Interesting concept-but will it work???

[SweetMK]

Big toy....what happens when you make a sharp turn and run over the cord? Could be exhilarating....

It was a rule..

ANYONE that ran over the cord was instantly fired,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The machine was fast,, well, relatively,,

one day we "passed" a D9 CAT that was moving to another location (blade up)
I would have thought the machine would be slower.

On the tracks,,
EACH one of the pads weighed 2,000 pounds.

The bucket held 100 tons of overburden (dirt and rock)
The truck that hauled the overburden carried 240 tons.
So it took 2.5 shovel loads to fill the haul truck.
The haul truck was the diesel-electric mentioned in a previous post.
They had two haul trucks,, and they moved FAST!!

After the overburden was removed, a "small" CAT articulated loader would load the coal onto dump trucks.

 

[Pisgah]

How innovative! I remember reading articles in Mother Earth News, 1971, about doing the electric motor/gas generator idea on a VW Bug...

 

[Bekeart]

Retired electric shovel

The post by SweetMK

Reminded me of a visit to see a Retired electric shovel when I lived in Kansas.
When if reached the practical end pf the coal seam it was retired.
Cost to disassemble and remove would have been far in excess of scrap value.
Became a museum piece.


Big Burtus

Big Brutus - Wikipedia

Big Brutus is the nickname of the Bucyrus-Erie model 1850-B electric shovel,
which was the second largest of its type in operation in the 1960s and 1970s.
Big Brutus is the centerpiece of a mining museum in West Mineral, Kansas,
where it was used in coal strip mining operations.

Bekeart

 

[s&wchad]

Interesting...
Estimated price is $60-78K.

Car and Driver - 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Hybrid

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I think the forum has a product testing fund out there somewhere. Perhaps the moderators can see fit to tap it, buy one of these bad boys for testing purposes, let the various moderators test it in differing terrains, climates and driving styles and provide a comprehensive report to the rest of the members. Kinda like consumer reports, only for old guys who like guns and pick up trucks.

 

[Bekeart]

Sounds like a plan for a well know un-named organization

I think the forum has a product testing fund out there somewhere. Perhaps the moderators can see fit to tap it, buy one of these bad boys for testing purposes, let the various moderators test it in differing terrains, climates and driving styles and provide a comprehensive report to the rest of the members. Kinda like consumer reports, only for old guys who like guns and pick up trucks.

Elected directors get paid to test ...

Bekeart

 

[Pete99004]

It's been done already - BMW i3 had a 9 year run from 2013 to last 2022. Made two models, one straight electric and one with "range extender" which had a small motorcycle engine rear mounted that powered a generator to "extend the range" by charging the battery. Only had a 2.5 gallon fuel tank here in the US to limit the use of the ICE. Read about it on Wikipedia.

BMW i3 - Wikipedia

Hope this helps.
Pete99004

 

[Bald1]

Sooooo it’s an electric vehicle with onboard generator. I guess all those memes and funny pics were a sign of the future…….. but the biggest problem is, it’s a Dodge

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I tend to Dodge Dodges.
You might want to reconsider that old Favorite,
Tesla with towed Generator.

 

[WR Moore]

Slightly off topic, the other day I saw one of those Tesla trucks. That thing hit every limb off a tall ugly tree on the way down. May have been aerodynamically efficient, but DAMN!

OK, the way diesel electric trains/dump trucks/earth movers run is that the engine turns a generator that powers the wheels. The battery bank is to mitigate surge demands on the generator. Like when starting from a standing stop or pulling a hill. The battery is only involved in the power supply for brief times. Not like many of the hybrids that are electric powered until they need more juice and the engine kicks in. I'd suspect that this is how the hybrid race cars that run at LeMans work.

That's not exactly the way the C&D review describes it, but I have to admit I never had a wiring skematic for the D/E equipment I ran at one point. OTOH, you don't need a V6 engine ( or 4000+ hp diesels in a locomotive) to run a generator unless it's handling serious load.

That the vehicle is built on a standard truck frame may indicate that a battery change might be possible from underneath. Seemed to be the way Ford did it on their etrucks. OTOH, you might have to remove the body to get at the battery tray. My late son indicated that was necessary for some work on todays trucks.

That's pretty much the way I'd build a fuel efficient vehicle. I expect the green weenies will hate it unless they come up with a solar panel to replace the ICE.

 

[Jon651]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/oth...S&cvid=d40428b23ee74677a7ccb028b756279b&ei=92

This looks good on paper-I'd go one step further and never plug in the truck but instead rely on the gas engine to continually repower the batteries or drive the electric engine. Seems like a new take on the diesel-electric locomotives.
What does the group think?

It's not QUITE the diesel-electric drive like you see on locomotives, but it's getting there. The article specifically states the gas motor only acts as a "range extender", which a few electric vehicle owners are already doing by keeping one of those portable "suitcase" type generators in their trunk for emergencies.

The latest thing for locomotives is to use several smaller motor-generator sets with a computer that spins each up or shuts each down based on need. Each set is modular so they can be removed individually without taking the entire locomotive out of service, plus the designated set for idling can be rotated between them to spread out the running hours evenly among all of them.

I for one would very much be interested in a true diesel-electric powerplant in a vehicle with a small battery pack under the bed for surge applications such as hard acceleration, etc. Diesels run best under a constant load/narrow RPM range (hence the 10-speed transmissions in many vehicles these days) so a motor-generator set-up should be quite efficient.

 

[tinkerer]

Appears to be something that might make sense. Moreso than some of the stuff coming down the pike.

 

[WR Moore]

Per Caj's link, the ICE can directly power the electric motors. Capitalized for emphasis.

"Attention, key point. To extend the vehicle's range, Ram has incorporated a gasoline-powered generator. This generator can EITHER CHARGE THE BATTERY OR DIRECTLY POWER THE ELECTRIC MOTORS, providing a safety net for long journeys or in areas with limited charginginfrastructure. The gasoline engine is not connected to the wheels, serving solely as a range extender."