This was also a question which occurred to me, and for the same reason.

The short answer is yes,.............. but.

I have had mine in and out and in and out and in again, in the course of trial location, 2 KWH installation and 4 KWH installation.

It has excellent, sturdy handles intended for a 2-man lift.

It is about 120 lbs with 2 KWH batteries and 170 with 4 KWH of batteries; so it really needs to be handled by 2 men when loaded with batteries.

It is about 70 lbs without batteries, and can be handled single-handed in that condition. I have done it with little trouble. However, the job of uninstalling, removing, replacing and re-wiring the batteries takes hours.

I needed to prove to myself that I could do it if needed, but I doubt that I will, unless I really need that extra 6 inches of trunk space height.

I used to make it my habit on trips to carry in the trunk a substantial tool box and a portable emergency battery (to jump the Camry's 12 volt battery if needed). I will no longer carry those. I can jump the Camry's battery with a part of the Enginer's battery pack if necessary, and I'm replacing my big tool box with a small soft kit with only the tools useful on this car. (I collected much useful advice on that kit make-up from a separate thread in this forum.) My kit fits in a nook remaining beside the Enginer box, and/or in the pass-through behind the right rear seat.

Yes, the list prices include installation. The listed installation allowance is $500.00. I did my own installation.

 

Today I made my usual Sunday trip to church and back. Today it was definitely WITH A/C !

I've made the same trip in this car most Sundays for over 2 years. It's only about a 2-mile trip (one way) in just enough traffic to (mostly) control your speed for you - the kind of short trip that really kills mpg particularly with A/C. In the Summer with the A/C on, I have previously struggled to get over 25 mpg on this trip.

Today, with the Enginer unit on, I did 54.9 mpg for the round trip.

 

Jack

Looks like your doubling your gas mileage with the Enginer setup. When it's time for tires, you might consider the Michelin energy saver a/s tires. Michelin says these tires stop 8 feet shorter and can give a 8% increase in mpg. At 54.9 you would be right at 60 mpg.

I have a set on my car and have seen as high as a 10% increase in mpg over the oem Energy tires that came with my TCH.

Jimmy

 

Jimmy,

Thanks for the tire tip. I will definitely look into the energy savers. I am a big Michelin fan. But I probably have several years left on my Energy's.

Re. doubling my mpg: That's about as good as it gets, and that was also my impression after my first test drive, hypermileing. But on other types of trips I've seen about a 40% reduction. The 40% may turn out to be more typical.

Jack

 

Jack - Keep us posted on your tank mpg. It may take 4 or 5 tanks to see how your doing with the enginer pack. Your best mpg could be during the Fall w/o the AC when outside temps reach 75 degrees.

I was thinking the other day, your pack will help you most in city driving. Your daily routine to work and back and Church and on the weekends.

 

Yes, it probably will take several tanks before we can start to get a really good quantitative handle on the savings. The way this tank is going, it might be quite a while before I use a tankful, but I will continue to provide trip mpg anecdotes along the way.

And yes it does, indeed, seem that the greatest savings may be for city driving.

And I too am eager to see what a tankful will do in mild weather, but here in Houston it's liable to November before we get that much mild weather.

Note also that while the best "bragging rights" mpg may come without the A/C, the best savings are likely to be with the A/C on.

As I noted previously, it seems to me that the use of this system has completely eliminated the A/C penalty on mpg - and for me that might turn out to be one of the biggest benefits. It looks like I can use as much A/C
as I need - even on 100+ degree heat index days - without any impact at all on how much gasoline I use.

Jack

 

This week I made an out of town trip by air. I had a full charge on the auxiliary battery pack starting out.

The Trip to airport on Monday AM (25 mi @ 60 mph+ interstate for 20 of those mi) gave 53 mpg and did not deplete the charge. Summer heat has arrived in Houston; so, the A/C was definitely on.

I estimate that without Enginer system I would have done 40 mpg on this trip using A/C.

On the return trip from the airport on Thursday the aux battery pack charge was effectively depleted 16 miles, or 41 miles, total, including the 25 mi trip out.

For the entire 50-mile round trip (all with A/C) I averaged 50.4 mpg. The difference from the 53 mpg logged on the trip out may well mean that on the final 9 mi of the return trip I got the approximately 40 mpg that I would normally get on this trip with A/C.

Tentative conclusions are

1. The range for effective use of the batteries with this type of trip was 41 miles, somewhat greater than I expected based on my city driving experience.

2. It looks like the unit saved me about 25% of my expected gas consumption for this trip, at over the first 41 miles. It appears that percentage fuel savings will be greatest in city driving - not on the interstate.

 

Last week, I posted the following. Yesterday I repeated same trip. Result this time: 57.0 mpg.

 

Jack,

I looked long and hard at this system the past weekend and concluded, much like yourself, that the benefits are most likely to occur on short, in town trips and not on the interstate system. Most of my travel however (90%+/-) is on interstate highway systems. I usually average around 25 to 30 thousand miles a year on my cars and with this 2008 having 65,000 on the clock, I'm on track for my average.

As much as the added mileage in town interests me, I know in deep down that I would never reach "payback" with a system like this one. The hookups look simple enough to make (as long as you are careful...) and would make for a nice project to complete but the ROI keeps holding me back. I do look forward to watching how you fare over some longer distance driving at speed to see if the new "pack" somehow helps with electric "boost" the system gives the ICE on occasion.

 

True enough.

Benefits of reductions in gasoline use and carbon dioxide emissions are pretty much assured for all, but return of investment in a reasonable time would depend on both the length and type of driving.

In fact, payback in a reasonable time does not work out either for high miles per year of high speed highway driving or for very low miles per year even with slower driving.

As I've noted previously, I'll need to get a lot more experience before doing truly reliable estimates, but the situation is becoming clearer already:

For high speed highway driving, if you're already be getting 40 mpg, it looks like the gas savings would be only on the order of 20%. At that rate (even if gas prices were to rise noticeably and electricity were free) it looks like the payback could require over 250,000 miles. And at 15,000 miles a year it might take nearly 20 years ( if you can only re-charge once a day). Over 20,000 miles per year and you'd be sure to wear the car out before you saved back the cost of the 4 KWH unit.

On the other hand, if you drive less than about 3,000 miles a year, even if you gould save most of your gasoline cost, you'd save so few dollars that you still would save less than $200 per year, and again the payback would take close to 20 years even for the 2 KWH unit.

In the middle, the picture is rosier.

For mostly city driving, it appears to me now that savings of about 4 cents a mile are possible (presuming $2.75 per gallon for the gas and 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for the electricity) as long as you don't often exceed the miles range of the auxiliary battery assist (approximately 40 miles for the 4-KWH unit). This means that at 15,000 miles per year, you could pay back the 4-KWH unit in about 6 years and 90,000 miles. Alternately, at 7,500 miles per year, you could pay back the 2-KWH unit in about 7 years and 50,000 miles.

As an aside, I'd note that if you don't keep your car for at least something on the order of 6 years, you could well pay a penalty in turnover costs and depreciation that could rival or even exceed the cost of the Enginer unit.

More info to come, as available.

Jack