Switching to Lithium Ion Battery Bank?

happycamper002 wrote:

GordonThree wrote:


. . . I guess you could do regen braking on your RV, the cap soaking up the burst of energy and transferring it to a battery.

Regenerative braking can only be achieved if your MH is totally designed to operate on battery (an all electric) vehicle.

OP's plan is to replace generic batteries with Lithium-Ion, while keeping the old fossil-fueled engine and transmission. There is no mention of converting the rig to operate like a Tesla.

When someone says that one can achieve a regenerative braking to recharge batteries, it makes my training and brain go on a feeding frenzy.

Regenerative power comes from electric motor/s that make the vehicle move. No internal combustion engine, or separate gear variation in the drive train.

As you decelerate the energy of the drive motors (they act like generators) is fed back to recharge the batteries. . . hence the regenerative braking.

If I'm wrong I'll dig up my old notes.

Exactly. The conventional shoe/drum brake and axle hub would be replaced by a wheel-motor (generator). When braking is called for by the tow vehicle, a controller would load the motors via battery or just a dump load to resist rotation, applying braking force and recovering a small amount of energy. the recovery isn't huge, I think a lot of it gets lost in heat.

not saying it's likely, just could be if you want to throw enough money at it :)