[Frankiec55]

I just came up with the idea to use My first generation Civic Hybrid as a Pusher/Genset behind my old Dodge Van. I am planning to travel, railfan, and camp across the country in my van. I am putting my belongings in storage and planning to turn the van into a mobile base of operations. For a fullsized van, its mileage is relatively decent. It has a slant six and 4 speed OD manual transmission.

I don't want to leave the civic behind or sell it. The van could flat tow it, but it would be working fairly hard especially in the hills with my belongings loaded up and 3000 pounds in tow.

I am in the process of installing an Integrated Motor Assist command and control unit on the Civic. This will give me complete control of the IMA functions. The car could assist the van up to speed, continuously push from behind with or without the van or the electric motor's assistance. I could force the car to autostop and turn the car off or on as as I saw fit. I could even potentially use the car as a generator or for engine braking and eliminate or somehow temporarily disengage the alternator. I believe the Civic Hybrid has an electric brake booster that works even when it is in autostop mode.

I imagine in some situations, the Civic's ICE working alone could propel the rig more efficiently than the van's engine. The combined mileage of the van driving with the car lightly pushing behind should be better than the van running on its own. The two vehicles have about the same horsepower, but the van weighs around 1000 pounds more and has alot more torque than the Civic.

I would like them to be relatively easy to connect and disconnect. The civic is better suited to chasing trains at high speeds and I could always take it on a 50+mpg side trip. This idea is only in its infancy, but I think once I iron out when to run each vehicle individually or in tandem, they should work together well. Now I just need to figure out how to control the brake, clutch, and accelerator pedals. I'll rig something to move the shifter from 3rd to 4th. I'll probably have a cockpit monitor set up as well. This should be fun.