The horror:

I dunno if you all have noticed it or not but today’s truck is a technological nightmare, what a convoluted, hayseed, thrown-together adhoc mess. It would make Rube Goldberg proud. I was sitting in my lawn chair the other day smoking a ceegar and looking at my truck …drip, drip oil onto the drive way..(it’s not leaking….it’s just marking it’s territory)…

I’d had it in the shop just last week to have that fixed…

…………and I got to actually thinking about what all was involved.

Just off the top of my head and with no attempt at being exhaustive or complete there are:

The Engine….with all it’s multiple components… (touched on in a previous post about “more electric”)

The electrical system: which consists of the alternator, the battery, lights, wires, sockets and switches galore…and more.

The brake system : which consists of the air compressor, air lines, brake shoes, drums, pods and more.

The suspension: which consists of , air lines, air bags, bearings, bushing, and more.

The environmental systems: which consists of the heater, the air conditioner, defroster and more:

The Drive Train:which consists of the Transmission, the differentials, Drive shaft, U-joints and many bearings and bushings…and more.

Wheels….Tires..frames…bumpers……more….more ….MORE!!!!

In addition this rolling miscarriage of technological immaturity has to be balanced, greased, fueled, serviced, and in general treated with the misgiving that you would treat a baby playing with a live hand grenade. It’s gonna go boom….not IF but WHEN.

It’s all so depressing…. something is ALWAYS breaking…no matter how good your maintainence program. Yeah, yeah…I know….today’s trucks are more efficient and reliable and etc. etc ,and yadda, yadda. Bleh.

I’ve heard it.

When you’re an owner operator struggling to make ends meet….they’re not reliable ENOUGH!

And expensive. Ooooooh SO expensive…….getting more expensive. Getting a truck worked on invariably involves a day or more down time, typically a hundred dollars an HOUR shop fee and huge parts costs. Woe be unto you if your truck breaks down on the road and has to be towed. That gets expensive in a hurry. Plus there are more rules, requirements and “gotcha’s” all the time. Anti-idling laws and emissions laws and ………….laws. All of this adds to the expense and frustration.

As I said…..Very depressing.

Fortunately ……all is not lost. It’s following a patten. The Life Cycle of Technology. All systems follow this pattern. Sometimes in the early stages of a technology it is more complex than it is when mature. More difficult to use and maintain.

Life cycle comparison…Truck/computer

Look at computers. The early computers were kinda like trucks. Hugely complex and hard to work on. Today’s computers? Well they’re immensely more powerful than the earlier ones. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that a typical computer of today can be purchased for a few hundred dollars and is more powerful than the million dollar machines of a few years back. Since they’re getting so cheap…fixing them isn’t much of a problem. For one thing they tend to be modular. Did the hard drive break? Yank it and stick in another one…..like changing a tire only quicker. The same applies to all the other subcomponents….(keyboard, monitor, etc, etc..even the Mother Board……) You know it’s not Rocket Science (or Truck Repair) when you see your sub-teen grand kid swap components amongst his SEVERAL computers.

Let’s put this in perspective. Decades ago you could buy a fleet of trucks for what one computer would cost. Today it’s the reverse. Sooooooooo far the reverse that’s it’s barely conceivable.

Trucks are going to HAVE to change though. All technologies do. Laws are being passed to force them to change. Anti-idle and emissions regulations for example. States like California seem to be eager to pass oodles and gobs of such laws.. So…. how is the truck going to change? Goods will still need to be moved. (for the time being….until Fab@Home matures) We still need trucks….or something. More of the same incremental change? Perhaps. That’s what’s been happening for the entirety of the trucks existence.

Maybe so…but maybe the increments will get bigger….and occur faster.

Hybrid Electric and Full Electric

The first major change will be that trucks, some trucks, will become Hybrid Electrics. I’ve made a couple of Posts about that. It’s already happening.

Also there’s full electric.

As far as simplicity is concerned the Wal-Mart Hybrid is a step backwards. It’s MORE complex. It’ll work over a long haul run though…probably….for a while, until the extreme complexity causes problems.

The Smith Electric is much more simple.They’re bringing straight electric trucks to the US now. They won’t work for long haul though. A full electric truck is just a golf cart’s big brother. Really BIG brother. With frills. It’s work fine except for one minor detail. Notably it’s the batteries.

It has to do with Energy Density. Today’s batteries just don’t have it. They can’t compete with gasoline much less diesel. Notice the chart at the link? Diesel = 10,942Wh/l, Gasoline 9,700 Wh/l and the tried but untrue Lead Acid Battery 40 Wh/l. Do the math. a liter of Diesel has 2773.5 times more energy per volume than does a lead acid battery. Plus …fueling a diesel doesn’t take all nite. (although it seemed to take FOREVER the other morning when I fueled up at a little truck stop just south of Austin….slooooooow)

So batteries are not where it’s at unless some changes are made.

And the changes ARE being made.

Once again….incremental changes.
Fuel Cell

A fuel cell is NOT a battery…although it produces electricity. (hint…it uses fuel) It uses fuel to make electricity, when the fuel runs out it needs to be re-fueled. This seems like a good idea and it is. NASA has been using it for decades. The problem is the fuel. Up until recently the most usable fuel cells were something called PEM or Proton Exchange Membranes. PEM uses pure hydrogen. Very pure hydrogen and any little impurity “poisons” it. Over the years it’s gotten better though. Recently very much better.

Some time ago the Feds in the personna of the National Energy Technology Laboratory decided to do something about the hydrogen only problem. They, in partnership with industry, set out to make a fuel cell that would run off of regular, buy anywhere, fuel…diesel, gasoline or whatnot. They called it SECA

“………… produce a core solid-state fuel cell module that could be produced at a cost of no more than $400 per kilowatt by 2010. The key development in achieving that goal is the development of a compact, lightweight, 5-kilowatt “building block” module that can be mass-produced.”

At first glance this may not sound like much. But trust me on this. This is a BIG DEAL.

When they get the “building block” completed it will be in some ways analogous to a computer’s “chip”. It’ll work or it won’t work. If it don’t work yank it and replace it. Modular. Five minute job and you’re rolling. It could be additive also. You need a hundred horsepower?….you need five hundred….keep adding “blocks”.

They’ve almost got it whipped.Meanwhile other outfits…Acumentrics , Idatech to name two… and quiet a few others are working toward that same goal. Solid oxide fuel cells work NOW…they work efficiently and reliably using easily available fuel. They just cost too much. They’re working on that.
The suspension system will also change. It’s surprising but the suspension system also contributes toward fuel economy. All that uppy-downy’s bottomline ? That’s fuel that was turned into heat instead of forward motion. Wasteful.

Enter active suspensions.

Suspensions are now changed.. Kind of like regenerative braking the energy that would normally be wasted is stored and reused….that results in better fuel economy. A lot better ride too.

The Germans aren’t satisfied with any of that. They are thinking big with their eCorner.

So…it’s all changing.

I’m hoping that in the not too distant future I can buy a truck that’s modular (plug and play parts…easily swapped) with an electric drive train. Either a fuel cell, or some type of ICE would provide power. Cheaper, and more reliable.

We can rebuild him…….We have the technology.

I can’t wait actually.