Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

So you’re driving down the road minding your own business, not running late for your delivery appointment….but none too early either. Of course, this is a prime opportunity for Murphy. Being the demon that he is, he gets involved. Nothing major…just that when you next glance down at your voltmeter (you DO have a voltmeter don’t you?) it’s registering less than 12 volts and dropping. Being the well informed driver that you are it’s obvious at a glance that this is an aw-crap moment.

When the voltage drops to about ten your engine is gonna shut off and you’re looking at a tow. Kiss “on-time delivery” good-bye.

That’s one example of accessorial failure. The “accessory” in this case being the alternator. More than likely what happened is that the alternator blew a diode, or maybe it threw a belt. What ever the case it is now, “no workie”.

Other accessorial items on a Big Truck are the water pump, the air compressor, the Heating and Air Conditioning System, the Starter, and perhaps other’s which I can’t recall just now. These are items that are parasitic in nature in that they draw power to operate from the engine. Usually via gear drive (air compressor) or rubber belt (alternator) They have a different warranty level than the engine. My Cat was warrantied for something like five hundred thousand miles. Not so the air conditioner. They must be replaced much more frequently.

Surprisingly enough researchers have found that engine accessories put a load on the engine, (well…..duh…parasitic ) and thus require more fuel. Experiments have thus found that an engine operating with minimal accessories has better fuel economy than one that’s loaded down…..like with a starter and air compressor.

At first glance it would seem that not much can be done to take advantage of this situation. However, the bright lads at the Department of Energy have come up with a solution. No…they have NOT developed a nuclear engine. Well…they have but you can’t have one.

What they have expended some (quiet a lot actually) of our tax money on is a system called “More Electric” As the term implies it makes a truck more electric by electrifying accessories.

More Electric technology uses a generator to provide high-efficiency electrical power to drive several accessories on a flow/pressure/power-on-demand approach. The technology provides fuel savings, improved reliability, and several benefits such as better cold-weather starting.

According to the report.

Also they say….

The More Electric HVAC module has an electrically powered, hermetically sealed compressor.

According to one of the fellers doing the research they can save a whopping 2 per cent fuel economy. That’s nothing to sneeze at really. My fuel bill this year is going to be somewhere between 40 and 50 thousand dollars. Two percent of that would still be a significant chunk.

While the fuel saving would be nice what I’d like even better would be more reliability and ease of maintenance. Supposedly both happy qualities would ensue from a more electric truck.

I’d go out and buy retrofits today if it were available.

This isn’t a hybrid electric but it’s a step in the right direction.