L&A Cruiser's Forum

hi guys, feel free to insert boat inplace of cars,, I just used car to get my point across.
there are a few companies , one in France, and another is in Australia, that are working on cars powered by compressed air. there was even a go cart like car built for a school science project by 5th graders and won the blue ribbon. if 5th graders can built one I'm sure that a big car company can build something that is usable as transportation.
I am standing behind the Compressed air cars, mainly because they will be very good for the environment, they are safe, and very easy to up keep. the only thing you get out of the exhaust pipe is cool clean air. the air is cold coming from the exhaust, so maybe that would help get rid of the freon based ac units.
air powered car engines don't get hot, so you will not get burned when working on them, and you can build the engine with light weight alloys. normal car engines will melt if made with these light weight alloys. this mean the whole car is light weight and that would be a big help for the hi way system. the normal cars on the road today so heavy that the highway's take a beating on hot days. imagine how it would effect the hi ways if A: you don't have fuel or other fluids, found in normal cars dripping on them, and B: you don't have the weight of a normal cars pounding the hi ways on hot days.
lets talk about safety..the air tanks are fiberglass type composite construction, and will rip but not throw out any thing if they get smashed somehow..think get hit by a speed boat while trying to cross the stream. you will never hear about a firey explosion while refueling, and fire is not a big problem like on gas powered stuff.
please search on you tube.com and check out some of the cars powered by compressed air.
here is a starting point for you to get the idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPE2B84Cxnk
now I'm sure the same thing could be converted to work as a boat engine.
we need to push thiese ideas. if nothing gets started then we will be a slave to the oil companies. and that sucks because the more I pay out in everyday life, the less I can do for my boat and the less sailing I will be able to do.
it's just a dream thing, but hay it's kewl...right?

I was reading about those the other day. A big car manufacturer in India..Tata is currently building them but they're not ready for sale yet. Sure sounds like a possibility!

Volvo is coming out with an all electric car. ETA 2011 But they have come so far it MIGHT be out by 2010.
The technologie is already in place. Hell Fords 1st car was all electric. So we KNOW it can be done!
As you said, people are sick of this oil business and working on ways to not have to be as concerned with it through other means...
As people that sail, we already use solar and Wind power.
You are NOT dreaming, This is happening and we get closer and closer every day.
Ol Nick Tesla is looking less and less nutty everyday.
--Diann SV Peregrine

heh yachts66 might have the electric power plant for the sail boats before then...lol.
I once built a car that used a small gas engine, to power a hydrolic pump, that ran a hydrolic motor hooked to a straight shift transmission....I could not get the throttle and the forword motion to work togother for smooth starts and stops. I got better milage then the origanal, but it was still needed gas.
as a joke the othere day I found an old straight shift that worked and I stuck a huge air wrench to the in put shaft...it was mangled up so it didn't matter that I hammered a inpack socket to it...and I stuck the air wrench to and made that thing run like a scolded dog. I thought I made a major break through! I had 90 psi at the guage, but not sure of the cfm's. I decided to look it up and found that in the 1900s, a guy in London built a trolly like car that ran on compressed air and some 5 th graders built a go cart that ran off air..so we know it can be done.
the main complaint I have with electric power is the recharge time...of course we could add a very small genarator..lol.
I wish someone would do something to slap the oil companies across the face.
Bill

Do not forget that there was a time that Computers had to be housed in a VERY LARGE ROOM! and did not hold very much information.
Diann says as she types on her laptop mac that is just a little Bigger then my mans, that he got in the mail in an envelope. which have more memory then the first personal computers that where, Oh shall we say, LESS THEN PORTABLE?
OH and remember when Cell Phone where the size of BRICKS?
There will be a time, when the battery packs hold way more charge and we will be able to hold them in the palm of our hands. And I am pretty sure that we will see it sooner rather then later!
--Diann SV Peregrine...

Guys, it still takes energy to run the air compressor.

Now team up a solar array with an electric air compressor and you got something!

Can we say FREE!

Screw ARAMCO and the Coal plants! Go solar.

We are in the process of researching a solar power grid for our residence. It looks like it will cost about $30,000 to completly replace the 200 amps @ 220 volt power supply that we desire. Our home will be all electric with a wood stove and gas generator as back up. We will stil be attached to the grid so we can off load excess generation. That means the electric company will be paying us. Got to love that...

In Montana do you get a Tax incentive?
I wish we did in Kansas. Not so. In fact here in Kansas, you have to jump through HOOPS just to go solar. there are a couple of homes in my area that are part solar. The rest is still attached to the gride, One of the home owners told me that the power company did not want to buy the power from them. Yeah freaking Kansas!
That price tag is a tad high and we would have to re-do the roof as well before we could do that. I hope to be living on a board in the Carib by then however
--Diann SV Peregrine...

yeah I still have one of those brick like cell phones..lol.
it cann't be hooked up though.
I have been watching the water powered car from Japan. the BBC news did a story on it.
I sill like the idea of air power...it's simple. I'm thinking like air wrenches and air motors have been around awhile. solar powered aircompressors would be kick ass. lol. I wanted to try and go solar at my house but it was like putting a gold plated grill on wrecked pinto.....just too expensive.

Bill

Yeah...PULL MY FINGER! go fast!

ROFLMAO!!!

I agree that electric is the future. I wish I would have repowered with an electric engine now - I did a Kubota install last year from Phasor.

Check this out

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-32334

Yeah, but how do you compliment a girl with two of those cars and not get slapped?


Badum-BUMP!

hehehehe see gand pa was smarter then he thought...think about all those times he said pull my fingure, I thought it was trick..lol
the name of that company on BBC was "GENEPAX" I think.
I'm going to try and see if I can post a link.. we'll see if it works.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_23767.aspx
this link will get you to the story...but I cann't get a link to the video.
just found the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jivb7lupDNU

I agree with Beachcomber!
Methane!

Its been said that the cows in Texas produce more methane per day than oil in that state.

The proper (& humane) plugging in of all the cows in Texas could provide a large percentage of fuel to power most any of our energy needs.
With enough of these cows on line these beasts could power the country!
A pipe line to lets say Midland,Texas (Midland being a center of some world leaders of compressed gases) ,could provide a significant source of energy.
Who knows with the careful introduction of beans applied to their feed the production of Methane may be doubled !
In addition the untangling of these plugged in cows would provide jobs for unemployed cowboys.