Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so as I was waiting on the acid to acid, and the paint to dry, I decided to go spend some money

I luv me sum mum n pop metal shops ! but they is all going away fellers, the sport is changing

I'm guestimating that's a 8" x 13" piece of 3/16ths aluminjum

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

man I used them riv nutz on this plate cause I wanted it to be all nice and such and them riv nut gunz you get on AMAZON are garbage junk, they stip their own threads, so I had to resort to the manual method of using a long bolt and an impact gun

left a little room in the middle for a couple relays and a charging gizmo I bought to allow us to charge at a public station


still left the back side of the firewall nice and clean, may hang the pump relays on this side, one for the transmission fluid pump and the other for the water pump, yes both electric

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I may be the only guy I know who don't mind wiring, my wife calls it my therapy ...

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Yup got to be careful with the riv-nut guns. I think it's more the riv-nut not being strong enough, but's it's easy to strip out going full on with the handheld. We have a T handle set up at work that is super easy to use, but you need more room all around to use it.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

it's getting there, and I don't mean to sound pompous, I have literally been shortening some of these wires a foot at a time, and once I install some sort of EVSE charging solution module thingie I will do one more pass and thin it out some more now that we have the EV Fuse Block / VCU mounted in Siamese Formation

that green thing is a 5 pin relay that turns off my charger when in Drive Mode, it may be going away, again based on what charging solution I end up with

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

thank you, can you please share a pic or a linky link I really need to get something more better before I go Postal

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Wiring when starting from scratch is definitely therapeutic. Nice Job :metal:

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

That wiring looks really nice

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

thanks, but this must be your attempt to get back on my good side, after planting that tinted vent window ?!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Haha

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

now what? ok that's a 2' by 5' piece of primerized galvanized thin sheet metal, so ?

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Let me tell you something! I love these trucks OK, I love 'em... but, but making the glove boxeses out of carboard is an insult to our manhood, you know what I am sayin'

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

time to measure once and cut twice


https://media.tenor.com/hh6n7Ou_OnUA...h-hangover.gif

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

box by a 1,000 cuts

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

over at the Bendability Station

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so although all my measurements told me this shoe box design would fit, it didn't

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

one of many trial fits after a bunch of nip and tucks

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

hard to tell in the pics but the top is slanted down about 2" in the back in the final design

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Very nice for you but not for me. The cardboard box is hard enough to wrestle in, a metal one would be impossible. I guess I would have to give up my man card if I had to do one.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Wiring looks great! As for the glove box..:metal:

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

thank you, and METAL !!!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so I finally got to go to a car show after years and years of always camping or travelling with the family, and I scored a few goodies I want to share, oh and the tacos from the taco trailer being towed by a 67-72 dime were on point

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

pretty excited abotu them 1/4 inch spacers as I've been dying to increase the tire to wheel well gapness from almost a pinky to almost a thumb

what's yer take on wheel spacers? run 'em or hate em?

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

anobody who's played the upgrade game knows how this goes


https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/pr...279e7df783.gif

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Le's do a little Truck Math:

Swap meet Dorman 1/4" wheel spacers: $5.00 bucks

twelve new 7/16-20 thread 1-3/4" long wheel lugs: $45.00 dollars


https://media.tenor.com/Ay19-AbBCfIA...gover-math.gif

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

finding that two of my lugs already were replaced and did not match the others made justifying getting all twelve new ones easier

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I must admit, the Impactinator is a game changer fer sure !!!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

So true, it never fails to get the upgrade bug. I go to a show and see upgrades in person. Then all I want to do is upgrades. Wife hates it - cha-ching $$$$$!!!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

RE: rivnuts

apologies for late response, but I have a few words of advice regarding rivnuts

they are very useful for creating blind hole fasteners but a couple of things frequently overlooked

material thickness, grip length, steel/aluminum

I bought my tools and rivnut supplies from mcmaster-carr, actually have the luxury of will-call here but they ship everywhere

this tee handle has a 1/4" drive in the center for ratchet assistance

the die sets are high quality steel tools, haven't broke one yet

I mostly use aluminum bodies but a good supply source like mcmaster-carr will offer enough stats to make solid choice

although late, hope that helps and good luck!

