Possibility of simple-ish hybrid conversion RWD vehicles...

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by jray3

Doing it with an AC motor like the AC50 should double the impact or better through adding regen to the equation...

I think AC is overhyped, plenty of DC controllers have regen. That is a fine motor though.

The highest speed Agni motor is a great DC motor, but a bit pricey.

I think something with good potential is large RC plane motors. It's probably best to reinforce the bearings and add hall effect sensors (maybe liquid cooling too), but they have absolutely stupid high power to weight ratio, just gotta use 2 of them instead of 1.

[mechman600]

A series wound motor cannot effectively do regen unless they have variable brush timing, because the brushes are generally timed properly for one direction and don't work well in the opposite direction, which is what regen is effectively doing.

Sepex motors are great at regen braking, but large enough ones (especially for a direct drive EV) are not available. 72V seems to be the limit, both in available motors and sepex controllers.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by mechman600

A series wound motor cannot effectively do regen unless they have variable brush timing, because the brushes are generally timed properly for one direction and don't work well in the opposite direction, which is what regen is effectively doing.

Sepex motors are great at regen braking, but large enough ones (especially for a direct drive EV) are not available. 72V seems to be the limit, both in available motors and sepex controllers.

Snap, I forgot about that. The Agni has an adjustable brush, but it's not adjustable on the fly.

However I think the brushless RC plane motors are good for regen right? I see regen as a feature on the Kelly controllers...maybe it needs Hall effect sensors to work, I haven't studied electric motor design much.

[320touring]

*posts to denote interest due to abundance of old, simple RWD cars he owns*

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Snap, I forgot about that. The Agni has an adjustable brush, but it's not adjustable on the fly.

However I think the brushless RC plane motors are good for regen right? I see regen as a feature on the Kelly controllers...maybe it needs Hall effect sensors to work, I haven't studied electric motor design much.

Not sure about brushless RC plan motors. In EV applications, brushless DC (BLDC) is simply electronically commutated DC, which is actually fairly similar in some ways to AC. These can do regen.

Some Kelly controllers say regen on their description, but I have not heard of anyone successfully making it happen. Kelly controller descriptions say a lot of things.....

[a8ksh4]

So this might be a good build... Either an AC or BLDC motor, maybe 40HP, in line w/ the trans, enough LiPO batteries for ten miles range (maybe rebuilt Prius battery pack), and a motor controller that supports regen, and plug-in charging.

Would need to fab up:
* Mounts for the motor
* Trans and driveline couplers, maybe w/ a bearing supporting the driveline coupler
* Battery pack & box
* Wiring and control circuitry
* Shorter driveline and any changes to rear axle to allow for different drive-line angle

A small battery pack like this & 40HP would enable doing small trips across town on electric as well as pulse and glide for longer trips... for freeway travel, we could spin up the gasoline engine every five miles for to push the truck and and to re-charge the battery pack, keeping load and efficiency higher, and then go full electric for the next few miles.

It would be nice if there were a seamless way to integrate the motor controls with the factory controls on the vehicle, but I think a good starting point would simply be a manual slider to tell the motor to accelerate, regen, or freewheel.

[a8ksh4]

Would it be important to use a u-joint or some other flexible coupler between the trans output shaft and motor?

I don't think the motor could be mounted up in such a way that it would always be perfectly in-line with the trans... even frame flex from speed-bumps would change alignment since there isn't a big mounting surface between the trans and motor like there is between the trans bell-housing and engine.

Edit:
Oh yah, something would have to be done about powering the brake booster, too, when running off of electric. That might mean using a separate vacuum pump.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by a8ksh4

Would it be important to use a u-joint or some other flexible coupler between the trans output shaft and motor?

Common sense dictates that this would have to be handled in a similar way as a T-case, all typical driveline angle considerations apply

[payne171]

What about doing it on a Tracker/Sidekick? With old fashion four wheel drive you could "disengage" the electric motor when you know you won't really use it, like on the freeway, then you could shut off the engine in town. It is small enough that you could get by without power steering, so brake boost would be the only issue to deal with.

[razor02097]

With a tracker/sidekick You could do a few different things. Either A hook the electric motor to the front differential of a 4WD to have electric drive in front and gasoline engine rear to have a hybrid 4WD system... Or B couple the electric motor to the front drive shaft output of the transfer case. This would be more like a parallel hybrid. You could shift the T case in 2WD to uncouple the electric motor or 4WD to run with electric and gasoline. You can then ditch the front diff and axles to save weight.