAdeMO. Plus, I already have a CHAdeMO inlet in my box of salvaged EV parts!

My concern is just that the standard probably will fall away in the US, as Tesla and CCS are the dominant players. I'm not up on the pros/cons of CAN vs PLC.

Tesla needs chademo if you want to drive one for long distance, for now.

Sounds fun, personally I would like to convert a travel/school bus some day.

Any thoughts to removing the box and slapping a short 5th wheel rv on the then flatbed?

That's another possibility of a truck like this is that the box could be completely removed.

One COULD simply build a custom, from-scratch, RV/Camper/MobileHome on it. As such, aerodynamics could be improved, or a bed could stick out over the cab, or the whole thing could be covered in cedar shakes - however a person wanted to design it!

Straight trucks are just an engine and frame, so anything is possible.

Having that solid straight frame would also make it easy to add outside storage boxes that mount below the deck - like the suitcase compartments on a touring bus.

Lots of possibilities.

Motorhomes almost never make sense. The drivetrain weight/space penalty CAN’T be overcome. (Meaning, learning to tow so Grandma doesn’t laugh at you any more).

But as to all-electric there are a number of deep-pocket AIRSTREAM owners who have eliminated the defining system (propane) in favor of solar. Some with inverter-generators that will run A/C.

Others with Tesla Wall unit battery.

You can read about (what I find ridiculous) those towing with a Tesla Toaster (“Quick Roast Campers!!”). Sharing tips on how to spend the long waits to re-charge several times daily on a long trip.

I find my self cleaning and vacuuming out the leaf some times when I'm waiting for it to charge.

I think adding a power wall thing to an electric RV would be pointless since it already has a huge traction battery. Why waste several thousand dollars on a battery that doesn't make it go further down the road?

This past weekend, a friend and I drove from Wisconsin to North Carolina. He purchased an electric truck, using an investor's money.

Here's an interesting bit of the story for you at my blog...
https://300mpg.org/2019/04/13/electric-truck-road-trip/

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1581447201

Long story short, we WERE able to jump start it! It also has power doors (back and side) and we were able to get power to those to open it up and look inside.

The box is 18' long and the interior height varies between 6'8" and 7'2", depending on where you are. An above average height guy could still stand upright and have some headroom even if a couple inches of insulation were put in the ceiling.

https://wp.me/aa28PZ-2F0

https://wp.me/aa28PZ-2F1

The interior has some really nice super heavy duty shelves designed for carrying deliveries. The ones on the left are wider and built in place. The ones on the right fold up and out of the way if needed.

I joked that the truck already could sleep 6 no problem, and demonstrated on one of the shelves.

https://wp.me/aa28PZ-2F2

Anyways...
THIS is the type of truck that I think would be really cool to build out possibly as an RV. It would also be great as some sort of mobile classroom. Perhaps a MakerSpace could really benefit from something like this. Load it up with 3d printers and the like and drive it to local schools, events, libraries, etc.!

Trucks tend to use 24V battery systems. This one has TWO sets of 24V batteries. If a person wanted to install solar on it, the best way to go might just be a simple 24V system and use it to charge the house batteries. That's exactly what many RVs do.

Ben- You look ready for hunting season. Cheney wasn't along for the trip was he?

Well there you go.
What's the drive system use?

The orange sweatshirt is cozy, and on trips like these, I never know what I'm doing. It was raining cats and dogs at one point, and I was walking around a salvage yard with those giant off-road forklifts getting ready to run me over at any time.

Safety first!

The buy-it-now price appears to be $2700 US for the remaining units

https://www.copart.com/popular/categ...rch%22:true%7D

Ben - are these things still road-worthy? They look OK from the pictures. Not that I want to drive a .. ?5 ton truck? around ...

BUT ... I expect they need battery pack work and likely BMS work. Any manuals worth discussing?

Reverse engineering would be an experience ...

2 more in Oregon

https://www.copart.com/popular/categ...rch%22:true%7D

The truck my friend purchased looked to be in good overall condition. The original plan was to bring the whole thing back home. That didn't work out. (Trucking issues, sizes, weights, etc.)
We did bring back the batteries and are deciding what exactly to do with the rest of the truck. (Pay somebody to ship it, return with a different trailer, etc.)

You have to be VERY careful with some of these auctions. I believe the Oregon trucks are missing the motors and controllers, but the Copart description doesn't say that. Some of the other trucks we looked at had the driveshaft removed. None of them had working 12V batteries for testing.

If anyone lives near any of those trucks and can go check them out in person please do. I wouldn't dream of buying one without looking at it myself first.

For anyone looking at the buy it now pricing, please keep in mind there's a buyers fee and a brokers fee on top of that. Plus, you have to pay a tow truck driver to get it out of the yard. The price gets steep fast. I'm glad I wasn't footing the bill.

Did you get a look at the BMS? Brand or model?

Some of the BMS are nice and simple .. perhaps a 2010 model has a better chance of doing a simple go/no go than more recent models.

