Too Late for a Plug-In Hybrid Pickup Truck?

[bennelson]

I haven't seen that Volt in person yet, but I was told the body shop gave an estimate of $13K-$15, so I'm betting there's some frame straightening involved....

The Volt is likely NOT a good fixer-upper. By chance it if was, I'd probably give it a shot to fix up as stock. The back of the Volt has a long and low hatch. If anything, it would be good El-Camino style.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by vskid3

stuffing the Volt's powertrain into a Honda Ridgeline

Could do that with a Chevrolet Avalanche. It would then be an "A-Volt-Lanche" and still all Chevy.

[freebeard]

Volt-amino!

Per Permalink #19

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I had the same reaction: Hoopie style pickup truck on the Volt chassis.


Should be able to bang something together in a couple of weekends, eh?

Depends if hoopie helps :0

Better hope the damage is local to the backend or doors.

My Insight drove off a mountain and was straighten perfectly using 2 ropes, a large tree and a trailer hitch equipped truck

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by jray3

....
I like the simplicity of a motor spliced into the driveline,
...1987 diesel F250 has a two-piece driveline..
...I need to electrify the accessories like vacuum pump and power steering....
...there's space to replace...
..to be able to reposition the truck without cranking the engine...
...other than harvesting regen...
...Lastly, its a shame the EMIS by NetGain a decade ago never took off,...

Jay hit on a couple of key points that I've already thought about.

I really like the simplicity of an inline motor. My S10 is the extended cab version, which DOES have a split drive-shaft. I think Chevy decided that rather than making two different length driveshafts, that they would make one and then also an extension to go with it for the extended cab.

I'd plan to simplify any engine compartment accessories as best I could. Some of the older S10s had manual steering. It's a 3-bolt replacement to swap out power steering to manual steering on this truck. Steering would be the same whether the engine was on or off. I'd add a vacuum pump for the brakes, just like I did for the Electro-Metro. I'd also add a DC/DC converter that would run when the truck was in EV only mode.

The S10 was available with a 2.2 4 cylinder or a 4.3L 6 cylinder. Mine is the 2.2L which not only is more fuel efficient, but also means there's more room under the hood. I have a little bit of space to add a vacuum pump and extra large tank, for example.

I would definitely want to be able to use the electric system all by itself for a full EV mode including reverse. Using an inline AC motor would make that pretty easy. Using a big forklift motor as an inline drive might make things more complicated for reverse.

AC also makes it easy to do regenerative braking. Regen makes even more sense on a plug-in hybrid than an EV, as some of the fossil fuel energy could be converted charge the battery. This makes a few different modes possible including giving a steady slow charge to a depleted battery while driving on the interstate, and then switching back to full electric at a destination city.

The EMIS system was a really neat idea, but the main thing I didn't like about it is that it never allowed the truck engine to stop. The engine always had to be powering steering, brakes, alternator, etc.
Another neat trick with the EMIS is that it used throttle position data pulled through he ODBII port. Clever way to provide a throttle for both the gas engine and electric motor. I could try something along those lines or something more like a dedicated boat throttle for the motor (cruise is built in!)
Taking some of the ideas of the EMIS system but updating it with an AC motor and controller and designing the system so the engine could be powered down would make for a great hybrid system.

Lastly, I really like that with an inline motor, it's essentially only ADDING things to an existing vehicle. That means that I can do things like pass emissions testing using the stock engine. Keeping the original truck ECU would also let me just use a Scanguage on the ODBII and set it to HYBRID mode so that I could still track total fuel economy. Stock is always good when having to deal with the DMV.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

Top it with the aero topper for icing on the cake

Of course, any fancy pickup project wouldn't be complete without some aerodynamic improvements. There are a number of aero caps here on Ecomodder, but I think the one I like the most is what was designed by Jack McCornack, who also did a fancy little 100mpg diesel sports car.

His truck capper was nice and simple and cheap. The most interesting part is that it used a "Jacobs Ladder" hinge on the front end so that it flipped up but still nearly abutted the back of the cab and the actual attachment point was at the bottom. I wish I had a video of opening that cap in action.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_ladder_(toy)

There's a photo of that cap at the link. With just a little paint and fit and finish, it would look very nice, but still be cheap/easy/good.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/gree...-fuel-zbcz1503

[rmay635703]

If your heart is set on the s10 leave to Volt alone convert it to transverse FWD and plop a $500 Nissan Leaf AC motor controller combo onto the rear axle along with a $900 Volt battery under the bed and OEM Charger.

Use the open source Nissan Leaf canbus Proto all’s to drive the OEM Nissan controller and call it a day, might need to regear the rearend to pull tree stumps and call it a day.

OEM will be much more reliable than inline and likely better power to weight given the t-case and shafts can go away, gas economy should go up

[cajunfj40]

Hello bennelson,

Lot-driveable complete Volt for $2500? Good deal. Potentially driveable on a salvage title/liability only insurance, depending on regulations in your state. Use coro-plast for "aero-camouflage" over the ugly bits.

The following is grossly over-simplified, and all based on "stuff what I done read on the interweb" plus my own experience busting knuckles in and under plain ICE cars and 4x4 trucks.

