Re: [OT]: Trailers, John A, and Barbarians

Barclay, Tom wrote:

>1) Trailers. 
>Grav trailer: why? As you pointed out in our offline discussion of
>appropriate engineering assets, having a variety of trailers you 
>can attach just makes sense.

The grav trailer needs its own near-full-sized grav engine. Simply
providing the lifting force isn't enough; it also needs the
side-to-side
maneuvering capability as well or it'll whip out in every curve the
main
vehicle makes (imagine driving with a loaded trailer on smooth ice,
with smooth tyres... then remove the ground friction :-/ ). The only
thing which keeps a usable grav trailer from being a straight-up
robotic vehicle is that it'd take its maneuvering commands from the
main vehicle instead of from an on-board computer brain. GEV trailers
have exactly the same problem.

>Maybe the AG unit (or GEV) unit in the trailer is powered by some
>sort of electrical PTO from the main vehicle 

That assumes a *seriously* over-sized powerplant on the main vehicle,
though. Very unlikely, unless the main vehicle is purpose-built for
towing
grav/GEV trailers.

Regards,
 
Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."