Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by _ea1k 1933 days ago
I'd think it would be more like hooking the driveshaft of the ICE vehicle to a generator and running it under significant load.

No miles would register but you'd still be putting a lot of wear on the engine. I doubt the warranty for the ICE vehicle would cover this.
2 comments
StillBored 1933 days ago
Sigh, this is not at all how most trucks/etc work.

The odometer is generally computed/measured at the output shaft of the transmission. The differential+tire size is then used to compute a mileage in the ECU (or old school via actual odometer gears feeding the odometer).

Its also why the discussion about adjusting ones odometer comes up frequently in offload communities where oversized tires, or differing gear ratios are run. Even outside of that, people (like myself) who run slightly oversized AT tires, even on the street have our odometers thrown off by a couple percent because the manufactures frequently don't provide a real number input to the ECU rather a selection of a few tire sizes. In my case, my truck has metric sized tires, which don't align perfectly with the preprogrammed LT sizes.

That is why there are various inline devices which can be plugged in to correct for nonstandard modifications (I believe this to be one of them http://hypertech-inc.com/SpeedometerCalibrator.aspx, from a random google search)

link
_ea1k 1933 days ago
I didn't understand your reply until I realized that I had specifically mentioned the driveshaft. On those vehicles that you mention, it'd be much harder as you'd have to drop the transmission and connect to the crankshaft.

Not impossible, but probably not practical and certainly likely to void various parts of the warranty.

link
hef19898 1933 days ago
Depends on the vehicle, stuff like older defenders and generally land rovers had a connector on their transfer cases for that purpose. Obviously none of those are covered by any warranty any more, bit I wouldn't be surprised if there are new vehicles like that out there.

In all these cases that would be intended use, so.

link
_ea1k 1933 days ago
Interesting, I hadn't heard of that but it does make sense.
link