BEV as a toad behind diesel pusher

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.

No more than with the current braking systems.

Ok, based on this thread, everyone who believes in Santa Claus raise your hand…I want to see if I have my list right!

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

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.

Skibane wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
Charging via towing would likely cost far more than paying for grid power. The MH would burn significant extra fuel to drag a car that is resisting being pulled.

The OP asked about using regenerative braking, which only produces drag when the brakes are applied.

OP wasn't particularly clear on that point.

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.

FWC wrote:

Skibane wrote:

FWC wrote:
With auto driving also on the radar, what about not even connecting the car to the MH? It just follows along 5m behind the MH as if it were towed? No hooking up, no disconnecting, no extra length or weight on hills. With some sort of beacon on the MH for the car to follow, this seems like a much easier control problem than 'normal' auto pilot for an EV.

A true self-driving vehicle wouldn't even need to stay behind the motorhome - just program in the desired destination, and the vehicle would get there on its own.

Naturally, due to range limitations, it might need to meet you at designated charging stations along the way.

Agreed, with true self driving there would be no need to follow along.

My thought is that a follow on mode would be much easier to achieve than full self driving and gets away from some of the murky legal and liability issues with self driving vehicles. The technical challenges are far easier - just follow the huge MH in front of you and from a legal/liability issue the EV could be treated just the same way a towed vehicle.

If it's truly self driving and you miss your payments, does it drive itself back to the dealership? :-)

ktmrfs wrote:
when we were looking at hybrids NONE that we looked at (both mild hybrids and plug ins) allowed 4 down towing. ALL made it very clear that the car MUST be flatbed towed. Now we didn't look at all but we did look at many.

Ford Hybrids are flat tow capable.

Skibane wrote:

FWC wrote:
With auto driving also on the radar, what about not even connecting the car to the MH? It just follows along 5m behind the MH as if it were towed? No hooking up, no disconnecting, no extra length or weight on hills. With some sort of beacon on the MH for the car to follow, this seems like a much easier control problem than 'normal' auto pilot for an EV.

A true self-driving vehicle wouldn't even need to stay behind the motorhome - just program in the desired destination, and the vehicle would get there on its own.

Naturally, due to range limitations, it might need to meet you at designated charging stations along the way.

Agreed, with true self driving there would be no need to follow along.

My thought is that a follow on mode would be much easier to achieve than full self driving and gets away from some of the murky legal and liability issues with self driving vehicles. The technical challenges are far easier - just follow the huge MH in front of you and from a legal/liability issue the EV could be treated just the same way a towed vehicle.

FWC wrote:
With auto driving also on the radar, what about not even connecting the car to the MH? It just follows along 5m behind the MH as if it were towed? No hooking up, no disconnecting, no extra length or weight on hills. With some sort of beacon on the MH for the car to follow, this seems like a much easier control problem than 'normal' auto pilot for an EV.

A true self-driving vehicle wouldn't even need to stay behind the motorhome - just program in the desired destination, and the vehicle would get there on its own.

Naturally, due to range limitations, it might need to meet you at designated charging stations along the way.

With all the technology designed into battery electric vehicles, I'm guessing that designing software to make them push/pull on demand would be easy-peasy on their complexity scale.