OffRoadHybridVan

And the part two from the previous post - showing comparison with various electric motor/e-Axles and BEV powertrain, including my best estimate on what the new E-Ducato is using. Please - i draw the reader's attention to the slides where i show the Physical adhesion Traction limits, for a single axle, where provision of more axle torque that there is available grip - should make sense/non-sense of many misconception of needing bigger torque and bigger power values.  

Explaining what the concept is and is not.  Since the beginning of this project i have been troubled by the issue of how the concept is similar to but crucially different from doing an EV conversion. When i say 'troubled' i mean by way of finding suitable technical knowledge for my project, because my project requirements are not the same as doing an EV conversion. The most important distinction being the need for a high reduction gear combined with the disconnect. Firstly, is to mention doing a hybrid i.e. retaining the ICE while adding an electric motor and transmission where there was before none (only freewheeling hubs) - this is already a really big challenge for a DIY home project. To be honest, it is too much difficulty, expense and perhaps impossible to have such design safe or legal for road use. Hence, my approach all along is to have a design which is only for off-highway use. It is on-demand and only for low speeds, and should not be dependent upon high voltage EV h

Hello, and a long overdue update. One of the key difficulties with this project is the necessity of a disconnect clutch between the electric motor and final drive. Ideally this should be as close to the wheel hubs as possible. In the absence yet of designing a whole new custom free-wheeling hubs beam axle, i decided on a solution with using a dog-clutch disconnect mounted immediately after the reduction gearbox and upstream of the Pajero differential. The hardware i found suitable is the freewheel disconnect part from the front axle of a Pajero-io 4WD SUV. This was suitable because the clutched axle part is a separate module from the front diff body. A similar design exists in the larger Pajero gen.3 model front axle, but on that one the clutch assembly part is integral with the axle differential body, so the clutch can not be removed by itself. So the design problem has contained three elements, 1/ how to connect the output from the Twizy/Comex gearbox to this Pajero clutch shaft, 2/

A rather amateur shot video, from several months ago (sept.2020), just to give an impression of the install of the rear differential with custom shafts to the driven wheel hubs of the rear axle. Well, it was a small drama to finally decide on how to mount the electric motor which demanded a hole cutting in the vehicle floor to allow sufficient ground clearance for the motor when installed. I could not find any better alternative because of how the motor and gearbox are integrated as an eAxle unit, although i am not using it in that way. In the picture you can see how is retained the original Mitsubishi alloy front support, the shiny cross member in the front of the diff. I hope it can be appreciated that a sufficient ground clearance is maintained for the installed differential above the ground. This was not an easy work. The differential unit is from a 2004 model Mitsubishi Shogun(Pajero) with manual Locking possible. It is really a heavy beast (52kg) and the drive shafts are of ge

Apologies for the comedy wobbly camera skills, i was really converned not to drop my camera through the floor onto the road. Also i was concerned not to injure myself as i was bouncing along trying to fit my hand safely thru that sharp edged hole. Here is a video from quite some months ago, it was a short driving test to check there were no problems with the installation of the differential and the custom driveshafts to the rear wheels. There was yet no electric motor drive installed, you can see simply the input drive flange of the Mitsubishi Shogun differential. My main concern was to check that everything was spinning smoothing and without any unexpected noises. Also of concern was to check the re-installed ABS wheel speed sensors were working correctly, this was a big relief that i could retain the original sensors and keep the standard vehicle brake system ECU functions happy.

Welcome and a brief look intro to my 'OffRoadHybridVan' project. The motivation for this project is to learn something practical of the engineering technology behind electrification of a vehicle. However deciding against, for many good reasons, not to attempt a full battery-EV conversion of my camper van, considering the size, weight, cost, limited range and charging demands which such a 3500kg vehicle would demand. This decision not to embark (at least not yet) on a fully 'green/zero-CO2' project van will likely be a disappointment for many readers. The reality is that most owners of these camper van and the van-life culture associated with them, despite our best dreams to the contrary, the cost of full EV conversion and the limitations incumbent with driving range and mobility(charging) would be a severe compromise to getting to and staying off-grid, by desire away from urbanity and decidely off-grid - by definition out of sight of any charge point. The ubiquitous ava