Retrofit Plug in Hybrid?

[milner351]

want lower fuel consumption costs? Buy a TDI VW.

They last a long time, have a very long range per tank, and won't need $$$$ batteries replaced after miles.

[tedly]

I've had it in the back of my mind to see if this kind of thing is available for awhile, but never have. I thought it would be cool to take a diesel, make it a french fry car with some kind of hybrid electric system. Way beyond my current knowledge but it could be fun to learn about.

[Beagle]

Foot pounds means something if you keep in mind the gear ratio of the drivetrain, and that the motors are direct drive. so that 200 ft lbs is not multiplied by 10 or 12 or whatever the overall gear ratio is in first gear. Meaning it's only about 20 ft lbs of "engine" torque in low gear.

excellent point, Squirrel, thanks for that. Ironically, I was just reading something else and thinking about the ratio of the rear and the gear and what you see at the tires and hope to get to the ground, then made the direct drive comment about MPH, then promptly forgot the relationship. Doh.

/edit - just occurred to me that a well ironed out CVT might be a good thing to tie to an electric motor?

Tedly, check out NEDRA, there is some interesting junk to be learned!

http://www.nedra.com/

[Huskinhano]

Looks like a permanent magnet motor set up to me. Spending dollars to save pennies is what I think on the whole hybrid thing. City driving is the ideal environment for hybrid with the stop start driving for regenerative braking/charging. Now what seems like an oxymoron to me, why not use mass transit instead of clogging the roads with hybrids in the city? That is a waste of energy and pollution, mass transit is not.

Who was it here a few years back posted the manufacturing path from mining the ore to completed product globe trotting of a hybrid battery? And I thought I read some place it takes 250,000 miles for a Prius to be greener then a Hummer with all the energy used in manufacturing?

[tedly]

d out CVT might be a good thing to tie to an electric motor?

Tedly, check out NEDRA, there is some interesting junk to be learned!

http://www.nedra.com/

Thanks, added to my favorites list to check out in detail later!

Spending dollars to save pennies is what I think on the whole hybrid thing.

For the most part I agree with you, and as for the eco-friendly crap, you're just trading one pollution for another. I'm not interested in that malarkey though. My thought was to make a reliable car that's as non-reliant on oil as possible, just to see if it could be done by an average gearhead. Since that little thought started worming it's way through my brain I've stumbled across some people here and there who have done this in various ways, our own Thumpin455 among them. The technical talk can be way over my head but it's really cool to learn about. Maybe I'm weird but I think stuff like this springs from the same genes as hot rodding, at least before it gets twisted into a trendy agenda. Besides it would fry so many eco-wienies minds to find out that something like an old 1 ton diesel truck is greener than their bland little smugmobile and tremendously more useful too.

[Deaf Bob]

I always had a torquey small block that got pretty good mileage..
I have an RV-2 cam by Blue Racer/Wolverine, headers, performer intake and Holley 600 cfm carb, got 12-16 mpg in a one ton flatbed with good power.. Kept up with most stock big blocks..
Want to turbo it and see what I get.. Have a below the carb set up with manifolds.. Turbo has bad bearings... Would like good power-driveability, and maybe more mileage.. Some day... That will be my "green " project