A friend ran a small diesel engine to run a tiny hydraulic drive from a fork lift lifter welded to the input shaft of a subaru gearbox/cut down drivetrain. It was a very cool cutup build mad max style for around the farm using quad wheels. It has incredible torque and being 4wd it can tow the tractor out of a bog. More like a digger or bulldozer setup in miniature. Regen with hydraulics is simple as the motor can be a pump and a few litres of accumulator can store and reuse 80% of the energy needed to stop instead of 40% efficiency with electric regen. Definitely a lighter option as the drive is a few kilos and for low revs so no reduction needed. The cost is doing the hoses and fittings.
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