Suzuki LTZ400 electric quad build

[Easty_au]

Hey everyone,

The plan is to build an electric quad bike for use around home/joy riding but also possibly for hunting being so quiet.
for my requirements I'll need more battery than the usual electric moto build so plan to mount the motor on the swingarm after i extend it and save the old ICE motor area for battery real-estate.
seeing as though i won't be racing or jumping this bike I'm not too worried about the un-sprung weight, but we will see if it's that bad once all finished.

For the motor and controller I'll be using a QS138 90h v3 and a Fardriver nd721200 capable of 600a and 1200a phase
Battery will most likely be a Amorge 100ah+ battery capable of 400a+ constant and 900a+ bursts.
I've never had anything to do with electric builds before so all will be a learning curve for me.
Donor bike is a 2009 LTZ400 I got from a friend.. will require some TLC along the way.

Cheers

 

[Easty_au]

Started pulling the engine and wiring and anything else that wouldn't be used out of the bike.
Need to remove the swingarm bolt to get the motor out which is more difficult than I thought it would be, but needs to come out regardless to extend the swingarm and add the mounts for the motor.

 

[azeus17]

Looks like a cool build. I'll be following along. It will be interesting to see how you mount the motor to the swingarm.

 

[Easty_au]

So I started removing the axle and also looking into where and how the motor will sit.. seems like it will be pretty close but just works when I move the sprocket from closer to far side of the mount. (I hope anyway)

Next up will be fully removing engine and swingarm to see what battery I can fit and to take the swingarm to be extended 4"

 

[Easty_au]

Engine and swingarm have been removed now, gave it a good clean up with the wire brush and deagreased it.
Now it's time to measure the battery up properly and make a mock-up to be sure it fits well, and take the swingarm in to a welder.
Noticed a crack in the swingarm which the LTZ's are renown for.. will get that sorted out when it gets extended.

 

[Easty_au]

Swingarm has been extended now, pretty much need to reassemble the bike and make everything work.. battery & controller mount, align engine and mark out mounts, check that cables are long enough for where i plan to fit everything etc then pull it apart again for blast and paint.
A bit of double handling but don’t see how else i could do it without being rough and grinding paint down for mounts i’ve forgotten etc.

 

[SlowCo]

Nice project!

 

[Easty_au]

Nice project!

Cheers mate

 

[Easty_au]

Received the cradle and motor this week, lined the sprockets up and found that the subframe just hits at full compression.
made some mods to the frame and also going to do the controller brackets whilst I'm doing some welding.
couldn't get the controller under tank where i wanted it which is a shame but the phase wirers are too short..

 

[SlowCo]

Just for some extra motivation:

 

[Easty_au]

Just for some extra motivation:

yeah i saw that one today haha.. pretty crazy

 

[SlowCo]

I had a Yamaha Raptor 700 for 5 years and would have loved it even more if it had that much horsepower.

 

[Easty_au]

I did some more fab work, handlebar bracket that holds a small lightbar and the speedo.. and a red light behind nudge bar for hunting.
I can't do a lot more now until the battery arrives in 2-3 months.. also need to organize my own freight from Sydney to Perth as Amorge wouldn't send to me because of weight.
I'll probably just mount controller and take swingarm in to get the 2 mounts tigged on until then.

 

[azeus17]

yeah i saw that one today haha.. pretty crazy

Am I the only one that watched that video and though, "How did they fry the battery? It's probably just the BMS. I wonder if they'd send it to me?"

 

[Easty_au]

Am I the only one that watched that video and though, "How did they fry the battery? It's probably just the BMS. I wonder if they'd send it to me?"

yeah it didn't catch fire so you're probably right

 

[Easty_au]

Have pretty much done all that i can until the battery arrives now.. motor is on and aligned ready to go, mount for controller and electrics done and spacer for where the old ICE mounted so arms don't compress and break.
Once the battery shows up the last of the fabricating then blast and paint.