Thread: Hybrid series Landrover

"wait until the electric vespa thing is available second hand and give it a go..."

They are on the market now, just bought one

not going to butcher it though. I'm in hippy heaven right now

A couple of points here

the higher the voltage the lower the current that is why most hybrid cars run a voltage of around 400V, so that the cables aren't as thick as your arm.

A/C motors require tricky controllers to change the speed (read expensive)

A DC motor is easier to control the speed but there are more moving parts i.e. brushes, so it wears out faster.

If I had the money - 3 phase 400V 20 hp water proof motor on each corner powered by a diesel running an altenator, controlled by a Variable Frequency Drive and standard wheel spin detectors

Originally Posted by blitz

A couple of points here

If I had the money - 3 phase 400V 20 hp water proof motor on each corner powered by a diesel running an altenator, controlled by a Variable Frequency Drive and standard wheel spin detectors

that will set you back about 30K

Wow, very interesting in deed.

I've got a 88", 1958, series I with an original 2.0 petrol engine. I'm rather a perfectionist and wouldn't want to replace the engine in an original and historical vehicle like mine.

On the other hand I do feel a little adversion with respect to its consumption and oil based fuels in general. Both as a bit of an environmental aware hippie.... and looking at my wallet.

Would it be possible, for this car or for a LWB series II, to just take out the engine and replace it with a second hand hybrid engine of say a Toyota Prius? (Maybe of a crashed car)

Would you then needed to do the same with the transmission?

How flexible are Hybrid engines in fitting it into other models?

Or would you need to change the whole drivetrain etc.? (in which case you might as well take the body of a Series and place it on top of the base of a Prius)

Just some thoughts and questions....

Originally Posted by Hebe

Wow, very interesting in deed.

I've got a 88", 1958, series I with an original 2.0 petrol engine. I'm rather a perfectionist and wouldn't want to replace the engine in an original and historical vehicle like mine.

On the other hand I do feel a little adversion with respect to its consumption and oil based fuels in general. Both as a bit of an environmental aware hippie.... and looking at my wallet.

Would it be possible, for this car or for a LWB series II, to just take out the engine and replace it with a second hand hybrid engine of say a Toyota Prius? (Maybe of a crashed car)

Would you then needed to do the same with the transmission?

How flexible are Hybrid engines in fitting it into other models?

Or would you need to change the whole drivetrain etc.? (in which case you might as well take the body of a Series and place it on top of the base of a Prius)

Just some thoughts and questions....

I'm not a massive fan of the Prius in theory and I wasn't all that impressed in practice either when I got to drive one as my wife's Corolla gets better economy on the same run to work over a week.

The main problem with the Prius is that it seems to be one or the other Hybrid (I like to call it) as in it is either electric or petrol powered even though the electric motor will run to give it overtaking boost.

With an all electric car, your not carrying a petrol/diesel (ICE) engine, don't need a gearbox and you can distribute the weight around the car so it rides nice and balanced.

With a ICE car you have the engine, gearbox, fuel etc but no batteries.

With the Prius, when it is powered by electric it is also dragging the petrol engine and when on petrol it's dragging the batteries and a heavy electric motor so it's robbing peter to pay Paul so to speak, and on top of that, you need to run the engine to charge the cell which again is burning fuel.

The controller from the prius is very complicated from what I have seen but I haven't read much on them so I don't know much there.

There are a couple of other negatives with the prius as far as being fairly non environmentally friendly.

1. The batteries will still be here when man is extinct
2. They use on average as much or more fuel than a comparable sized ICE car.

There are plenty of good systems out there but none are really cheap but most commercial motors are easier to adapt for this sort of thing than purpose built stuff normally.

Forklifts and Golf carts run electric controllers and even some electric ride on mowers do as well so if you buy a second hand one with dead batteries then you will get a controller and charger rather cheap.

Trojan lead acid batteries for a golf cart (48v 30ah cell) costs about $2500 and if used properly will last about 3 to 5 years and in the industry are costed in as fuel as they use about $1.50 of electricity off peak to charge.

There are a hell of a lot more brushless motor coming out on all sorts of things and LiFepo4 cells (which are much easier to recycle than standard Lithium batteries) are getting cheaper and more accessible from China so hopefully so we will see more commercially available options coming into the Aussie market at a reasonable price.

Yep, bugger hybrids. electric only is the way to go.

My vectrix is pretty good. adequate performance, limited range, but an excellent inner city commuter.

there is more and better in the pipe line

i am in love:
TESLA - Model S

Originally Posted by Hebe

Wow, very interesting in deed.

I've got a 88", 1958, series I with an original 2.0 petrol engine. I'm rather a perfectionist and wouldn't want to replace the engine in an original and historical vehicle like mine.

On the other hand I do feel a little adversion with respect to its consumption and oil based fuels in general. Both as a bit of an environmental aware hippie.... and looking at my wallet.

Would it be possible, for this car or for a LWB series II, to just take out the engine and replace it with a second hand hybrid engine of say a Toyota Prius? (Maybe of a crashed car)

Would you then needed to do the same with the transmission?

How flexible are Hybrid engines in fitting it into other models?

Or would you need to change the whole drivetrain etc.? (in which case you might as well take the body of a Series and place it on top of the base of a Prius)

Just some thoughts and questions....

The biggest problem is the Prius is front wheel drive and the 2 engines and the transmission are very well integrated AFAIK.

So you would need to work out how to turn the ICE and electric engines in the Prius from transverse - longitudinal. You would also need to use the prius computer - which managed the batteries and optimises the overall efficiency of the system...

The prius is great under stop-start conditions (i.e. city driving), but outside of that is the same or worse than other equivalent size vehicles. IMHO, a better option would be to use something like a freelander diesel (best option would be the new TD4e diesel - with the stop-start feature).

Originally Posted by Newbs-IIA

You what would be way cooler than a button under the accelerator pedal...

A big red button on the shifter just like Mad Max

I enjoy driving my landrover because it's slow... and anyway - who overtakes in a Series Landy??? The only person I have ever overtaken on the highway was a huge mobile crane

Yes the point is moot for us series drivers because literally everything on the road including fully loaded B doubles are faster, so even with the technology discussed here to overtake,say going up along gradient, you would have to keep it all switched on to prevent the overtaken rig from rounding you up again once the hill flattens out.

And why would the military need an electric LandRover for stealth reasons?
Is that so they can sneak up behind enemy lines to nick their Toyotas?
Wagoo.