I've often thought about all the energy being wasted with braking applications and exhaust braking on down grades. It's only a matter of time before our rvs will have electric drive axles to help hold back on the down hill while charging a battery pack so the energy can be used to help push us up the up hill sections of our journey. Instead of having 500 hp under the hood we could get by with a more fuel efficient 300 hp diesel and have another 200 hp available at our trailer axles.

Interesting idea, would seem to have an application for the trucking industry. Sounds expensive though. You would also have to figure that the weight of the system would count againt the amount of available cargo capacity, but maybe the math would work out.

Or just switch to an electtic drivetrain and do the breaking by regeneration the way EV cars do it now. iWorks think within four or 5 years this will start to show itself in a bigger way in the truck world.

ksss wrote:Interesting idea, would seem to have an application for the trucking industry. Sounds expensive though. You would also have to figure that the weight of the system would count againt the amount of available cargo capacity, but maybe the math would work out.Although I haven't seen one in use yet, there are companies manufacturing electric trailer axles for the trucking industry. I believe there is government policy in place that allows the GVWR of the trailer to be raised by the additional axle/battery weight so the payload is not affected.

Nope, not yet. They are more efficient than the old ‘gas guzzlers’ I remember as a child. I also do not believe the production of li-ion batteries is helpful to the environment at all. All energy comes with a price. Nothing is free. The regenerative braking is a cool idea though. Thanks!Jeremiah

A German company has shown an intriguing prototype.Self propelled camperOne big advantage of a driven trailer would be the extra traction available.A big disadvantage is that the drive train wouldn't get used nearly as much as it would in tow vehicle so payback would be much longer. However, if the system makes such that you can pull the trailer with a much smaller vehicle there could be some real advantages in that.

Have our trucks got too much power yet? | Good Sam Community

63 Replies

4x4ord
Explorer III
Nov 30, 2019
ksss wrote:
Interesting idea, would seem to have an application for the trucking industry. Sounds expensive though. You would also have to figure that the weight of the system would count againt the amount of available cargo capacity, but maybe the math would work out.

Although I haven't seen one in use yet, there are companies manufacturing electric trailer axles for the trucking industry. I believe there is government policy in place that allows the GVWR of the trailer to be raised by the additional axle/battery weight so the payload is not affected.
Reisender
Nomad
Nov 30, 2019
Or just switch to an electtic drivetrain and do the breaking by regeneration the way EV cars do it now. iWorks think within four or 5 years this will start to show itself in a bigger way in the truck world.
ksss
Explorer
Nov 30, 2019
Interesting idea, would seem to have an application for the trucking industry. Sounds expensive though. You would also have to figure that the weight of the system would count againt the amount of available cargo capacity, but maybe the math would work out.

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Have our trucks got too much power yet?

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