Frequently Asked Questions

What type of car is best to convert with a Kaylor-Kit?

 Kaylor-Kit can work with any VW rear transaxle based vehicle. While the kit probably has been put in more Bugs than any other body style, if its performance your looking for we recommend that you base your conversion on a fiberglass sports car body for the VW pan. A VW kit car body is still the most cost effective route to take for a well performing do-it-yourself electric vehicle. The body style your looking for should have good aerodynamics and be light weight. Having a light aerodynamic body can almost double the range of your vehicle over a standard Beetle. With 12 deep discharge golf cart batteries, a fiberglass sports car can go 40 to 60 miles on the freeway. Of course the more batteries you put in the further you can go. Addition of a hybrid kit with its 12 horsepower gasoline motor driving additional electric generators gives the added range of a ten gallon gas tank at about 50-100 m.p.g.

Bruce Mckasky with 16 batteries set a range record of 127.5 miles on a single charge for a non-hybrid electric vehicle. He was driving a light fiberglass dune buggy between 30 and 35 miles an hour. He could use a dune buggy because at these speeds aerodynamics is not an important factor but weight still is. One car that is popular to convert is the Kaylor Bradley GT. Of ours our Ferrari kits are much prettier. The Bradley car sits very low to the road and has a small frontal area. The one thing better than good aerodynamics is no aerodynamics at all. It is better to reduce your frontal area as much as possible, than try to clean up a high profile body style that still has to push a lot of air.

Why does Kaylor-Kit pick the classic VW platform?

We consider the classic VW or Porsche 914 ... or our Ferrari bodies that fit on the same chassis ... to deliver optimum performance for an electric or hybrid-electric Kaylor-Kit design. The VW or Porsche suspension can take the battery weight.
For the do-it-yourself enthusiast, simple hand tools are all you need. Kaylor-Kit is a bolt together and crimp exercise. The most difficult part of the project is building the battery rack or box.  A lot will depend on if you use a stock VW body or use a fiberglass kit car. Battery boxes are for some people easier than racks. While angle iron can be cut by hand with a hack saw most people will weld the steel angle together. If you do not like to weld you will want to take your cut angle to a shop to be welded. We have a friend who did a conversion to a parked car while it was on the street. He would just run an extension cord for his hand drill across the side walk when he needed it. Our friend bolted together his racks instead of welding them.

Kaylor-Kit is designed to use the most common type of electric vehicle battery there is, a 6 volt golf cart battery. Any battery distributor should have it. Sometimes you can buy them used at the local golf course for about what their return core charge would be. They would of course have less life in them at this point. What ever approach you take the classic VW platform works out the best for modification and holds it's value over time.

What range can my Kaylor-Kit drive under real world conditions?

The key factors are ratio of battery weight to overall vehicle weight, aerodynamics, rolling resistance and driving technique. For battery weight, in practice, people have found that it should represent at least 60% of the weight of the vehicle. Needless to say this ratio is rarely achieved in conversions.

On the flat and level when your vehicle's speed exceeds 45 mph better aerodynamics produces better mileage. Either have a slippery design or not much frontal area to start with. For tires, purchase high gas mileage tires and overinflate them. The body style you put your Kaylor-Kit makes a difference. A light fiberglass kit car or a dune-buggy provides a good battery to weight ratio with such light vehicles. However, a Classic Beetle or Porsche 914 already has comfortable seats, radio, door panels, easily operating windows, plenty of headroom and footroom and so on.

The overall range is also dependent on how fast you drive your vehicle, speed verses range. For many years in the past, people were told that the higher the voltage your system was, the more efficient it would be. The assumption was that less resistance in the wires would result directly in more range. This thought is not necessarily true. Though you do want to reduce resistance in your wires, another way to do this is to use heavier gauge wire. When you are trying to get maximum range what you want to do is match the impedance of your batteries with the impedance of your motor. This is most often done by lowering the voltage of your system. Running your battery banks in several parallel sets is the way you achieve this. Kaylor-Kit is often configured to use 12 golf cart batteries giving you a maximum voltage of 72 volts. With an ultra light sports car such a system would give you a range of something like 40 to 60 miles at a continuous 55 m.p.h. using Trojan 145 golf cart batteries. In a VW fiberglass sports car kit we have been able to reach a top speed of 70 mph in 72 volt mode with greatly reduced range.

