welcome to another DIY video before calling the professional maybe it's DIYable
this time we are talking about how to make EV charging cable management easier
you will love what i am going to show you there is no more tangled charging cable
and no more dropping the charger to the ground accidentally the design is so simple to use and
your wife will be happy about it if you have watched my videos before you know we had the
Nissan leaf and i installed the 240 volt receptacle for the level 2 charger about 4
years ago to buy myself you should check it out if you have not installed for your electric vehicle
it's not too difficult at all there's no need to hire any electrician using the mobile charger that
comes with the vehicle there is no need to rewire again when you switch from one EV manufacturer to
another because NEMA 1450 is the standard just plug and play check out the video if you are
interested in that project i will post the link in the description we switch from Nissan to a
Tesla model 3 but because of the location of the charging port i had to use extension cord
i bought this 15 feet 6 gauge extension cord from amazon if you read it on the internet
people who are religiously follow the building code will tell you extension cord is dangerous
yes indeed it can be i had bad experience with my central vac and look at this extension cord it
melted the plastic but there was a reason why it happened i am going to show you how to avoid this
the main cause of the problem was the vibration of the central vac pvc pipe
to make sure that my 6 gauge extension cord does not have any movement
i am attaching it to the drywall using cable tie and screw secure it to the stud
for those areas don't have stud use plastic anchors instead
the more anchor points you have the better
for good practice always use the level to mark the lines
this ensures you will have good quality results
next replace the 120 volt plug with the 240 volt
NEMA 1450 adapter you can get it from the tesla official
the charger holder you can get it from amazon
it's a test for your measuring skills if you have done it properly you should have a perfect fit
look at this that's the good DIY quality i am talking about
just plugging it in is not good enough the reason for plastic meltdown on extension cord is because
of arcing this can be caused by bad contact or vibration to prevent that from happening i am
using cable ties to mount the 6 gauge extension cord on the 2x6 it's not going to move anywhere
i am adding a small piece of wood to hold the charging cable see the space between the central
vac pvc pipe and the cable that's very important to eliminate any potential vibration issues that
is looking good the idea is to run the cable from the 1450 receptacle to the back of the garage
of course i am using cable tie to secure the connection point mounting the charger horizontally
is the best to show the tesla logo any fanboys of Elon Musk would agree moving on to the back
of the garage i am mounting the charging cable to the wooden shelf it's pretty much self-explanatory
i need some split wire loom for this area for additional protection
by the way is there anyone who is interested in how i built this heavy-duty garage shelves
using two by fours and four by fours it was done long time ago back in 2014
i did not have any video at that time however i did have some photos check out my blog for details
i will post the link in the description next we are going to work on the cable retractor but is
this the right solution for you if your car is parked in the same spot with the same orientation
every single day yes this will work for you however if you have multiple electric vehicles
sharing the same charger you may have to do some modifications of what i am going to show you
okay i am focusing on single electric vehicles with fixed charging location
first you have to buy this litter gadget from amazon it's called spring balancer this
is usually used in the factory by the assembly line and it holds the tool suspended in the air
you only need very little effort to hold the tool is basically like weightless
i am installing an anchor point on my ceiling using the screws to secure it to the studs
for serious DIY people you should have some aircraft cables in the toolbox the
reason i said that is because it's the same cable that holds your garage door
you need to have some in case your garage door fails i am using stainless steel instead
of galvanized here we are making a cable that is going to attach the spring balancer to the ceiling
the spring balancer would not work if you don't have the proper weight i am using this two and a
half pounds fitness weight i will show you later in the video why two and a half pounds is needed
next magic wrap tape is used to wrap around the lower part of the Tesla charger this tape does not
have any adhesive it just bonds to itself it's one of my favorite items in my toolbox
because the surface of the tesla charger is too smooth we need to have some grip
wrap the fitness weight around the charger just like that see the magic tape works flawlessly
i am wrapping another zip tie on the charging cable for additional safety
in case the weight slides off from the charger it won't hit the ground
before showing you how the safety harness works let's focus on getting the main part finished
this is the safety harness that i'm talking about
you only need to use minimal effort to move the charger look i am using only one finger
to charge your car you only need to pull the charger down just like that no need to worry about
dropping the charger to the ground accidentally you may be wondering how high the tension is
with the spring balancer damage the charging port let me show you the tension is very low honestly
with the weight balance it out there is absolutely no problem when the charging is
completed unlock the charging port and you can yank it out and let it hang in the air
this is the close-up shot for the charging process it's so easy look at that
going back to the question why two and a half pounds is needed
let's use the digital scale to see how heavy this is
all right we got 3.3 pounds let's convert it to kg for a sec we got one and a half kilogram look
at the spring balancer this particular model is designed for half a kilogram to one and
a half kilogram we are right on the dot this explains why two and a half pounds is needed
the spring balancer works fine but i had very bad experience with all this made in china crap i am
adding another safety cable above the spring balancer in case it fails the cable will hold
the charger yes you do need to unlock the quick release to use the charger and put it back on when
you're done i have to agree this makes it more difficult for my wife i would say it's optional
to show you the failure scenario i disconnected the spring balancer now the safety cable is
holding the charger you may ask what if the fitness weight also fails at the same time
alright let's disconnect it too remember i had to zip tie on the charging cable
this will save the day that is a very successful diy project for electric vehicles give this a
thumbs up if you think this video has some good information my goal is to inspire more people
into diy i hope this helps you may also want to check out other videos on my channel i am pretty
sure you will love them remember to subscribe thanks for watching and see you next time