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Hybrid Vehicle Conversion Services?
OverkillTASF asks: "My '94 I6 Jeep Grand Cherokee has once again eaten through a transmission... at 105k miles. For one reason or another, this has led me to the following question: Are there any companies/individuals out there who do hybrid vehicle conversions? I'd like to retrofit my Barbie Jeep with the necessary equipment to eek out 5 more MPG, be a little more environmentally friendly, but still allow me to get where I need to go out here in the sticks? Do such after-market conversion services exist?"
...you'll need to do a lot of the DIY, perhaps just in the configuring. You can always sub out the actual work. You'll be retrofitting the entire drive train, plus adding space for batteries as well if you want any sort of at least minimum range before you are forced to use the fueled engine. What you are contemplating is a self propelled generator basically, with you along for the ride. That is in essence what a hybrid is.
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Here is a generic link to get you going
http://www.evworld.com/
As another poster pointed out, this is a fabulous new industry idea, some places are doing it, but it's still in the mom and pop shop stage most places, sort of like the original mom and pop whitebox shops back in the haydays of making decent money at it.
pure electric conversion kits and links
http://www.electroauto.com/
Now what I think might be a useful idea, one already built at ACPropulsion, is to make the vehicle pure electric, and have the generator part that makes it a hybrid be in a tow behind trailer. Short range, run pure electric, extended range, tow the trailer.
read about that and more info here, these guys know their stuff
http://www.acpropulsion.com/ACP_FAQs/FAQ_products
good luck and do a blog on it, would like to see the project as it unfolds
In the words of Al Bundy, "I got him to cut another $100 off the price of the car. Why pay for seatbelts when you don't have brakes?"
Let's say you work over your truck to get 28mpg. You drive 40miles round trip every day to work. You driver to work 250 times a year. And for the moment, we'll put gas at $3.00.
.4kWh per mile (AC can get as low as .18kWh)
.4kWh/mile) and put electric at $0.10 (my last bill was $0.85/kWh). That means you're spending $400 a year on fuel. Now, with the 'el-cheapo' 6c deep cycle lead acid battery packs, you're only going to get 3-5 years out of them. So if we figure in blowing $1200 every 3 years, you're looking at $800/year in fuel. Even if electric jumps to $0.13 (a 33% jump like the gas jump $3 to $4) You're still only looking at $920/year
.4kWh Electric @ $0.10/kWh = $800
.4kWh Electric @ $0.13/kWh = $920
That means every year you spend $1072 on gas. $1429 per year when gas hit's $4
Compared to a full electric. A (relatively) cheap conversion to a 9" DC motor and lead acid battery pack can easily pull a 40 mile range. And at about $8-12k it's about the same cost as a few year old decent used car. A DC system like this should run at about
If we use the same standards (250 40mile round trips @
28mpg Gas @ $3/gal = $1072
28mpg Gas @ $4/gal = $1429
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Why not try biodiesel? If you're thinking about doing a serious conversion project anyway, I suspect that it might be easier to swap in a diesel engine and convert that to biodiesel than to go hybrid.
"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." - H.L. Mencken
Buy a used small turbodiesel engine for it.
1.9L diesel will have more than enough oomph (unless you're suffering from penis envy) and will move you around with insane mpg.
Cheaper than hybrid. Cleaner than hybrid.