Jump in Wind Powered Electricity

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information!

RV.Net Blog Admin

By Bob Difley
Some good news on the alternative energy scene. The American Wind Energy Association announced yesterday (Wednesday) that the US added enough wind produced energy in the second quarter of 2008 to power 400,000 homes–nearly 1,400 megawatts. They also announced that wind turbines will produce this year about 7,500 megawatts of additional electricity, up from 5,249 megawatts installed in 2007–a 43% increase!
Wind power produced more than one-third of the new electric generating capacity installed in the US in 2007, and predictions are that it will continue to grow at this pace. And if Boone Pickens energy plan works out, it will push that total even higher.
This year alone in the US, eight wind turbine component manufacturing facilities opened, nine were expanded, and 19 new facilities were announced. Now if we can get the new congress to extend investment tax credits from the one year given to the wind energy sector to the eight years enjoyed by the solar industry, as well as establishing a new federal renewable energy standard, we might see even more clean energy supplied to the grid. New wind-produced, clean energy will be an important factor as more and more electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (many of which will be towed behind RVs) come on the market and are being charged overnight at home and at campgrounds from grid power.

What Heck is Bump Steer and Other Facts Of Life

Robbie brought up this subject reminding me not to forget to tell you about bump steer. Well bump steer has a lot to do with the handling of your rig, it’s alignment, and is not adjustable. Bump steer is found on any axle on a rig that is a solid axle, that is both wheels are connected to a solid piece of steel running from one side of the rig to the other. Bump steer does not effect independent suspension. Bump steer cannot be corrected with add on steering stabilizers. They can help in the after effects of bump steer to a point. 

Bump steer is caused when one wheel of an axle, say the right front, goes over a bump. The left front wheel in this case stays on smooth ground. The axle rises on the right side tilting the axle so that it is no longer parallel with the ground. This makes the imaginary center line of the axle tilt down and at a point out to the left of the vehicle intersect the ground. Now comes the ice cream cone effect as the rig will tend to steer around that imaginary point causing the front of the rig to steer left. 

Now you the driver feel the left swing and correct the steering wheel to the right, but just about that time the wheel is now coming down off the bump. The net effect is a slight overcorrection. In an independent front suspension each wheel is free to negotiate bumps without effect to the other wheel. 

Now, just when you think you have the rig straighted out the rear end hits the bump, but this time as the right rear goes over the bump the action of the right wheel rising and the left staying on smooth terrafirma causes the same ice cream cone effect but the rear of the rig swings to the left causing the nose to point to the right. Now steering correction is needed and the process starts all over again. Smaller diameter wheels and tires will react more to bump steer than larger tires. The reason is that that imaginary center line is higher off the ground and the tip of the ice cream cone will be further away from the rig creating a larger radius and less swing. 

Bump steer will be more noticable when the shocks are weak as the rig tends to bounce more. And speaking of shocks, I consider them more of a safety item than a comfort item. The purpose of the shock is to stop rebound oscillation of the springs and keep the tires in contact with the ground on rough roads. But we will cover more on shocks in a future blog.

Now, a word on toe in and toe out. When going down a road straight the ideal is to have both front wheels rolling down the pavement parrallel to each other. In that position there is zero scuff and minimal tire wear and minimal drag. The later has more of an effect on fuel economy than we would like to believe. Ideally toe in is what we call a static angle. This means that when the rig is sitting still the front of the tires are closer together than the rear. As the rig moves pressure is exerted on the wheels and tries to open the front up as all the slack in each of the joints in the steering linkage is stressed. The faster you go the more pressure is exerted and the further they will open up. 

However front wheel drive cars are just the opposite. They are set with static toe out. As the power is applied to the front wheels to pull the car along the wheels try to get out in front of the car and will toe in. 

Excessive toe either in or out will cause the car to dart and have a directional control problem. Excessive toe in or out will wear tires as they are dragged across the pavement. If you run your hand across the tire tread from the inside out and then the other way and feel the edges of the tread like saw teeth, to can be suspected as a problem.

Well space is running pout so next week we will wrap this subject up and get onto something else. Happy camping, Brad.

 

Is There an Electric Toad in Your Future?

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more