Some musings on future power trains
As an owner of a 32ft DP with a Cummins 6.7 diesel and two F150 pickup trucks with 3.5 Ecoboost engines I have long felt that the Ecoboost outperforms the Cummins used in this application, is quieter ...
Forum Discussion
There's a reason Ford doesn't put the ecoboost in the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. The ecoboost works great for your typical grocery getter who occasionally pulls a small trailer. Most of the time, it uses very little boost except for a few seconds on hard acceleration, so you aren't really stressing it much and it gets plenty of time to cool down after a hard 0-60 run.
When towing, the MPG drops like a rock but most people don't tow 10,000lb with a 1/2 regularly, so as long as it holds up for a while it never reaches the point of failure.
Drop that in a big MH pulling a 4000lb SUV and it's going to be running max boost pretty much all the time. Fuel efficiency will be horrible and yes, you will see motors worn out very quickly.
Hybrid is a different subject and is more viable though you still aren't likely to see the ecoboost replacing the diesel in a diesel pusher. More likely, they will put in a diesel engine that is 30-40% smaller. On flat ground, you don't need 400hp to maintain 60-70mph but they put them in so you can get better acceleration from a stop and to keep speed up on steep grades. With a hybrid, you might drop back to a 200-250hp diesel which can handle the load on flat ground but when you climb a hill, the batteries feed enough extra power to maintain speed. For a big MH, this is still going to be a big battery bank. If you need an extra 130hp (100kw) to handle steep grades, a 10kwh battery bank isn't going to do much as you will run it down in 5 min climbing a grade. You are probably looking at at least a 100kwh battery bank for a hybrid drivetrain, so it can handle a long steep climb.
The only question is will the small diesel gain enough efficiency over the big one to justify the cost and complication...pickups may go from 4,500lb running empty to GCVW north of 15,000lb towing (more than 300% increase in base weight). This means the engine that is ideal running empty is not ideal fully loaded up. With a DP, the loading might vary between 35,000 not towing and 38,000 pulling a small car (11% variation). The result is they can dial in a DP motor much better to typical loading, so a hybrid may not offer nearly as much improvement in efficiency from going hybrid.
Of course, a hybrid with a 100kwh battery bank that can service the house loads while parked offers a real opportunity to live like you have a generator without having a generator. In many ways that may be the bigger selling point over fuel efficiency.
When towing, the MPG drops like a rock but most people don't tow 10,000lb with a 1/2 regularly, so as long as it holds up for a while it never reaches the point of failure.
Drop that in a big MH pulling a 4000lb SUV and it's going to be running max boost pretty much all the time. Fuel efficiency will be horrible and yes, you will see motors worn out very quickly.
Hybrid is a different subject and is more viable though you still aren't likely to see the ecoboost replacing the diesel in a diesel pusher. More likely, they will put in a diesel engine that is 30-40% smaller. On flat ground, you don't need 400hp to maintain 60-70mph but they put them in so you can get better acceleration from a stop and to keep speed up on steep grades. With a hybrid, you might drop back to a 200-250hp diesel which can handle the load on flat ground but when you climb a hill, the batteries feed enough extra power to maintain speed. For a big MH, this is still going to be a big battery bank. If you need an extra 130hp (100kw) to handle steep grades, a 10kwh battery bank isn't going to do much as you will run it down in 5 min climbing a grade. You are probably looking at at least a 100kwh battery bank for a hybrid drivetrain, so it can handle a long steep climb.
The only question is will the small diesel gain enough efficiency over the big one to justify the cost and complication...pickups may go from 4,500lb running empty to GCVW north of 15,000lb towing (more than 300% increase in base weight). This means the engine that is ideal running empty is not ideal fully loaded up. With a DP, the loading might vary between 35,000 not towing and 38,000 pulling a small car (11% variation). The result is they can dial in a DP motor much better to typical loading, so a hybrid may not offer nearly as much improvement in efficiency from going hybrid.
Of course, a hybrid with a 100kwh battery bank that can service the house loads while parked offers a real opportunity to live like you have a generator without having a generator. In many ways that may be the bigger selling point over fuel efficiency.
