Queensland school electromods a 1974 Land Rover Series III

Do you remember what you built in technology class at school? I managed a plastic pen holder and an unfit-for-purpose wooden stool.

Let’s just say an EV conversion was never on the cards.

Things are different at Matthew Flinders Anglican College, an independent school in Buderim, Queensland.

Here, students have got busy ditching a 1974 Land Rover Series III’s old diesel setup and turning it into a fully electric 4×4.

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This long wheelbase classic now has a NetGain HyPer 9HV IS motor under its well-used bonnet, rated at 100kW and 220Nm.

There are seven Tesla battery packs offering around 180km of pure electric range. A CCS combo plug makes DC fast charging possible, ensuring this old Landie will be the most unlikely thing you’ll see at a fast charge point.

Mike King, a Design-Technology and Engineering teacher at the College, was asked if he could oversee the project for Year 11 and 12 students, as well as an enthusiastic group of volunteers keen to be part of the project.

“I did a recce at British Off Road (a local Land Rover specialist which has recently begun doing EV conversions) and (co-owner) Ross Calder said he had a potential vehicle and a plan,” Mike said.

“I then got hold of James at (electric conversion specialist) Traction EV, got a quote for components, and all the money seemed to line up. We decided ‘why not?’”

Encouragingly, many students were very keen for the project to go ahead. But it wasn’t going to be cheap.

Hands-on learning

Mike said the college forked out about $6000 for the 1974 Land Rover Series III – which needed substantial restoration – while over time they managed to secure sponsorship from various spaces. Fundraising and community favours got the project over the line.

“It was part of the curriculum with Industrial Technology Skills being a subject in the technology department I was teaching,” Mike said. “The 15 kids in the class unanimously said yes to the project. Instead of pretending to build something for a dashboard as we’d done before, they wanted to work on an actual vehicle.”

An additional call was put out to other students asking if they wanted to be part of the Electric Vehicle Club. Once again, huge interest.

Not just from an engineering perspective but also those keen on the business and marketing side: raising money, meeting sponsors and championing the sustainability side of the conversion.

The Landie’s well-worn panels were all removed and restored, all hands-on by the students.

A new aluminium floor was fitted, the leaking roof repaired, the interior stripped and rebuilt, and the repaired panels all put back together again.

“The kids were doing it every week which was pretty cool, and when we got really stuck we went to James at Traction EV or the guys at British Off Road,” Mike said.

At the time of our photos the Series III had secured its engineer’s certificate and was registered and testing, but had yet to be given its new navy blue coat of paint.

Electric swap

There were challenges aplenty with the build, and a lot of time was spent finding and sorting issues typical of a 48-year-old 4×4. “If we’d have spent a bit more money on the donor vehicle we’d have spent less time fixing it up,” Mike said. “But that was the game the kids wanted to be involved in.”

While the restoration was very much student-led, for obvious safety reasons the electrical side of things had to be done by professionals.

“The students put the motor mounts in, fitted the motor, put the coupling from the flywheel, etc. for old to meet new and bolted everything up, but a lot more adult support was needed with the electrical side,” Mike said.

The College had its own electricians work on the 12V system, while some expert volunteers assisted with the high voltage system.

James and Dan from Traction EV provided a great deal of support and got everything over the line with the control system, finishing and testing.

“They helped with all the software and profiling setup and I’m sure we’d not have had the same sort of support from another supplier,” Mike said.

Once the first Tesla battery went in and there was an isolation button, the school had protocols using a padlock to make sure all points were off. Safety’s key when dealing with high voltage after all.

Directly under the bonnet is one of the battery boxes, sitting above the NetGain electric motor. This battery box has see-through elements in the shape of the Union Jack. Well, it is an old Brit, after all.

“The clear window is there so students can see how the coolant system and control system operate,” said Mike. Other battery boxes are mounted below the driver and passenger seats.

On the road

First drives of the Landie have revealed a few teething problems, but we took it on a decent drive on sealed and unsealed roads and it behaved, well, like an old Series Land Rover, albeit a quiet one.

“It still drives like an old Land Rover, but pulls away really nicely and in silence,” Mike said. “Even so, it wouldn’t be my everyday drive. Its gearbox is a limiting factor; only a four-speed probably never designed to go much faster than 80km/h.”

The project was hard and tedious at times with plenty of learning on the job and delays waiting for parts. Mike said the sustainability aspect was hugely motivating for him, his colleagues and the students involved.

“I would love to be able to say I’ve completed an EV conversion, but it’s not true, it’s been so many with their hands on this project,” he said, acknowledging how important all the support was.

It will have been invaluable learning for the students too, and getting them used to a future where EVs will soon dominate our roads.

So what now for this electric Landie once it comes out of the paint shop? Mike’s hopeful the next group of kids will do something different with it, perhaps convert it into a coffee truck to raise school funds?

The Landie’s practical nature was one of the reasons it was chosen for conversion, so it’ll be able to zero-emissions transport college kit around due to its large load space.

It’s certainly set to prove more useful long-term than that plastic pen holder I made when I was at school.