Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

My truck is getting old. The “new car” smell is long gone. It’s closing in on the million mile mark pretty soon, another year or two. I’d like to have a new one. Being me as I’m sure most of my friends would tell you, it would be “different”. Different how? Well my motto is “if it breaks, replace it with something stronger”.

I had a differential bust in an unfortunate incident at a job site some years ago. I spent a week in the shop and had both of them replaced. Stouter ones, with a four/eleven gear ratio instead of three/fifty-five’s, better suited to what I do.

When my alternator quit I told the KW mechanic to “replace it with the biggest they make”. He did so and it’s double the size of what’s on a “freight hauler”. The same thing whenever I replace batteries. The ones on it now are the biggest Petro sells.

I’m an owner-operator. It’s my equipment, I pay for it. It comes out of MY bottom line when things go less smoothly, or less efficiently than they might have otherwise. So, given that philosophy what I want in a new truck is something better. Something stronger, something more reliable and cheaper to operate. Not surprisingly it wouldn’t be much like the current crop on the road today. Today’s trucks are so….. so…. twentieth century. I’d like to take advantages of some of the recent advances in technology.

I want an electric. Electricity is just so much more efficient. An electric motor beats an ICE (internal combustion engine) every way possible by any measure you care to make, be it efficiency, weight, torque, noise and smelliness. The only problem is energy storage.

A really, really long extension cord is out, even though that’s basically what a few cities have done with their electric buses for mass transit and street cars. Batteries don’t have the energy storage density, plus they have other downsides. Weight, toxicity, expense and time-to-charge come to mind.

Fuel Cells

Which means Fuel cells or a Hybrid. Fuel cells would be best, but they have a big problem. That problem is that they require hydrogen to operate. Hydrogen doesn’t play pretty in the real world, no matter what proponents of the “hydrogen economy” have to say, it just doesn’t. Steel embrittlement and the low energy density per unit of volume come to mind. In addition to these technical and engineering challenges there’s also the fuel infrastructure problem. In other words, I haven’t seen many fuel islands with “Hydrogen” as an option.

All might not be lost however, Fuel Cells might yet be an option. I’ve been keeping an eye on Franklin Fuel cells out of Malvern, PA. They claim to have succeeded in developing a fuel cell that runs off…. (drum roll)….. diesel. I very much wish them the best. If and when it comes on the market I’ll give it real close attention.

What is a Hybrid?

In the meantime it’s looking like a Hybrid is the way to go.What is a Hybrid? A hybrid automobile (or truck) uses dual power sources. Generally speaking it refers to an ICE/electric. In other words they have both batteries and an internal combustion engine. There are several (Okay, a few) on the market today (Honda, Lexus, Mercury, Saturn) and they’re all doing it WRONG.

Truck manufactures are aware of the advantages of Hybrids. There are prototypes.

• Like Dunn Lumber of Seattle. Smart man, he has a KW like me. Too bad it’s just a wimpy “medium duty” or I’d be REAL INTERESTED.
• Navistar is working on a version.
• There’s an outfit, NREL (apparently a branch of the US Government and therefore tax supported) which is doing research.
• Walmart even has one. This IS a class eight and I AM really REALLY INTERESTED.

But they’re doing it wrong too. Wrong, wrong, wrong. So very, very wrong.
They’re using a parallel system. In other words they have batteries and maybe ultra-capacitors, and an ICE and a transmission and differentials and drive shafts and brakes (drum or disc) and… and… Bad Ju-ju.

These guys are doing it right. They have a series system.

When and if I get a Hybrid I want a series hybrid, more like a locomotive. No heavy expensive eighteen speed transmission with possible “brownie” transmission which costs and weighs more. No heavy expensive 4-11 ratio differentials or possibly two-speed, which costs and weighs more. No heavy and expensive brake drums and pads, which wear out frequently. Nope, what I want is a series type HEV , but with In-wheels or something similar.

For example this article, this one, and this one illustrate my point. With a series hybrid and hub-motors (generic term for In-wheels) there is a HUGE increase in efficiency (much better fuel economy) . Then, by using non-parasitic accessories the efficiency goes up even more.

Accessories

Examples of parasitic accessories are – the air conditioning compressor, the air compressor, the alternator, the power steering and maybe others. A truck with none of those things would get much better fuel economy, but wouldn’t be enjoyable nor safe to drive. Running all of those things,and others, directly from the battery is more efficient. It’s not practical on today’s vehicles due to the relatively small batteries. Maybe it’s because of Murphy and Corporate, I dunno. On an HEV it’s a different story.

In my opinion non-parasitic accessories could be built modular. Much easier to fix. If it breaks (and it will) unplug and replace. No need to do the mechanical gymnastics the mechanic did the other day when he worked on my air conditioner (which still doesn’t work too well). This also means no more serpentine belts. I despise serpentine belts. And finally, my opinion, non-brand name ,”generic” non parasitical accessories by being “plug and play” will also be quiet a bit cheaper. This concept , among other concepts abundant in the computer industry and absent in the automotive industry, has dropped the price of multi-million dollar computers down to less than a thousand dollars, with increased performance.

Additionally, with hub-motors and some nifty electronics, great things are easily possible which are HARD with mechanical linkages. Things like all wheel drive, Anti-slip drive and anti-lock braking. Regenerative braking is easier. And then there are exotic applications, like reactive suspensions. So, to boil it all down to a few sentences. The truck I want is a series hybrid with ultra-capacitor and lithium ion battery , or possibly a vandium battery energy storage systems, diesel engine and hub-motors.

We’ll talk about the nifty in-cab electronics some other time.