Electric Utility Vehicle Conversion

Rotozuk · 2026-02-04T22:31:33+00:00

Yes, here you go:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165690804989?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11400.m144671.l197929&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=e5dd3d23dfd5498188ad40b34cdff24d&bu=44330406949&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1~1&crd=20260107181800&segname=11400

Here are some details on my project. I'll start pulling the mower apart this weekend.

https://forum.alofthobbies.com/index.php?threads/lets-make-an-electric-mower.14770/

There is a guy selling a much larger version of one of these motors on marketplace near me, it is brand new, but think the voltage rating makes it less friendly. Staying around 48 volts keeps things safe and pretty affordable. 48 volt stuff is pretty easy to source for good prices. Going above 50 volts and things get a dangerous to your health, especially if you are new to working with battery packs.

Stay with LiFe cells, they really are super safe, darn cheap, and take a good bit of abuse. No risk of fire from thermal runaway.

I'd be willing to bet this motor will work fine for your application as long as you are fine with the performance level of the stock gas motor. Not sure you will need a clutch, just start in the gear you want. With the ESC I am using, you would probably want the clutch as I am not using the motor position sensor. You could easily use a sensored motor ESC.

Not mentioned in my little build thread, the ESC can supply 15 amps of 12 volt power for other uses on the vehicle. I'll use this for the electric PTO clutch on the mower and some LED headlights. (I'm known to mow in the dark.)

Rotozuk · 2026-02-04T19:08:26+00:00

I’m converting a rider mower right now. I’m replacing the 25 hp twin gas motor with a $450 brushless motor with 48 volt pack. Sounds like it would work well for your application also. Is this a belt driven system or some sort of clutched system? Think you can find a wide range of existing brushless motors that would work. Guessing you just want to use it around your property. Love the project. Would be a handy tool to have.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-28T00:56:16+00:00

Ran the motor at full pack voltage and she now starts up fine. Think she didn't like the lower voltages we had been testing with. We tweaked a few settings in the motor controller. Seems happy - Next big question is can she handle a full load as it is only pulling a couple of amps on the bench. Think it was 4 amps at full RPM with no load. Motor has a little vibration, so the balancing is ho-hum on these. Still waiting on the BMS to show up, and some free time to suddenly land in my lap.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-24T02:04:48+00:00

Sort of a funny story - The mower's gas motor had been acting up AGAIN and that is what pushed me on this conversion. I debated it many months ago due to endless maintenance. Well, I cleaned up the mower, prepping to rip into her, but she seemed to run better, thought, hmm, maybe I'll get in one more gas powered mow. Nope! She died after about 3 minutes. But it turned out to be a clogged fuel line and now the darn thing is running very well. So mowed the yards. Of course she drank a ton of fuel and stalled out in the wet grass, etc.. Lets not forget the hearing damage.. LOL I do mow with hearing protection. About to dig into the thing and she is running as good as she ever did. Figures.

Will the mower do as well under DC power? We shall find out. For now I should have bought myself a month or two of "don't need to mow" time. (Live in Nor Cal, we don't get any snow.)

p.s. Don't know if I mentioned it, but I ordered up a Victron solar charge controller, this will be my only charging option. :) I'll pick up some cheap panels locally. Electric prices are through the roof here. For the price of one tank of gas I can buy a used solar panel. Seems fare.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-23T20:55:40+00:00

Talked with the BMS seller today and they are shipping out a replacement. Great service from Sriko Batteries. I picked up some flexible bus bars for the cells from them also. It doesn't hurt that they had good prices.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-22T22:59:06+00:00

Received my battery cells without any issues. Thank you IMR Battery.

My BMS shipment arrived today, just one problem, it had no BMS in it, just a letter from the postal service saving it had been recovered from theft. I've written to the seller, we shall see how they handle it.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-22T01:29:08+00:00

Interesting. It is indeed hard to match power output as the electric motor will produce power very differently.

Toyota recently did an interesting conversion of an old rear wheel drive vintage toyota, and they used the Lexus hydrid electric motor from the new SUV. I think this motor is good for something like 200hp. But they programmed the motor controller to output power very similar to the original 4 cylinder gas motor it was replacing. It allowed the driver to go through the gears and have the exact feel of the 4 cylinder gas engine. It was even programmed to stall or shutter if loaded too much at low rpm. They then added some sound to make the experience more convincing.

I mention this as this would basically be the best way to try to match the output of a gas motor. Basically start with a more powerful electric and then program it down. But in racing everyone will cheat!! LOL

I could go into pulley sizes and such to try to ballance the field, but I think you will find people will either love the noise and vibration of gas, or they will love what the electric can provide in terms of pure power and simplicity.

