Spike & Mike...do we have an inch of clearance from the outer diameter of the caliper to the inner radius of the wheel to fit a new rotor in to turn our beloved off-road vehicle into a hybrid? Also, do you think our full-time, gear driven 4-wheel drive will make this possible?

The Kit That Turns Any Car Into A Hybrid

The Kit That Turns Any Car Into A Hybrid | This Could Be Big - Yahoo! News

 

Yes being a full time 4x4 it would make it near impossible.
Second I doubt the battery would push these heavy pigs down the road long enough to make it worth while.
Third with the estimated cost of $3000 for the kit it still would not be worth it, at the current rate of $4.25 a gal for premium thats 706gal of gas.
With a estimated average MPG of 12 city that's 8500 miles driven before you even break even.
How many miles do you drive a year? 10,000? 12,000?
How many of that is city? Half?
So lets assume you drive 6,000 city miles a year, thats 1.2? years before you break even on your investment.
The less city miles you drive the longer to break even, the more city miles the less time to break even.
How far is that battery going to push 4800lbs before you have to start the gas engine?
We are assuming that the kit allows for power steering and brakes with the gasoline engine off.
If your engine needs to be idling with the transmission in neutral then you just doubled the miles to breaking even.

 

Spike, this doesn't look like it's the same system that would be found in a Prius or another purpose built hybrid. This would be akin to what's in the Porsche 911 GTR3, the DC motors at each wheel take on some of the work of the engine, so that it won't have to spend as much fuel to move the vehicle, whereas in a purpose built hybrid, the gas engine and DC motor are conjoined to a degree.

On electrical power, I'm going to wager a guess and say that there's an associated Lithium ion battery pack like every other hybrid, along with a charging controller that will convert braking energy into electricity to keep the packs charged, with the balance of necessary recharge energy coming from the alternator.

To that end, this likely would work on an AWD vehicle (unless you're on ice or something, and even still TC would probably keep wheel spin in check). For someone who's truck is their DD, this could possibly save them an enormous amount in fuel costs over the course of a couple of years.

 

I have not heard of that system Racer, so it lets the gas engine work less so in theory it saves money?
I wonder though if the OEM system uses a ECU program to make it effective and if a aftermarket system would be as efficient?