Hooky-Bob and use (L)ow to recharge your Volt - no brake lights :)

[scottf200]

*** NOTE: this thread is to lighten the mood on the recent topics ***

These guys 'hooky-bobbed' a truck and charged their Leaf. Imagine the range you could get in your Volt on 1 plug in charge - drive 40 miles then hook up to a truck and get pulled while in (L)ow to charge the battery back up to full. Unhook and go another 40.

Hooky-Bobbing: Hooking or grasping on to the rear bumper of a car or truck when the road is covered in snow and ice. The motorist often doesn't know the youth is squatted down behind the car hanging on to the rear bumper. The 'Hooky-Bobber' gets a free and dangerous ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sujv90PLLY

Uploaded by Leafplan on May 24, 2011
When you talk about electric cars the first thing people are concerned with is the range and how to get the batteries charged when you run out of power. So Leafplan set out to find a new way of charging a Nissan Leaf: by towing it behind another car and braking to charge the car.

The Nissan Leaf has brake regeneration which means it charges itself during braking. So in theory you can charge the car by braking while you are being towed. However, the Nissan Leaf manual states you 'shouldn't tow an electric car with four wheels on the ground'. The Nissan dealer was a bit sketchy about why that was so we set out to prove the theory and made this video.

As you can see in the video it really does work!

[Raymondjram]

I am thinking about the amount of gasoline wasted by the truck carrying its weight plus the load of a Nissan Leaf applying its brakes while in tow. That is a real waste of energy, and a lot of CO2 (that the Nissan was supposed to avoid) was dumped into our atmosphere by this type of charging. A better solution was to carry a very small gas generator in the trunk, park the Nissan and change it slowly. If the gas generator was on a small trailer, then the Nissan could change while running and extend its range.

That is what the Volt does with its inboard engine generator!

Raymond

[scottf200]

Of course ... I think this was all done in jest and as an experiment.

[Mike-o-Matic]

Absolutely not efficient... but lots of fun anyway

[silvercorvette]

About a year or two ago I mentioned that a good home made option for leaf owners would be to get a 3,000 watt HONDAgenerator for under $2,000 ($2,300 list). At 134 pounds it is light enough to mount on a bike rack. It is quite and will run 7.2 hours on a 3.4 gallon tank.

I am guessing it won't have the capacity to run the car at a steady 65 MPH but will increase the range and if you get off the interstate and drive on a road with stop and go traffic the generator will try to catch up when you are stopped off in traffic and if you stop for a meal or pee brake the generator will try to catch up while you a making a rest stop.

It isn't a very good idea today but at the time I mentioned itI thought it could be a long time before the Volt would b available nation wide.

Getting a getting a leaf with a Rube Goldberg (I wonder how many people are old enough to remember Rube Goldberg?) setup was never something i would consider because I was prepared to drive my truck until I was able to get a Volt

The link below is for the young folks that may have never heard of rube

CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE OF ONE OF RUBE'S INVENTIONS