Timeline

Here's the time we took to do each of the main steps:

The battery swap was down with up to four helpers throughout the day

1. Lift car - 2 hours  

We spent a crazy amount of time trying to work out how to do this (relatively) safely. Now that we know how to do it the process could be done in under 1 hour.

I hamstrung myself by doing this on a gravel driveway (I knew that going in). Then we tried using floor jacks instead of scissor jacks. Floor jacks need to roll as they lift and plywood is not sufficiently hard a surface for them to roll freely enough.

2. Remove under-body panels and disconnect battery - 30 mins

Remove the plastic panels is awkward but straightforward. 

3. Remove old battery - 40 mins

We made this harder for ourselves by lowering the battery onto a pallet and then simply dragging it out. It would have been infinitely easier to drop it onto the trolley.

4. Raise new battery - 1 hour 30 mins

Sorting out the two rear bolts and bracket changes took ages (and we failed to get them sorted). Next time this process might still take this long.

5. Install EVs Enhanced Battery Translator Kit - 30 mins

I spent a long time trying to get the main HV power plug out. As soon as I resorted to spraying CRC/WD40 onto the rotating part it came out easily.

6. Restart car - 5 mins

Reinsert HV Disconnect, reconnect 12 V battery, turn car on. [Note: battery pairing no longer required with the latest EVs Enhanced Battery Translator Kit.] Just that simple.

7. Lower car - 1 hour 20 mins

Checked battery bolts torque. Reattached under-body panels. Lower car using scissor jacks on wood blocks. This stage was done on my own the following morning.

Total - 5 hours 35 minutes

With a car hoist it would be sooo much quicker. The actual elapsed timeline went from 10 am to 6 pm which included a lot of discussion time about the best approach to each and every step, and breaks for food.

And here's how the time actually went (based on photo timestamps):

14 April 2024	Battery Swap day
09:00	Drive out to find a pallet
10:15	Return from driving up hill to drain battery below 50%
10:16	start car lifting process [should have used 4 scissor jacks on blocks)
12:45	finish car lifting(!)
12:46	lunch break
13:30	start battery drop process
15:00	battery down
15:10	drag battery out from under the car
15:15	making dual trolley
15:30	swapping pallet for trolley under new battery
16:00	moving battery under car
16:10	adding scissor jacks between trolley and battery
16:20	new battery under car
16:40	trying to file rear brackets - realised I didn't have the correct rear bolts (10 mm dia.) so leaving this step till later
17:00	battery raised in place and now bolting in place
17:45	EVs Enhanced Battery Translator installed
18:05	Car turned on - it works!
15 April 2024	Lower car and test drive
09:00	check torque on all battery bolts
09:10	start reattaching under-body plastic shields
09:45	start using scissor jacks to lower car
10:20	car down