Battery fanatic and best-selling author Micah Toll ordered a $2,000 Chinese electric mini-truck from China to his parents in Florida two years ago.. Now he shares his impressions of the work and the condition of this machine.
My parents live on a ranch in the countryside and I gave them this gift for $2000. True, the price increased after transportation from China and after I added a more powerful battery to the factory package in the order. It was justified.
Changli CLZKC-009 mini truck is simple and unpretentious. It reaches speeds of only 40 km/h, and the interior is not made of genuine leather.. The cabin has power windows, door locks and real air conditioning.. True, air conditioning is not included in the factory package, so we also had to pay extra.
The car is only 3.5 meters long, takes up little space, and is easy to move between trees and obstacles, like an ATV.. The truck can handle a week or more of work on my family's ranch with a single charge of its 6 kWh battery.
When I first showed my mini-truck on the Internet, they laughed at me: they say that the car will not last even three months. “It’s good that there’s a body behind it, there’ll be somewhere to dump pieces and parts when they fall off,” laughed one of the wits.
Visually, the mini-truck is similar to modern American pickups, but in a smaller form. Photo: Micha Toll
After three months, and then after thirty months, and now after two years, nothing has fallen off here, the car works to the delight of my parents and, of course, me. I carried out several more serious tests exceeding the car's passport recommendations and it passed them, which greatly surprised my subscribers on Youtube.
He who laughs last laughs
During the first year of operation, one breakdown occurred – the car got rid of the rear reflector. It did not fail, my dad crushed it using the reset function – he tilted the body onto an obstacle and the light reflector burst.
Another year has passed and the truck continues to do the hard work around the yard. The body lift function actually works better as the oversized hydraulic rod seems to be worn to the required limit, making it operate more smoothly. There was a problem before.
In the first months, after unloading on the way back, the body did not completely sit on the frame, since it was light and its weight was not enough to put pressure on the cylinder hydraulics. Therefore, I had to pull the dump platform down with my hand, helping it to sit on the transport space.
Over the course of two years, the hydraulic cylinder of the rear dump body has worn out a little and now the platform easily returns to the transport position after unloading.. Photo: Micha Toll
My family often uses the electric mini truck to haul mulch, trash, sand, compost, lawn mowing, logs, tree limbs and other material.. The dump feature makes it easy to unload everything – no need to pull a shovel out of the back of the truck when you can simply tilt the bed and dump a pile of trash or any loose material.
Improvement knows no limits
The suspension was initially a little stiff, so we replaced the spring coils with lighter ones, since being too stiff for off-road use did not justify itself. Of course, this affected the carrying capacity, but not much. Replacing them with softer springs significantly improved ride comfort.. There was a possibility that the loaded body would squat a little more.
It didn't work out. Thanks to the fact that the new springs were a little longer than the original rear ones, we accidentally lifted the rear end. However, when loading passport 400 or even more kilograms, everything returns to normal, the body does not sag or scrape against the wheels – everything is level.
This mechanical upgrade shows that there is no limit to improvement and this truck is easy to work with.. Many people have asked me about getting spare parts if something breaks.. The answer is: most parts can be found locally or at least replaced with similar ones. The springs, for example, came from Amazon.
Of course, the truck's body was scratched from all the shipping, although deep scratches in the paint showed that the factory rust protection was mostly working. Cleaned, painted the bottom of the body and put a bedding. From personal experience, any work truck will eventually get scratches on the body, so bedding should be applied from the very beginning.
This is what the body looked like after 18 months of use in the original paint (above), and this is what it looked like after a new paint job (below). Photo: Micha Toll
Over time I decided to change the tires. The original tires were not bad, but I put on much more aggressive tires designed for ATVs. They give the pickup strength on ordinary terrain and improve driving capabilities.. I also ordered new tires from Amazon.
The latest addition is the hitch. In my opinion, it should be factory-made from the very beginning. This is not a reproach to the designers, but such a towing unit in the car is not superfluous. Obviously, the problem is that this is a dump truck, the frame here is slightly different and the factory did not need to install a towbar in the frame. Experience indicates that a trailer unit is needed.
To soften the ride, the rear suspension springs were replaced. On the left are new ones – they are a little longer than the original ones, but they give soft, light vibrations and the pickup now does not shake out its insides. Photo: Micha Toll
I simply welded my own box tube design and connected it to the rear axle where the electric motor is mounted. My parents and I don't use the tow bar very often, but it comes in handy for getting my boat out of the lake when I want to do maintenance or need to pull something around the property.. It's worth having even if you don't use it that often.
Charging without an electric meter
I don’t know what exact range the standard battery has, because in the factory order I specified the installation of a more powerful battery. This, of course, increased the price for me and instead of two thousand dollars I paid a thousand more, since they installed a larger 6 kWh battery instead of a 4 kW. By the way, delivery of an electric car from China to the USA cost 2 thousand dollars, as well as the price of the car itself as standard from the manufacturer.
We added a small solar panel. We placed it on the roof of the cabin to simultaneously recharge the battery, which increased the time between recharges from approximately once or twice a week to every three weeks. The economic benefits turned out to be undeniable.
We usually charge the truck every couple of weeks and its range is about 100-130 km, which is plenty for our ranch.
Pay attention to the roof of the cabin, where a small solar panel is installed for incidental charging. Photo: Micha Toll
Naturally, charging is done from the network. In this case, we use the approximately 500-600 W charger that came with the truck. But to save money, we also bought a powerful power bank and a solar power plant. I can charge a mini truck with solar power from a set of four solar panels. They work like a solar generator.
Here's an interesting point. We also charge a portable charging station, a kind of large power bank, from solar panels – this results in big savings. If necessary, if the weather is cloudy, we can power the electric vehicle from the energy storage device.
Mainly used solar panels. The station fully charges the battery throughout the day and does not issue an electricity bill.. Photo: Micha Toll
By running the solar panels at the same time as the truck's charger, I can replenish the solar generator almost as quickly as it dumps power into the truck.
But on the road – you can’t!
After two years of almost daily use, the truck raises no complaints. This is a true ranch workhorse.. Of course the look has changed. There are some scratches here and there. The upholstery of the driver's seat looks more shabby than the passenger's seat, because two people rarely sit in the cab. And the car is like new.
The only problem is that this is not a car for streets and public roads.. It just doesn't meet safety requirements.. In order to import it into the country, I had to provide guarantees that I would use it only for my own needs, off the roads and street network only as an agricultural machine.
I'm glad that my parents are delighted with this car: two years later, this little workhorse is just as strong and durable. Photo: Micha Toll
To be honest, if the vehicle were certified to be road legal, this small truck with minimal bells and whistles, but ruggedly built and with hydraulic dump functionality, would be extremely popular with gardeners, ranchers and farmers living in rural areas.