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Monday, November 24, 2008
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How truck runs could shock you EVERYDAY PEOPLE Associate Editor Most drivers cast a wary eye at fluctuating gas prices as they drive by service stations but Warren Morgan can keep his eyes on the road when he's behind the wheel of his 1996 S10 Chevy pickup.
His Chevy truck runs on electricity.
The semi-retired electrician put his professional experience to use last summer and replaced his truck's internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Goodbye, thirsty gas tanks. Goodbye, oil changes. Goodbye, sticker shock when the price of gasoline nears $4 a gallon.
"That isn't really what motivated me," he said of the high gas prices. "I'm always building stuff. I've done electrical (work) all my life."
In a summer project that took eight weeks and roughly $10,000, the rural Brainerd man pulled out the truck's engine and exhaust system and replaced it with an engine that uses 24 DC batteries and two 12-volt auxiliary batteries for accessories. The truck has 1,500 pounds of batteries and is about 1,000 pounds heavier than it was with an internal combustion engine. The automatic transmission was replaced with a manual transmission.
"I got rid of as much weight as I could," he said.
Morgan said he used to work with electric forklift trucks and thought they were efficient. He concedes he could have bought a lot of gasoline with $10,000 but said that it was the challenge of building an electric car that attracted him to the project.
"You could do it cheaper by scrounging a little more," Morgan said.
The farthest he's driven his 144-volt electric truck is 45 miles but he anticipates it could possibly go somewhere between 50 and 100 miles before needing a charge. He still tinkers with the truck and said he wasn't quite satisfied with the braking system yet.
Warren Morgan
Age: 60-plus.
Family: Wife, Beverly; three children; three grandchildren.
Pet peeves?: "Not particularly. I don't take life too seriously."
Favorite movie: "Second Hand Lion" and "The World's Fastest Indian."
Anything you can't fix: "A broken heart."
Favorite meal: "Roast beef. I'm married to the world's best cook. I can barely run a microwave."
Best advice: He was told that no matter what business you're involved in if you know your business really well you'll be successful.
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Maintenance is much easier with the electric truck he said because it has 17 moving parts compared to about 1,700 moving parts with a gas-powered engine. He can drive at speeds up to 55 mph, which he said is plenty fast for him.
"I drive it to my friend's house and plug it in just to aggravate them," he said with a laugh.
The only drawback to the truck is that the heat goes to keep the windshield clear and there's no heat for the driver. That's not a problem for Morgan.
"I had more fun building it than I did driving it," he said.
Building things has been a way of life for Morgan, who said he grew up about nine miles west of Pine River on the "edge of the swamp with a wood stove and a water pump between the house and the barn."
His father had to leave the family and join the military during World War II and his mother supported the family, largely on food from a big garden and chickens.
"The whole neighborhood kind of looked out for you," he said of his childhood days.
Growing up in a self-described "humble background," Morgan said he learned how to fix things and make do with what was available. That background, coupled with 40-some years as an electrician, gave him the confidence to build his own electric car. He thought a moment when he was asked if there was anything that he couldn't fix.
"There isn't anything I can't attempt to fix," he said.
In his 60s now, Morgan is mostly retired but finds himself called into various electrical projects for friends and relatives.
"I don't start very early and I quit pretty early," Morgan said of his current work mode.
He said electric cars might not be for everyone but if people who didn't put on a lot of mileage went electric they would help save a considerable amount of gasoline and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
"I hope to see it change," he said. "I feel we're 20 years behind where we should be."
He blames the lack of progress on innovators' fear of getting caught up in legal and copyright battles.
"I blame it on the legal system ... the bureaucrats," Morgan said.
The batteries he used for his truck are relatively primitive compared to the battery technology that's out there, he said. Most people are familiar with what batteries can do if they've ever ridden on a golf cart. His truck runs on roughly the same technology, he said.
"They use four (batteries) and I use 24," he said.
Morgan, a vehicle-builder himself, said he doesn't believe Congress should bail out U.S. automakers.
"All they need to do is shift gears," he said. "I think the demand for electric cars would be so great. We just need to make the transition.
"We need the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail," he said.
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