Posted on 01/02/2009 7:50:43 AM PST by Reaganesque
|
Some years ago GM built an experimental, hydraulic active suspension for a (big) Blazer. When going along at higher speeds off-road it allegedly consumed ~40 hp.
If it's a truly smooth road, there is no normal vibration (wheels, tires and rotating brake components well balanced, tires round with a homogeneous carcass) unless an earthquake is happening.
Braking?? What's that? Coasting up to lights and stop signs is de regur. Not smacking the brakes minimizes suspension movement. Same with smooth use of the loud pedal.
Curves? depends on the locale. Not too many on the road for me.
You'd be better off putting some pedals at each passenger seating position and makes the galley slaves turn a generator as you drive along.
It’d be best to have a forward mounted, super conducting electromagnet and radar based, distance controller so as to “draft” the vehicle in front.
Yep, it’s high time someone designed such an add-on for the Prius. After all, most of their drivers bought into the AGW scam, so they are ripe for such a stunning offer.
Awesome! Also, if you jack up the back end it saves money because the car's always going downhill.
I can see it coming already...state and local highway departments won’t repair potholes because rough roads will help stop global warming.
Bump!
Right you are, CIS. This used to be called “Engineering Economics” not many years ago. I’m not sure basic engineering economics is even taught any more.
The big problem with regenerative systems is you have to store the energy recovered from the system and energy storage systems are usually expensive and heavy. Energy is typically stored in batteries or compressed air, both of which add significant weight to the vehicle. Then it takes more energy to get the heavier vehicle moving again (remember F=MA?), so a lot of the energy you recovered is wasted accelerating the heavier vehicle. Add the much higher capital and maintenance costs to this and you very often find the systems don’t make much sense — at least until gasoline is perhaps north of $10 per gallon.
True, but precisely because on a smooth road, less energy would be wasted through conventional shocks.
Gives a whole new meaning to “jump start.” Imagine asking passers-by to jump on your car to recharge the battery.
Could coils be embedded in the pavement on hills, to form a linear generator to recover energy from cars going downhill? The individuals in the cars would use their brakes less. A relatively painless tax.
Now you're getting into perpetual-motion territory.
OK, sounds great, but... what happens when such technology in introduced and there is a sudden decrease in demand/use of "fossil fuels" (gasoline, gasohol, diesel, bio-diesel, whatever) and the gubmint realizes that it's not getting the billions of dollars of our tax money that it gets from those things now.
So we will soon see a requirement for all vehicles to have GPS installed and every fraction of a mile reported directly to gubmint sensors. Then everyone will be taxed based upon mileage [not to mention the movement tracking built in to that system], in addition to utility taxes on any electricity used to charge said vehicles.
Then, I wouldn't put it past some libtard a**hole to try to legislate a tax on the electricity generated by these "regenerating" shock absorbers, or any other electric or hydraulic energy producing device, because after all, it's their money not ours and they have to get their share.
Believe me, I'd add a /sarcasm tag here, but this surely is not meant as sarcasm, just a tongue-in-cheek prediction of things to come.
Damn, I toyed with this idea back in the ‘80s. Wish I’d thought to patent it. My notion was to eliminate the alternator.
Interesting idea. I’m generally in favor of extracting “free” energy where applicable, but I do wonder what the actual cost of the system, including the regenerative shocks, would cost compared to the actual savings in energy consumption (and perhaps performance benefit). Would this require a taxpayer-funded subsidy to be cost effective to the user?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.