RV towing/regen

If there are two retrieval mounts on the front of the Leaf, and if 4-wheel towing were permitted, and regen was available during towing, the Leaf would be a great runabout to accompany an RV. Not too many modern automobiles can be flat-towed without disconnecting some portion of the drivetrain. Would make a neat dealer-installed option; towing bar and wiring harness to connect lights and maybe some other Leaf info? Maybe another harness & plug to use the Leaf as a power source when the RV is parked?

No regen while towing.

EVDRIVER said:

No regen while towing.

Click to expand...

Unless you left the car on and in drive...

When it came up in conversation, Nissan's Mark Perry did mention it was something that is under discussion. Whether it goes beyond that, of course, is another matter entirely.

From the warranty document:

If your vehicle needs to be towed, do it with the front wheels raised. If the front wheels are on the ground when towing, the motor may generate electricity. This may damage the components of the EV system and cause a fire.

Click to expand...

True, that doesn't exactly say towing with front wheels down will void the warranty, but it sure doesn't sound encouraging.

planet4ever said:

From the warranty document:

If your vehicle needs to be towed, do it with the front wheels raised. If the front wheels are on the ground when towing, the motor may generate electricity. This may damage the components of the EV system and cause a fire.

Click to expand...

True, that doesn't exactly say towing with front wheels down will void the warranty, but it sure doesn't sound encouraging.

Click to expand...

Generally, a fire is not a good thing. :mrgreen:

derkraut said:

planet4ever said:

From the warranty document:

If your vehicle needs to be towed, do it with the front wheels raised. If the front wheels are on the ground when towing, the motor may generate electricity. This may damage the components of the EV system and cause a fire.

Click to expand...

True, that doesn't exactly say towing with front wheels down will void the warranty, but it sure doesn't sound encouraging.

Click to expand...

Generally, a fire is not a good thing. :mrgreen:

Click to expand...

Guess this would remove the need for that cold weather package.

Well, crazy yes, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it genius.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sujv90PLLY[/youtube]

Crazy geniuses charge electric car by towing with pickup truck

Nissan's all-electric Leaf has given its owners freedom from gasoline while presenting new challenges for avoiding dead batteries. Leave it to the Dutch to discover how to freeload a charge with a pickup and a tow hook.

According to Nissan, should the Leaf ever need to be towed back to the nearest electrical outlet, it should only be done by flatbed trailer — never by a two-wheel or flat tow, even though it has a tow hook in its front frame. But Dutch Leaf enthusiast Vincent Everts had a brainstorm; if the Leaf could recharge itself on the road through regenerative braking, why couldn't it do the same if some other vehicle was providing the forward motion?

Using a Toyota Tundra — or as these Dutchmen call it, a "F*** the world truck" — Everts was able to partially recharge his Leaf while it was flat towed by the Tundra if he slightly depressed its brake pedal. There are drawbacks; pressing the brakes too far engages the real brake pads, and the Leaf's complicated computer systems really hasn't a clue what in tarnation is going on. But Everts was able to recharge about a third of the Leaf's capacity in a 10-minute drive, also temporarily creating a Japanese version of the Chevy Volt.

Source: http://jalopnik.com/5805407/

just saw that article on jalopnik also, seems like you can charge fairly quickly regenerating at 20-30 kW.
Though I wonder how much load this really puts on the tundra? Also wouldn't like the idea of that tow rope snapping at speed.

Not exactly a brand new idea.

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/2887-Tow-Mode?p=30451&viewfull=1#post30451

...The idea I had in mind was for RV drivers pulling their {EV} behind their RV on a long trip. It seems using Regen between stops could allow you to always have a full {EV} when you stop somewhere...

Click to expand...

I couldn't help but notice in the video, he was driving in D. Wouldn't he get better regen if he put it in ECO? might not have even needed to press on the brake.

Do the math and this patently is false... It's also incredibly inefficient.

LeafTalk said:

But Everts was able to recharge about a third of the Leaf's capacity in a 10-minute drive, also temporarily creating a Japanese version of the Chevy Volt.

Click to expand...

mogur said:

Do the math and this patently is false... It's also incredibly inefficient.

Click to expand...

The real trick would be to only apply regen when the truck needs to stop anyway... Of course, if you're on the highway you'll never charge the battery up....

mogur said:

Do the math and this patently is false... It's also incredibly inefficient.

LeafTalk said:

But Everts was able to recharge about a third of the Leaf's capacity in a 10-minute drive, also temporarily creating a Japanese version of the Chevy Volt.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Yep They managed to confuse the on-board computer.

At the end of the video they mention that they only got around 3km of range after being towed for 4km. Nowhere near a third of it's capacity. The article is inaccurate.

mogur said:

Do the math and this patently is false... It's also incredibly inefficient.

LeafTalk said:

But Everts was able to recharge about a third of the Leaf's capacity in a 10-minute drive, also temporarily creating a Japanese version of the Chevy Volt.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

If the Leaf is capable of 20kW regen then you could get 3.3kWh in 10 minutes which is probably what he saw. Of course the range guestimator would give an overly optimistic view of this since it is going to assume you are going to continue to drive that way. Notice he only had a couple of bars of charge with 40k range estimate. That puts him about 4kWh charge which would be about right if he had less than a kWh when he started.

LeafTalk said:

But Everts was able to recharge about a third of the Leaf's capacity in a 10-minute drive, also temporarily creating a Japanese version of the Chevy Volt.

Click to expand...

I'm glad I had put my drink down before reading that :lol:

dactec said:

just saw that article on jalopnik also, seems like you can charge fairly quickly regenerating at 20-30 kW.
Though I wonder how much load this really puts on the tundra?

Click to expand...

Well, 20kW is 25 HP. Figuring 50% efficiency on the regen suggests you are taking 50 HP from the poor truck. No free lunch here.