What Means Car Hydraulics

A lowrider is any car that has modifications allowing it to ride very low to the ground. Some people really like the look.

The problem with a lowrider is that things like speed bumps and rough roads can make driving difficult. To solve these problems, lowrider enthusiasts install car hydraulics lift kits that allow a completely adjustable height for the vehicle. These kits use electric car hydraulics pumps and normal hydraulic cylinders to raise and lower the vehicle. Imagine connecting the cylinder alongside the shock absorber or the spring, and you get the idea. It's a pretty involved installation and can cost several thousand dollars.

So the car hydraulics solved the height problem.

What happened next was unpredictable and amazing -- it's one of those strange things that can happen in an evolutionary process. Someone, at some point, realized that with enough power, the hydraulics system could make the car hop! The financial ability to buy car hydraulics and install them an innovation in and of itself took the lowrider to a whole new level.

Car hydraulics systems quickly evolved to make hopping more and more interesting,

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until cars could eventually hop 6 feet off the ground! Originally, there was one 12-volt or 24-volt pump driving all four wheels in unison. It is now possible to find cars that have four pumps (one for each wheel) and eight, 10 or even 12 batteries to power them. Twelve batteries create two 72-volt systems. These powerful systems are what you see in those movies.

Lowriders feature car hydraulics suspension systems that allow the driver to alter the ride height at will. These systems range from simple to complex and are usually measured by the amount of switches used to control the various hydraulics combinations that ultimately produce a specific motion from the car. The most common motions are dipping/raising the four corners of the car (referred to as corners), dipping/raising the front or rear of the car (front, back), dipping/raising the sides of the car (side to side), and lowering/raising the car as a whole (pancake). A skilled switch operator can manipulate his car hydraulics controls (hitting switches) to raise one wheel completely off the ground (3-wheel motion), or to bounce one end of the car completely off the ground.

Nobody knows exactly what inspired these original lowrider owners to lower their cars. The rear end and front suspension are lowered, its tires are skimpy and its motor is usually left untouched. Another mark of a lowrider is its extravagant amount of accessories, such as chrome pipes, wheel skirts and window visors that can be costly.In 1957, Gov. Edmond Brown outlawed lowrider cars. The California law prohibits drivers from lowering the frame of the car past the lowest point of the wheel rim. Because back then they had only stock tires, the car was usually about 5 inches off the ground and that just wasn't low enough. An enterprising Chicano by the name of Richard Aguirre, tired of getting tickets for his illegally lowered car, figured out a way to lower and raise his car using aircraft hydraulic pumps which he turned into a car hydraulics system.

Since then, lowriders began installing car hydraulics so that a car that seems to be only two or three inches of the ground can be raised to eight or 10 inches to go over curbs, railroad tracks or past a police car. Lowriders that are lifted with car hydraulics usually have separate systems for the front and the back, each running off two or three batteries kept in the trunk of the car.

Later, Aguirre’s ideas for car hydraulics were redesigned to lift the front and rear tires off the ground. So by carefully timing the jolts of electricity to the front-end hydraulics, the driver can actually bounce the front wheels of his car off the ground.

When a lowrider switches off its headlights at night the shower of sparks flying from the car are not gun shots. They’re caused when the front of the car is lowered and dragged over the pavement, screeching along on a scrap plate that has been welded to the frame of the car.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Hybrid Cars - Fuel Saving Devices

Today i want to discuss about Benefits and Drawbacks of Hybrid Cars. If you just listen to the car manufacturers, hybrid cars are the best and innovative invention since slice bread. Although, there many reasons to purchase an electric car, it is of great help to have the understanding of its benefits and drawbacks of hybrid electric cars and in owning these new "green vehicles.

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Benefits of hybrid cars are normally fuel efficiency because they are composed of two motors, a gasoline motor and an electric powered motor. It is also equipped with special system to catch braking energy and store it on an onboard battery.

The main reason for two motors is both the strength and weakness of the two types. Distinctively, electric motors are not energy during idle times, they turn off and utilizes lesser at low speeds compared to gas motors. On the other hand, gas motors function better at high speeds and can generate more power for a specified motor weight. This simplifies, that in rush hours stop and go driving, electric motors work great and additionally, it helps in reducing smog levels because it does not produce any toxic exhaust. At higher speeds, typically above 40mph, the gas motor sets in and gives that bouncing feel making car owners go forward on driving on highway.

Another benefits of hybrid cars are the point for having gas motor, it charges the battery while the engine is on and is running. There are cases of electric car owners that have been stranded with just out extension cord of an outlet. Hybrid owners can neglect this annoyance because the gas motors starts automatically in replacement when the battery gets low and then goes forward to charge the battery, without the need to be plugged into the outlet.

On the contrary, drawbacks of hybrid cars are complex and expensive. It contains two motors and ancillary systems to handle them, a heavy battery and a regeneration system that will be used to generate electricity during breaking.

All of the systems need to work together, that is adding complexity, making it one of the drawbacks of hybrid electric cars. Although an ordinary car, as controlled by computers are getting more reliable, but they still suffer from inevitable failures. As, expect owners of hybrid cars have more time in repair shops and pay larger bills.

Indeed, benefits of hybrid cars include being the most gasoline efficient, getting 48 to 60mpg. It is only about 20% to 35% better than a gasoline powered vehicle. Let's take Honda Civic for instance that gets 36mpg. When

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comparing prices, the hybrid costs from the range of $19,000 to $25,000 and the ordinary gas saver car costs $13,000 to$17,000. The justification to buy an electric hybrid car becomes less clear.

So, in calculation of this benefits of hybrid cars, the discrepancy in the average annual fuel bills, $405 for a hybrid Honda Insight compared to the $635 for an ordinary Honda Civic means you can never compensate the added initial cost of a hybrid electric car. For the span of ten years, owning a hybrid will just save you only $2,300, much lesser than the cost difference for equipped cars. These benefits of hybrid electric cars just came from the improvements in aero dynamics, smaller gas engine and weight reduction. As a matter of fact, any car will have considerably better mileage by just reducing the engine size.

In other cases, car manufacturers are producing hybrid vehicles that use added energy as provided by the hybrid systems to cause the vehicle to boost its power, rather than improve the fuel efficiency. Boosting the power may then add as one of the benefits of hybrid cars.

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