I Made My Bike Camper Electric - 100+ KM Range (No Pedaling)

This spring I built a camper I can tow with my bike... Now I've modified it to make it electric with a huge range of over 100KM!

I make an DIY lithium ion EBike battery (51AH 48V battery for a 48V 1000W Ebike Conversion kit using BAK 6.1A 18650 battery cells), repair some flaws in the first design, add solar power and solar charging for more range and convert my bike to an ebike with an easy conversion kit.

Product Links:

[EbikeSchool]

I'm glad my battery building series helped you with the battery pack! You created something amazing here!

[Pifreek]

I loved the first build and couldn't wait for this ebike sequel!

I do, however, have some constructive criticism on the battery construction, and i do mean constructive. I'm not here to bash.

You said yourself you had never done this before, so I'd like to give you some advice as a seasoned battery builder. I did my own ebike conversion with a mid drive Bafang (id recommend mid drive for more torque, which you need with weight and hills) and built my own battery as well. I've built about 7kwhr of batteries for my off grid solar power system, as well as commissions for some friends.

Battery safety is paramount when working with lithium. It can be very dangerous if you don't take proper precautions/safety measures. We need to ensure the DIY battery community maintains a good reputation by focusing on safety. Battery fires are a terrible thing for individuals and the DIY community as a whole.

First, your retaining mechanism of hot glue. A lot of professionally made battery packs are indeed glued together, but they use a much higher strength glue (trust me, I've disassembled many lol) and at least some sort of cell holder. A physical spacer is important to keep the cells away from each other. If they are touching and somehow rub together (maybe the hot glue fails) enough to wear through the plastic wrapper, they can short out on each other. No bueno. We use abs plastic cell holders. Search eBay or amazon for 18650 cell holder. They are relatively cheap, and add a lot of structural integrity to a pack.

Second, lets talk about your soldering. The smaller soldering like the BMS leads looks fine, but your larger solder joints (like on the main positive and negative wires) looks. Well. Not great. Unfortunately solder joints arent like welds, you cant fix them with a grinder and paint.
Now here's what i don't like about them: it looks like they are cold solder joints. This is where the solder kind of just sits on top of a surface instead of really adhering. You can see this very plainly at 14:00 and 15:35 with the positive wire. The solder is kindof just sitting on top of the wire. What you want is for it to really soak into the strands. The way you want it to adhere to the nickel is for the solder to wet the surface of the nickel. (You want to look like its spread out like a puddle. if it looks like beads of water sitting on glass, its not right).
The way you achieve this is with heat and more solder. LOTS of heat in this case. Unfortunately, with the large 10awg wire you are (correctly) using, there is a lot of copper mass there that sucks the heat away. The small strand size also doesn't help, it will soak up more solder than a wire with thicker strands before its ready. You may even need a more powerful soldering iron (I know i do).
The reason this is an issue is cold solder joints are easily broken, and this is a bike. You're going over bumps. If a chunk of solder breaks off, it could go jumping around in the case, and possibly short something out. I recommend spot welding some more nickel strips to the positive and negative cells, and wrapping them around the wire before soldering. It helps.

Third, lets talk about the output terminal. XT-90s are great, I use them too. However, you want the other plug on the battery side (the one with the little green block or whatever. Its a precharge resistor). The reason is that the conductor pins in the connector on the battery the way you have it aren't physically separated. You can imagine what would happen if a piece of metal got stuck in there and shorted them out. You could start a fire if your BMS fails (ill talk about the bms in a bit). The other side of the connector though has plastic separating the two conductors. That connector should be used for the battery side, its much safer that way.

Fourth, the case. Its a great idea to use a waterproof case! Water and batteries don't mix! However, what happens if you have a cell fail, and the over pressure relief valve under the positive terminal vents? Well, now you have pressure building up in a sealed container. No Bueno. I recommend vents in the case. Vents may also be important for thermal regulation.

Fifth, and lastly, I want to talk about the BMS. Its a very important piece of safety equipment, as I'm sure you found out doing your research for this build. I'm very glad you have one! However, the one you have is a bit anemic. I wouldn't trust that bms with 10A, let alone the 50A it claims to be rated for. The only good thing about those BMS's is they're cheap. A BMS is a LAST RESORT safety device. If the BMS is the last thing protecting your pack, that means a lot of other stuff already had to go wrong, and youre in a tough spot anyway. As such, you don't want a cheap/flimsy BMS to fall back on. You also want a BMS with proper temperature monitoring (yours appears to just have a high temperature switch). A BMS with proper temperature monitoring will have a low temperature cutoff as well (its usually a single NTC thermistor for both high and low). You don't want to charge if the cells are below freezing.
Since you have the space, i recommend a larger (still 50A) smart bms from JBD or Daly. I use Daly, but would recommend JBD over them, I've been wanting to switch. These smart BMS's have proper temperature monitoring, better reliability, and convenient Bluetooth monitoring apps. In the apps, you can see individual series voltages, temperature, state of charge (you set capacity in Ah, and it counts Ah in and out), and any fault codes if it shuts down for some reason.

I hope you read this, and take what I've said under consideration. My goal here is not to demean you, but rather to help. I've made plenty of mistakes with my batteries (i saw a lot of those same mistakes in your video), and I just want to help others avoid those mistakes. We can all learn from each other and build better things!

[Ebow]

Man, you siphoned away all the coolness in the world, by being a master builder, electricity wizard AND a rock star. Keep it up!

