Which Motor for My Land Cruiser Conversion?

by John
(Alberta Canada)

I would like to pull the motor in my landcruiser wagon and drop in an electric motor that I could pull my 500lb trailer through the mountains with.
How do I go about figuring out what size of motor to get and what range to satisfy ?
I would like to get close to 700-1000km per charge
thanks
John in western Canada



Hi, John -
It's not your landcruiser, but I thought this video of an electric Range Rover might help us start thinking about how to go about your own conversion.

It looks like it's got two motors, one on each side of the front battery pack. You could do this, or more simply you could twin two motors together like so, and only use one controller. You don't necessarily need a huge motor like this; just contact them at EV West or Canadian Electric Vehicles and tell them what you're planning, and they can set you up with the right motor.

They are using Tesla batteries in the Range Rover conversion. If you want 400-700 miles of range, you're going to need a LOT of these. It's not impossible, you've got a huge payload capacity in your Landcruiser, but it sounds pretty expensive. I think I'd be more likely to put a modest number of Tesla batteries in like these guys in the video, 175 miles of range is still pretty respectable, and then look at charging up at campgrounds with RV outlets. You can get adapters for this as needed.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

- Lynne