The Juice Box

Framing the cover

Once Mike got to thinking about taking Electro-Willys on the AC'12 Alaska Highway Convoy, he realized that the 60-mile range just wasn't going to cut it. The requirement for E-W was to travel up to 300 miles per day. How does one keep batteries charged to go that far?

Mike's brain got to grinding, and after much research on the Internet, he came up with a generator trailer. This would keep E-W as an all-electric vehicle while providing a mobile power source.

Installing
the generator

An M100 trailer that had been sitting in the pasture for a couple of years became the base. Brother-in-law Don helped design and weld the cover, with side access and rear doors. Once completed, the whole unit was painted OD Green on the outside and white on the inside.

Next, Mike and Steve installed the major components. In the front is an air compressor for airing up tires and such. In the middle is the custom made gas generator made by Central Maine Diesel. In the rear is the 30 gallon fuel drum for the generator.

The charger

Sitting on a shelf in the front is the key to the whole charging system. A 10 kilowatt charger by Electric Motor Werks takes the 240 VAC energy created by the generator and converts it to 150 VDC for feeding into the Electro-Willys battery pack.

Switches and Gauges

Juice Box graphic

While this system does run on gasoline, Mike estimates that it gets about 20 mpg. To manage the whole system, Mike built a control panel with switches and gauges.

When trying to come up with a name for the generator trailer, Mike was asking Steve for ideas. Steve says, "... so like Juice Box?" and the name stuck.

- Ellen

An Electric Willys?

Installing the
WarP 11 motor

So, what is Electro-Willys all about? E-W is a 1952 M38 Willys jeep that we converted to all-electric. The details of the conversion process can be followed in a photo album at The Electro-Willys.

The gas engine was replaced with a 11-inch DC WarP 11 motor made by NetGain. An adapter plate was custom made to connect this motor with the bell housing of the Willys jeep. This allowed us to keep the rest of the E-W as original as possible.

Blue lithium batteries
next to
old lead-acid battery

Power is supplied by 46 3.5-volt lithium batteries. Initially we used lead-acid batteries, but they weighed a lot and had some severe limitations. The lithium battery pack stores 42 kilowatts of power, and operates at 144-160 volts and 600 amps.

A Soliton Jr controller by Evnetics sits underneath the driver's seat. This device controls the flow of energy to and from the batteries and the motor.

Soliton Jr controller

E-W can scoot right along at over 70 mph. At more reasonable speeds, the average distance between charges is about 60 miles. This is more than sufficient to get Mike to work and back, although the preference is to plug E-W in while at work. Mike can run errands around town if necessary before heading home.

With the current cost of electricity, Mike estimates E-W uses about $5 dollars worth of energy a week to recharge. That is a huge savings over the cost of diesel for our F-250.

- Ellen

T-11 days and counting!

Electro-Willys and Juice Box, just about ready for AC'12

It's less than 2 weeks now 'til the Electro-Willys and Juice Box head out for the AC'12 Alaska Highway Convoy. Lots of last minute preparations going on this weekend.

The team all met up for the first time in person, and set to work doing lots of stuff like getting the propane line run from the propane tanks to the hot water heater. Yes, these guys will have hot water for their shower in The Cave. But, more importantly, they got the generator fired up in the Juice Box, and the Juice Box sufficiently ventilated so that it doesn't overheat.

Coming up this week, I will tell more about Electro-Willys, Juice Box, and The Cave.

- Ellen