wb9k
10 kW
Hi all. I'm just getting into my latest project...the re-assembly of a Miles ZX40ST electric truck. Here a link to the album on Photobucket...more pictures will come as they are taken.
http://s935.photobucket.com/user/mollysplayhouse/library/Miles%20ZX40ST%20Truck%20Restoration?sort=3&page=1
The original AC drivetrain of the truck was damaged by the original owner (a University) when they towed the vehicle after depleting the lead acid traction battery. This sent damaging electrical impulses to the controller and maybe damaged the motor too...I'm not sure exactly. The original batteries, controller, and motor are all missing. The truck came to me with the chassis in tact, but the pieces of a "new" drivetrain all loose--a 12 inch DC series wound motor, Chevy S-10 transmission, and custom driveshaft and other bits and pieces for connecting it all together.
Looking at the truck, it's not hard to understand why Miles is out of business. The engineering on this thing is pretty poor, even by homebrew standards, IMO. The truck chassis (made by Hafei Motors of China) is light duty, but reasonably well built, but the upfitted drivetrain put in by Miles was little more than a golf cart drivetrain dropped into a truck. The original HV (72V, to be exact) electronics were mounted under the seats. You can see in one picture I have up already that the tray that stuff sat on is completely open to the elements from underneath--you can see lots of ground looking through this compartment. If GM tried selling something like this, their execs would wind up in jail. Top speed was originally limited to 25 mph, so this was originally designated an LSV, or Low Speed Vehicle, which is only street legal on a very limited number of roads in the US. I cannot even legally leave the little subdivision where I live in an LSV, so I strongly disagree that these are a viable alternative to conventional cars for any but a small handful of city dwellers.
With the freshly rebuilt DC motor and transmission (which I'm not crazy about using....may look to remove it later if possible) I plan to make this thing capable of 55-60 mph. I'll be able to drive it anywhere but on expressways, where I probably wouldn't want to take it anyway. I'm OK with that. Fortunately, the truck came with a clean "normal" title, so the legal hurdles of street legalization have already been cleared for me.
Because this is a relatively cheap Chinese chassis, I suspect the steel may not be of the best quality. The truck is 7 years old, but only has 800 miles on it. Still, there was some overall surface rust just from being out in the weather, mostly confined to the frame--body sheet metal still looks very good. So, I've got the truck partly torn down and I'm removing all rust first. This will be followed by rust inhibitor, bonding primer, and underbody coating on the entire frame. I plan to drive this in the rain and snow, and it needs to survive. Most rust has been easy to get to with wire wheels, but I bought a small soda blaster from Harbor Freight to reach the areas a brush couldn't go. After fighting with the blaster getting it set up for a couple hours, I finally got it working right and it did the job quite well.
Rust removal is almost done now. It won't be warm enough here to start applying anything to the frame until Wednesday this week, I should be able to get started on that then. Updates will come as they happen...I hope to have this thing on the road within a month or so.
http://s935.photobucket.com/user/mollysplayhouse/library/Miles%20ZX40ST%20Truck%20Restoration?sort=3&page=1
The original AC drivetrain of the truck was damaged by the original owner (a University) when they towed the vehicle after depleting the lead acid traction battery. This sent damaging electrical impulses to the controller and maybe damaged the motor too...I'm not sure exactly. The original batteries, controller, and motor are all missing. The truck came to me with the chassis in tact, but the pieces of a "new" drivetrain all loose--a 12 inch DC series wound motor, Chevy S-10 transmission, and custom driveshaft and other bits and pieces for connecting it all together.
Looking at the truck, it's not hard to understand why Miles is out of business. The engineering on this thing is pretty poor, even by homebrew standards, IMO. The truck chassis (made by Hafei Motors of China) is light duty, but reasonably well built, but the upfitted drivetrain put in by Miles was little more than a golf cart drivetrain dropped into a truck. The original HV (72V, to be exact) electronics were mounted under the seats. You can see in one picture I have up already that the tray that stuff sat on is completely open to the elements from underneath--you can see lots of ground looking through this compartment. If GM tried selling something like this, their execs would wind up in jail. Top speed was originally limited to 25 mph, so this was originally designated an LSV, or Low Speed Vehicle, which is only street legal on a very limited number of roads in the US. I cannot even legally leave the little subdivision where I live in an LSV, so I strongly disagree that these are a viable alternative to conventional cars for any but a small handful of city dwellers.
With the freshly rebuilt DC motor and transmission (which I'm not crazy about using....may look to remove it later if possible) I plan to make this thing capable of 55-60 mph. I'll be able to drive it anywhere but on expressways, where I probably wouldn't want to take it anyway. I'm OK with that. Fortunately, the truck came with a clean "normal" title, so the legal hurdles of street legalization have already been cleared for me.
Because this is a relatively cheap Chinese chassis, I suspect the steel may not be of the best quality. The truck is 7 years old, but only has 800 miles on it. Still, there was some overall surface rust just from being out in the weather, mostly confined to the frame--body sheet metal still looks very good. So, I've got the truck partly torn down and I'm removing all rust first. This will be followed by rust inhibitor, bonding primer, and underbody coating on the entire frame. I plan to drive this in the rain and snow, and it needs to survive. Most rust has been easy to get to with wire wheels, but I bought a small soda blaster from Harbor Freight to reach the areas a brush couldn't go. After fighting with the blaster getting it set up for a couple hours, I finally got it working right and it did the job quite well.
Rust removal is almost done now. It won't be warm enough here to start applying anything to the frame until Wednesday this week, I should be able to get started on that then. Updates will come as they happen...I hope to have this thing on the road within a month or so.