Shock absorbers?

Do you mean this kind of thing:

Exactly what I was thinking of.

The message from "Richard" contains these words:

Unless you could generate some electricity and then dissipate it in a resistor somewhere you'd only create springs. Of course, cunningly arranged aluminium fins would mean you could generate eddy currents and air-cool the whole thing with fans, but it strikes me as a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Existing dampers aren't ill suited to the job most people expect them to perform.

The message from "Richard" contains these words:

Really? I read it as being interested in permanent magnets. These are in effect electric motors that jack the wheels up and down.

Looks awfully like "bose invent the citroen activa suspension, several years too late"...

cheers, clive

On the other hand if you could feed the energy absorbed into the battery rather than dissipating it as heat that might be an idea.

If you already had motors in place for doing active suspension like the Bose system, if you could also use those motors in reverse as generators to do the damping you could reclaim a bit of energy.

The message from Ben C contains these words:

Certainly the Bose system looks like it'd take a lot of power.

According to the site, it uses less than a third of the power of a normal vehicle air conditioning system.

Clive George ( snipped-for-privacy@xxxx-x.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Even the Activa was 40 years after Citroen had DSs running with active anti-roll - even leaning into corners.

There ain't nothing new.

old know all...................how's the neck holding up

Bose Suspension System (Bose is a privately owned company in Massachusetts, USA) "...It's been in development since 1980, and so far they've [Bose] only got it on a 1994 Lexus test mule, but rumor has it that Cadillac may offer the Bose system as an option on an upcoming car..."

(3/4 down the page)This was written in December, 2004. No other company has done any test on the new technology ASAIK.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Richard" saying something like:

When I was 6 or so I had a pair of ring magnets from a CRT tube sliding up and down a bog roll. Amazing magnetic repulsion suspension, it was.