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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Love the video / documentary. This is how all the past inventors have done it and now the future one's will do it. I also enjoy watching the tidy and perfectionist style of your builds. Bravo!

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)

The time and love for these projects are incredible

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!

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

Incredible video! Nothing more satisfying than doing things yourself. I'll definitely use this for a future build. Thanks

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.

For years I have been on the verge of building a tow trailer for sleeping for my motorbike and sidecar, though my first idea was for it to be for solo motorcycles; my plan was to taper like yours except sharp at the front end, and to have the door at the wide back end where you sit under the hinged up door to brew coffee etc... lovely to see what you have done. Mark D Phillips.... Sussex England.

I gotta give you props for putting that much effort and money into that project, something I might do in the future if possible

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.

Loving this series, keep it up! Maybe version 3 could have a stained interior, a locking door, curtains, carpet, and a swamp cooler now that you have electricity! Also yeah a vent at the top would be good for circulation

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.

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

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

This is simply amazing, love the camper build and the E addition has raised it way up.

This is awesome, I can just imagine what it means to pull this unassisted! It looks much better now being balanced. You said it yourself, covering up the battery when doing the main terminals would have been safer. I would also out a breaker in - if one of the plugs cause a short it might overload the over current protection of the BMS. But all in all, I am absolutely jealous and would love to call something like this my own

Great job! Very proud of how you got this all set up, I wish I had something like this set up for myself!

Got to say this is a pretty impressive build. I love the set up and your overall build and skills were very well done Keep up the great work. Awesome video!👍🏼🤩🫡🫡

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 !

great video and gives an incredible insight into what is achievable with some good old ingenuity. Your trailer concept would be interesting if it was adapted to being towed with a small petrol powered scooter or small motorbike . Obviously it would need to be more robust with some form of springs to take some of the jolting out of the suspension but the concept of a small form factor trailer camper that can be towed with a motorbike or scooter seems a viable method of seeing the countryside at a minimal cost.

My idea to improve on this further is, to make trays that fit in the frame of the trailer to hold the batteries underneath. Could be deep trays to have them vertical or shallow and lay them on their sides in rows and then you could do multiple battery packs that are about 2× the size you made already. Also can keep them removable.

Much respect to that battery pack build, crazy how you figured all that out!

This guy is a well rounded dude. If I ever attempt to make something remotely like this I'll follow this video.

I loved the way you built your camper-bike. You have the knowledge to build what you wanted and the tools to complete it. Lovely to watch all you did. 👍👏👏

Very nice build! As a retired master electrician I build power packs with inverters from 400w to 5000w. My latest project was a diy solar powered outdoor sauna.

I do not understand much of what you are doing but I like the way to slowly and carefully explained each step. Good work.

Awesome! With people like you, the world will only get better. Thanks for sharing a truly inspiring video.

Love your build and your youtube movie....all very inspiring ! Most of the outer wheel supports out there are rectangular constructions. An angled front bar however could work as well as a deflective wheel protector...and looks better ! Looking forward to your improvements.

You are beyond talented man! Thanks for sharing your life and engineering with us!

A man of many skills. Great job. Looked like a fun project. Also, great editing.

This, this is literally what I've been looking for... A bike trailer camper that went about 50 miles a day electric... I would make it charge on solar.. add 2-3 longer term camping amenities... But this is what I been looking for

Great build, yeah you could of done things differently, but all in all sturdy and good range for fantastic price in the set up. The 2 battery system is genius. The hub drive is a good choice too, with the mid drive its more efficient but you have the chain wear to worry about so its a bit of a trade off. Sleeping up off of the ground is very comfortable when camping. You could always throw a tent in it for space. The only drawback is the wieght of the thing, but it won't be thrown around in a bit of wind either and once in motion you're just using energy against wind resistance. So plenty of trade offs. Top notch. 5 out of 5. Superb! You'll be happy when you get caught in a squall, and your nice and dry in your shelter.

You have done a great job with great skill and effort. And the place is amazing, green and green. Best area.

