FishingFan wrote: It's completely rational for me. I just had to do the math. I have one of their Twin Turbo LS1 Cars with a Mendeola S4D Transmission. I go through a 55 gallon drum of fuel each day I'm on vacation which cost me $450 per drum or $1,800 for a 4 day vacation. I get approx. 3.2 hours on 20 gallons. The car only cost $10,000 more than the gas version. That means on my 6th vacation, I've paid for the extra. Now, i can plug it into my generator and in 1 hours it's charged to 85% capacity. All i have to do is eat lunch and it's ready to go. Or it takes 3 hours for a full charge. They used 3 gallons for the full charge on their 6000 watt Onan generator. 3 gallons at $4.00 is $12.00 for total fuel spent. Twice a day is $24.00 worse case. 200 miles is the ultimate in mileage however, even with the full day of test driving we did, we still got 118 miles on a charge. For me it's a no brainer. AS far as issues with Xtreme, I'm on my 4th car from them and they've never been late and I've never had an issue. I've met a dozen or so of their customer's and they've never had issues either. It's easy for trash to spread when a mistake is made however, the good news seldom gets reported. Bottom line for me, it was a 1 hour decision. Also the batteries are lithium ion batteries and are warrantied for 5 years and will take over 6500 completely recharges. For me that's 135 years of trips! This isn't your back yard home built electric system. This is the same technology that is in the new Tesla electric vehicle. Google Tesla Motorsports and see what they are doing.
The math does not make sense to me. Your saying your current sand car and the electric are going to have the same power and that it only takes your generator 3 hours to fully charge it or 3 gal. Gas only has so much energy per gram, you cant change that, you at best get the same performance of the generator condensed for a very short period of time factoring in a perfectly efficient system. It does not add up. It does not matter how advanced the electric technology is, you get the same energy from the gas regardless of which motor gets you up the hill. If you have a nuclear generator then we are talking.
Also, every year I spend $4,500 in transaxle repairs and/or freshening it up.
Should have bought a Fortin.... Sorry, had to.
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If you think electric cars don't have get up and go, you need to check out this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G32E4li3xHI&feature=related
and this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXqYbNEiW0Y&feature=related
FishingFan wrote: It's completely rational for me. I just had to do the math. I have one of their Twin Turbo LS1 Cars with a Mendeola S4D Transmission. I go through a 55 gallon drum of fuel each day I'm on vacation which cost me $450 per drum or $1,800 for a 4 day vacation. I get approx. 3.2 hours on 20 gallons. The car only cost $10,000 more than the gas version. That means on my 6th vacation, I've paid for the extra. Now, i can plug it into my generator and in 1 hours it's charged to 85% capacity. All i have to do is eat lunch and it's ready to go. Or it takes 3 hours for a full charge. They used 3 gallons for the full charge on their 6000 watt Onan generator. 3 gallons at $4.00 is $12.00 for total fuel spent. Twice a day is $24.00 worse case. 200 miles is the ultimate in mileage however, even with the full day of test driving we did, we still got 118 miles on a charge. For me it's a no brainer. AS far as issues with Xtreme, I'm on my 4th car from them and they've never been late and I've never had an issue. I've met a dozen or so of their customer's and they've never had issues either. It's easy for trash to spread when a mistake is made however, the good news seldom gets reported. Bottom line for me, it was a 1 hour decision. Also the batteries are lithium ion batteries and are warrantied for 5 years and will take over 6500 completely recharges. For me that's 135 years of trips! This isn't your back yard home built electric system. This is the same technology that is in the new Tesla electric vehicle. Google Tesla Motorsports and see what they are doing.
The math does not make sense to me. Your saying your current sand car and the electric are going to have the same power and that it only takes your generator 3 hours to fully charge it or 3 gal. Gas only has so much energy per gram, you cant change that, you at best get the same performance of the generator condensed for a very short period of time factoring in a perfectly efficient system. It does not add up. It does not matter how advanced the electric technology is, you get the same energy from the gas regardless of which motor gets you up the hill. If you have a nuclear generator then we are talking.
Also, every year I spend $4,500 in transaxle repairs and/or freshening it up.
Should have bought a Fortin.... Sorry, had to.
My previous car had a Fortin and i liked it but still put $3,000 per year in it for upkeep. I've had them all. Mendeola, Fortin, AGB. AGB i like the best but at $22,000 it's up there. With the new electric car i've solved that issue for good.
* This post was
edited 05/07/08 12:53pm by FishingFan *
I completely understand the money difference. But since gas has so much energy per gallon, and your generator is no more efficient than your sand car especially not 10 times more efficient, you cannot even in a perfect system get the same Horsepower from the electric engine as the gas and use 10 times less fuel.
