Is There an Electric Toad in Your Future?

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By Bob Difley
How close are we to an electric vehicle? A bit far, I suspect, for motorhomes or trucks powerful enough to pull trailers and fivers, but maybe not as far for a toad. GM has pulled out all the stops for the Volt PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) due out in the spring of 2009. Read more

Lowering Fuel Costs in your RV

An SUV that can get 32 mpg? Yep, the new Saturn Vue Hybrid can. Hybrid technology is advancing rapidly and with each new vehicle released they only get more efficient.

If you’re looking for a dinghy vehicle that can get you, 4 passengers, and your stuff where you want to go, this is your vehicle. All 2008 Saturn VUE models can be dinghy towed from the front with all four wheels on the ground. Saturn is known for its tow friendly vehicles already so their designers knew what to consider when creating this next generation.

And if you have a towable, you CAN pull a pop-up camper, have a place to carry all of your gear, AND get decent gas mileage. The Vue Hybrid pulls a maximum trailer weight of 1,500 lbs

I had the opportunity to test the new Vue and see how well it performed.

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Rusty Toyotas and More Good Chassis Talk

I was down to the diner for lunch with Jeff the other day and as always there was talk around the counter. Seems that one of the regulars had just had his old Toyota Tacoma pick up truck bought back by the dealer. It would appear that Toyota is having a severe rust problem with the Tacoma pick up line.

Along with this they were saying that Toyota had increased its rust through warranty from ten to 15 years. Remember that any rust warranty by any company only covers rust that has made a hole in the metal.

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The End of Petroleum

Everyday you read about biofuels, biodiesel, and ethanol. And in the same paragraph you see strange acronyms like HEV, PHEV, FFV, EV, and FCV. What is all the buzz about and how does it affect us RVers?

All the buzz is about decreasing out gluttony for increasingly expensive oil, avoiding the political uncertainty of dependence on foreign oil, and cleaning up our air. There are millions of R & D and Venture Capital $$ now being plowed into developing substitutes for vehicles operated by petroleum-based fuels, and mega fortunes will be made for whatever becomes the next big thing–whether it be corn or switchgrass-based ethanol, super batteries, or cooking oil, palm trees, or whipped cream.

Let’s look first at vehicle types. HEVs, or hybrid electric vehicles, have a gasoline engine and electric motor and most of us understand the concept behind the HEV standard bearer, the Toyota Prius. EVs are purely electric vehicles, with no liquid fuel, just batteries, and have the shortest running distance before having to be recharged by plugging into an electrical outlet. A PHEV, or Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, is much like a combination of the HEV and EV, you can run on batteries or the gas engine, then plug it in at night to recharge the batteries. FFVs are flex fuel vehicles that can run their gasoline engine on a variety of fuels, including E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. FCVs are hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that are still a few years off, mainly because of the need for an infrastructure of fueling stations. All rest are being sold now, as well as diesel vehicles that can fun on various types of oil, not just petroleum-based diesel.

What these vehicles represent is the future of transportation, not just in America, but the world.

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