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The most unrealistic part about zombie movies isn't the zombies, or the fact that they have
unlimited ammo. It's that they keep on driving their vehicles around years after the apocalypse
happens. Gasoline only lasts about 6-12 months in a sealed container. So in a real zombie apocalypse
all the vehicles become pretty worthless really fast. A proper apocalypse vehicle would be
all-electric, get its energy from the sun, and be a beast off-road, which is why today we're
going to turn this old school military Humvee into an electric vehicle. Let's get started.
[Intro]
So this is going to be a really big project, and really expensive. People have been doing EV
conversions for quite a while, usually on smaller cars. But this is going to be a lot more expensive
because it's a truck and weighs a lot more and needs more power. And it's also going to be more
painful on the wall since all the technology is still pretty new. And early adopters, as we know,
always have to pay a little bit more. Hummer is coming out with their own electric vehicle
this fall called the Hummer EV, and costs well over 100,000 dollars. I'm pretty sure I'll be
able to finish mine before then, and have it cost less, but we'll have to see how it goes.
I'll be powering my electric hummer with battery modules taken out of a Tesla Model X.
And the electric motor I'm using will be taken out of one of those machines that push
airplanes around on the tarmac. So it'll be a Frankenstein contraption
of parts that hopefully can all come together and work in harmony.
So you might be asking, 'Hey Jerry, why did you pick a military Humvee for this project?'
And you're right. This is probably the last choice of vehicle that you would want to turn electric.
But I wanted to see what happens when you take the least fuel efficient vehicle on the planet and
turn it into an electric vehicle. Going from a gas guzzler to a green machine, because as we know,
electric vehicles are the future. The electric motor and the electric battery pack should give
it more performance than it ever had with it's diesel with its diesel engine that it has now. And
I want to finish my electric hummer before Hummer finishes theirs just because that sounds like fun.
So this machine is a 1995 military Humvee. And I'm going to be using the words Humvee
and hummer interchangeably, but what they mean is a Humvee is a high mobility,
multipurpose wheeled vehicle. And they were built specifically for the military. Whereas the hummer
was a civilian version that had a lot more creature comforts like A/C and an actual interior,
which you'll see in a minute. The civilian H1's and the military Humvee look pretty much the
same on the outside except for the military ones have a massive turret hole in the top,
or at least mine does. This whole thing is made from aluminum so it's lighter than it looks,
but it still weighs about 5,000 pounds, which is a lot of weight for an electric motor to be pushing.
But the motor I'm using is also used to push around jets so I think we'll be just fine.
I think I've talked enough about the outside though, let's take a tour of the inside.
These machines are kind of notorious for not being all that great. They kind of fell apart a lot. But
I'm hoping that by gutting it and installing an electric system I can avoid at least some
of those mechanical issues. The H1 of the civilian version had air conditioning and a real interior,
but this Humvee is bare metal all over. These dials right here will eventually have to come out
to make room for a digital display. We're taking the technology from 1995 and taking it to 2021.
Most Humvees have a max speed of about 65 miles an hour, but mine is an upgraded
version with a top speed of 80...not that I would ever really want to go that fast.
Inside the Humvee we have four seats as well as plenty of space in the back,
kind of like a truck, because you never know what you might need to be hauling in the apocalypse.
I'll give you a tour under the hood in just a second,
but one of my favorite parts of inside the vehicle is this compartment right here,
where you can actually work on the engine from inside the vehicle. Take a look.
Full access to the motor, and the transmission is right here and this is what we're going to be
attaching our electric motor to. Underneath the hood, which opens up in a kind of unique way,
we have the motor, which is coming out, as well as the alternator and the cooling system,
which all of this needs to come out to make space for the electric parts.
One of the coolest parts of this is that, I mean there's a lot of cool parts to this. As you can
tell, I'm pretty excited. But on the front there's a bunch of hooks on the bumper as well as here
by the motor, and on the back bumper. And these are used to carry the hummer via helicopter
and throw it out of airplanes, you know, when they need to put a vehicle somewhere where they
can't drive it to. It's pretty impressive how much abuse these things can handle.
Also, it's important to take a look at the ground clearance underneath. So the hummer has about
19 inches of ground clearance, while my lifted truck has about 17 inches of ground clearance.
But, it's not pure ground clearance because we have the differential sticking down back there.
And when the differential is sticking down, that takes away from some of the ground clearance
that the hummer doesn't have to deal with. There is no differential sticking down because
it has something called portal axles, which I don't know a whole lot about. But instead of
having a differential that drops down below the frame, everything is tucked up inside,
which gives it a much lower center of gravity and makes it more capable off-road. All of the drive
train stuff, like the transmission and drive shaft are raised up between the passengers,
which also means it's easier to get in and out of because the driver's not sitting super elevated.
The original Humvee are also really good at fording water. This is the air intake right
here for the engine, and all of the components inside are sealed so water can get up to at least
that point before the engine floods, which is more than what you could say for other vehicles.
Here's a closeup look at those portal hubs where the axle cummins up top, but there's
still a bunch of gearing inside of the hub itself. And what's interesting is most vehicles
have their brake pads and rotors, these guys right here, down next to the wheel. But that's not the
case with this Humvee. Everything is protected in that long metal chamber between the seats.
The internet has said that the 0-60 on this thing is about 20 seconds,
which is pretty slow. But it wasn't really built for speed.
I personally can't really test the top speed of this because the motor is shot right now...as
in it's not working...not like physically shot. I did try to fix the motor, but it is definitely
beyond repair and we're going to swap it out anyway for something that's better. Once it
goes into the garage behind me, it is not coming out again until it's thought about what it's done
and comes out a completely changed vehicle. This project is going to be really expensive,
but I think it's going to be educational for all of us so I think it's worth it.
Electric vehicles are still super new. If I attempt this project in 10 or 20 years it's
going to be a lot cheaper because there's going to be more used parts to choose from.
I'm sure you're curious about how a person would move a 5,000 pound dead military Humvee,
and that guy right there is what's going to do it for us. It's only supposed to hold
3,000 pounds....a 3,000 pound trailer, but it does work pretty well with the hummer.
And there we have it. An electric motor brought it into the garage,
and an electric motor will be the thing that brings it back out. I'm super excited for this
project. Hit that subscribe button if you want to see what happens next. Come hang out with
me on Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.
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