Make your XJ into a hybrid?

[superdave]

This is actually pretty darn cool.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/kit-turns-car-hybrid-170717691.html

 

[bjoehandley]

mmmmmm, think I'd rather have the motor attached to the transfer case like a shafty style crawler or a scaler and put a gen-set of some sort under the hood. Not sure on the safestnplace to out the battery though without cutting and modding the floor behind the front seats and putting in some sort of smalle fuel cell

 

[CobraMarty]

Hub motors have been looked at before and the suspension/vibration/water was a problem destroying the motors. It is a cool idea when they get it prefected.

 

[bjoehandley]

That's why I'd prefer a shafty set up on a Jeep for the time being. A motor at wheel setup would probably be fine on a race vehicle that doesn't see adverse weather conditions, but the unsprung weight could be a deal breaker.

 

[DrMoab]

Great idea! Let's spend $3000 at least and take a vehichle making good power and getting 18 mpg and cut the power in half so we can get 20 mpg. Great idea

 

[Ronbo]

Great idea! Let's spend $3000 at least and take a vehichle making good power and getting 18 mpg and cut the power in half so we can get 20 mpg. Great idea

They *claim* 50% to 100% improvement in mileage using two motors generating 400lb/ft of torque for use under 40mph.

 

[tbburg]

Not a bad idea for a street car. If you can get a pair of motor kits, the batteries and electronics for 3K,.. on something like an XJ, the payoff would be at around 23k miles.(starting at 20mpg and gas at 4.00/gal) Still kind of a long wait.

Biggest problem(as mentioned above) would be environmental wear and tear on the motors, followed by handling issues due to higher unsprung weight.

It is interesting though. What would be better would be to bolt a conventional DC motor to the rear output shaft on the transfer case, and use a shortened driveshaft. Another option would be to put it between the trans and Xfr case. Any way around, you can still buy a lot of gas for 3K.

They *claim* 50% to 100% improvement in mileage using two motors generating 400lb/ft of torque for use under 40mph.

An extra 400ft/lb at the wheels would probably stop the crybabies bitching about the XJ being too slow off the line.

 

[Matthew Currie]

It seems like a good idea, but not for a Jeep. It makes more sense to me to take that money and design a little light hub-motor runabout and use that instead of the Jeep when it makes sense. Otherwise you're just putting way too much money into making a halfway vehicle that's neither a good hybrid nor a good Jeep.

 

[bjoehandley]

Not a bad idea for a street car. If you can get a pair of motor kits, the batteries and electronics for 3K,.. on something like an XJ, the payoff would be at around 23k miles.(starting at 20mpg and gas at 4.00/gal) Still kind of a long wait.

Biggest problem(as mentioned above) would be environmental wear and tear on the motors, followed by handling issues due to higher unsprung weight.

It is interesting though. What would be better would be to bolt a conventional DC motor to the rear output shaft on the transfer case, and use a shortened driveshaft. Another option would be to put it between the trans and Xfr case. Any way around, you can still buy a lot of gas for 3K.

An extra 400ft/lb at the wheels would probably stop the crybabies bitching about the XJ being too slow off the line.

The trans from the Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade Hybrids would work nicely for that, IIRC they added the motors into the transmission and can run just on electricity for low speeds or work together for a good bit of down low grunt.

 

[tbburg]

The trans from the Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade Hybrids would work nicely for that, IIRC they added the motors into the transmission and can run just on electricity for low speeds or work together for a good bit of down low grunt.

There's probably enough room in the tailshaft housing/transfer case adapter housing on most conventional 4wds to throw in a good sized electric motor. Heck the JK Wranglers have such a long Xfer case adapter someone made a compound low range unit that replaces it without modifying the drive shafts.


Just had a fun thought. Get a Prius and add one of those kits to the rear wheels: An AWD compound hybrid-electric/battery-electric Prius with 400ft/lb of torque at the rear. 'Thing would be quick,...

 

[kastein]

I wonder if one could swap in an NP205 transfer case, add a PTO or second rear output, and attach the motor using that.

 

[GSequoia]

Who is getting 18/20 out of a Jeep? My nearly stock '96 only gets 14 - 16 combined, the best I've seen out of it was 21.75, that was either a portion with a lot of downhill or interstate with cruise set at 55 (I forget which).

 

[kastein]

I got 23 out of my MJ at one point (all highway), and was averaging 18-20 with my 96 XJ before I caught the mod bug. Both autos.

 

[bjoehandley]

Who is getting 18/20 out of a Jeep? My nearly stock '96 only gets 14 - 16 combined, the best I've seen out of it was 21.75, that was either a portion with a lot of downhill or interstate with cruise set at 55 (I forget which).

Depends, around town mine would get between 12-18mpg, on the highway, it would get 17-23 (I think Dad got 25 out of it at one point!) The only mods at the time were 235/75/15 Wranglers and a drop in K&N filter.

 

[tbburg]

I wonder if one could swap in an NP205 transfer case, add a PTO or second rear output, and attach the motor using that.

I don't know how well the PTO section of a -205 would handle torque going the other way. Is the purpose to make the motor disengage-able when not is use? Not necessary. The only drag from a brushless DC motor is the rotational mass of the rotor.

Who is getting 18/20 out of a Jeep? My nearly stock '96 only gets 14 - 16 combined, the best I've seen out of it was 21.75, that was either a portion with a lot of downhill or interstate with cruise set at 55 (I forget which).

Mine gets 20-21 at 55mph.(solid 19 at 65mph)

 

[kastein]

I don't know how well the PTO section of a -205 would handle torque going the other way. Is the purpose to make the motor disengage-able when not is use? Not necessary. The only drag from a brushless DC motor is the rotational mass of the rotor.

The point for me would be to feed power from the motor into the drivetrain without significantly modifying the drivetrain or putting the motor down on the axles in harm's way - from the small amount of further research I did after posting this, it looks like you can put rear outputs from an NP200 into an NP205 to get dual rear outputs, which would give you one input shaft in the traditional location, one front output in the traditional location, and two rear outputs, one in line with the input shaft and one in line with the front output. Here is a really neat 6x6 M715 project using a case set up like this: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348576

(transfer case build details in this thread: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34892)

Seeing as both rear outputs are capable of providing regular driving torque to a rearend, I don't see why one couldn't use the second rear output off to the side (the one behind the front output) as an input from the electric motor. This way, you could basically remove your NP231, bolt in an appropriately configured NP205 with an NP200 output added, add your DC motor/controller/batteries, and away you go. Oh, maybe change some driveshaft lengths.

The bit about maybe using the PTO output I didn't really think through, just recalled a friend mentioning they had one that came with an NP205 they bought and weren't sure what the hell to use it for, figured I'd toss the idea out there. It probably is not built to handle enough power to keep the vehicle moving, so not sure it's a very good idea.