If increasing range is important to you, you can add 4 more batteries for a total of 16 batteries and run the system in two parallel packs of 48 volts each. With a maximum voltage of 48 volts and 16 batteries you can greatly extend your range. This is the same configuration that Bruce McKasky used to win the great EV rally five years in a row, reaching an ultimate range of 127.5 miles. Or by using a hybrid electric-gasoline design with our 12 horsepower engine driving several additional generators and a 10 gallon fuel tank, at 50-100 m.p.g. your range is not only greatly extended, but so is the charge of your batteries.

Keeping your non-hybird electric vehicle plugged in to retain a surface charge until you are ready to take off, and coasting your vehicle when possible proves extra miles on the road. 

For some, getting a 35 mile range probably is okay. They may have older batteries, or had to climb a hill, or picked a route with many stop signs.

How does the Kaylor-Kit controller system work?

We maintain speed control by switching batteries in a series parallel configuration. We modify heavy duty double throw, double pole relays with heavy copper buss bars so the relay can switch two 36 volt battery packs to run ether in parallel (36 volts) or in series (72 volts). Each of these two voltage steps or power levels can be used in each of the four mechanical gears that you have in a standard VW transaxle. This gives you eight power levels to work with. Think of it as eight bit speed control. Though it might not seem intuitively so, by using the clutch to smooth out power transitions and by the fact that the vehicles shear mass in motion stores energy, this simple control approach smoothes out power transitions surprisingly well. In practice driving such a vehicle feels identical to riding in a sports car. If some type of fine tuning or in-betweening of the speed control is still psychologically necessary you could always add field weakening later. This consists of a one transistor PWM DC to DC power supply that can be built for around $20 in parts.

The key to using a shunt motor is the transmission. Where a Series motor can be hooked up 'golf cart style' or directly, a shunt motor has to be driven through the transmission. Like a gas engine powered vehicle you build up speed by slowly shifting through gears. You never want to lug a shunt motor. Though it will never stall like a gas engine you will pull excessive currents and it will want to overheat. Proper use of the transmission is also the key to climbing hills. A series motor will pull lots of excessive amps and overheat when climbing in the wrong gear, but most of its power will still be there. With a shunt motor you need to downshift to the right gear in order to get ample torque when climbing. You always need to keep a shunt motor as revved up as possible. This is why you should, when taking off from a full stop, rev your electric motor up first, then let out the clutch. When the shunt motor is already spinning at a higher rpm you can ask it to give you more power more quickly.

One elegant feature of a shunt motor / relay controlled system is that you get regenerative breaking without any additional components or design elements. You generate back EMF by simply down shifting. Because relays pass current in ether direction (unlike transistors) your shunt motor automatically turns into a generator simply by increasing its RPM by shifting down. This feature not only increases your vehicles range but also acts as an important safety factor. Unlike a gas vehicle the typical series motor powered electric conversion no longer has compression breaking and has to rely solely on its hydraulic breaks to stop. This fact gives the shunt motor based vehicle a great advantage.

How long should my Kayor-Kit conversion take?

Because Kaylor-Kit has combined the electronics on a Control Board it should take you only a few days to mount the components Kaylor-Kit provides. It takes maybe 20 minutes to mount the motor. You use four bolts to mount the adapter palate and 6 bolts to mount the electric motor. The Control Board can be mounted with 4 bolts or screws. We like mounting it above the motor on the outside of the fire wall. We have left the mounting holes undrilled so you can choose what you like best. It also goes well on the inside of the firewall under the rear window.

