Tow cars and trailers

Well, gas is $3.50/Gal in many parts of the US and who is to say it won't be
$4/gal next summer. This is starting to hurt - and getting me to think of a
more economical vehicle.

Many of us drive larger vehicles than we might otherwise choose simply to
pull our trailers 1% of the time. 99% of the time, we could be driving,
say, a Volkswagen Passat TDI diesel getting 45mpg. The problem isn't the
gas milage when towing a glider trailer. We don't do that often enough for
it to impact out annual fuel budget. The problem is a big SUV as a daily
driver.

So, are there any tricks here? One is to simply own two cars. One to pull
a trailer and another for a daily driver that gets good milage. Paying
license fees, insurance and other fixed costs for a vehicle driven 1% of the
time seems outrageous though.

The other thread about surge brakes got me thinking WAY outside the box. Is
there a way for the trailer to be self-propelled? If one were to install a
load sensor in the trailer tongue that could sense the pull of the tow
vehicle as well as the push of an over-running trailer, could that control a
small power plant in the trailer that drove the trailer's wheels? If done
perfectly, a light towing vehicle might not feel the trailer at all.

If the trailer power were electric, you would have a parallel, plug-in
hybrid. The car engine would charge the trailer batteries when they were
not needed for propulsion and the electrics would kick in on the hills.
Downhill regenerative braking would also charge the trailer batteries as
could large solar panels on the trailer.

It might work fine for a short commute to the glider field and maybe not so
well on a cross country trip but it's fun thinking about.

Bill Daniels