You're being too literal.
There's a lot of coversions going on that sort of makes things confusing.
Burning 3 gallons of fuel in a generator to charge your car doesn't mean that you put 3 gallons worth of energy into the car. (It should, in fact, be less, but the generator is already running, so the additional load on it is just incremental amounts of extra fuel).
Fuel/gasoline is just an energy carrier. Burning it in an engine is, at best, about 20% efficient...the rest of the gasoline's energy content is given off as heat through the exhaust, friction and cooling system.
So if you burn 100 gallons of gasoline in a weekend to drive a sand car, 80 gallons of that is given off as heat, and just 20 gallons are used to propel the car.
Electric motors are highly efficient. So it takes less energy (don't think in terms of gallons, thing total energy) to drive that sand car in the dunes.
I don't know if the electric sand car has regenerative braking, but if so, then you're basically "making" fuel when you're decelerating, which further increases the efficiency.
derwud wrote: Sorry, but Xtreme is the Last company I would buy from...
OK...
That's the great thing about America. If you don't like someone, don't buy from them. I don't like Cabelas because i think Bass Pro shops is better. I don't like Cingular because i think Sprint is better. However, I'm not going to waste my energy arguing about the difference. Make your own choices based on your own experience and go down the road. Let everyone else make their own decision and let life be what it is.
In the mean time, I'll save the money and run circles around the guys with gas guzzling sandcars while you guys discuss whether or not $1800 is more than $120.
Go and ask some of the guys over on GD.com about the Sand Cars they bought from Alan at Xtreme and what happen to them and I think you might change your mind as well... But hey that is what is great about America, a sucker is born every minute....
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I completely understand the money difference. But since gas has so much energy per gallon, and your generator is no more efficient than your sand car especially not 10 times more efficient, you cannot even in a perfect system get the same Horsepower from the electric engine as the gas and use 10 times less fuel.
You're being too literal.
There's a lot of coversions going on that sort of makes things confusing.
Burning 3 gallons of fuel in a generator to charge your car doesn't mean that you put 3 gallons worth of energy into the car. (It should, in fact, be less, but the generator is already running, so the additional load on it is just incremental amounts of extra fuel).
Fuel/gasoline is just an energy carrier. Burning it in an engine is, at best, about 20% efficient...the rest of the gasoline's energy content is given off as heat through the exhaust, friction and cooling system.
So if you burn 100 gallons of gasoline in a weekend to drive a sand car, 80 gallons of that is given off as heat, and just 20 gallons are used to propel the car.
Electric motors are highly efficient. So it takes less energy (don't think in terms of gallons, thing total energy) to drive that sand car in the dunes.
I don't know if the electric sand car has regenerative braking, but if so, then you're basically "making" fuel when you're decelerating, which further increases the efficiency.
heh This car is a waste of money! doesn't make any sense to run your generator to charge your "green sand car" you will be running your generator 4 hours to ride the buggy for 1 hour. LOL
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derwud wrote: Sorry, but Xtreme is the Last company I would buy from...
OK...
That's the great thing about America. If you don't like someone, don't buy from them. I don't like Cabelas because i think Bass Pro shops is better. I don't like Cingular because i think Sprint is better. However, I'm not going to waste my energy arguing about the difference. Make your own choices based on your own experience and go down the road. Let everyone else make their own decision and let life be what it is.
In the mean time, I'll save the money and run circles around the guys with gas guzzling sandcars while you guys discuss whether or not $1800 is more than $120.
Go and ask some of the guys over on GD.com about the Sand Cars they bought from Alan at Xtreme and what happen to them and I think you might change your mind as well... But hey that is what is great about America, a sucker is born every minute....
The sucker is the guy who bases his decisions on what someone else's opinion is rather than being an adult and making his own decision. Haven't you heard the old phrase about opinions. I NEVER make a decision on what someone else's complaint or preferences are. People are too opinionated in this world to begin with and when you rely on someone else to make a decision for you, your screwed from the start good or bad ending. Also, this will be my 5th car with them and I've had great success so based on personal and actual experience, I'm in for the $105,000 and didn't think twice about handing them a check.
I didn't get on here to promote one company over another but in reality started this because i answered someone's question about the price and performance of the car I'm buying. PLEASE don't make a decision on what i say, be a grown up and make your own decision. They are not open to the public so you'll have to email them and schedule a test drive to see for yourself.
y0manda wrote: heh This car is a waste of money! doesn't make any sense to run your generator to charge your "green sand car" you will be running your generator 4 hours to ride the buggy for 1 hour. LOL
You need to go back and read the entire forum. You missed the boat completely. I'm not running my generator once second longer than i normally run it.
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