The real problem with estimating total time to completion is what design approach you take to completing your battery box. You can either make it a small project or a large project. You will find out that the more you get into it the more whistles and bells you will want to add. Another factor is the condition of the car you are going to convert. If the car is clean and has no problems things can go fast, but if the car will need lots of work things can drag out. Your best bet is to find a clean VW Bug or kit car and work from there. In a nut shell, if your battery box is already completed and your batteries are in place and your car is in good shape it should take only a few days. This in real life is rarely the case.

What else will I need to complete my Kaylor-Kit car?

First you need a car. You need to pick up batteries from a battery distributor and some 00 welding cable & terminal ends from your local welding supply company. You need to pick up light gauge wire to hook up instrumentation and control functions, and a cheap 12 volt $20 battery charger from your local auto parts supply store for the accessory battery. You need materials to build a battery box or battery rack system. By far the most expensive thing you will have to buy are batteries which should cost something like $800-$1,000 for the whole set. You need 12 standard deep cycle 6 volt flooded golf cart batteries and one 12 volt deep cycle flooded RV battery.

When looking back on the whole project, the battery box will be the biggest challenge. Most people build them out of plywood with metal angle iron reinforcement on the corners. Because Kaylor-Kit is designed to fit into all VW air-cooled based vehicles including VW pan based kit cars and sandrails you will adapt the shape of your battery box to fit the space your chassis provides. Each box will be different depending on which model vehicle you pick. For Bugs most people find that the battery box fits best as a replacement for the back seat. In a bug the back seat was never much to speak of in the first place and when a battery box replaces it, you still have plenty of room to put things on top of it.

As far as doing this work yourself, the Kaylor-Kit is for the most part pre-assembled. The entire motor/adapter plate assembly should take less than an hour to mount onto your vehicle. All components for the control board are pre-assembled and can be mounted to the firewall with only four bolts or screws. If you have the skill to replace the starter motor on your gas car you can assemble the components we send you. We have found that it is always best to do the work yourself for later troubleshooting. The wiring is easy. We provide a complete schematic which is crossed referenced with tags on the components.

What are the Kaylor-Kit components I'll need to install?

By consolidating all the electronics on the Control Board and providing this as a complete and working unit Kaylor-Kit has eliminated much of the tedious assembly needed to create an electric propulsion system for a car. What Kaylor-Kit provides you with are three main assemblies: a motor & adapter plate assembly, a control board assembly, and a battery charger. You will need to wire or hook these units up to a battery set. The wires you need for this are all common and easy to find. The main battery pack is hooked up with 00 welding cable that you can find at a welding supply store. The eyelets or end terminations can also be found at your welding supply. We supply all the eyelets or terminations that interface to our assemblies, all you need to do is purchase the terminations that hookup the battery pack between batteries. The style or type of eyelet you chose will depend on the type of terminal posts your batteries have. There are three main types, sometimes they are designed as combos with two types of interfaces in one post. The rest of the wiring is done with very light wire that you can find at any auto supply store. There is very little of this wiring to be done because we have physically combined everything on the control board and this is already wired and ready to go.

The assembly of Kaylor-Kit components goes fast. You have 4 bolts to mount the adapter plate to the transaxle. You have 6 bolts to mount the electric motor to the adapter plate. All these bolts are provided. It takes 2 or 4 bolts to mount the control panel to the firewall of the bug (inside or out). The battery charger is small and light and can fit anywhere onboard or off. You also need to mount a small toggle switch assembly (also provided) at the end of the throttle cable, this is usually above or to the side of the main propulsion motor in the rear engine compartment. In all the most time consuming task you have is to mount your batteries. This is done usually one of two ways. You ether weld up battery racks using 1-1/2 inch by 1/8 thick steel angle and bolt them firmly to the body/frame of the car or you construct some type of battery box, usually out of plywood with metal angle corner reinforcements. The metal reinforced battery box can be constructed without the need for welding and with only hand tools. Some people build a hybrid of the two with some metal angle included in the plywood box design.

How many and what type of batteries should I use?