You could charge your big battery directly using existing solar panel by only adding solar charge controller, this way you don't have to carry a additional portable power bank. Also this all should be more efficient

Awesome work~ Very impressive ~ Love the music, especially during the battery build. The sci-fi vibe fits perfectly ~ This channel will continue to grow with quality content like this. Keep it up!

Just a thought, but powered wheels on the trailer and containing all the electronics in the trailer would seem optimal. You can then detatch your bike and use it as a bit, with just few switches and connectors adding weight.

This was super cool to watch, thanks for taking the time to create and share.

I like how this adressed what was the main problem of most people with the first video. I think the only things you could improve are better left for a rebuild at some point.

freaking awesome, thank you for your time and effort to make the trailer and to film the video! I would love to see you try to building a small self sustained trailer/camper that can be towed with a car/suv/truck and to have more features: like AC, Heater, water supply, Cooking and sleeping accommodation for 2+ people

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.

Fantastic engineering and craftsmanship! Bravo!

I can see the difference from last video with the realignment. Absolutely cool to add solar. Excellent job! Thanks for sharing this cool project.

I would recommend a simple suspension on the trailer. Maybe some large spring, something to absorb the vibrations. This will reduce the stress on the trailer and the batteries.

So informative haha … and the the mini festival .. that’s pretty fire man .. I def do this as soon as I can this is the new idea and or way I want to go with my plan on doing this .. thank you very much bro and dig the music

Made a few ebike, s. Myself, must say very impressed by your work 👍

Literally just watched the original build and now I found this. Awesome

Great stuff thanks for sharing, it's great to inspire others like you do. If I were to build this myself (i'd be much more expensive lol), i'd start with a good enduro ebike that's fun to ride once I reach my destination, and the battery inside the caravan would be the same kind so again, once I reach my destination I can ride as much as I can. Also I'd skip the solar pannels for multiple parallel chargers.

Great job! Thank you for all the work you put in to it!

Very clever, you’ve got skills man!! This looks like one adventurous project;)

What a precious work! Thanks for the inspiration, I will definitelly use your project as a template to improve my solar traveler cargobike with the big battery and the camper I need. The only thing I would change is the direct drive hub motor which produces a very frustrating amount of drag immediatelly when I stop throttling, when I pedal with the motor off or the battery is depleted ....is like having a half flat tire! and also it's sad not being able to use inercy. SO my next step is to buy a geared hub motor instead.

This is fantastic! Consider yourself +1 subscriber sir! The only observations/suggestions, would be to hook your rear lights up to the external battery as well, so you don't have to worry about those going out, and upgrading your brake setup. I'd imagine with the weight if you're going downhill, that thing has some momentum. Perhaps some bigger callipers and discs as well as considering upgrading to hydraulic brakes (and potentially larger/gripier tires). If you could fit brakes on the tralier as well, all the better.

Outstanding, I watched entire video enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you so very much for sharing my friend.

From Denmark: Thx for sharing. Congratulations for your skills and a very aesthetic/professional end result. I am 80 years old and ride an ICE SPRINT FS Trike with a ZIFLEX monowheel Trailer attached to it with NO EL Assist. I have with me everything I need for comfortable tent-Hammock camping. Last summer I rod from Ebeltoft (Jutland-Denmark) to Frederikshavn-Ferry to Gothenburg (Sweden)-Triking to Stockholm.Ferry to Turku (Finland)-Triking to Helsinki-Ferry back to Stockholm-Triking to Nynaeshamn (East Coast of Sweden)-Ferry to Visby (Gotland Island Sweden)-Ferry to Oskarshamn (East Coast of Sweden)-Triking to Ystad (South of Sweden)-Ferry to Bornholm Island, Denmark)-Ferry to Koege (East Coast of DK)-Triking-a couple of Ferries to Aeroe Island (South DK--Close to Germany) and then back to Ebeltoft-Denmak... Well, I am thinking to convert my Trike to EL-ASSIST. Your Video is very helpful.

