Anchor right, pm me I would like to talk to you about your conversion in detail. I also have the same idea. I have a shell in my garage ready for a electric conversion. ErikG

....or a long extensionsion cord.  

 

as bluebox said----->cheers!

Don't over think the suspension, the lightest vehicle you can make will take you farther. On the days that you want to go far from home, hook up a light weight trailer with more batteries on board. Cheers

Thank you, this is useful! 

I'll keep racking my brain on how to do this. It's looking more and more like a lighter battery pack and not doing the 100 mile distance. 

 

I've been trying to pull that guy's site up for weeks now. I wish I knew how to tell him that it's down. 

One of the guys in our club converted a Mini and has documented his work on a website..   //evmini.ca/

He used Lithium batteries so not quite as heavy, and kept the stock suspension.. Even has full back seats.. I think he gets around 150km..

The cool thing about the original rubber suspension units in minis is that they are progressive. This means that as weight is taken up by the spring, the spring rate increases, and the spring is able to take more weight. This is how a car that weighs 1480 lbs can carry four adults, or 600 lbs. 

The coil replacements for regular mini rubber springs are linear like any other coil spring, so they give the same spring rate through their movement; and they don't have much travel. Coil over shocks sound like some sort of solution, but keep in mind that when used in most cars a coil over shock is replacing a strut assembly and is fitted in the same place as the original suspension. What this means is that the upper mount for shock absorbers on minis is not about to carry the mass and suspension loading of an electric car.

A lighter battery load sounds like something that will work with well sorted normal mini suspension.

Not to beat this around again, but is it possible to have coil over suspension and keep the red or green springs as well? If so that might do the trick. I need to also see about strengthening the subframe in the rear.

 

If I settle for a range of 70 miles instead of 125, it will make the batteries weigh a comfortable 430lbs, the car could handle the weight, but it wont be useful for longer trips. Ugh, decisions. 

Malsal, yes! 

So you can register a 1991 electric Mini in California without it's original engine (which is what is required to import it legally in all other States) but if it is still on it's original power it has to be something like 73 or older, what a strange set of rules we are governed by.

Anchoright you may want to look into coilover shocks also.

Indeed, if you are putting 4-6 batteries on board, you need a strong chassis more than a strong suspension.  you dont want your mini to break in half. minis dont have rigid chassis.   And you need a fast electric mini especially in california, if you drive slow they'll give you a middle finger.

why not just hang the mini body on a beefy frame. I was thinking jeep 4x4 but don't want to offend you.

 

Good point George. Maybe I've kind of forgotten about that but the car has been sitting for the last 4 months because they told me it would be around $6k to bring it up to standards that it can be registered in California. (Because of smog.) Even though it is legal in every other state. 

 

Thanks for the green suspension tip! I'll try it - I'd have to buy them now, because apparently they are not being made anymore, only the red and blue. Minimania still has them on the shelf I believe. 

 

I believe the cutoff right now in the grand ole USA, including California is 1991. 25 year rule on gray market vehicles. The only problem in Cali in getting the registration to drive on the street is the emission regulations i.e..smog. The electric mini would be cool, especially the high torque.

So George is any year Mini up to 2000 legal in California as long as it is battery powered ?

The other advantage is the Mayfair would be legal to drive in California! I would love to have a newer mini, but electric powered.  Would stronger springs (maybe the green ones) help. 

Well I live in LA. There's a long time sitting in traffic, but rarely do I exceed 50 miles a day. Only if I want to travel to another city. I'm planning on making the Mayfair good for 125 miles per charge, which means that unless I'm planning on going far, I could just plug it in to the outlet each night. 

 

The advantages? 

- cheap, just plug it in. For city driving you can't beat a car that you charge like your cell phone!

- It lasts forever and very little maitenance. The batteries are good for about 10 years, and the guys tell me that motors that have been running daily for over 20 years are still going strong. 

The whole idea of this project is to make a car that will be my daily driver once the lease on my current Cooper S is up. I've got the Mayfair, but the Suzuki engine has an inch clearance which makes me reluctant to drive it. I want to make it reliable. 

 Funny,reading your last sentence reminded me of a friend of mine who had converted his desoto to electric, it was fun to drive, very quiet, and responsive, one day he and his girlfriend(now wife) went to a 230 mile trip mostly interstate, halfway thru their destination they got stuck, reason? battery discharged, gawd!! !!!!!, and they passed by about 3-5 gas stations, had they had a gas powered engine they would have made it through, question is, where can you charge that puppy in case of emergency, when you are out in the desert or interstate? or is it not really for long drives? what benefit can you get from an electric vehicle.  is it worthy? and while driving you cant even enjoy the scenery because all you have in mind is will my battery charge lasts this trip? and you keep on looking at the battery gauge instead of looking around the beautiful sceneries.

but i may change my mind if i see one in action.., these are just silly ideas running in my mind all this time about electric vehicles.

Thanks Mur and all of you for the input! 

Previously I converted this same Mini to a Suzuki G10 engine, which involved changing everything on the car except the exhaust pipe - so while I haven't posted much here, I do know my Mini, I'd say, fairly well. That conversion also involved painting the interior and exterior, and changing everything in the interior, so it was a definite bonding moment. 

The electric motor I'll be putting in, coupled with the Suzuki manual transmission, should weigh around 200 lbs. I'll also be removing all the fluids from the car except the transmission oil, and the exhaust - so that will be less another 100 lbs (more or less).

I'll check out evwest and Dan's ideas and hang around the forum a bit to learn a bit more. I'm in the beginning planning stages of the project, I won't tackle the actual work until later in the year. But it's an expensive project so I want to have all the knowledge and full scope of everything before I start shelling out the cash - I don't want to get stuck half way. 

Your batteries ideally weigh 680 pounds. You are removing a 350 pound drivetrain and replacing it with hardware that weighs ???. 

You want us to tell you how long a piece of string is?

Some of us have travelled quite a bit in heavily loaded minis. You can use adjustable suspension trumpets to get the ride height correct for a much heavier weight, but then you will break things from time to time. A fellow known to this community drove his mini much of the way around the Northern hemisphere and he had several suspension failures, he was carrying a huge load of spares, camping gear and so on and extensive modifications had been done to the mini. Suffice to say, he was heavier than you will likely be.

If you are doing all of this yourself, do everyone a favour and get your mini completely sorted out as a daily driver first. It will teach you about cars, and allow you to develop relationships with other mini owners and parts sellers/mechanics. This will actually speed up your project.