The Kaylor-Kit is designed to use 12 deep cycle 6 volt, flooded golf cart batteries for main power and one 12 volt, deep cycle, RV battery for lights and accessories. When shopping for 6 volt golf cart batteries you will find a range of sizes to pick from. It is probably safe to say the Trojan Battery company is one of the leaders in the golf cart battery field. If we look at the choices Trojan offers we can get a good idea what others also have to offer. Trojan has a range of three basic golf cart batteries: the T-105, T-125 and the T-145. Of these three batteries we like the T-125 most. The T-105 is the most rugged but has the least capacity. At 62 lbs. it has 225 amp hours (at a 20 hour rate). The T-145 has the most capacity but tends to have a shorter life and does not stand up as well in vehicle propulsion usage. At 72 lbs. it has a 244 amp hour rating. we find the T-125 a good compromise between the two, at 66 lbs. it has 235 amp hours. All three batteries are 10-3/8" wide by 7-1/8" in length. The T-105 and the T-125 are 10-7/8" tall, the T-145 is 11-5/8" tall. Sometimes when replacing batteries in older conversions with a pre-existing battery box the 145 just does not fit. If you can stand to lose a little range and want the most cycle life out of your battery pack you might consider using the T-105's. From a cost view point they are the most 'Bang for the Buck'.

While the battery charger for the Kaylor Kit is designed to charge a 72 volt pack the rest of the system can be configured for a number of other voltages. Some other voltages that have been successfully used are 36V, 48V, and 60V. The greatest ranges that have been achieved were using 16 golf cart batteries configured to give a maximum of 48 volts. With this configuration Bruce Mckasky achieved a range of 127.5 miles during one of Silicon Valley's Great Electric Car Rallies.

What will you will find in the Kaylor-Kit control box shipment?

In addition to the control board you will also find packed in this shipment the motor cooling fan, a cooling fan to hose adapter and a 3' diameter hose that is held in place with standard hose clamps. You will also find two adapter plate upper mounting bolts and a volt and amp meter Also part of this shipment's contents is the 12 volt speed control switch. This switch should be used in an off / on / on configuration. We have assembled the switch's components on a wire so you can see how they should be assembled at the end of the VW's accelerator cable. You use the two unused holes in the switch assemblies extruded mounting frame to permanently position the switch somewhere close to where the carburator would be positioned if it had the original gas engine. Depending on what type of body style your conversion uses, you usually need to make some type of extension to hold the switch's frame in the right position. Sometimes on Bugs, people get away with just bending the accelerator cable down a bit so the switch can be mounted to the rear sheet metal in the engine compartment.

Can I use a Kaylor-Kit to power an early model VW bus ?

 Yes, our kit would fit into 1967 or earlier buses without any modifications. The entire motor adapter plate assembly should take less than an hour to install. The 1968 and later buses had a rear support bar that attached to the air cooled motor in three places. Because VW changed the way they supported the transaxle after 1967 you need to keep these rear shock supports in place to support the transaxle/motor assembly. With an electric conversion you would have to support the rear of the electric motor with these shock mounts. Some type of special interface would have to be fabricated. One easy way to do this is to purchase a conversion kit designed to support a standard bug motor from the oil pump cover bolt holes. This adapter costs about $20 at our local BugFormance parts dealer. While you would still have to do some fabrication to interface to the electric motor, much of the work is already done for you.

Another thing you need to consider is performance. Compared to a Bug a VW Bus is heavy and pushes a lot more air going down the road. If maximum range and top speed are the most important goals for your conversion then a VW van is a poor choice. What works best in this case is a fiberglass bodied sportscar kit of aerodynamic design. The VW Transporters strength is its large internal area and its ability to move a lot of things around. If what you are looking for is a vehicle to do a lot of in-town driving and getting up to high speed on the freeway is not important, then a VW bus conversion might serve you well. When you are planning an electric conversion you should ask yourself what job do you want it to perform, what are your minimum requirements? How fast and how far do you really need to go?