with gas prices hitting 3.99 a gallon i take a really good look at one if it makes it in dealer lots

 

I found a story making the claim from 2006(?), at this site.
Also UPS is testing Hydraulic Hybrid Technology in some of it's pacakge cars. I found a discription of the technology as follows: "This is a brand new technology that we licensed from the EPA, and it’s estimated to return fuel savings of up to 70 percent. Hydraulic hybrid combines diesel engines with hydraulic fuel accumulators that look like elongated canisters on the bottom of the truck."
Just wanted to add to the original topic...

 

Thanks.

 

I wonder what the towing capabilities of a F-150 hydraulic hybrid would be. I would buy one today if they could come close to or match the current towing specs.

 

I'm working on a hydraulic accumulator system right now on a mobile well servicing rig draw works brake system to be used in the event the enging goes down........

A couple of the drawbacks to this is:

• You cannot pull from and charge an accumulator simultaneously
• Accumulators are heavy!
• there would be limited numbers of cycles available from the accumulator, so you would likely have to cycle one accumulator, charge another, and switch often....
• Towing or any other high power operations would drain the accumulator that much faster
• If you use hydraulics to power the vehicle, are you using the engine to power the hydraulics? If so, then due to inefficiencies, you would put more power into the system than you would get out of it

I like the idea, but I think the practicallity is outta reach......