Charging electric car

“one killowatt gets you about 6 ish kilometers in most EV's. ”
Unit confusion in this topic!

The kilowatt is not a unit of energy. It is a unit of power - how fast energy is consumed. Analogous to a gasoline car’s gallons per hour.

The unit of electric energy is the kilowatt hour. Analogous to gas car’s gallon of gas.

Driving an electric car a kilometre requires some amount of energy. How many kilowatt hours is it? How much does a kilowatt hour (KWH) cost? This is indicated on any electricity bill. It may be ten cents plus another ten cents delivery charge.

JRscooby wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

joebedford wrote:
I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

That is a great argument for buying a toad that uses fuel.

I don't understand. AFAIK, the only reason against towing a E-car is warranty.

Yah. Really it’s a matter of software and a brake pedal sensor for the Motorhome. Just a matter of someone writing it and the warranty thing.

Lynnmor wrote:

joebedford wrote:
I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

That is a great argument for buying a toad that uses fuel.

I don't understand. AFAIK, the only reason against towing a E-car is warranty.

atreis wrote:

joebedford wrote:
I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

Convenient, yes. Efficient, no. You're effectively charging your electric car from a gas generator. Your bus's engine has to work that much harder to overcome the increased resistance of the toad as it generates electric. (Sorry, no 1st law violations allowed.) In terms of efficiency, you'd be better off towing a hybrid or charging from mains at your destination.

Charging as you pull it down the highway? A sure miss because of the extra force needed. But for every time you take off in the MH, sooner or later you will need to "waste" some force getting it stopped. I think most use the toad's service brakes for part of this along with service brakes of MH. If when you want to slow down you could switch on the battery as load for the wheel driven generators, (motors when battery power is used to drive wheels) at least some of waste force could be stored in battery.
From what little I understand of E cars, power out of battery is used to move the car. Then some of the power is put back in battery by regn braking when you slow. Because it always takes more out when you start, and as you go, the battery will always discharge, but at a slower rate then if you did not use regenerative braking. Now if the power to take off and hold your speed is coming from MH engine, the braking could put more energy in battery than removing.

atreis wrote:

joebedford wrote:
I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

Convenient, yes. Efficient, no. You're effectively charging your electric car from a gas generator. Your bus's engine has to work that much harder to overcome the increased resistance of the toad as it generates electric. (Sorry, no 1st law violations allowed.) In terms of efficiency, you'd be better off towing a hybrid or charging from mains at your destination.

Yah. I agree. It’s just not that hard.

joebedford wrote:
I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

Convenient, yes. Efficient, no. You're effectively charging your electric car from a gas generator. Your bus's engine has to work that much harder to overcome the increased resistance of the toad as it generates electric. (Sorry, no 1st law violations allowed.) In terms of efficiency, you'd be better off towing a hybrid or charging from mains at your destination.

joebedford wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
If you are talking about outfitting Motorhomes with regenerative brakes to then charge a towed EV, that would require a massive regenerative system to effectively slow and stop a 40,000LB motorhome only for the benefit of a towed Prius. My personal driving experience with motorhomes is I seldom brake.

I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

I get it. You are looking at it from the convenience point of view. There is no reason it couldn’t be done with a little software. And to the Motorhome it would just seem like the toad is a little “heavier”. The problem lies with the manufacturers warranty not allowing it.

Take it from someone who pulls an EV as a toad. It is not inconvenient to charge an EV toad using regular charge facilities or campground hookups. There may be some campgrounds that don’t allow it because of infrastructure limitations but I think that will be the exception.

joebedford wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
If you are talking about outfitting Motorhomes with regenerative brakes to then charge a towed EV, that would require a massive regenerative system to effectively slow and stop a 40,000LB motorhome only for the benefit of a towed Prius. My personal driving experience with motorhomes is I seldom brake.

I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

That is a great argument for buying a toad that uses fuel.

westernrvparkowner wrote:
If you are talking about outfitting Motorhomes with regenerative brakes to then charge a towed EV, that would require a massive regenerative system to effectively slow and stop a 40,000LB motorhome only for the benefit of a towed Prius. My personal driving experience with motorhomes is I seldom brake.

I guess I'm not explaining myself properly or my idea is just too stupid. The bus is dragging the toad down the road; the toad's wheels are turning; the toad's motor(s) are turning - throw in a little regenerative braking on the toad and its battery will charge. The bus has to work a bit harder but there is no modification to the bus.

Reisender wrote:



Slack adjuster adjustment is part of our exam for an air ticket. I’ve done it but generally let him do it.

Yes, Part of my "ticket" too. But mine says to check every day it moves...