All Electric?

[mgscott4]

They should build RV's that are powered similar to the way trains are powered. A small diesel engine that powers a generator, that powers electric motors to turn the wheels. VW is doing something similar, but the generators are actually powered from the axles turning but uses batteries to get things moving.

VW's prototype car got over 260 mpg. There production car only available in Europe only gets 157 MPG. It uses a small .8Liter, 2 cylinder diesel motor. It will be available next year in Europe.

Green Car Congress: Volkswagen to produce XL1 diesel plug-in hybrid at Osnabrück; 261 mpg US

[BFlinn181]

Originally Posted by mgscott4

They should build RV's that are powered similar to the way trains are powered. A small diesel engine that powers a generator, that powers electric motors to turn the wheels.

Diesel Electric Locomotives have a 12 cylinder or bigger diesel engine that is larger than an automobile. They produce over 3000 horsepower. Not exactly a 'small diesel engine.' The VW has a large bank of storage batteries because at speed the vehicle only needs less than 10 hp or so to maintain speed on a level road. To scale this up to power an RV would take a great deal of engineering and WEIGHT.

[michelb]

Originally Posted by Flanagan

I recently read that Tesla is developing an all electric pickup truck. The story image looked to be same size as an F150 or Silverado. If that became available then could you recharge with solar on a travel trailer or park power and travel for free? An electric truck pulling a nice Airstream could an acceptable alternative to motorhome for some folks.

The battery / solar technology is years away from being able to recharge an all-electric vehicle using just solar in a reasonable amount of time.

See my post above: Fully recharging the 265 miles battery on the Tesla S takes approximately 12 hours with the dedicated 240V charger (didn't check the amperage but I suspect it's at least 30A). If I'm correct about the 30A, that's 7200W for 12 hours ... (i.e. almost 90kWh) With flat mounted solar panels you'll never anywhere near maximum output for 12 hours except maybe in the desert so you'd probably need at least 2 or 3 times that capacity so figure 20kw installed solar and that doesn't factor in the inefficiencies. I've never actually checked but I think you'd probably have a very hard time getting 2kw on the roof of an airstream.

And this is for the power required to move a 4500 lbs car for 265 miles. Personally, for an all electric recreational vehicle, I'd probably want minimum of 1000 miles range so I'd probably need 4 times the power the Tesla can put out so I'm now looking at 4 x 12 hour charge time = 2 days (which just doesn't make sense) or 4 x the power requirement of the Tesla charging. And that doesn't even factor in the extra weight of a truck + trailer vs the Tesla (although I don't think that's linear (i.e. if the truck + trailer are four times as heavy, I don't think I need four times the power).

[Flanagan]

Today I read in HDT (Heavy Duty Trucking) that Coca Cola is buying a fleet of 13 all electric refrigerated trucks to deliver Odwala Beverages in the San Francisco area. Charge time is 8 hours and range is 80 - 90 miles. The refrigeration is cold plates that chill all night and then use fans during the day to chill the cargo. 10 years ago most people would call this impossible but it is real today.

[BFlinn181]

Originally Posted by Flanagan

Today I read in HDT (Heavy Duty Trucking) that Coca Cola is buying a fleet of 13 all electric refrigerated trucks to deliver Odwala Beverages in the San Francisco area. Charge time is 8 hours and range is 80 - 90 miles. The refrigeration is cold plates that chill all night and then use fans during the day to chill the cargo. 10 years ago most people would call this impossible but it is real today.

Good Humor trucks in the '50's had chill plates that worked the same way. People that would call it impossible never had a push-up!

[codgerbill]

Maby a small newclear power plant to power wheel mounted motors?

[BFlinn181]

I'm waiting until these become available: EB Enterprises 121G - Flux Capacitor | O'Reilly Auto Parts

[Scarab0088]

Freightliner already offers a Diesel-Hybrid RV chassis very similar to the FRED in many 2007-2010 RV's.

They are now calling it the Eco-FRED.
40% fuel saving are promised.
http://freightlinerchassis.com/RV-Ch...nu-id-150.html

This is realistic from the fuel savings I get from my Ford Hybrid...but the trick is what are the costs over the standard RV chassis.

All electric RV's are far off due to range anxiety, but the Hybrid is possible now - if consumers demand it.

Safe travels

[Oldrtrcr]

I think the natural gas application is closer than we think.

Cummins Westport - The Natural Choice

[Ray,IN]

The city nearest us has been running hybrid bus's for about 5-6 years now. A diesel engine and batteries for power.

[michelb]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

The city nearest us has been running hybrid bus's for about 5-6 years now. A diesel engine and batteries for power.

Although I'm a big proponents of hybrids, as I mentioned above, the city I live in (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) have 177 hybrid buses and are in the process of testing the conversion of the hybrids to diesel only. They did see some fuel improvements on some routes that are only on city streets and stop-and-go traffic but overall because of the added costs of battery maintenance and replacement, the buses are costing them more than diesel only.

Since most mhs do mostly highway traffic, we probably wouldn't see any benefit from a hybrid drivetrain (supporting this argument is that the chassis has been available for over 5 years and I haven't heard of a single manufacturer offering it).