[jlward]

Watching the battery construction really stressed me out man. Crazy cool that you built this project yourself, but if you had ever seen a metal fire, specifically lithium batteries, I think you would have built that more safely.

Of all the suggestions other people made, battery spacers would be my biggest suggestion. A better BMS would be a close second. Thermal problems creates a positive feedback loop with lithium. That pack could totally be made safe with a few changes.

But yeah, awesome video and video making skills. The rest of the project seems awesome.

[ghostrvc]

Awesome project! I would like to suggest a few things concerning safety, don't run the balance wires on the battery pack directly on top of the razor sharp tin strips, a bit of pressure from the weight of the battery pack combined with viberations could easily cause a short. Use fish paper (is intended for this application) and high temp capton tape to protect and secure everything, I try to have at least 2 barriers between all live parts, just the heatshrink/wrapper is not durable and will not last when one cell goes bad with high internal resistance causing the cell to get hot while charging and discharging. I also like to add fish paper donuts around the battery button top before welding, since the wrapper is the only thing seperating + and - there. Also wear safety glasses when constructing a pack like this, mistakes can happen, a pack like this is easily able to send molten metal flying in your face. I'm sorry for being one of those complaining safety guys but these packs have so much energy stored in them, it's no joke. If you cause a short and it reaches thermal runaway, it will completely go up in flames and you will not be able to extinguish it in any way.

[zoltanmeszaros]

I like the idea a lot! As an electrician it was very uncomfortable to watch the battery assembly part, I really suggest separating the cells with air/kapton tape, especially the terminals before you start using the iron (you mentioned that, but did not cover them later either). The nickel strip you used looks quite thin, usually we sandwich some copper between the cell and the nickel so the connections wont get hot as fast. Also, heat shrinking the balance cables to the bare terminals/nickel strips is super dangerous, they are sharp and can cause short super easily. Many errors I witnessed here, sorry to be the one to warn you.

I really think this battery is dangerous, please fix these, there is too much chance for this to catch fire, especially dangerous that you are sleeping next to it.

[brennadowd]

i was a part of a solar car team in college & we used that same battery set up … but with over 5, 000 of them. cool to see that design being used again. great build

[jeffreycarman]

I’m impressed by the number of tools and the audacity/bravery you have in wiring up the battery yourself. Lithium batteries are tricky and can be dangerous. Hopefully you don’t run into issues with that battery.

[Lowgraphic]

The time and love for these projects are incredible

[LaOwlett]

The foam in that case may prevent rattling, but you need to keep it cool as well. The black also absorbs uv heat. I love your channel!

[jordancook]

Congratulations, you have a motorcycle now.

[p.k.]

I don't know if the battery is safe or not😥 there is no temperature regulation on that thing! It's gonna output 30 Amps which means a lot of heat!

[ridingmtl]

Drew you have all it takes to have a great life, thanks for sharing your passion, as we can see you are all-around talented. This kind of video inspires anyone to go at it and "DEW IT" ! I just completed a 704 KM trip in 52 hours pulling my Raleigh trailer rated for 100 lbs. Montreal to Kingston up to Ottawa and back to Montreal. This was an amazing journey 100s ok K in the trails across Ontario, the wild life was worth all of my while. Using a CYC X1 Stealth Mid-Drive motor on a converted Trek 29" MTB and to power it up I carried my load of power a mix of everything 1x72v20aH 1x72v15aH 2x52v20aH 1x48v10aH (around 5100wH) yes heavy. Plus camping gear. The week prior I did Montreal to Lévis crossed to Quebec and back to Montreal 615 KM in 39 hours. Now I know how to and where to get my recharge/break time so I can use more power and do a faster ride. It's funny when I passe other cyclist, some of them react in a way that they need to repass you and get in front so I just give it a FULL JOLT passe em again and let them know it is no use getting in front of me. After this ride I need to pull the break pads out and put some new ones. Mabe i'll cross you on a journey. I would love to make amazing videos like yours, I'm learning slowly and have my channel practicing video editing of my stuff. ( I'm a novice) and work like yours gives me ideas on how to get better at it.

[conejobike]

You're living my dream life, riding bike, traveling as a campist, and playing good Congrats

[MobaCry]

That's a pity you didn't go all the way and added a little more solar panel, I can see you have the space so that you can charge your bike battery. Not being able to charge the battery on the go is actually a REALLY BIG MISS. That would have made this project 100 times better and it wasn't hard to actually add that features, you did way harder stuff building this e-bike.

[michaelharmon]

Jeez… that was riveting! I loved everything about your video - science and engineering combined with escapism, self sufficiency, sprinkled with great times and music!!

Living vicariously through you!

(Of course I don’t know crap about the issues and technicalities)

[elliotmarks]

This is absolutely INSANE! I just finished electrifying my bike, but this video has inspired me to go out and possibly make some more modifications or additions! I think the idea of an electric camper bike is just so fun and unique.

[PaulinaPaulino]

OK, I had no idea what the hell you were talking about most of the time, but your explanations were flawless, your camera work good, your build outstanding, and overall I was fully enthralled and entertained for a solid half hour.
Thank you very much !

[pktgcfb]

The time and love for these projects are incredible. The time and love for these projects are incredible.

[iamamai]

Watched the entire thing and was surprised by the subscriber count. Could’ve sworn this channel was above the millions already, confident he’s going to reach it by the end of the year.