Came across this today thought someone may find it interesting.
Step in right direction to lower emissions. This thing is pretty cool.


http://barefootmotors.com/index.html

 

http://www.boeing.com/history/...ages/lunarrover_n.jpg



looks better than the original

 

Haha nice.

 

Interesting idea. I could see the benefits in certain applications, like farm use, but it would really suck to end up with a dead battery on a trail ride 5 miles away from the truck. If you run out of gas you can dump some more in and go. Dead batteries - not such a simple solution unless you run out of power next to an electricity source. (uncommon in the middle of the woods). I'd be curious to see how long the batteries would last in the things.

 

Amper hours/HP never come out on anything like this. Sure, if you want golf cart power and mileage they are fine. If you want sonething like that you might as well get a golf cart. Anything small like an ATV just can't hold enough batteries to get the HP to weight ratio to be worth anything.

"Step in right direction to lower emissions. "
It does not lower emisiones at all unless you recharge it with solar, nuke or hydro power. Last time I checked about 80% of juice comes from one of the most dirtiest forms of energy around.......coal.

 

I'M STILL GONNA WAIT FOR THE ANTI GRAVITY HOVERCRAFTS

 

"It does not lower emisiones at all unless you recharge it with solar, nuke or hydro power. Last time I checked about 80% of juice comes from one of the most dirtiest forms of energy around.......coal."

Actually its around 50% to 60% coal produced and with wind farms on the rise such as the one announced in Texas ( http://www.gizmag.com/wind-power-blows-into-texas/8305/ ) that will continue to drop.

Most environmentalist agree that with the technology going into todays electric vehicles, even when charged from coal produced electricity it requires less greenhouse gases than would be produced from C02 emitting engines.

 

solar power...yea those panels grow on trees ...lol

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Doctorturbo

It does not lower emisiones at all unless you recharge it with solar, nuke or hydro power. Last time I checked about 80% of juice comes from one of the most dirtiest forms of energy around.......coal.</end quote></div>


The difference is in efficiency. Electrical power generators have spent a lot of money to grab every Joule of energy they can out of that burning fuel (coal or other fossil fuels). Modern fuel burning generating plants are operating in the low 80% effiecieny regime, hydro power is closer to 90% (including average copper losses to the user). Currently available electric drives can be as high as 98% efficient, combined with the electric generation efficiencies, that still comes to 80% or so. Our quad's engine, or any internal combustoin engine, is lucky to be near 20% efficient, normally lower. So electrically operated vehicles are typically at least 4 times more energy efficient as are internal combustion operated vehicles.

That said, until battery technology reaches the point where you can store nearly the same energy per unit weight/volume in a battery or a super-capacitor as you can in a gallon of gas, electric vehicles will always be burdened by high battery weight or short range between charges. The technology required to even out the field is a long way off.

 

Damn tree huggers.

If you're going to bend my ear about emissions then start talking about where the vast majority of emissions are coming from and not the tiny percentage emitted from atvs and motorcycles that get more mpg than most cars and by EPA estimates only use around 60 gallons of fuel per machine per year.