Petrol motorhomes?

[stonedaddy]

Hydrogen

I am going back somewhat here but does anyone remember a Rover 106 I think it was taking part in the le-mans 24 hour race. I think it was in the early 1950s and we had just got our first TV. The car was still made by Rover in those days, in fact it was there last shape before being taken over. The car easily won the race but it was only guesting and not part of the race officially. The reason, it was not shaft driven and to be official it had to be. It run off hydrogen made from water. I remember my dad who was handy at mechanics saying " that is fantastic as water is free so to fill up with water will be easy and painless". I don't know if this car made its hydrogen has it went along or weather it was pumped in before hand has a pressurised gas. But whatever way its done it must be cheaper to make fuel out of water than anything else on this planet. Also it beat all the other sports cars in the race so was no slouch, and was only the basic saloon body, not a sports car. And would it matter to us if it had no prop shafts, drive shafts, or half shafts, less to produce and less to maintain. After that newsreel on the TV I never heard anything else about it. Surely we should all be driving cheap Hydrogen turbo engine cars now. Can anyone else remember that Rover all those years ago. Perhaps they can improve on my memory and maybe bring us up to date why it has never been developed since. I was only a whippet in them far off days and maybee got it wrong a bit.
.... Tom ....

 

[molly 2]

That's a bit like asking how longs a piece of string. The same with diesels some less than 20 some claim more than 40.

my old van would do up to 40 mpg well under 3 tons ,my new 3.5 tones about 30 mpg .

 

[winks]

I knew a local fella who had Damon Daybreak with a big petrol engine running on lpg and he got the equivalent, in money terms, of eighteen miles per gallon out of that. He wasn't one for the light right foot either. From memory I think it was a Chevy about 5.6L V8.

Up until age 70 I'll stick with the Behemoth I think.

Cheers

H

 

[jagmanx]

Interesting thread

I think maybe
Up to 3.5 tonne a (new design) petrol engine can do a good job
Obviously an LPG option would be good ie as now LPG/Petrol
What about full LPG or even better an LPG/Electric hybrid and a solar roof

Problem is if you cannot get LPG

Best solution surely is cleaner diesel and equal fuel cost with petrol

Tax on LPG will rise which will be a pain for Gasit/Gaslow type LPG for cooking
I cannot see "red LPG" (as in red diesel) being a runner (pun intended) but that would still be the same price as calor.

Bottled LPG in Europe is very cheap as it is used in households as they (mainly) do not have "Piped Gas" thus that may well continue so we will be back to swapping bottles again !

Electric only v difficult today because of battery weight but that technology is changing so so quickly Maybe (and a solar roof)
That also brings in the option of No Gas (as in Wildebus Van)
OR we get a builtin generator (LPG or probably petrol due to availability)

 

[yorkslass]

I am going back somewhat here but does anyone remember a Rover 106 I think it was taking part in the le-mans 24 hour race. I think it was in the early 1950s and we had just got our first TV. The car was still made by Rover in those days, in fact it was there last shape before being taken over. The car easily won the race but it was only guesting and not part of the race officially. The reason, it was not shaft driven and to be official it had to be. It run off hydrogen made from water. I remember my dad who was handy at mechanics saying " that is fantastic as water is free so to fill up with water will be easy and painless". I don't know if this car made its hydrogen has it went along or weather it was pumped in before hand has a pressurised gas. But whatever way its done it must be cheaper to make fuel out of water than anything else on this planet. Also it beat all the other sports cars in the race so was no slouch, and was only the basic saloon body, not a sports car. And would it matter to us if it had no prop shafts, drive shafts, or half shafts, less to produce and less to maintain. After that newsreel on the TV I never heard anything else about it. Surely we should all be driving cheap Hydrogen turbo engine cars now. Can anyone else remember that Rover all those years ago. Perhaps they can improve on my memory and maybe bring us up to date why it has never been developed since. I was only a whippet in them far off days and maybee got it wrong a bit.
.... Tom ....

No, your not mistaken Tom, though I think the Le mans race might have been a bit later. David's been reading quite a bit about Land Rover owners in the USA trying to do the same. Don't know how successful they've been, I didn't listen that closely to what he told me.

