The Last Major Items

The last items have gone into the ute conversion now. In the oblique photo above the item that catches the eye is the on-board charger, a Zivan NG3-15. The charger is wired directly to an AC charging plug set just behind the cab. The charger is connected to the battery pack with 6mm2 twin cable and an Anderson 50A connector. On the advice of Mike Laba, I fused the positive of the charging circuit with a 32A high rupture capacity (HRC) fuse link in an industrial fuse holder. It is largely protection against a short-circuit on the charging side.

The blue cylinder in the foreground is a recycled LPG bottle that has been pressed into a new life as a vacuum resrevoir. The vacuum pump is just visible alongside. The vacuum pump and reservoir are now joined in the same vacuum manifold with the brake booster. The vacuum pump is truly noisy, and I am sure it will really irritate me. It evacuates the system and a vacuum switch shuts it down once brake boost is attained again.

There is still a fair bit of tidying to do. Adrianne has managed to buy 50 battery terminal covers for a dollar each to cover up the exposed brass terminal clamps you can see in this shot. The battery clamps are shiny and pretty, but won't stay that way if I drop a Crescent across the terminals and set off a plasma fire as the batteries discharge through the handle of the Crescent.

The torque arm is in place between the chassis and the adaptor plate to oppose the turning force on the motor under acceleration. I have also 'pinned' the motor case to the motor mount with a 7/16 inch UNC bolt.

The instrumentation in the form of the Westach voltmeter and ammeter have gone into the dash either side of the speedo. The Curtis 900R battery State of Charge meter is mounted in the dashboard to the right of the steering wheel. I must get you a photo of that. Seeing them there makes it feel like a real electric ute.

The new Pirelli P3000 tyres are great for improving the roll of the wheels. They seem to have reduced the heaviness of the unassisted steering too.

I love the new Zivan charger. The battery pack got its first charge since the battery dealership in October. They had self-discharged slightly, as you would expect. I turned the charger on and it went into its battery analysis mode straight away. This was shortly followed by the three stages of charging. After equalising, the charger simply shut itself off. The State of Charge meter shows full charge. As simple as that.

With a few adjustments the ute is ready for a test drive, possibly this weekend.