After seeing the recent crop of hybrids on the market I've really started thinking about the advantages, especially with gas prices. I would really like to be able to afford to drive, so hybrid might be an option, however there are two problems:

 

1. I like awd, i have to ski

 

2. I try to keep my car purchases under $1000

 

Obviously this doesn't work out, so has anyone retrofitted a subaru to be a hybrid? I'm sure it can be done, the question is how cheap and how well. Thoughts?

Would probably take 5-10 years to recoup the money you spent for the conversion, in gas savings. There has been talk of people doing hybrid projects with their justy's but I never saw anything streetable.

 

-Brian

You'd go broke buying car batteries, and hybrid car bodies are designed to be lighter to make up for the excess weight of the batteries. I don't think it would give you a successful level of efficiency. Good thought though.

i heard that toyota and soob are gonna team up on some hybrid powertrains..i think it was in a road and track mag. my dad had..

i heard that toyota and soob are gonna team up on some hybrid powertrains..i think it was in a road and track mag. my dad had..

From what I understand, Toyota is giving Subaru hybred technology in return for AWD technology.

You'd go broke buying car batteries, and hybrid car bodies are designed to be lighter to make up for the excess weight of the batteries. I don't think it would give you a successful level of efficiency. Good thought though.

 

Correct. And even with a lightened body, a hybrid is still a long term investment if you expect to see any noticeable returns.

Correct. And even with a lightened body, a hybrid is still a long term investment if you expect to see any noticeable returns.

 

And ... if you are a predominately highway, as opposed to stop & go city driver, you'll NEVR see any advantage.

actually if you make a true hybrid then you'll get 100-200mpg

 

the "hybrids" that are out now are more like dual-drivetrain (gas and electric) rather than hybrid

 

to make a true hybrid then you'd need the entire drivetrain to be electric with a gas generator on board

 

hope that helps, and it should be able to recoup your investment sooner, also most people buy hybrids to relieve their own dependance on oil rather than save money

30mpg from a regular 4x4 ea81/2 should suit you fine. you will be able to do some killer apres ski donuts in the parking lot too.

After seeing the recent crop of hybrids on the market I've really started thinking about the advantages, especially with gas prices. I would really like to be able to afford to drive, so hybrid might be an option, however there are two problems:

 

1. I like awd, i have to ski

 

2. I try to keep my car purchases under $1000

 

Obviously this doesn't work out, so has anyone retrofitted a subaru to be a hybrid? I'm sure it can be done, the question is how cheap and how well. Thoughts?

there's one out here (justy sized car) thats electric. 80s subaru sherpa with a jet starter motor running at 72v - has a 200km run between charges and runs 110km at full speed. I have a spare shell and thought of a similar idea

the engine I would like to make would take the heat generated from a Internal combustion engine and make steam from it and run a secondary steam engine , thus utilizing the energy from the combustion and from the heat given off

 

a steam / desil hybred

I meant a littler simple version of a hybrid i guess. In town a regenerative braking system would improve efficiency, but the components and control system would be expensive and complicated to do. I was actually thinking of an electric hybrid system for highway crusing. A hybrid that has an electric motor and a gas generator works because once a car is at speed it takes a lot less power to keep it going. So what if on the highway the engine switched to powering a generator and an electric motor powered the car?

so the gas motor would only be for the generator? if so that's the most efficient way to do it

 

you plan on having four electric motors or two?

the engine I would like to make would take the heat generated from a Internal combustion engine and make steam from it and run a secondary steam engine , thus utilizing the energy from the combustion and from the heat given off

 

a steam / desil hybred

Bruce Crower's 6 stroke engine

 

An interesting read if you haven't run across it before.

so the gas motor would only be for the generator? if so that's the most efficient way to do it

 

you plan on having four electric motors or two?

 

well, my thinking was that the gasoline engine would provide all power for acceleration by keeping a fairly stock drivetrain, while the electric motors would take over at cruise speeds. At cruise the engine would be disengaged from the wheels and act as a generator to power the electrics. as far as how the electric motors link into the system i'm not sure how to do that yet.

huh, I thought it was the opposite; electrics are used for torque from a stop.

personally I think that in the real world trying to adapt a gas/electric hybrid system to a $1000 car in order to save money on gas on a car that probably already gets 30mpg makes NO sense whatsoever.

plus, don't you want something you have faith in when its icy, 15 degrees, pitch black and youre up in the mountains?

 

I agree it would be cool to see if it could be done and all, but would be too experimental to take skiing. but prove me wrong!!! that would be awesome.