 

[ricc]

guess im a luddite

outside on the drive weve got a transit 2.5 di, fourtrak 2.8td, berlingo 1.9d , pug 3061.9d and a pug 206 1.9d theyre all old enough not to have electrickery to reduce emissions ,they get cambelts, filters, fluids and the occasional glow plug. its body rot that will kill any or all of them, the engines are expected to last for ever.

ive also got 4 60s/70s diesel tractors which are also basic mechanicals with no electronics.

my first diesel road vehicle was an 84 astra, at the time day on day running costs were half that of the petrol cortina it replaced.

we ran petrol transits up untill the mk3 diesels arrived, again you got halved fuel use and greater reliability with reduced servicing.

has anyone got real world experience of running a mixed fleet of modern (sub 5 year old ) vehicles for a real world comparison of fuels. both from fuel economy and servicing / reliability viewpoints.

as an asside is it legal to install lpg tanks in the hab area? under the bed was mentioned somewhere , or are they supposed to be under the floor

 

[2cv]

I am going back somewhat here but does anyone remember a Rover 106 I think it was taking part in the le-mans 24 hour race. I think it was in the early 1950s and we had just got our first TV. The car was still made by Rover in those days, in fact it was there last shape before being taken over. The car easily won the race but it was only guesting and not part of the race officially. The reason, it was not shaft driven and to be official it had to be. It run off hydrogen made from water. I remember my dad who was handy at mechanics saying " that is fantastic as water is free so to fill up with water will be easy and painless". I don't know if this car made its hydrogen has it went along or weather it was pumped in before hand has a pressurised gas. But whatever way its done it must be cheaper to make fuel out of water than anything else on this planet. Also it beat all the other sports cars in the race so was no slouch, and was only the basic saloon body, not a sports car. And would it matter to us if it had no prop shafts, drive shafts, or half shafts, less to produce and less to maintain. After that newsreel on the TV I never heard anything else about it. Surely we should all be driving cheap Hydrogen turbo engine cars now. Can anyone else remember that Rover all those years ago. Perhaps they can improve on my memory and maybe bring us up to date why it has never been developed since. I was only a whippet in them far off days and maybee got it wrong a bit.
.... Tom ....

Not hydrogen powered, but maybe this is it Le Mans 24 Hours news and history from 'Maison Blanche'

 

[trevskoda]

I think maybe
Up to 3.5 tonne a (new design) petrol engine can do a good job
Obviously an LPG option would be good ie as now LPG/Petrol
What about full LPG or even better an LPG/Electric hybrid and a solar roof

Problem is if you cannot get LPG

Best solution surely is cleaner diesel and equal fuel cost with petrol

Tax on LPG will rise which will be a pain for Gasit/Gaslow type LPG for cooking
I cannot see "red LPG" (as in red diesel) being a runner (pun intended) but that would still be the same price as calor.

Bottled LPG in Europe is very cheap as it is used in households as they (mainly) do not have "Piped Gas" thus that may well continue so we will be back to swapping bottles again !

Electric only v difficult today because of battery weight but that technology is changing so so quickly Maybe (and a solar roof)
That also brings in the option of No Gas (as in Wildebus Van)
OR we get a builtin generator (LPG or probably petrol due to availability)

Car chargers are about 35 kilowat,you would require about 5 big fields of solar panels to get anywhere near that,as from 2 years ahead all fuel stations being built will have by law to install as many charge points as fuel pumps,there is also requirements for older stations to fit charge points,so running lecy cars/vans will be the norm within 5 years.
One of the big problems is more old folk are getting knocked down by them as there qt,the nissan has a warning buzzer fitted to try and help and i think other will follow.

 

[jagmanx]

Indeed

Car chargers are about 35 kilowat,you would require about 5 big fields of solar panels to get anywhere near that,as from 2 years ahead all fuel stations being built will have by law to install as many charge points as fuel pumps,there is also requirements for older stations to fit charge points,so running lecy cars/vans will be the norm within 5 years.
One of the big problems is more old folk are getting knocked down by them as there qt,the nissan has a warning buzzer fitted to try and help and i think other will follow.