*EVERY* electric vehicle I have dealt with - golf cart, UTV, lawm mower, heck even a cordless drill! .. that had a BMS, had a problem with the BMS.

No one calls me to 'take a look' unless it's already broken. So given that it is broken, there is a high percentage of BMS issues. Damaged connectors, missing or damaged temperature sensors, corrosion on contacts, or general communication faults ... if I can get past those (or somehow get power to the contactor in the battery pack) the rest of the systems have some minor issues, warnings, alarms ...

Except for the battery packs that were completely drained or reverse polarity because (IMHO) the BMS did not disconnect when it should have ;)

I guess that's not fair. I've seen 4 AC controller failures as well. But those vehicles were *VERY* abused. No motor failures so far. No encoder problems, besides a connector. One throttle had a failed channel. etc etc. Stuff that you can deal with. The BMS stuff is more black art!

My wife and I are looking to do a full-time RV / campervan tour in a few years to hit the remaining National Parks on our list and a whole host of other cool places.

12-16 foot box trucks are on the list of possibilities. After converting the interior of our Astro van I'm very interested in the straight 90-degree corners in a box truck vs. the endless contours of a van.

As far as an electric RV - I just don't see it. Those electric Class 4-5 trucks are meant for local deliveries with city ranges of 80-100 miles. I doubt you would get 75 miles driving 55 mph and that would be drawing the batteries down to SOC levels that would degrade long term health. For someone that want to live in an RV to save money on housing it could work but I don't see touring in one.

I think 1 mile per kwh would be fairly difficult to achieve on the highway with a box truck.
I would probably expect 1 mile for 2 kwh.
Even 1 mile for 2 kwh would be like 17mpge. That seems possible.

There is no such worse riding or handling vehicle than a box truck.

Bad as motorhomes are for space utilization (and the Achilles heel of its drivetrain; sits too much and dry rots) see the threads by ORBYWAN on aero work for a standard motorhome.

Read RON DITTMER at RV.net about his Phoenix Cruiser.

That depends on the spring rates and load. They have a horrible ride unloaded but with a proper load they smooth out nicely. I drove a medium duty box truck 2600 miles cross-county with all my household good and it rode fine. (Suspended cab / rigid seat)

Changes nothing. Still worst by design.

1). The need to carry a maximum payload
2). And for that to fit a squared cube.

The secondary penalties of a motorhome: bad handling & braking with an extra-high COG

The space utilization and weight penalties can’t be overcome.

A Moho not only has NO advantage, it is nothing but DIS advantage the whole way down the list.

On the same chassis, at least the Moho has a bit of aero quality. A box truck, zero.

So everyone is on the same page - a box truck or motor home have no advantages compared to what?

Also spring rates have a huge difference on ride and there are dozens of options.

A travel trailer, obviously.

Change “the drivetrain” whenever needed. That’s only the start.

The aerodynamic template, rendered as a prolated spheroid with formless construction.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...-w-caption.jpg

This isn't so much a motorhome as a mobile office/party van. In the narrow tail is a half circular workstation with a big swivel captain's chair at the center. I'm looking at Blender 2.8 right now, I should update this with a Tesla drivetrain and basalt fiber shell.

I see. Well to each their own but a trailer doesn't work for my purpose. They most definitely do have disadvantages with the biggest the length. I don't fancy dragging a trailer down windy gravel roads into remote areas. 20 feet overall is about the maximum that will work for me.

My choice is between a the aero of a van vs the extra room in a box truck

It didn't start being about you until Permalink #25.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/44/e2...2a843b1ad5.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/44/e2...2a843b1ad5.jpg

Instead of shakes, scalloped shingles laid horizontally and shingled bottom to top to look like fish scales.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2f/e1/e4/2...a8dd97c418.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2f/e1/e4/2...a8dd97c418.jpg

It isn't about me. The OP was about making a box truck RV. Not travel trailers or tiny houses.

I was a little harsh. :( But I quoted the OP about tiny houses.

It's generally a subject of interest to me. I've been looking for a place to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN0KCEDTJ0k

SHEE has government money behind it but the principles could be applied to a shipping container or anything.

No. For decades it’s been 30A & 50A. Few facilities offer one or the other. Just a price differential if not flat fee PLUS x-amount after so much consumption.

That said, RV Park electric is (occasionally) up to snuff. Best you are able to check outlet integrity. Polarity especially.

Most of us carry huge surge protectors into which we plug the RV. THEN into their power.

See also HUGHES AUTOFORMER. Low voltage a COMMON problem mid day summer.

.

So it’s all about the last four miles of an 800-mile trip. I’d look at JK JEEP and off-road camper as “practical” choice.

Top heavy and off-road DONT go together.

My 10kw chademo costs around $3,500 new.
Most RV parks on plug share ask that you limit charging between 30 or 40 amps.

Can you monitor amp draw? Voltage?