Five students from the Thayer School of Engineering just finished converting a 1982 Chevy S-10 pickup truck they rescued from a junkyard into a battery-powered "ElecTruck," for the Hanover Police Department to use as a parking enforcement vehicle.
In a ceremony Monday morning, Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering Charles Hutchinson handed over the keys to the electrically-powered truck to Hanover Town Manager Clifford Vermilya.
Former Hanover Police Chief Kurt Schimke, who died in January, had requested an electric vehicle for this purpose from Thayer students.
The ElecTruck is an "example of close cooperation between the town and the College," Vermilya said.
Doug Fraser, a research engineer at Thayer and faculty advisor to the students working on the project, said, "It's sort of ideal because the truck is sitting for so much of the time."
After each eight-hour charge, which costs about $1.50, the truck is capable of traveling for more than 60 miles.
The project was part of an advanced engineering course, Design Methodology and Project Initiation, on which Thayer students Brian Hannon, Laura Iwan, Owen Donnelley, Peter Barrette and David Cramer spent approximately 2,000 hours.
"The project was a little bit bigger than average," Hannon said.
The idea for the project came out of the efforts of the solar racing team, he said.
He said the project took six months to complete. During that time, the students had to rescue the truck from a junkyard, remove the power steering, add power brakes and add 22 Sears Die-Hard batteries, Hannon said. The work was done in a town-owned garage.
On flat roads the truck has been tested at speeds up to 82 miles per hour with little noise; only a soft whining sound can be heard.
Matthias Johnson, a graduate student who advised the student crew, noted the environmental nature of the project.
"One of the neat aspects of this project is that the town of Hanover took the initiative to do something positive for the environment," Johnson said.
Iwan said, "Hanover is trying to become more environmentally conscious and [the ElecTruck is] a good role model for energy conservation."
The town put $7,000 toward the project and the students received a $20,000 grant from the State of New Hampshire to convert the truck.
Another group of engineering students is scheduled to convert a second truck into a more sophisticated electric vehicle this summer. The second truck, donated by Granite State Electric, will then go to the town and Dartmouth will inherit the original truck.
