Have our trucks got too much power yet?

4x4ord wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
Commercial trucks things can be viable because they do 50-100k miles per year so even very small per mile improvements can be justified.

RV's...might average a couple thousand miles per year.

But even with trucks, freeway driving, there isn't a huge savings from going the hybrid route (even in mountains). Where hybrids shine is stop and go traffic....city busses, garbage trucks, UPS trucks but those have wildly different use patterns compared to the typical RV.

Keep in mind, once you get a diesel up in the 50-90% of max power range, you don't see a lot of difference in efficiency over that range, so there isn't a lot to gain.

If your right (and you're probably not far off) that the typical RV is only used 2k miles per year that means about 90% of a typical pick up's miles are spent without a trailer in tow. Even when the trailer is in tow only about 110 hp is required for cruising down the highway so we end up buying a 475 hp engine that gets employed for 1% of its life. The rest of the time a 220 to 300 hp engine would work just fine. In spite of that I agree with you that there might not be enough savings to warrant the the cost of electric drive trailer axles .... depends what they will cost.

valhalla360 wrote:
Commercial trucks things can be viable because they do 50-100k miles per year so even very small per mile improvements can be justified.

RV's...might average a couple thousand miles per year.

But even with trucks, freeway driving, there isn't a huge savings from going the hybrid route (even in mountains). Where hybrids shine is stop and go traffic....city busses, garbage trucks, UPS trucks but those have wildly different use patterns compared to the typical RV.

Keep in mind, once you get a diesel up in the 50-90% of max power range, you don't see a lot of difference in efficiency over that range, so there isn't a lot to gain.

FishOnOne wrote:
I'll take the 500 hp... Thank you very much!

Cummins12V98 wrote:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ksss wrote:

4x4ord wrote:

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.

A Government came up with that allowance.....any Government? I am surprised. Goes to show though that highway weight restrictions on trucks are arbitrary at best.

4x4ord wrote:

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.

Bedlam wrote:
A plug in hybrid would work well as a tow vehicle, but the weight, cost and complexity makes it hard to recover any savings unless driven high mileage. I would like see regenerative braking take over friction based brakes so there would no longer be a need for a discs, drums, shoes or pads - I'm not sure if we can completely get away from conventional brake systems yet...