https://www.mcmaster.com/product/98590A100

https://www.mcmaster.com/product/98590A260

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/5zaow4z1are..._8669.jpg?dl=0

using steel washer for test pieces, one on right showing wrong grip length - distorts fastener angle and holds poorly or slips in hole

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/wpg5mmc4xrw..._8899.jpg?dl=0

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

https://www.mcmaster.com/product/98590A100

That's the tool we have at work! Our supplier can get us steel and aluminum nut serts, fantastic little tool!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

thank you so much, really appreciate the detailed feedback, I believe in treating oneself to quality "specialty" tools every once in a while, however I don't think I can justify this one as I just don't do enough rivet jobs nor do I want to, ha ha

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

well folks we done did it, we figured out how to charge at a public charging station like normal regular plug in hybrids or OEM 100% electric cars

this aint bad at all for a build that cost under $4,000 dollars


a link to a short video of us charging DIY EVSE J1772 Controller Level 2 Charging at a ChargePoint public station


.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Thats awesome!! Congrats on your set up!!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Cool deal Gregsk, I like it!!! I have a few questions and I am hoping I am asking them right.

If you were to break it down. How would your e-truck charge mileage be compared to an ICE-truck. Cost per mile.

How much does it cost to fully charge your e-truck.

How many miles do you get from a full charge, City / Highway.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

excellent questions, so let me start with the easiest ones first

there is a magic number of 3.5 miles per something called a kWh (kilowatt hour) not to be mistaken for a kW aka just a kilowatt, this 3.5 assumes combined some streets some highway miles

dont mean to insult nobody but don't want to assume anyone knows less than others, so let me break it down

kW measures power

kWh measured energy

batteries in electric cars store energy so they are measured using kWh so mine is out of a hybrid BMW so they are usually pretty small so it is only 9.1 kWh, pretty small as compared to say full 100% electric cars which have 36 kWh battery packs if not bigger like 56 kWh, you get the idea

so if we multiply 9.1 times 3.5 we get just about 32 miles, so that is my current range

well that sucks one might say, but, nothing stops me from adding a second one (which I already own and when I built the truck I made provisions aka a bracket to simply mount it right under my current one, all I have to do is install it) and that will double my range to over 60 miles

well why haven't I done so, well cause I am a real numbers guy and not an academic, so I wanted to, I needed to drive the truck with just one battery pack and see how far it actually goes, and I did just that and I think I babied it to about 39 miles but I am just calling it a 30 mile battery pack

a few year ago we leased a 100% electric Nissan Leaf for $211 dollars a month (that was less than the cost of gasoline for our '97 Chevy Tahoe at the time) this car had a range of 84 miles, but it taught us a valuable lesson, that being just becaue your range is 84 miles or only 30 miles that doesn't mean that's all you have to drive in that day

I can get up in the morning and drive to Target, literally charge in that parking lot while I shop, then come home charge some more while I eat lunch, then go out again and go to the gym, again while I charge, etc...

actually one of the things I plan on doing is driving 100 miles on this 30 mile battery pack later this month to prove to you all how it works, stay tuned

FYI: my first battery pack cost me $900 dollars and my second one cost me $1,100 so on average I have $1,000 dollar packs (those were incredibly good deals, but they are out there)

below are 6 modules that make up one battery pack, I purposely laid it out on a 2' x 4' foot board as a reference, look at how small it is and that small thing takes you over 30 miles, and this is 2017 technology, it's already outdated the new generation of the same pack exactly the same physical size can take you over 40 miles

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

How much did it cost you to charge at that charging station, and how many kWh did you get for that amount?

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

That's awesome! Love those pics.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I'm just picturing the blank stares from Tesla owners parking next to you :lol:

This is awesome, innovative work.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Hi Patrick, I was not ignoring your question, I went to my online bank account to cut and paste the actual fees and they disappeared, on the day I charged it said there was some sort of $1.00 hold and I thought ok I will give it a few days than go check again and there should be some sort of ChargePoint line item, but there isn't they deleted the transaction

and here's what my online ChargePoint account Charging Activity looks like for this entire month, this is so Men In Black !

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I guess that means it's free to drive an electric vehicle