electric/series hybrid electric cars & Pickups

[mercury bobcat]

Since I am just about as ignorant as one can be concerning the use of this media,I decided to put forth my favorite subject.After 38 years I am finally able to build a series hybrid pickup truck.Of course there probably aren't all of you interested in the topic,but I would appreciate you sharing your experiences and advise on the subject. I have a 1996 CHevy s-10 for the project. A Jack &Heinz g-29-06 will drive the rear wheels of which is two wheel drive.A FoMoCo generator will be recharging the batteries during operation via a small gas engine.Five speed tranny. I have made an adapter plate out of the original engine block which has a degree of machining done to it.I am planning for the time being a clutchless coupling as it is going to take more planning to put in a clutch.I do have an engineer and a state of the art machine shop at hand right now,but maybe somebody has some great advise for beyond where I am now.With any luck maybe I can get somehow back here and view the responses. Many thanks.

[MosaicFuneral]

Hybrid pickups?! Then what am I going to do with my twin turbo, 440, three speed, dual-quad barrel; that I feed a dangerous mix of toluene, methanol, crude, antifreeze, broken Sharpies, WD-40, and stolen buckets of kerosene and acetone(that I mix with peroxide)?

[WASDted]

okay, you guys are hard-core, holy crap Mosaic! ;)

[mercury bobcat]

still waiting

[GrimJack]

I do not know the details but it seems that many of the newer electrics are using capacitors in place of batteries:
1) batteries are to heavy and using chemical reactions to store energy has too many losses
2) the new ceramics/insulators/superconductors make capacitors way more effective.

Take a look here for small scale work.

[Agilemind]

? I don't understand the point of making a vehicle electric if your going to have a gas engine charging the batteries -> will it also be plug in? is the engine super efficient? do you have what ever it is that recaptures the energy when braking? That is where the energy savings are.

Also Its only a few thousand dollars to get a vehicle switched to electric by professionals so I doubt this will actually save you any money.

The biggest cost is the batteries if you want a pickup truck that goes a decent distance on battery you're looking at lithium ion batteries which are very expensive.

You also need to check your small gas engine generates enough electricity to keep you going if your looking at a pickup size vehicle -> remember to account for the weight of anything you'll have in the back in these calculations.

[mercury bobcat]

A gasoline engine is much more efficient when it is held to nearly the same speed all the time and is doing as little work as it can.Some of my co workers try to do that.You buy everything from government surplus houses so you pay minimally.That aircraft starter-generator I have puts out over 300 foot pounds of torque.I knew the cheapest human being who ever lived for 29 1/2 years and so I picked up almost immesurable wealth of knowledge from him. Wall Mart makes a kick ass battery.Plugging it in after use is stil more cost efficiant even though the local electric rates are the highest in the country...