Want cake and eat it too

[jakobnev]

Originally Posted by dem45133

..on a very dark rainy foggy morning..

Would it be fair to say you were going faster than was safe for those visibility conditions?

[user removed]

If you think hydraulics is only for regeneration, then look at someone like Diesel Dave who is driving a Land Titanic and getting 32 MPG. But of course if your only compromise
is no compromise then your only solution is no solution.

regards
Mech

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by GRU

Do you consider a midsize like a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry small? If that's small for you then work on aero mods on the vehicle of your choice.

I think GRU hit the nail on the head: If you want to drive "big" and want to drive fast, and since much of your driving is on the open road, then your best efforts will be spent on aerodynamics (EDIT: and possibly gearing).

I doubt you'll be able to justify the cost of a workable DIY hybridization that will meet your needs.

Fortunately, aero mods can be relatively inexpensive, and the payback can be relatively fast on a large, thirsty vehicle. (Gearing mods, probably less so on both counts.)

Hopefully you're not averse to modifications which will make your vehicle look "out of the ordinary". Otherwise, no cake for you!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by dem45133

I know... but it irritates the livin *&^%% out of me that we have to pay 4 bucks a gallon due to a 100% controlled by greed product. Because of their greed...

If you want to discuss greed, you'll first need a mirror, so as to see the beam that is in your own eye :-)

[SentraSE-R]

Dave, either you start to think compromise, or you continue driving your dinosaurs like you always have, on your long, lonely, and very expensive road. Your choice.

[dem45133]

Well, for most I guess we are... dinosaurs that is. I am 59, my wife is 62..., so in 10 or 15 years (which isnt long... if one compares to the last 30 that just seems to fly by, we wont have to worry about it... but all you young uns missed something I think.

Why is it greedy? I bought my 1994 dodge 3/4 ton 4:10 lim slip 360 FI V8 auto, 1 year old with 15,000 miles on it. I was upgrading from an 86 1/2 ton 318 4 sp 4x4 that I drove to 271,000 miles. Before that a 1980 D50 1/4 ton in there but the body literally fell of the frame from rust in only a few years. 168K is all on it but it still ran good and a damn tough little truck. 69 Dodge Coronet 318... 230,000 miles and 14 years. Only one of these engines did I have to open up (the coronet because it burnt valve at 130k, fixed it with new hand seated valve, and ran it another 100k... never had the pan down). The 94 was the youngest vehicle I'd ever bought and was basically $20k. I bought this drive line because I knew it was good for 300,000 miles. Its now 17 years later, the truck has 272,000 on it (it would have had more by now but there was 4 years without commute while my wife worked and I took care on Mom and the farm until she passed). I drove it 12 years almost daily after it was paid for with no truck payments. It still doesn't take more than a quart of oil per oil change (3000 miles)... and doesn't miss a beat, and I wouldn't be afraid to drive across the country to CA right now, but it took $107 and change to fill it up tonight! Its pulled a my own custom built 16 foot tandem axle flatbed loaded to 13000 with antique engines and tractors to farm shows as well as a 30 year old 27 ft sailboat on my own designed and built custom float on/off triple axle trailer all over the country. Its also hauled countless bags of feed from the feed mill two tons at a time for the livestock... any amount of 2x lumber and construction materials for the maintenance of 9 out buildings and projects around here... Its hauled a 9000 lb tandem axle stock trailer also all over the country, and its hauled myself or my wife to work and back for 17 years. You tell me an non-dinosaur that can do all that! Yes, country living and farms take fuel... you all like to eat don't you!!!! It didn't grow or get fed at the *&^^%%$^ kroger store! So I do take offense! And yes, its replacement that's sitting in the shed until the salt is gone is a 1 ton 4x4 cummins dully... took me 40 years of work to finally get one, and its was 9 years old when I got it! Now I can extend the tandem flatbed to 24 ft and tripples the way I initially designed it for. Whats Greedy about that! This is the life I grew up with... but it wasn't ours, Dad only rented... but its hard to take the country out of the boy, I've lived in a one room apartment in the city, as well as a rentals in suburbia-ville. 14.5 years ago we finally built careers that would let us go back to the country and we finally bought property and paid on our own mortgage instead of someone else's.

I started this to see what could be done... and yes I drove like a old man tonight coming home... 107 dollars fill ups will do that!

I said I wasn't going to get into it... but unless you've been country you just can't know I guess. I got on a tractor at age 8 and basically didn't get off until 23 when Dad was struck down by a brain tumor and we left the farm. We did custom combining all over the county starting with the second machine when I was 13. I was hauling grain to market by 14 on a 24,000 lb gross 16 ft grain truck. Had my first car at 15 ($35.00 NOT 3500, not 35000.... 35 bucks!!!). School and work is all I knew. I could operate, build, or repair just about anything by the time I graduated from HS. After a few years I put myself through college along with the BEOG and a small SL... working never less than 1 PT job, sometimes 3, but always full + credit loads.... H_ll, I was up a 3:45 am and milked 84 head and cleaned the parlor on a local farm and still made my 8 am classes! After 10 years I had the opportunity for grad school and pulled a 3.8... while working 45+hours FT on my professional job. Anything we have we f'n earned!!!!! Much of it on a 20 hour day! Da_n the greedy fuel companies... I might only be 59 but I've been working for 51 years and did a lot for Mom and Dad because he couldn't! Why should I have to compromise anything to those greedy *******s!!!!!

I still get up at 4:45 and on the road at 6, start work 7... get home at 7 pm 4days a week. It is 8:45 pm... almost time for bed... so I can continue to pay for all those on the big teat and will not work! I work for me two days on the weekend. I take Sunday off most of the time but not all! We haven't had a real vacation since 1992!

I don't want to here Greedy at all.... ever again!
Dave (irritated even more now!)

[Frank Lee]

It's been over 35 years; if you haven't gotten used to it by now you just ain't serious.

[SentraSE-R]

Dave, I'm going to forgive you your inexperience, because you're just a greenhorn kid , and I love your refreshing candor. I retired when I was your age, 7 years ago, and I expect to be around another 15 years per the actuarial tables. Don't sell yourself short. You should still be around in 20+ years.

Not to discourage your hybrid conversion project, but in the fuel economy race, hybrids are the equivalent of band-aids in medical treatment. You'll spend a lot of effort for minimal, lightweight, short-term results.

You've mentioned 200 mile drives, and a 118 mile commute. Why in the world are you doing it in a 10-15 mpg (feel free to substitute similarly pathetic figures of your choice) FSP? If you need the FSP at work, leave it parked there, and do the commute in anything else. You need to start thinking outside the box. This isn't the 1960s. That was half a century (thanks, Frank Lee) ago, when gas was 20 cents/gallon.

[Frank Lee]

Half a CENTURY ago

[mcrews]

darrell,
dang, you didnt strike me as an old guy!!