forget the springs, go with the electricity

Search on ultracapacitors lots of info.

I still like my cable/pulley idea better.

ok, you do it on your mountain. maybe you have an angel giving you capital at zero interest expense. i don't.

I think the Bionx can do regenerative braking....

I don't think the electrical means would be the best solution however. I have already found that the cost-per-mile of operating a Bionx is greater than for operating a gasoline-engine of comparable power, and that was assuming flat ground.

The problem with electrical vehicles is that everybody WANTS small lightweight batteries, but they tend not to last very many discharges before failing if they are deep-cycled, and if they aren't deep-cycled, then you don't get much practical energy storage from them.

The only way to make electrical batteries that will last a lot of discharge cycles is to make them lead-acid and make them BIG and only ever discharge them lightly--but you see then,,,, if you want a vehicle that can climb hills, then the last thing you want is a bunch of heavy batteries powering your hill-climbing vehicle.

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I would suggest a gas engine kit, such as a Golden Eagle belt-drive. The belt drive is simple and reliable and a 4-cycle engine is easy to fuel. ~

Mountain topography and type of cargo aside . . . You figure high tech state of the art is going to be less expensive than a piece of wire and some pulleys? It won't take capital?

You wouldn't be the first person wanting to get a weight down a mountain. Or hill - any mountain worth the name wouldn't be bicycle friendly.

I worked a place in Alaska where we wanted to haul supplies up to a mountain lookout, and do it cheaply. We had a very steep cliff face and they were using airlifted supplies. Some guy got the idea to use a rope and buckets. Water filled a bucket and pulled the supplies up in another bucket. Daily re supply with food and equipment versus weekly and at a lot lower cost.

Still needed the copter for changing observers, and no one could take more than a month in the 5 X 8 aluminum box they called home. They were working on a steel cable to lift men up. The idea was to put one guy in a sling at the base another at the top, add enough water to bring the up guy down (if necessary). Plan was to use something like the old style dial telephones - centrifugal brake to regulate the speed - or an off the shelf centrifugal clutch from a riding lawnmower. I never saw that working, but have no doubt they could make it work.

I had a similar idea to build a small railway on my property which would be used to bring down firewood from the top of a hill (about 50' elevation). I figured I could run it for free, or maybe get extra energy, by using the potential energy of the wood. Probably it would not be economically worth the effort, but the cool fun factor made it something I wanted to try. Having batteries in the vehicle seemed to be a null factor, except that it required bigger motors or slower gearing, and maybe more rolling resistance. I also considered electrifying the rails, or using an overhead hot line, but it would only be efficient at voltages much higher than would be safe.

For energy storage capacitors, try:

From a previous post, here is a discussion of what to expect:

Energy storage for the capacitors is based on 1/2*C*V^2, so your 210,000 uF

Some interesting high surge current capacitors are:

Paul

They obviously haven't seen the proper way to do this...with a really big rubber band, like in the Swedish film, "The Apple War".

I wish I had screenies, but basically the bicycle guy in the film uses the rubber band to get to the bus stop really fast, and stretches it on the way home in the evening.

And we've all seen 'Zorba the Greek' with the wire guided logs.

I've also seen that work OK.

So, how did it work out? What did you finally end up with?

Thanks, Rich

Late at night, by candle light, landotter penned this immortal opus:

Yeah, a big bunch of bungee cords can't be all that expensive. Needs a rather straight stretch of road, though.

- YD.

Use a pack mule. Its what they were created for.

"Paul E. Schoen" wrote in news:465c83f4$0$16279$ snipped-for-privacy@news.coretel.net:

Do you have a link to more on those? Google's only references to "BPAP1200" are archived copies of your post.

================================== Search for Maxwell Technologies Boostcap

BobG wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

Thankyou. Those look good.

It's probably a typo, try BCAP1200-E270 or "boostcap ultracapacitor".

Better yet, The 3000F version. :)

Anthony

Anthony Matonak wrote in news:465f9c05$0$9973$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:

I really want one of those just to play around with it. :) I guess I can wait awhile though, if they cost tens of pounds or dollars each.

"Paul E. Schoen" skrev i en meddelelse news:465c83f4$0$16279$ snipped-for-privacy@news.coretel.net...

Maybe you should try with a fly-wheel first?

Paul E. Schoen wrote: ...

I would think the coolest method to use the potential energy of the wood to run the railway would be to burn it in a steam engine. :)

Seriously though, I've seen small "railroads" in shopping malls that are run off 12V running through the rails. They're big enough to carry a bunch of kids so something similar should be able to lug a cartload or two of firewood. It doesn't have to be terribly efficient to be useful. Slow is also probably quite acceptable. If it saves you from having to make several trips then it can be quite slow and yet still faster than the alternative.

You could even go all renewable on this and fit out solar panels on the top of the "engine" for this railroad. When the sun shines the thing will slowly work its way up the hill using whatever energy the panels produce. Add a stop switch at the top (of course) to keep it from going too far. So what it if takes a day or two to get there? It's not like you would have to be driving.

Anthony