DIY electric truck & starting aeromods

[MPGsteward]

Reattached the wheel covers with two toggle bolts and the rare earth magnets in the middle. I also drilled a 1.5 inch access hole to the valve stem so i can air up tires every week to the max. I bought some 1.5 inch metal hole plugs to fill in the hole. You can get them at lowes in the bolt dept. Under the hard to find bin. Worked out really well & i just pop off the plug to manage the air when needed.

[puddleglum]

Nice job on the truck. Check out the aero section of the forum for the best ideas on aeromodding. Best thing you could do to improve the aero on your truck, IMO, is do a bed cap. There are several good examples on the aero forum. A belly pan and side skirts would help too. Aero mods are always going to help some, but not as much at slow speeds. If you are always in town, you may not notice a big difference. Then again, your basically starting with a brick, so it may help you more than someone with a fairly aerodynamic car already

[dmafanp]

Originally Posted by MPGsteward

Update on the smooth wheel covers. I got the idea from someone on the forum to attach them with hard drive magnets. Since I recycle hard drives & have a bunch I thought I would give it a try. It took like 10 minutes to install. they are super strong magnets, but it did not work out. All of them fit really well except one. I tried it out at 35 mph on a backroad and it came off. It might work with more magnets, but i think I am going to roll with some bolts for security.

dude, i know the smootheys looked soooo good untouched to bad it has to go ,, more magnets is more added weight in the long run morso then bolts,

[MPGsteward]

Yeah, i removed some magnets from each wheel and added two toggle bolts to each wheel. Holding up great.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Daox

Do you have an evalbum page or can you list all the parts you used? Looks like you went with high quality stuff, with the zilla and a warp 9 with trojan batteries. What else is under the hood (or bed)?

Originally Posted by MPGsteward

Not much else to list: Iota dc/dc converter, energizer 12v deep cycle battery for accessories, canadian ev adapter plate on original manual transmission, manzanita pf 20 charger, 18 trojan flooded wet cell 6volt deep cycle golf cart batteries ran in series, 0/0 copper welding wire connecting batteries, helper springs, coil over shock absorber in rear (sensatrac).
Going with top notch components will add reliability to your EV conversion. This truck has been super reliable.
I use to have the batteries in the bed. welded up some battery cages underneath and the truck now handles better. the center of gravity was improved.

That sounds a lot like how I would do it.