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Freightliner concept truck shows off new design trends in Class 8


twintornados

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But your SD doesn't have 320 sf of solar panels, a huge bank of batteries with an electric motor and a boiler/generator. :)

 

And it isn't towing 65k lbs either! :)

 

It would be awesome if they could bring this tech to production at a reasonable cost. With a savings of $28k/year (at today's cheap diesel prices), a reasonable cost could be an additional $100k per truck.

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Curious as to why you guys think the solar panels aren't feasible. I know not all trucks and trailers are matched all the time, but many are. For those that are, or where the trailer doesn't sit for prolonged periods, I could definitely see it as doable. It seems much more straight forward and easier to implement than the boiler. Just have a section at the front of the trailer, or underneath, to house the batteries. When the truck switches trailers, the batteries are charged up and ready to power the truck.

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Maybe for a dedicated trailer, but even then I think the cost of such a large array might be prohibitive.

 

They've come down considerably lately. To cover 350 ft2 would run about $7k (just for the panels), and that's about 5kW DC. Of course, that's just the cost of the solar panels themselves.

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If a fleet operator were to buy a bunch of solar panel equipped trailers, when they are not on the road, they could be plugged into a local grid to provide electricity while sitting in the operators parking lot...just a thought.

Not necessarily ideal since they want the fleets moving but it could be a real benefit during slow periods or even just while trailers are being filled.

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I didn't understand the boiler thing.....does that mean it has to have an additional tank for the water it needs to boil?

 

A small one - it would be recycled. Just run the exhaust through the water tank, it boils, generates steam, turns a turbine connected to a small generator and returns to the tank as water.

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Amazing what results you can get when you throw 115 mil on an issue. I wonder how much F'liner got for their efforts? No doubt we at some point will see some of this trickle down but I wonder how much better off we would be if some sort of control parameters were in place on these grants that somehow entered the element of cost effectiveness into the picture.

 

Or do they currently do that?

 

No doubt a lot of surface area on the roof of the typical highway box-an increasing number of which are 53' long and 102" wide, but tractors dedicated to specific trailers are I would have to think less than one percent of the freight box pool.

 

But again-its a concept.

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You figure out what works then you work to make it cost effective. Solar power for homes is common now - 30 years ago it was super expensive. Same for batteries.

 

I don't see anything they did that was super exotic or extremely expensive - they just put them all together at the same time.

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Amazing what results you can get when you throw 115 mil on an issue. I wonder how much F'liner got for their efforts? No doubt we at some point will see some of this trickle down but I wonder how much better off we would be if some sort of control parameters were in place on these grants that somehow entered the element of cost effectiveness into the picture.

 

Or do they currently do that?

 

No doubt a lot of surface area on the roof of the typical highway box-an increasing number of which are 53' long and 102" wide, but tractors dedicated to specific trailers are I would have to think less than one percent of the freight box pool.

 

Found the answer-F'liner got 40 mil that they had to match-so this is the result of 80 million of engineering research.

 

You figure out what works then you work to make it cost effective. Solar power for homes is common now - 30 years ago it was super expensive. Same for batteries.

 

I don't see anything they did that was super exotic or extremely expensive - they just put them all together at the same time.

 

 

But again-its a concept.

Agree you figure out what works-but I would rather see my tax dollars tied to some cost effectiveness parameter up front-with obvious leeway to compensate for economy of scale when full production is factored in.

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I didn't understand the boiler thing.....does that mean it has to have an additional tank for the water it needs to boil?

They do this in commercial buildings. The solar energy heats the water which they use to help heat the building, once it goes through the radiators it returns to the boiler as cool water and the cycle restarts.

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Agree you figure out what works-but I would rather see my tax dollars tied to some cost effectiveness parameter up front-with obvious leeway to compensate for economy of scale when full production is factored in.

 

Half of the cost effectiveness equation is fuel savings. You don't know how much fuel something will save until you actually build it and test it.

 

Nothing they used is exotic or super expensive. And given how many miles are driven by trucks every year and the potential savings of just 1 or 2 mpg, this seems like money well spent. Don't forget there was a lot of aerodynamic improvements that could be applied to all trucks without any additional cost, just a different design.

 

I'd much rather see the money spent this way than to see it subsidize Nissan Leaf leases.

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Further info on this 12.2 MPG "success story":

 

-The route was a 312 mile RT On I-35, San Antonio-Dallas. Can anyone comment on nature of this route? Relatively flat? Significant issue.

 

-GVW was 65,000 lbs. Why didn't they use Federal max of 80,000 lbs for five axles?

 

-Engine was a 10.7L @ 375 HP and speed was limited to 65 MPH. That is a "safe" HP rating and a "safe" max speed to generate good MPG. You could say this would be a reasonable baseline for a "corporate" operation. Typical owner operator? Not likely

 

-Rear axle ratio of 2.28. While I have no clue what trans. ratio in top gear was, I have never heard of a tractor with such a tall rear end ratio. Such a ratio IMO would work on only the optimal route-namely flat, minimal wind conditions and something less than max GCW. If ever there was a tractor that could "smell a grade", this would be it!

 

No doubt some of this will "trickle down". But how much and at what cost. And by the way-as I've said before-old guy here! Not that old however that I go back to the days of "bull nose" trailers, but I go back to the days when the Rudkin -Wiley cab airshield made its debut-followed by the various bulbous "nose cones" that were affixed to the nose of the typical square nose box to improve economy. These were relatively low cost add ons that did improve economy. And speaking of economy, 4.5 mpg was not considered outrageous at 73,280 to 80,000 lbs when you kept a diesel at 2100 RPM.

 

I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just trying to say with these test parameters, not shocked by this success. And like I said, F'liner got 40 mil of our tax dollars for this "experiment"? As I see it, Daimler got a good deal courtesy of the US taxpayer. Typical government sponsored exercise.

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