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Old 09-21-2015, 03:27 PM   #19 (permalink)
TheEnemy
The road not so traveled
 
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 680

The Truck - '99 Nissan Frontier xe
90 day: 25.74 mpg (US)

The Ugly Duck - '84 Jeep CJ7 Rock crawler
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Timed events are only seen in competition, the vast majority of rock crawling is done just for the challenge or fun of it.

Seasoned rock crawler here, with a few notes first. I have very rarely seen above 25mph on even the access roads to the trail so 30mph max is very reasonable. Since it is a trailer queen that helps simplify the design. I have daydreamed about building one, but that I could take on the highway for short distances, that really added to the complexity of what I needed to build.

With what you are wanting I would suggest hydraulic powered by a small gas engine 10-25hp should be all you need if you are actually crawling and not bouncing.

The biggest reason I suggest hydraulic is the opportunity for motor stall. Face it you will bind up and stall the motor at some point. The stall current of an electric is insane, while the fluid draw on a stalled hydraulic is near 0. And hydraulic also produced max torque at 0RPM.

As far as an accumulator, yes you would need one, otherwise there would be little point in converting to hydraulic asside from the torque advantage. Also regen would be usefull particularly when you are going down a long steep slope. I had figured I would do my regen control using a lever (like a bicycle brake handle) on the stick shift.
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