Either Solar or a 2KW built in Genny wont do the job but they will increase the range by 10 to 20 percent
As the Tesco Carrot would say.......

When touring the NC500 last summer I was amazed/impressed by the number and frequency of Charging points.
so Stop for elevenses and charge up
For Lunch
For an afternoon cuppa

The future is Green The future is Ireland !

I expect the french and Germans will have charge points in Aires/Stellplatz if MHs do go electric

 

[harrow]

Car chargers are about 35 kilowat,you would require about 5 big fields of solar panels to get anywhere near that,as from 2 years ahead all fuel stations being built will have by law to install as many charge points as fuel pumps,there is also requirements for older stations to fit charge points,so running lecy cars/vans will be the norm within 5 years.
One of the big problems is more old folk are getting knocked down by them as there qt,the nissan has a warning buzzer fitted to try and help and i think other will follow.

40 years ago when my dad was involved with electric vans and electric lorries it was how silent they were that surprised him.

He used to go to the lorry driver of the year competition, real drivers he said, not like the police with flashing blue lights and sirens.

:wave::wave::wave:

 

[Dowel]

Not hydrogen powered, but maybe this is it Le Mans 24 Hours news and history from 'Maison Blanche'

I remember being fascinated by the Rover Jet 1, the precursor of Rover BRM, as a teenager. I had always admired the older Rovers and thought the topless P4 body of the Jet 1 very handsome.
There is an interesting account of these turbine cars here:

The Rover Jet Cars AutoSpeed - The Rover Jet Cars

 

[Dowel]

Been listening to a fair amount of people talking about petrol engines coming back into the fold more and more.

Don’t recall any previous links here to this, apologies if I missed it:

Are diesel cars being wrongly targeted? Owners see £35bn wiped off their vehicles but heating and central London buses emit more harmful NOx

• FairFuelUK said diesel passenger cars are taking the fall for other big polluters
• Diesel passenger cars are responsible for 11% of the capital's NOx
• Gas central heating contributes 16% of London's NOx output
• Diesel machinery delivers 14% and buses 16% in most congested areas

The full article at:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...ting-machinery-HGVs-emit-NOx-diesel-cars.html

 

[trevskoda]

Don’t recall any previous links here to this, apologies if I missed it:

Are diesel cars being wrongly targeted? Owners see £35bn wiped off their vehicles but heating and central London buses emit more harmful NOx

• FairFuelUK said diesel passenger cars are taking the fall for other big polluters
• Diesel passenger cars are responsible for 11% of the capital's NOx
• Gas central heating contributes 16% of London's NOx output
• Diesel machinery delivers 14% and buses 16% in most congested areas

The full article at:
Heating, machinery and HGVs emit more NOx than diesel cars | This is Money

Buses are going electric in big cities,we build them here in ballymena at wrightbus.
I do agree no catalitic converters etc on oil or gas heating sys,but we must start somewhere.

 

[Deleted member 52918]

I have made several comments on the reasons for the so called devil diesel cars, now being wrongfully in my view targeted for ruining the nations health.

When you consider that the biggest producer of particulate pollution, is the agricultural industry, who it seems simply cannot produce our food etc., without ploughing up the fields & by doing so, create immense clouds of dust.
Which even though they show up in the canisters which are used to determine the levels in our streets, are not separated from the soot & so are included in the count!

The next biggest ones are shipping, industry, coal & wood burning fires/stoves, aircraft & then vehicles.

The 15 biggest ships produce more pollution than all the diesel vehicles in the world put together!!

The reduction in life expectancy for the average person living in London due to all pollution, is 3 months over a 75 year life.

A vehicle travelling at 20 mph, emits 2/3 times the pollution that a vehicle travelling at 30 does.

The biggest reason that the Government is bad mouthing diesel vehicles is an economical one!

When this debate was first started, I did loads of research, I read about 12 different studies on this subject, but I found it very hard to get to the truth!

Phill

 

[phillybarbour]

Diesel every time for me, that’s my commercial vehicle background. Not motorhomes but people currently going out and buying petrol cars to replace their diesel will soon be saying I’m using way to much fuel in this new car.