I can't wait to see this build !. Have you thought where you would place the batteries? In or under the bed?

 

it depends on the battery chemistry. If I can put together the scratch... I'd like to buy a ****ton of 18650 Li Ion cells and make long packs that will fit within the bed's frame-rails, with a couple up in the engine bay. The lower mounting on the frame rails will lower the trucks C.G. and the packs up front should give me a relative 50/50 distribution.

If I end up with the Li Iron Phosphate chemistry, they are significantly larger and less adaptable... so they will be transverse mounted under the bed, behind driver seat where the fuel tank is, and in the engine bay. My goal is to leave the truck as stock looking as possible, but making a "high tech sleeper" on the inside

Eventually (or while doing this) I want to mold up the body panels and re-skin the truck in composites (Carbon fibre if I can find a sponsor). I figure I can take between 1,000 - 1,700 pounds off the thing. With no engine... I need no gas tank, no radiator, no exhaust, etc...

I'm starting a YouTube channel that will showcase my various projects with the intention of teaching other girls (ladies ) that they can do this stuff themselves with the help of some info and some interweb'n

We also just acquired a 1970 Airstream Sovereign where we'll be doing a gut and restore on that, and also lightening it.

I bought another little camp trailer off my neighbor as a "range extending" trailer to put more batteries on when I need to go further than a 50 mile round trip.

After buying the truck, the trailer, the other trailer, and now our landlord is selling this place and I have to move... I'm pretty tapped out in the wallet... so this will be a Patreon/Kickstarter type thing so we can start producing the podcast and videos.

Ranger Extending Battery Trailer

 

I have seen the VW and Honda conversions; they looked easy to do. For safety I'd think keep any batteries out of the cab. Look into one of them in the bed toolboxes/fuel cells for extra storage.
Also there are whole fiberglass cabs and hoods to help reduce weight. Click here:
67-72 Ford Truck

 

I've seen 'em... they're more than grand.

I think the plan, for that, is to order new skins... use them as molds to make the carbon pieces, and then resell the skins on the cheap to someone who needs 'em

 

So making a carbon fiber door or fender is not expensive?

 

Oh, it's quite expensive, but a far cry from purchasing one already made

 

Zombie Mustang by far my most favorite electric car. Hopefully your truck will be everything you hope it will. This mustang changed the way I think of electric cars. 1000 foot pounds of torque? yes please!




instant smoke!

 

I've been a fan of the Zombie for a while

There are a handful more examples like that. The winner of the Pike's Peak hill climb was an all-electric plug-in BMW M3