The ticking time bomb under the hood
Two of my friends had the Bosch CP4 high pressure fuel pump grenade in their 2012 F350s with the 6.7 liter Diesel. It took out the entire fuel system and injectors. Both trucks had over 130,000 mil...
Forum Discussion
Kayteg1 wrote:adamis wrote:
The next generation of Super Duty's will probably be some sort of Series Hybrid system, 4 Electric Motors at the wheels with a battery pack coupled with a small 4 cylinder turbo diesel tuned to run at constant RPM as needed to keep the battery packs topped off. While it will be a departure from what we are used to, I think the power and reliability of these types of trucks will far exceed the current capabilities after a couple of generations of refinement.
That type of hybrid works well in stop&go traffic and is widely used in city buses. You will see it in Yosemite Park shuttles.
But on highway cruising batteries discharge fast and become dead weight.
I think the way technology goes, all we need a little bit batteries and 1 hr recharge stations to go full electric.
Knowing you come from Nevada, the city of Beatty, NV (read Area 51) has a dozen of Tesla charging stations. Never seen anybody using it when gas stations usually have waiting lanes.
Not sure why you think it is only good for stop and go traffic. This method has been in use for decades on trains that are Diesel Electric and they don't seem to have the same issue with stop and go traffic. Just a quick mental exercise, hypothetically a V8 Diesel engine of 400HP might only need (as a WAG) 150HP (112KW) to haul down the freeway on flat ground loaded with decent load. Couple a 250HP 4 Cylinder Turbo Diesel running at the most efficient constant RPM. Couple that to a generator that is 85% efficient and you get 158KW of power. That leaves 46KW to keep the batteries topped off. Yes, my numbers are just WAGs that could be off by a significant margin. I'm not hanging my hat on the accuracy of them but they are within the right order of magnitude I believe. What I see from this exercise isn't something that is impossible with today's technology, just impracticable at this time.
Right now the big 3 are still able to produce an engine that meets emissions and consumer expectations but the consequences related back to the OP in that the sophistication can impact reliability. As emissions standards continue to tighten, Manufacturers are going to be trying to figure out how to make trucks that comply and there will be a tipping point where making a series hybrid makes sense compared to Big Iron Diesels.
