Local man hopes electric truck will change minds

MUSCLE SHOALS - William Edwards's truck is different from most on the road.

Maybe it's the fact that when stopped, the baby blue 1981 Ford Courier doesn't make a sound.

Perhaps it's the sticker on the hood that reads "Danger High Voltage."

The dead giveaway that Edwards' truck isn't like the F-150s that dominate the road is the red stenciling all over his truck: "TOTAL ELECTRIC TRUCK."

"The auto industry should get into electric cars; that way, we won't have to depend on foreign oil and we won't have all that smog," Edwards said.

Instead of waiting for the auto industry, a few years ago Edwards, 82, decided he would build his own electrical prototype.

He bought a beater truck at auction - "A piece of one," joked his wife, Katherine - for $175 and then invested more than $6,000 to transform the truck into an electrical vehicle.

Edwards' goal is to get investors interested in a potential business to customize trucks, cars, even boats into electrical equivalents.

He said one local investor had shown interest in the project. He also has talked with city officials to get them interested in putting outlets throughout the city to charge electric vehicles.

A 144-volt, 25-hp engine under the hood receives power from 12 marine batteries located in the truck's bed along with a transformer on the fender wall and a back-up gas generator.

In the truck's interior, Edwards replaced the gas tank gauge with a bank of nine electrical meters by the stick shift.

On one charge, the truck can travel 27 miles, and each charge takes about two to three hours. Edwards said his electricity bill hasn't significantly increased.

"I think there would be a market for these," Edwards said as he passed a gas station that advertised $3.12-a-gallon gas.

During a recent trip, Edwards showed that the belt that connects to the drive shaft can spin too quickly and make a squeal.

Stopping at a red light, the truck is perfectly quiet; then a green signal, a squeal and Edwards is on his way.

As Edwards tinkers with his electric prototype, manufacturers are beginning to experiment with their versions of the electric car, called plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Hybrid cars run on a combination of electricity and gas, and the plug-in hybrids allow some trips to be taken using electricity alone.

In 2007, General Motors announced a 2010 target date to start production of a plug-in hybrid car, the Chevrolet Volt.

Toyota also announced it would start producing hybrid cars that have a plug-in option.

"Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) shift pollution from a tailpipe to a power plant. Even charging off the national grid, which is about 50 percent coal, the renegade plug-in Prius is known to produce under half the net pollution," according to TreeHugger, a sustainability news outlet.

Edwards has learned from his prototype that next time he will bypass the truck's transmission and would use a newer vehicle.

Edwards has had a lifelong affinity for electricity. The Navy veteran served four years in World War II and four years in the Korean War as an electrician.

He then worked for TVA on electrical motor repair for four years; operated Alabama Electric Motor Shop in Sheffield for about 15 years; had a stint as the owner of the Little Bear Mobile Home Park in Tuscumbia for six years; then opened B&E Electric Motors for 21 years, which is now Quad Cities Electric Motors.

Most days, Edwards uses the truck to take his 9-year-old great-grandson, Daniel T. Brewer, to and from school about two miles away.

"We need to quit depending on foreign oil. He needs something to look forward to," Edwards said.

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@timesdaily.com.