Hi there...Just wondering if alt fuel kits will someday be availble for our RV's? Can you imagine getting 20 mpg? Maybe even electric conversion? Solar? Could any of this be a reality??
The Green Machine
2000 Tioga SL 31ft
4 Beautiful Children
Dog De Bordeaux(Hercules)
Sorry, but 20 mpg is child's play.... just get used to a smaller vehicle with hi-$ lighter materials, driven slower. Or get an old-generation I-5 Sprinter, pay more per gallon for fuel, and pollute more.
Solar or electric? Pie in the sky. There's no known or imagined solar tech with high enough conversion efficiency to drive a 6 ton vehicle. Electric, no matter how hi-tech, takes batteries (heavy) and recharging... ie, a power generation plant... suitable for reducing pollution in cities and increasing it elsewhere, and limited in range.
Jim, "Mo' coffee!"
'06 Tiger CX 'C Minus' on a Silverado 2500HD 4x4, 8.1 & Allison ('Loafer's Glory'); '07 Forester 2.5 ( the 'HANDBSKT'); '95 Toyota SR5 V-6 4x4 pickup, ARB locker, Bilsteins, Warn hubs & M8000, etc;
'94 968, M030 swaybars ('DOPPLER')
I've occasionally lurked on a British motorhome forum - their motorhomes are usually on a Fiat, Peugeot or other chassis with diesel engines that are 2.5L or less. They are saying they're getting over 20 mpg. But their rigs are tiny by our standards, and it sounds like they're really grunting going up hills.
They cope with their conditions and what they have.....
Dave
Camping crew includes me, DW, a Boston Terrier, and two Beagles
I'm going to go the nuclear route....see if I can find a scrapped submarine, and then swap the engine out with my V-10. Of course, the glow that we'll be experiencing, may annoy other campers, which could be a problem, but hey, I'll be getting an unlimited number of miles between fill-ups!
I'm not sure about the restrictions for going through tunnels and such, but I'd guess it's got to be on par with the LP restrictions And I guess I'd be on every Homeland Security Checklist
Has anyone else made this conversion? I'm looking for plans and pictures What's the going price for Plutonium? How does it compare to gas and diesel?? Maybe it's not worth the $3-5 Billion (with a B) conversion
Regarding the solar and electric......that may work on a small 2-3000 pound vehicle, but just figure how much will be needed to move a vehicle 10 times that heavy.....the shocks/springs/suspension wouldn't be able to handle it.....or you would be the only person in the RV, and it would have to be gutted (no frig., toilet, holding tanks, etc), which kind of defeats the whole purpose of an RV!
What I do, to get 20 mpg in my 30' Class C.................only schedule trips that go down hill, and put the engine in neutral as you coast down the hill. I have to admit, we're having trouble with the trip planning....I have been able to find some great hills, but most are on the other side of these big mountains, which eat up all the gas when we try to get to the top. We're hoping we can find a better trip!!
Anyone figured that out yet
Bill, Claudia, and the Paps
DH Bill / DW Claudia / DD Jenn / DS Chris The Paps! Sophie, Abby, Brandy, Kahlie and Annie
2000 Winnebago "Minnie" 31C, Ford V-10
Purchased April Fools Day, 2008 The Pets
Ford has been experimenting with hydrogen-powered E450's for some time. Whether this kind of technology ever sees the light of day for the general public is certainly questionable, but it's good to see R&D in this area.
* This post was
edited 05/05/08 10:39am by Scrib *
I have barely spent any money on gas for my old Tioga!
Hey, when it's riding along on the back of a flatbed (apparently it's favorite place to be), it doesn't cost me a dime for gas!
What I don't understand is why so many rigs have on board generators, yet nobody uses them to have supplemental power to their internal combustion engines...
If you could find out how Tesla's use their batteries, a MH seems like an ideal situation to use electrics for power!
"There's no known or imagined solar tech with high enough conversion efficiency to drive a 6 ton vehicle. Electric, no matter how hi-tech, takes batteries (heavy) and recharging... ie, a power generation plant... suitable for reducing pollution in cities and increasing it elsewhere, and limited in range."
I'm not so sure this is true.
Vehicle science and engineering may be able to achieve hybrid (or some other energy system) scaling such that an RV that weighs 5 times as much as a Toyota Prius may get mileage 1/5 that of the Prius.
I'll take that!
(Ooooops ..... maybe we're already there. I guestimate that my V10 powered Class C weighs "about" 5 times more than a Prius, but in fact does get "about" 1/5 of the Prius's mileage. Doesn't my ~10 mpg average equal ~1/5 of what the Prius averages?)
Regarding the solar and electric......that may work on a small 2-3000 pound vehicle, but just figure how much will be needed to move a vehicle 10 times that heavy.....
There is too much inside the box thinking on this thread. Electric drive vehicles that are incredibly larger than your motorohome have been done since the 1930's. Here is a recent vintage offering:
You see them so often you tend to forget about them. Look at the tow rating on that thing! Railroads claim they will tow a ton 400 miles on a gallon of fuel. Your ten ton MH would need 10 gallons of fuel for that distance or 40 mpg. Of course part of that efficiency comes from the low friction of steel wheels on steel rails but surely not all of it.
There must be obstacles in the way otherwise it would have been done before. But what are the obstacles? Are they technical or are they lack of creativity, low fuel prices, unwillingness to finance a new way of making over the road vehicles, and other human objections?
We may be reaching the limit of what traditional drive systems can do but I would not be so quick to assert that the future holds nothing for us until "Mr Fusion" becomes a reality. If you told me back in 1974 when I was driving my last model year before catalytic converter Plymouth Satellite that in 30 years I be driving cars that were more powerful, quicker, much less polluting, and got 30 mph I'd have said dream on, sucker. Well,I have my pick of them today. Federal efficiency and pollution laws have done wonders for the state of passenger car powertrain design. Those same laws largely exclude vehicles the size of motorhomes from their requirements. Some of the technology has trickled over but there is no particular reason to think that 20 mpg is impossible in a 7 ton MH if enough effort were applied to the task.
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And I guess I'd be on every Homeland Security Checklist 
What's the going price for Plutonium? How does it compare to gas and diesel
?? Maybe it's not worth the $3-5 Billion (with a B) conversion 
I have to admit, we're having trouble with the trip planning....I have been able to find some great hills, but most are on the other side of these big mountains, which eat up all the gas when we try to get to the top. 
We're hoping we can find a better trip!!
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