I make little projects during my free time and always love seeing these videos it is really giving me motivation to keep going!!!! Good job keep up the great work

Definitely a couple minor things I would change. I would absolutely change it up to not have to carry that power bank. Maybe an MPPT would be able to make use of that 12V solar pannel, but if not you could make a small 12V lipo cell, and use a 12-48 boost converter to charge the 48V battery. Set that up to let the 12V charge all the way then discharge into the 48, you could have near unlimited range, and you could get a 48V inverter for your 110V needs. The other change I'd do is mount the battery on the bottom. Unless you plan on some serious rough terrain it won't ever hit anything and also won't bake your bats in a black box in the sun.

Such an awesome build! I love DIY stuff like this. I am a little worried (everyone pretty much covered the battery assembly) about the solar panel. Those suckers can be really delicate and not having any sort of protection over them makes me wonder how long it'll last in the elements. Maybe at least a polycarb panel over it?

hey, i built a solar car from scratch as my senior design project last year(2022). and i gotta say you have done a great job building this. one sugesttion is that you have a foldable solar panel as well to speed up the caharging speed when you take a break.

This is amazing! Even more awesome than the first video of making this trailer. Well done!

If you love your bike, put a piece of inner tube between your trailer mount and your stay, and on the other side put rubber washers between the steel washers and the stay. Aluminium work hardens with flexion, then it becomes brittle, then it cracks, in that order. The bar you welded is better than a single bolt hole, but not a lot better since it doesn't allow for spin-out pitch rotation, which the original did allow (unwanted, but when happens it spares your bike frame - mitigated failure mode.) You've spread the force over an area that the aluminium can support (KSI), but it isn't steel, so shocks work cumulatively towards failure. The tube/rubber washers will eliminate a portion of the shock.

I think you project went really well. Great job.

Drew, your work just like 👍 your camper is so elegant your skillful man...

Soooo awesome. If I remember correctly, I think I commented to make this electric on the original video. I'm even more inspired to make something like this. I'm very curious to see how the solar panels work. I love how if it ever starts raining on your ride, you can just park and hop in the back! My only recommendation would be to swap that hub motor out for a mid-drive system motor. That way you can use the ratio of your gears with the motor.

This is fantastic. Love the build, and really nicely filmed/edited. The comments here are also really informative and will be invaluable for others keen to explore their own DIY projects. I would love to know the weight of both the trailer and bike separately? Be useful just for calculating loads on the e-bike motor kit and the potential range calculations etc. Keep up the great work! 🤙

Just found this amazing video. Loved the project. Thank you for sharing.

Huge respect, this is super innovative! in terms of efficiency, have you considered flipping the wagon, so the rear would become the front? it could make your setup significantly more aerodynamic, and save you a lot of energy as well

What a great build, thanks for your detailed video! Just fyi, the flexible solar panel you used will degrade much faster being glued directly onto the surface of your roof. I have seen them bubble up and severely delaminate when surface mounted. To avoid this, a light and simple frame that gives it about 1-2 inches of airspace below will allow adequate venting of heat, preventing damage to the cells/laminates. Thanks again, great work!

22:50 the brake levers are also what are used to tell the controller to use its regenerative braking.

Well, my guy, I am blown away. This is freakin cool!

I salute you for your technical knowledge and skill. I'm so jealous.😄😄😄👍👍👍

This is awesome! This is honestly where the future is! We need less sales and more understanding of proper tech that helps people live healthy!

Cool build dude!! I particularly liked the way the big red truck cowered away when it saw you coming ;-) As an electronic design engineer, I would make a few observations which might help others planning their own build. 1) You need a bigger soldering iron - the one you have isn't delivering enough heat to fully melt the solder on those bigger joints, which could very easily result in a dry joint and potential point-of-failure. I'd suggest one of the big hefty Weller gun-style irons. If a finished solder joint isn't a shiny dome, it needs redone. 2) You should never drill into the case without first removing the battery. Your sockets were offset from the battery, so the risk of a mishap was minimal, but another builder could get this wrong and drill into a battery, which would ruin their day. 3) Placing the battery at the front of your caravan would markedly reduce the high-current cable run length. This would cut cable losses and likely increase your range. Cables from the solar cell can be longer as the currents involved are much lower. A nice project..

