BEV as a toad behind diesel pusher

JRscooby wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:


Of course, if only when the MH brakes are hit (and activating the EV brakes)...not much regenerative braking when doing a rural 200mile freeway drive, so really pretty pointless.

To recharge the car so it's has a full battery bank upon arrival, you would need a way to activate the regenerative braking system while the MH is NOT braking and that gets silly pretty quick.

The lowest point in Co is higher than the highest point in Mo, so I 70 WB in Kansas is climbing all day. But still there are more than a few places where I would use the jake to keep my speed close to limit. Bet the MH has to use some kind of whoa just as often. Why couldn't the combination be programed so the first brake to come on when the grade starts to increase the speed is re-gen? Speed still climb, use the jake. If the driver is smart, he is letting off throttle long before he is on the brakes, to save brakes and more important, fuel. Use re-gen to slow more before brakes.

valhalla360 wrote:

Skibane wrote:
The dinghy vehicle could not only be used to brake itself, but could also contribute some braking ability to the motorhome towing it.

There's a lot of kinetic energy in a 30,000 pound motorhome rolling down the road at 75 MPH! :B

Expect to buy tires more frequently if the light duty car tires are used to stop a 30k lb MH.

I don't stand under what you are saying here. You think re-gen would lock the wheels? I think the slower the wheel is turning, the less output to battery. That output is the only braking action

A few minutes braking on the downhills won't add much to the battery pack. Regenerative braking is mostly about recovering the acceleration power used.

I don't recall any long downhills on that stretch...for the most part, you don't even need to touch the brakes to keep speed under control...but let's say you find a 2min stretch of downhill where the regen is putting out 50kw. That's going to generate a whopping 1.6kwh on a car that likely has a 80-120kwh battery bank. Even if you find 10 downhill stretches on the stretch of road you mention, that's only 16kwh. In much of the country, I never have to touch the brakes to keep the speed at the limit.

EVs are known to eat up tires in the first place (without locking up the tires). Trying to meaningfully slow down a 30,000lb MH is only going to accelerate the issue.