CHAPTER 177: CHAPTER 175 VEHICLE MODIFICATION PLAN

Upgrading the car battery to a Nuclear Battery is a simple task for Chen Xin, who is now well-acquainted with how to utilize system upgrades.

He removes the car battery from his SUV, opens the system interface, invests survival points, and clicks upgrade.

1,000 survival points disappear, a green light flashes, and the originally black-and-white plastic car battery transforms into a cylindrical Nuclear Battery with a metallic shell emitting a green glow.

Seeing this familiar shape, Chen Xin can’t help but press his forehead. Isn’t this the Titan’s battery from "Titanfall"?

In the game, this thing powers the energy for Titans, those gigantic humanoid combat Mechas. Just one can activate the Titan, and three can allow it to dominate the battlefield with formidable combat power.

If it really is the kind of Nuclear Battery from the game, using this thing on a vehicle would be perfect.

The Titan not only fires artillery and moves, but also supports the Shield and unleashes various high-tech skills, yet the Nuclear Battery can handle all that, let alone just a car.

However, even though the Nuclear Battery is created, Chen Xin still needs to conduct inspections on it.

At the very least, measuring voltage, current, and output power is necessary to ensure there are no issues in usage.

After all, if the current is too large and burns out the circuit, that would be problematic.

Fortunately, after a round of inspections, Chen Xin confirms that this Nuclear Battery can continuously output 300A of current at 500V, with an actual power of 150KW, which converts to approximately 200 horsepower.

This power is already quite significant; before the disaster, the batteries used in popular new energy vehicles had about the same power, but those batteries could only store around a few dozen kWh, which is a crucial factor limiting the range of new energy vehicles.

But this Nuclear Battery is different. Using long half-life isotopes as its heat source, its theoretical lifespan exceeds ten years.

Of course, if Chen Xin were to use it as in "Titanfall," mounted on Titans for battle, a single Nuclear Battery wouldn’t last long, but clearly Chen Xin doesn’t need to use it that violently, just as a power source for a car.

With the Nuclear Battery’s output power of 200 horsepower, it’s naturally no problem powering an all-terrain vehicle. Before the disaster, the classic Swedish Bv206 all-terrain carrier’s engine power was only 136 horsepower, just two-thirds of this Nuclear Battery, and the Bv206’s weight was 4.34 tons with a maximum load capacity of two tons.

Most ordinary cars weigh about one and a half tons, making this battery’s output power more than sufficient for Chen Xin.

With the biggest limitation, the energy problem solved, the rest is much simpler.

For the chassis, Chen Xin prefers a tracked design, but he wants the body not in a hinged two-section design like the Bv206 but rather a monocoque body.

The advantage of the hinged two-section design is the ability to conveniently swap out rear compartments to change function modules, and the hinge connection can eliminate torsional loads on the frame, thereby enhancing the entire structure’s reliability, and greatly reducing the vehicle suspension system’s demands when traversing rugged terrain.

However, Chen Xin doesn’t want a transport vehicle or a truck but a more comfortable caravan that can provide a relatively comfortable driving and living environment while on the move, rather than bouncing around inside the cabin like a roller coaster.

Thus, this naturally places high demands on the vehicle’s suspension and shock absorption.

Moreover, the key point is Chen Xin plans to modify this vehicle to pick up his parents back home, and for a long-distance drive spanning several hundred kilometers, Chen Xin must consider stopping for rest.

If he chooses a hinged two-section cabin, when stopping for rest and wanting to use the rear cabin, he must get out from the front driver’s cab to enter the rear cabin from outside the vehicle, which significantly increases risk in the current environment.

An integrated body cabin naturally avoids such troubles and dangers, allowing him to directly enter the rear living cabin from the driver’s cab inside the cabin.

Even if surrounded or needing to escape while resting, he can directly enter the driver’s cab from the living cabin and drive away, without needing to get out and circle around to start the vehicle.

After considering his own needs, Chen Xin decides the modified vehicle will be a caravan with a tracked chassis and an integrated body.

Without relying on the system, it would clearly be impossible for Chen Xin to transform his SUV into such a vehicle. The wheeled chassis cannot simply be turned into a tracked one, and the transmission structure and power system need complete redesigning, not to mention converting the SUV’s small body into a living cabin.

But with the system, all that is not a problem.

However, to complete the modification, besides the investment of survival points, a large amount of materials is also required. Without material investment, the cost in survival points would be too high.

The materials needed for the modifications are substantial, even more than what Chen Xin needed for the overall upgrade of the shelter.

Of course, this refers to the variety, not the quantity of a single material, as the total amount of materials needed to modify a vehicle can’t compare to the materials for a shelter.

Seeing the diverse system-listed modification materials, Chen Xin can’t help but scratch his head.

The variety of modification materials mainly consists of car parts, alongside materials for cold-proofing and modifying the living cabin. Among the materials list, Chen Xin even sees items like water circulation systems and shortwave communication radios.

"To obtain these things..." Chen Xin copies the materials list onto a sheet of paper, pondering how to acquire them.

It’s not like before the disaster when these items could simply be purchased with money. In fact, many of these are no longer obtainable with "cash," and some even require connections.

Car parts are relatively easy since Li Yulong used to work at a 4S dealership. Chen Xin believes he can still get those from him.

As for cold-proof materials and some items needed for modifying the living cabin, Chen Xin retrieves the list previously used for trading with the SWAT team and sees many materials he needs.

Yet, for items like water circulation systems and shortwave communication radios... while Chen Xin has them, they are important facilities installed in the shelter. Is he expected to dismantle the shelter’s equipment for a car modification?