Thanks Norm,

The F150 already has a throttle position sensor, and a brake pedal switch, and right? If it does, that information would be on the CAN, also, there is a lot more data that can be captured about the truck. They make a CAN decoder on a chip now. For me, the electronics part is not the difficult, it is just two wires. I'm sure the codes have to be on the web somewhere.

 

Correct, no need to intercept it from CAN bus.

It will take you alot more than 2 wires to accomplish your goals. Why trouble with the CAN when you do not need to? You can plug in an Edge unit and read all the data. No re-engineering required. K.I.S.S.

 

why would you want a hybrid truck anyway? Hybrids are fad that is eventually going to die out once people find otu how expensive it is going to be to change out the betteries that die out.

 

BigMan,
That is another misconception. The batteries made today car Lithium-Ion that can last the life of the car, and next up are super-capacitors that will not only last the life of the car, but can last your life time. What is holding these batteries, and super-caps back right now is that they are not mass-produced yet. Once other companies come on line making them the price will drop.

I will admit that battery management is a real PITA, but it is being managed. With an aftermarket mod like this I would use good old lead acid batteries. The key to them is that you never want to deeply discharge them. You want to keep their usage range about 40% discharged or above at all times. To accomplish this you have to design the system to be twice as big as what your needs will be. That is why the Prius battery lasts for over 350,000 miles. Toyota programmed the car to protect the battery at all costs.

However we live in the real world and we need trucks, and unfortunately our gas sometimes comes from foreign oil. I think we can still keep our trucks and even make them bigger using just what we have here. I’ll be the first to tell you this mod won’t work for everyone. What vehicle does? I have to go head out to the shop and put some new heavy duty springs on a car now so I check back to see if anyone post about a kit like this already being made.

Thanks!

 

There is no kit. It would not be cost effective.

 

So you want a hybrid but also want a pickup truck right?

I really dont see this being very practical, The cost of turning your F-150 into a hybrid would out-price the truck itself even if its a 2009.

Why not just do the same thing that Chevy did for the impala, disabling 4 cylinders at cruising speeds to get better gas mileage. I think you would save about the same money AND not out-price the truck itself.

 

The sad thing is vehicles that large seldom can get by with the power the motor makes in 4cyl mode, meaning it stays in full 8 mode more. I have a couple friends with this feature and they really dont get much better mileage, maybe 10% at best