Conversion: Anyone know of a green conversion?

[Hebe]

Conversion: Anyone know of a S2 Hybrid conversion?

Could we use a Prius engine, or the soon to come

Land Rover Range_e plug-in hybrid flaunts 85mpg, Prius-level emissions | Crave | CNET UK
http://www.landrover.com/au/en/lr/ab...diesel-hybrid/

Any other green alternatives?

[Slunnie]

Just an efficient diesel engine at this stage.

After a cradle to the grave analysis, the hybrids are not so green. Charging is also done by a coal powered generator.

[bee utey]

A tin of green paint is quite effective, in the business its known as "greenwashing".

Seroiusly, the greenest thing to do with a series is to not use it except for a few perfect weekends every year. Most of the efficiency gains of hybrids come from areodynamics, low friction tyres and minature footprints. On a series? A 200TDi conversion is about as good as a series will get.

[Barefoot Dave]

G'Day Hebe.
Any conversion is possible, how deep are your pockets and how long is your patience?!
Engineers creedo: Quick, Cheap or good: Pick two!

Seriously though, there a any number of tutorials available on the web and in print (Silicon chip Vol22- no6 June 09 Aust road reg ute with 3 phase motor)
Malcolm Faed's Blog and here Malcolm Faed's 1993 Toyota Hilux / Tacoma
Also Tuarn Brown's 1982 Suzuki Sierra SJ40

Around $K15 would do an all electric conversion OR....................

Why not go a 10-12 KVA diesel genset running on WVO?!? probably do it at half the price.
Cheers, Dave.

[SlowRide]

Electric Series:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSV_46y6ufs]LR Challenge part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOpKNOa9D-M&feature=related]LR Challenge part 2 - YouTube[/ame]

[Tim Jones]

My series three has a daihatsu 2.8 on veggie oil, 9 k`s to the litre. Every trip costs about $1.50 to warm up and purge on mineral diesel.....no matter if I drive 2 k`s or 2000k`s I`m reckoning the lifetime footprint of a landrover is great thats why I`ve got one....Though the amount of gearbox oil spread around the countryside is a bit of a worry

[gromit]

I'd have to question how much greener can you get than a vehicle that can be repaired and kept on the road indefinitely. Especially if it's powered by a small diesel, ideally turbocharged.
Most 'green' solutions are not really that environmentally friendly.

Electric - power stations currently not particularly green. People seem to forget to pollution from power stations because it's not near where they live....
Hybrid - uses petrol but is very economical. Problem is the batteries and potential recycling issues, plus people want to change the vehicles as often as their 'smart' phones so they have a very finite life. Short lifetime so not very environmentally friendly.
As an aside, I remember when they launched the Prius that they had no way of recycling the batteries plus the cost of replacement batteries was very high ($10K ish). So as the car approaches 6-8 years old the secondhand value would start to rapidly drop.

Most current 'green' vehicles are just economical in the energy used to operate, they don't factor in the production cost, recycling cost and the very short life of modern vehicles.
I'm sure I remember a 'dust-to-dust' comparison when the Prius was launched and someone claimed that the Hummer was more environmentally friendly (mind you this was in the US and they factored in the fuel used shipping the Prius to the US).

A Series 2 is already 'green'. Maybe install a 200Tdi or 300Tdi motor (or a diesel from another manufacturer) and run it on on veggie oil.



Colin

[Sitec]

Just doing a Tdi build on SWIMBO's SWB Ser 2 now. That is the cheapest usable way of doing it IMO. Plan to run it on veg oil once up and running...