Feasability of going from gas to only electric

[Stubby79]

How's this for a thought...

Battery trailer. And a small home solar array. Solar slowly charges battery trailer...for free. When it is fully charged, you use it and get XX free miles of driving. And when you need it for a longer trip, you remember to plug it in the day before, so it's fully charged.

Said trailer could have a small generator on it, in case you need even MORE distance.

The question is...could you gather the materials cheap enough to make it worth the effort?

[freebeard]

Tesla Powerwall — $3000?
Harbor Freight trailer — $400?

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

10hp sustained for 1 hour is worth around 7.3kwh.

A leaf gets ~4 miles per kwh. So 10 hp will only sustain you if you are driving 30 miles in an hour.

Probably a bit better on the highway than it is in stop and go traffic...unless aero drag is enough to exceed the waste of acceleration and braking, which I doubt even on something with decent regen braking.

Calculating how much farther you would get is a lot like calculating compound interest vs payments...but anyway, you'd not quite double your range if you added a 10hp engine pusher if you were traveling at 60mph.

(Which is what I said before without having to calculate anything!)

[oil pan 4]

If you can get 4 miles per 1kwh then at 60mph the car is using 15,000w.
So yeah a 10hp boost would roughly double your range.
Not bad.

[freebeard]

Would you prefer a bar to take the front forks (with a side-mount 'spare' for the front wheel) or a semicircular pocket to drop the wheel into?

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Would you prefer a bar to take the front forks (with a side-mount 'spare' for the front wheel) or a semicircular pocket to drop the wheel into?

Thanks for the idea!

I was thinking forks but a pocket would eliminate the need to make some sort of pivot. The question is how light it would be. The hitch has a 200lb tongue weight limit. The Honda PCX weighs about 286lbs. I'm guessing that about half that, 143lbs would be on the front fork or trailer tongue. That leaves 57lbs to work with?

[oil pan 4]

The more mad max styled the better.

[freebeard]

I can see advantages both ways.

A bar for the forks would be compact, almost un-noticable, but some reassembly would be required.

With the pocket you could almost undock on the go, but some hinging or folding would be needed for a stowed position.

[sendler]

A CVT motorcycle hitch hauler pusher with a CVT scooter would be very simple to rig up. With very little financial risk if it doesn't work out. The hitch hauler is $70. The used bike can be sold for what you paid for it. You would be out some kind of throttle control like a cable housing rig to run through the hatch. Or an RC transmitter and a servo.
.
A PCX is a really nice machine. Every able bodied person on the planet should have one as a means of transportation in addition to their car basically. But it doesn't have enough top speed in it's gearing. Under a heavy load like that it might not break 55 mph since the CVT will wind down a bit. And it might overrev on the down hills. You will want to pick a bike that can have an automotive tire mounted on the rear to get better life.
.
An NC700 with dual clutch auto trans would be deluxe. Dream come true pusher. Perfect power output for unlimited range. Highest BSFC moto engine ever made. By a long shot. And very clean with it's giant cat right off the head and O2 sensor. Auto trans. You could get good at popping the front sprocket off to tie the chain off of the rear if you were in an area that didn't need the bike running.
.
But a single wheeled pusher won't work at all on snowy roads with slush down the center.
.
Ultra-Tow Motorcycle Wheel Chock | Motorcycle Hauling Accessories| Northern Tool + Equipment

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by sendler

Ultra-Tow Motorcycle Wheel Chock | Motorcycle Hauling Accessories| Northern Tool + Equipment

I like that.