Gadget Man 55

How about if you had a couple of very big coil springs like in a watch, mounted under the floorboard of the vehicle on top of each other. The springs could be wound by a small diesel engine. When starting off the day the diesel engine would make certain both springs were wound to the maximum capacity which would happen when you shut the vehicle off. When starting off on a trip the next day the vehicle would be powered by one spring until the spring reached a predetermined state of being unwound. Say, for example 75%. When that happened the vehicle would start running off the other, fully wound spring and the diesel engine would wind the other spring to its full 100% capacity switching back and forth as the springs became unwound. I do see a problem though that would have to be overcome. When slowing down or stopping or even traveling at a steady speed there would have to be some control over the springs so that the full power of the spring could be reduced or increased depending on the driving conditions. Some type of a mechanical rheostat. Also the springs would have to be made so that they had a long life without breaking. The floorboard of the vehicle would have to be made very strong just in case a spring would break for safety reasons. Naturally the cost to make the springs could not be cost prohibitive. The diesel engine would have to be small enough to to the job without using too much fuel or what would be the point of using springs to power the vehicle.