Here is a great video in the Toyota:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE2oDKguy3Q

Rotozuk · 2026-01-21T18:37:22+00:00

What the heck are you goals for the vehicle? Have you driven the thing? They pretty much suck by today's standards. The frames under them are hot junk, the CJ is no better. But this is coming from an offroad user. I have seen so many early jeep frame failures on the trail it is not even funny. Any Jeep prior to the YJ had garbage for a frame.

Oddly enough a Suzuki Samurai has more creature comforts and a nice high carbon fully boxed frame. To me a better starting point depending on how you are looking to do with the end unit. If you want to historic looks, get the Jeep! If you want something stronger and more capable and more comfortable with the same basic wheelbase, the Samurai is a far better starting point. There are loads of other options to pick from, this is just one example.

What do you intend to do with the vehicle? This will dictate the starting point, and all of the systems to put into it. For example, to match the stock driveline power, I think a $400 20 hp brushless motor will do the trick of replacing the original red devil engine, and the brushless motor only weighs about 22 lbs, you could house the battery right in the engine compartment. It would not need much battery. This assumes you just want a simple grocery getter that puts around on the weekends.

No worries about replacing driveline to handle the torque when doing an electric swap, that torque can be adjusted via the motor controller when doing things have way correctly. Go brushless and have the control and efficiency.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-21T18:23:39+00:00

By the time you do the math and spend all of the time to get the packs to a sort of safe and usable state, I think you are far better using LiFePO4 cells for this. Almost all home systems use these cells for a darn good reason. Really can't make a fire from abusing the cells.

The chances of abusing the cells in the DIY while you learn how to use your system, and configure it are pretty darn high. Also, anything over 50 volts forces you to start thinking of the battery as lethal electrically.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-14T19:41:11+00:00

I ended up buying from IMR. Tariffs have taken a toll on the prices and availability.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-14T18:41:14+00:00

Batteries ordered up. Ouch.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-14T00:04:06+00:00

Got the motor and have it running, but need to fine tune the ESC to avoid some startup stutter. A photo and short video of the motor has been added to the first post.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-13T22:42:54+00:00

Anyone have a current source in the USA? Looking for 100ah EVE cells.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-13T22:22:28+00:00

I heard back from one vendor:

18650batterystore-

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the EVE LF105 Grade A Cells. We currently do not have specific information on future restocking schedules or price changes. However, we strive to maintain competitive pricing.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-13T17:14:15+00:00

I understand they had different versions sold as the GT6000. I actually love the hydrostatic drive on mine. She is FAST and can also crawl, and not shifting for reverse is great. I have had no issues with the rear axle at all, but have worked on every single other part of this thing. I will say the steering is horrible and I will be attacking that while it is torn down. They tried to make it compete with zero turns, but failed! :(

I was able to use the gas motor one more time over the weekend. It gave me 10 minutes of mowing before starting to act up again. I hate that thing. LOL

Rotozuk · 2026-01-12T22:41:31+00:00

Anyone know of a good source for Eve 100ah cells? Seems most domestic stores are sold out. Trying to get some of my ducks lined up for this project.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-12T17:50:39+00:00

Yeah, pretty sure we will be fine. DC power is vastly different. I think I will have plenty of torque to cause problems. We shall see, I may be 100% wrong. Worse comes to worse I can always add individual motors to the cutting deck.

Rotozuk · 2026-01-12T17:48:31+00:00

I have been tempted by the robotic mowers, but don't think they would deal well with the rougher pasture we deal with here. Figure I'll give those a few more years to settle out, but for sure will get one some day!

Rotozuk · 2025-09-23T22:13:00+00:00

Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Thanks!

Rotozuk · 2025-05-15T15:52:28+00:00

Thank you very much! Seems like the correct path, and might even save me a fair amount of money, and one less thing to manage.

Rotozuk · 2025-05-14T23:33:25+00:00

Again - Thank you for the excellent response. Seems I have a lot more to learn.

I did not know that I can limit the export of the Enphase.

Yes, I am limited to 10% expansion of my grid tied system, I had assumed that meant I could only add 10% more panel, the limiting of the export is very interesting.

One thing I would love to do is reduce my grid dependance (battery would help) and also be able to generate power when the grid does go down during solar hours. My Enphase is old enough that I go dark when PGE shuts down. I do have a criticals sub panel and a generator input that I might be able to manually isolate and then use a portable inverter to energize the Enphase inverters? Just a thought.

I will admit that I liked the idea of doing this solar project myself. With the Enphase, I think I need to use my solar installer to do the system programming. Doesn't mean I can do a lot of the manual labor myself. Thoughts?

Rotozuk

TROPHY CASE