Vermilion County men taking charge with vehicles

DANVILLE – Every day, Judge Michael Clary drives his 2001 Ford Ranger truck to work with the "check engine" light shining, but never "checks" his engine.

He's not worried.

His truck has no engine.

It also has no exhaust system, no gas tank and no radiator.

The truck looks like any other Ford Ranger, but runs on an electric motor and 24 six-volt golf cart batteries – six under the hood and 18 in the truck bed – that weigh about 65 pounds each. Open the gas cap door to fill 'er up, and there's an electrical plug.

The circuit judge bought the truck in March, gutted it, and from April to August spent most nights and weekends in his garage transforming it into an all-electric vehicle.

"Gasoline was very expensive last summer, and I just started thinking about getting around without paying $4 for a gallon of gas," said Clary, who began researching, mostly through the Internet, alternatives to gas-powered vehicles and settled on building his own electric vehicle, or EV.

"It looked promising," said Clary, who's not alone in his quest to go all-electric and ditch his gas-guzzling vehicle.

As Clary was beginning to research alternatives last summer, Don Ward of Hoopeston was already driving his all-electric Chevrolet S-10 truck that he and his son converted. He would wave as he drove by gas stations where people were filling up with $4-a-gallon gas, he joked.

About the same time, Dr. Michael Henry, a retired Danville dentist, had completed a yearlong conversion of a 1988 Jeep Comanche to all-electric. Henry was mostly interested in photovoltaic energy, and after completing some classes with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association and some electronics courses at Danville Area Community College, his interest in alternative energy combined with his longtime enjoyment of tinkering with cars, and he started building.

"I'm a project guy, and this was one of my projects," he said.

Companies sell kits for gas-to-electric conversions. But Clary, Ward and Henry took what Henry calls the "smorgasbord" route, getting parts from a variety of places and figuring out how to put them together so they work.

"Every time you turn a corner, it's 'Where am I going to put that, and how am I going to hook that up?'" said Henry, whose Comanche is now powered by 13 12-volt batteries, can run 60 mph and go up to 25 miles on a charge.

For Ward, his S-10 was a longtime project in the making.

Over the past 15 years, he had bought several used cars, intending to make an alternative-powered vehicle but never found the time.

Now retired, he and his auto-mechanic son, Mark Ward, successfully converted a Chevrolet S-10 to an all-electric vehicle that runs on 16 8-volt batteries and a 28-horsepower electric motor with a top range of about 40 miles.

Ward got some ideas during his building process from an electric vehicle club in Chicago. Henry did as well and is now a member. In 2007, Henry said, the club had about 60 members. After $4 gas, it's grown to more than 200, but only 30 members actually have electric vehicles, he said.

Bob Batson is president of Electric Vehicles of America Inc., a New Hampshire company that provides parts and kits for electric vehicle conversions. Ward got some of his parts from the company.

Batson started the business 20 years ago, because he believed the future was in electric vehicles.

He estimates there are 4,000-5,000 gas-to-electric vehicle conversions throughout the nation. He said his business fluctuates with gas prices.

"With $4 gas, we couldn't keep stuff on the shelves," he said. "And the thing is, the average guy can do it."

He said a basic conversion costs about $10,000, and has advantages. You're taking a polluting vehicle, he said, and removing all the polluting parts, you can maintain it yourself, and you can qualify for state tax breaks.

"It really should be encouraged," he said.

Henry said his conversion cost him $12,000, and he got a $4,000 Illinois tax rebate. Illinois offers a conversion rebate for converting a conventional gasoline or diesel vehicle to natural gas, propane, E85 or electric. The rebate is for 80 percent of the cost of the conversion, up to $4,000.

Clary studied buying a hybrid or building a modified diesel, but preferred getting away from gasoline and oil altogether. He preferred electric, but said there's not much commercially available, so he began researching building his own.

He settled on a Ford Ranger truck, rather than a car, because it's still relatively light and there's space for the batteries, which take up most of his truck bed. Ward chose the Chevy S-10 and Henry the Jeep Comanche for the same reasons, although Henry's batteries are under the truck bed.

Clary found plenty of information online, including You Tube videos of people doing conversions.

"After looking at a few of those (YouTube) videos ... I said to myself, 'If this guy can do it, I can do it,'" said Clary, who grew up on a dairy farm where old equipment had to keep running, rebuilt his dad's farm tractor and built his own sailboat.

For this project, he had to learn to weld and design some of his own parts, like a connector plate, that connects the electric motor to the transmission. He made the plate from wood and Dines Machine Shop used his model to make an identical part from metal. Ward needed the same part during his build, and found one through EV America.

"I was able to adapt parts that weren't even made for a vehicle," Clary said. "You just kind of have to scrounge around to find the things you need to make the electric motor work."

By August, the truck was ready for a test drive. With some friends gathered at their house, he and his wife, Dana, took it for a spin.

"It worked," Clary said.

Since then, Clary's had it up to 55 miles per hour, and the range is 60 miles on one charge, allowing him to drive at least two days at a time without a charge. Since Sept. 1, he's been driving it to work every day and around town, racking up more than 850 miles without a glitch.

"It's very quiet. It kind of drives a little like a golf cart. You kind of push the accelerator a ways before anything happens," he said.

Henry said that's the key – driving the vehicle every day.

Now retired, Henry doesn't have a regular routine that takes him to work and back. And he lives several miles north of Danville, so he doesn't do a lot of in-town driving, for which, he said, these conversions are ideal.

"I don't drive it that much," Henry said. "Driving it in town is great. It would be a much better vehicle if I was in town, or had a regular job I went to. This is more of a routine vehicle, for going there, and going there, and coming home. You have to plan when you're going to take it for a drive."

Clary, who lives and works in Danville, calculated his average daily driving miles to determine the range and voltage he would need to drive the truck daily without charging it daily.

At night, Clary's truck plugs into a regular 110-volt household outlet, charging in about 10 to 11 hours. It can also plug into a 220-volt outlet, like a washer or dryer would use, and charge in about six hours.

Ward's S-10 charges on a 110-volt outlet and Henry's on a 220. Ward and Henry said they haven't seen a big difference in their power bills. Henry said it costs him $2 in electricity each time he charges his truck.

If gas is above $2 a gallon and you're driving a vehicle that gets about 20 miles a gallon, Henry said, an electric vehicle would be less expensive.

"It's great. It's quiet. It doesn't pollute. And it's cheaper than gas," Henry said. "But you have to drive it to save it. And I just don't. I drive it once in a while to the golf course, the Y or the bank, but I have to plan."

Clary said with gas at $2.50 a gallon, his conversion really hasn't been cost effective, factoring in what he's spent on the conversion. But it was a project he wanted to pursue and is still a "work in progress." He intends to move the batteries from the truck bed to underneath the truck, enclose the wiring and other parts under the hood and install a heater.

Ward said he knows of others in the area working on electric vehicle conversions, because they've contacted him for advice.

Batson said the break-even point seems to $3 a gallon gasoline. Under that price, hobbyists and others pursue conversions, and above that, especially at $4 a gallon, "everybody and their brother" wants to do it.

He believes electric vehicles will become more mainstream as batteries and other technology improve and the worldwide demand for oil increases.

"One of the things I've said all along, it really is the hobbyist that will bring the electric car along, not the big manufacturers," he said.

On the Web

For more information about electric vehicles, electric vehicle conversions and Illinois tax rebates for conversions, visit the following Web sites.

— Electric Auto Association: www.eaaev.org

— Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's Green Fleets Web site for information about rebates: www.illinoisgreenfleets.org/fuels/index.html

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