From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sat Aug 19 2000 - 17:48:05 MDT
Everitt Mickey wrote:
> Yup...it's a whole nuther order of magnitude. My new truck is barely
> broke in....when it turns a hundred grand I'm thinking of having it turned
> up to it's full rated horsepower...
EvMick, have you ever heard of a commercial class rig that was
anything other than a deisel? Does anyone know about fire engines?
Those arent diesel, surely.
I have a notion about hybrid technology for an 18 wheeler.
One could arrange electric motors at six locations, then haul a
number of modular internal combustion-electric motor
combinations below the cab. I could imagine a horizontally
opposed four cylinder engine, perhaps even air cooled, adapted
for burning ethanol, displacement of about 1.5 liters each,
optimized to spin about 4k RPM. Each unit would be
completely modular, perhaps light enough to be hoisted by two
husky boys. Im estimating each one would turn out about 70
horsepower each, and weigh about 300 pounds with generator
attached. Undertandable units: about 50 kw and 150 kg each.
Four such engines and about 500 kw-hrs of batteries, which
would weigh about 200 kg, and you would have a truck which
would perhaps be slower to accelerate than your 550 hp rig,
but would cruise the highways at 110 kph without difficulty.
Furthermore, it would be extremely reliable, as each of the
four i.c. engines and each of 6 electric motors would be completely
independent. Looks like a scheme we could get the failed
Algore administration or the failed George W. administration
to subsidize with tax breaks for fermentation-grade-corn growers.
spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:30:32 MST