Love the video / documentary! This is absolutely INSANE!

You could probably fit Renogy's 175W flexible panel on the same space as the 100W you installed. They now have a 200W flexible. Big difference!

Hey, battery builder here. I really wish micha from ebikeschool would take his video down or update it as there's a MASSIVE safety issue with it. Basically the case of every cell is negative. Meaning the only thing stopping your battery from shorting out is the super thin PVC shrink wrap around each cell. These wraps are super easy to damage through vibrations and will result in a fire. Since the fault would be before the BMS it won't protect you against this fault. Fishpaper, thin plastic, whatever you want to use, but something abrasion resistant needs to go between each P group. Same with balance wires, they shouldn't cross over other P groups without protection. Tho it could be argued the thin wire will act as a fuse in itself, it's not a great argument given that causes a wire to catch on fire. Also, that meter needs to be told what voltage your battery is to be accurate. That's why it always says 100%. Check the manual it came with, usually it's hold function on power up and change a value through long and short presses.

You might to revisit using the brake levers. They often trigger regen braking first. Since your rig is pretty heavy there is a lot of energy to recover potentially. Also, your band sounds great.

This is an absolutely awesome build. Great work. 👍 subscribed.

These projects are so impressive, keep up the amazing work!

I really loved this build. Well explained and a great execution. Really would love to build a trailer for my ebike myself

That’s the coolest electric bike camper iv ever seen. I would just line that seat with a cushioned pad and then cover that with a full woollen pelt. 👌

Impressive knowledges, I liked the steps to build your own battery !

Congratulations, you sure have a lot of talent in many different areas. Hope all your hard work and planning, allows for many miles with your Newly battery powered bike and trailer.

Very cool project, I love it. Just a quick safety tip, you soldered what is conventionally incorrect for the battery end of that XT90 connector. The side of the XT90 you used has 2 live contact male parts that can accidentally be shorted by any conductive material small enough to get in there. It's not absolutely required to swap it, but it's the conventional way of doing it.

That was a lot of effort lad! Inspirational even! Keep up the amazing work! I want to see you build you own motor home that runs off your ebike or something rather by the time I decide to tackle a challenge like this, one day! 😂😂

This was a really fun build to watch. Nice work!

7:40 : The capacity of a cell is measured by discharging. The actual capacity of the cells will be considerably different to what you measured when charging them. And if you even want to get an even more real-life-value, you should discharge the cell with the same load (Ampere) as it would face in your specific case. Cheers!

Love this, gonna try and make the peddling one with my dad for when we go camping! Love watching your channel! ❤️

very high quality video, good explanation, and story telling, thank you!

Nice work and thank you for the details 👍 enjoy your ride

Excellent work and great result for your first battery - really great build. You really want to over-rate the BMS by at least 50% but I would go 2x - so 100A. It would be good to add the capability to charge the 48V battery from the solar panel as well for longer trips. To do that you need a fairly inexpensive solar charge controller. You could also get a 1000W 48V inverter and get rid of the small battery altogether. I know the all-in-one solution is easy but it is Drew Builds Stuff :)

This was AWESOME! I'd love to have something like that. I have a Schwinn and a scooter - what a great way to travel about. Nice work, impressive.

Had a similar idea - but you did it - and I didn’t. My compliments! Excellent job. I’d only add reflective chevrons at the back and a red flag mounted on a flexible pole. Cars hitting from the back has happened to 2 friends. Both were very badly injured.

I want to make a 3 wheeled camper so I can make a surge brake for it. I already have a front end with disc brakes and a trailer I can hack apart to use parts. I'd really like to get the ebike setup too. This was awesome thanks for sharing and thanks for the inspiration

Great vid! Only thing I would change is adding a mid drive motor instead of a hub motor. If you tow any weight in the trailer or if you encounter some hills on your journeys that hub motor will probably burn out from producing too high torque at low rpms. The mid drive motor will run the power through the gears thus spinning faster when you shift down

My god this was fun to watch. Watching this come together was so compelling. Good stuff.