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Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?)
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pinetreeporsche
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:33 pm    Post subject: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

Got on the road with a friend in a Prius last week, and love the infrequent gas stops. I wonder if anyone has swapped a hybrid system into one of our vans (any hybrid, not necessarily a Toyota)? If the details could be worked out, I bet conversions would do a land-office business. Tinkerers and dreamers: get working on it!
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Team WorldTour
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:46 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

I think someone DID a Tesla conversion, though I'm not sure how successful it was.....
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:29 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

I have a buddy who's most of the way done with putting a Prius drivetrain into his bus - either a splitty or a bay. Can't recall. He also has a Syncro with a 3.0 Nissan 300ZX V6 in it. And he took an ancient 50s Volvo, split it lengthwise, widened it a couple inches, had custom glass made and put it back together atop a Mitsubishi Eclipse AWD Turbo chassis. Patina'd the fresh paint and his wife drove it around down for years and nobody knew. He's a gas.

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OddN
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:45 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

Team WorldTour wrote:
I think someone DID a Tesla conversion, though I'm not sure how successful it was.....


I remember reading about that Vanagon/Tesla project a couple of years ago, but I believe it halted due to Tesla refusing to sell parts, and insisted that if he indeed had a Tesla needing those parts, the car had to be inspected by them and i think even repaired by them.

Maybe a hybrid project with Prius parts is easier...
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pushkick
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:25 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

i think there were several threads about a used testla engine and hybrids. given the horsepower of a testla the van should do very well. bmw make a powerful hybrid as well as many other companies.

https://www.salvageautosauction.com/make_by/Salvage-Tesla-for-Sale

some more discussion
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=666677&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=491514&highlight=hybrid+engines
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 6:02 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

How aboit just a straight up electric? Lots of folks do this with pretty minumal work. Basiclly adapt and electric motor, a battery bank and a good modern controller.
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pushkick
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 6:30 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

yes i think there was a thread where someone put a electric motor in a vanagon . but that is basically what a testla motor is just an electric motor with a controller and battery bank. there is also a nisson leaf which is an all electric car. salvage some parts to make your vanagon an all electric van. add some solar panels etc. you would probably only need one of testla's motors since they boast around 400 + horsepower for two motors.

http://cafeelectric.com/stretchla/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG19lAsJqcA

http://bauplan-elektroauto.de/elektrischer-vw-bus/
there are several ev conversions on this site
http://www.evalbum.com/2996
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Last edited by pushkick on Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:56 am; edited 1 time in total
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Paulbeard
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:19 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

The big problem is going to be range. Electrics are fine for city use — short trips, frequent charging. A Tesla gets you more but at $70k+… To go far afield is going to require the freedom that petroleum gives you. The energy density of hydrocarbon fuel is hard to beat, to say nothing of how accessible it is. Yeah, it might not feel that way at 2AM on some blue highway but that's often down to planning and routing.

The hybrid makes the most sense. Electric traction backed by batteries and a small internal combustion motor to keep the power flowing is a good half-step before better batteries arrive. I wonder how small a motor you could get away with, how efficient it would be if you ran it at its most effective RPMs (most hp per unit of fuel). How many kW of traction power do you need and how best to provide that? Regenerative braking and shore-power charging would be part of it, of course, but I think diesel-electric locomotives have something to tell us. They offer great fuel economy per unit of mass/mile, though we would have to account for lower rolling resistance (steel wheels on rails vs runner tires on roads).

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 8:24 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

Man I wish that Tesla project hadn't stalled out. I was just thinking about that swap a few weeks ago, did some Googling, and stumbled across it. But yes, it looks like it stalled out, unfortunately.

It feels like Vanagon + Tasla makes a ton of sense given the amount of space under the floor of the Vanagon.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:13 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

While "cool", the hybrid conversion is a crazy amount of money and will obviously not save you money, nor impact the climate. For me, the sole attraction would be the incredible power!

As stated, the energy density of gasoline, ease of "refilling", etc still have a major advantage over electrics.

So for anyone considering it, be sure you have your priorities in line with what the end product will be. I think its similar to the decision making of turning a diesel into a biodiesel burner. You're not helping the environment, and the durability of the engine goes down as does reliability with all the added connections and the like - versus the original diesel vehicle as delivered from the factory. It's the "cool" factor and not everyone realizes that's really all they're accomplishing.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:36 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

I have had thoughts of building an electric motor into the propshaft of a syncro to create a hybrid.

Electric drive around town/at low speed and engine power when more speed required or batteries discharged. Use both when more acceleration or hill climbing required.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:42 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

I feel like 10-20 years down the road I will do an electric conversion.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:19 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

"You're not helping the environment,"

eh Question Question Question
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:29 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

You're not helping the environment by manufacturing, buying or running any vehicle, period. Helping implies a net positive gain to the system, and that's virtually impossible when it comes to an over the road personal transport vehicle. At best you can mitigate the negative impacts, and biodiesel does that to some extent. The other comments about impacts to durability and longevity are commonly regurgitated alternative facts.
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82westyrabbit
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:49 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

I had a junk Prius and thought I might put the drive train in my van. It's 6 inches to wide to fit between the frame rails in the back. No easy way to make the wheels spin the right way. The best way would to mount it mid engine. But I am not willing to do the fram work. Some one would need to want it a lot more than me to make it work Sad
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 6:20 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

As a Chevy Volt owner and engineer, I thknk of this kind of thing often.

One thing to realize is that current hybrids and electrics are fuel efficient not just because of the braking regeneration electric motors and batteries used, but also because they are fundamentally more fuel efficient as well. By that I mean low rolling resistance, very low wind resistance, ultra efficient gas engines (in hybrids like the Prius), and other gas mileage improvements. These are cars that might do 45+ MPG on the highway without the hybrid part.

A Vanagon is a big, heavy, high wind resitance vehicle with bigger tires and higher rolling resistance. So for all the effort in doing such a thing, the only area where you would likely see much improvement is city driving.

I would guess that the most likely candidate for this would be pulling engine and drivetrain from a wrecked Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. It's a mild hybid system, but Subaru engines are vastly more efficient than Vanagon ones, they rotate the right way, and someone, if I recall, even used a Subaru transmission in their conversion.

The electronics, however, may be it's own nightmare, as the newer the ECU is, the more coupled it us to all of the car's other systems. Hybrids havs a lot of proprietary software, so it's not an easy undertaking.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2021 12:34 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

I've put a complete 2010 Prius drivetrain in our '64. Great results in the lighter bus. We just got back from an epic 7384 mile road trip with 1100 pounds on board (almost as heavy as our '87 Syncro)and got 27mpg in nasty winds.
The Syncro is still going strong with the 3.0 Nissan V6 I installed 15 years ago.
Neither one slips through the air very well Wink
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 5:34 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

^^^ Wow, that's quite an accomplishment. Do you have photos to post or a link to a build thread? The complexity of this project boggles my mind.
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?Waldo?
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:04 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

27 mpg is easily accomplished with a TDI Vanagon.
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dabaron
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:55 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone done a meld of a Vanagon and a hybrid (Prius, etc?) Reply with quote

?Waldo? wrote:
27 mpg is easily accomplished with a TDI Vanagon.


does this TDI fit in the engine compartment without modification to the lid and sacrificing ground clearance?
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