Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 04:01:23 -0700
Reply-To: Tom Forhan <fourwdvw@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Forhan <fourwdvw@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: This just HAS to be a new question...
In-Reply-To: <789991.5042.qm@web37311.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Sorry, this is not a new question, I'm surprised your
search did not turn this up.
Essentially, you take a syncro vanagon, disconnect
the driveshaft, and then install an electric motor
system to drive the front wheels. Front electric plus
rear gas powered=hybrid.
--- Kyle Davis <davis_family_46168@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> From personal experience (and list lurking and
> ebay hunting) powerplant transplants are pretty
> common
> in the vanagons... A majority of them are well
> documented 2.1 in a 1.9, air cooled to water, diesel
> to gas, vw to suby, vw to porsche, vw to tiico, gas
> to
> tdi, etc.
>
> I also remember reading about an electric bus
> (not vanagon) so I can presume gas>electric.
>
> This brings me to my next question. Did
> anybody
> ever consider going halfsies with that last one, ala
> Toyota Prius or Honda Insight style?
>
> The most bizarre conversion I've heard of was
> VW
> to Ford 2.8 liter v6 (somewhere, Ben Pon must be in
> shock, or rolling over in his grave.)
>
> I would dearly love to tell the oil industry
> what
> to do with high gas prices and convert the westy
> into
> total electric, but a few things hold me back.
>
> 1.) Practicality. The westy is basically a
> fully-laden with camping gear bus. An electric
> motor,
> no matter how many batteries feed it, just may not
> be
> able to do much with that.
>
> 2.) Cost.
>
> 3.) Safety. Excessive electricity around lpg
> may be an inherently Bad Idea TM.
>
> 4.) Getting back to 1, it gets reasonably cold
> here in the midwest, and my research of pure
> electric
> cars mentioned using hair dryers as heaters.
>
> So, how feasible would it be to meet in the
> middle? And, I'm not necessarily saying bolt on a
> prius or an insight, or even a ford escape hybrid
> engine into this solution, or suggest that that
> would
> even work. I guess I am just wondering if anybody
> has
> tried this, and, if so what measure of success or
> failure they were able to obtain...
>
> Kyle
>
>
>
>
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