FWD pickup is doable, with all "major" Volt systems intact. If you want an S-10, you'll need a 4x4 frame and front suspension - probably easier to convert another truck than to modify yours. Remove the S-10 engine, transmission, transfercase and front axle. Mount the Volt engine/transaxle assembly so that the differential on the transaxle is where the front differential used to be on the S-10. Custom CV axles will be needed to go from S-10 front hubs to Volt differential. This gets done on engine swaps in FWD cars a lot, so there are places that do that sort of thing.

Drive the Volt around, unplugging things one at a time, until you've pared it down to the bare minimum to keep it out of "limp home mode" and not setting a Check Engine Light. Major things to unplug are the Volt airbags and pretensioners - hopefully all you'll get is an airbag warning light. Braking system is a bit harder - you need to know the minimum number of sensor inputs it can live with and still get regen. Up to you whether you want to retain tracton control and ABS from the Volt, too. Stability control will not be reliable in the transplant - the vehicle dynamics are all wrong for the programming - so if those systems are too tied together, you may need to trick one or more sensors to prevent the stability control from monkeying with braking/acceleration.

Probably use the S-10 steering column, may be able to splice the Volt EPS system into the steering shaft somewhere to boost a manual S-10 box. Might need to adapt a steering angle sensor if separate from the EPS unit/to keep the Volt stability system happy.

Safety systems will be interesting - can't use any of the Volt airbag or pretensioner stuff, as it is chassis-specific and will not work right in an S-10. Might be able to hide the Volt airbag warning light and ditch that stuff - you'll need to unplug it and test-drive to see how the Volt responds/complains. Up to you if you want to figure out how to make the "seatbelt warning light" work, or just short the Volt switch.

If you use an airbag-equipped S-10, keep the S-10 safety wiring intact, with all sensors in appropriate locations, and figure out how to feed it the right amount of power the way the S-10 did. Best to pick a 1998 one - best crash test of any S-10. NHTSA.gov will give you the rundown on results by year.

For the rear axle, you can leave the S-10 one in place, with the pinion free-wheeling. Otherwise you'll need to get a "beam axle" made up that will accept rear S-10 brakes and wheels. Alternate - use that huge DC motor to power the S-10 axle when you want extra launch power.

For lighting, splice S-10 "end connectors" in place of the same Volt ones. Stuff like headlights, turn signals, brake lights, etc. should be straightforward. Might be a bit tricky for door open chimes, power locks, etc. - may need S-10 stuff for some of that.

For HVAC, you'll need to figure out how the Volt system works compared to the S-10 system - does it run air through the heater core then the A/C core, are there separate paths, etc. It "should" be possible to use the Volt compressor, condenser, receiver/dryer, valving, wiring, etc. with the S-10 evaporator core, heater core, blower motor and ductwork. Could also try and figure out how to cram the Volt ductwork under the S-10 dash.

For the dash, you'll need to figure out how to put the Volt gauges in there. Up to you if you want to include the Volt entertainment system and HVAC controls, or just use the S-10 control switches wired appropriately to a mixture of Volt control systems and S-10 mechanical/duct systems. May need to figure out how to light the Volt airbag and seatbelt warning lights from S-10 systems if you are retaining S-10 safety systems. Otherwise remove the bulbs from the Volt gauges and put in your own lights for the S-10 systems you retain.

Hide all the rest of the Volt stuff where it will fit. You can decide whether to use S-10 ignition key or Volt ignition key - the former requires hiding the Volt transponder and antenna somewhere under the dash and hooking up the right wires to the S-10 switch, the latter requires figuring out how to mount the Volt stuff on the S-10 column.

Either adapt the Volt fuel pump to the S-10 fuel tank, or fit the Volt fuel tank - should be plenty of room without a driveshaft. Note that there are emissions lines and stuff that, if not connected, will probably cause a Check Engine Light and grief.

Volt exhaust, cut and spliced and rerouted to fit the S-10 chassis, keeping lengths between O2 sensors, engine, and catalysts the same as in the Volt.

Volt radiator, custom mounted.

Lots of work, but you'll learn a *lot*, and probably won't have to do any CAN-bus hacking or similar.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by cajunfj40

FWD pickup is doable, with all "major" Volt systems intact. If you want an S-10, you'll need a 4x4 frame and front suspension - probably easier to convert another truck than to modify yours.

AFAIK Ford has used a 4WD frame for its Ranger EV, even though it retained the RWD layout. When it comes to the S10, I'm not sure to which point it would require a 4WD frame, since the S10 EV didn't use it.

For the rear axle, you can leave the S-10 one in place, with the pinion free-wheeling. Otherwise you'll need to get a "beam axle" made up that will accept rear S-10 brakes and wheels. Alternate - use that huge DC motor to power the S-10 axle when you want extra launch power.

I'm not sure to which point keeping the differential pumpkin in place would affect the underbody air flow, plus keeping the internals would still lead to some drag. Unless some power is added to that differential, it's better to get rid of it.

Either adapt the Volt fuel pump to the S-10 fuel tank, or fit the Volt fuel tank

IIRC the Volt tank has some upgrades to its evaporative emission controls, which would be worth keeping.

[rmay635703]

My fathers Insight has a bad transponder system and won’t sense the key most of the time.

Get the Volt and see if you can make it into a 2 door model with a streamlined backendusing the Insight parts.