[MarkTruck]

anyone heard of this?
I think it would be great if it works!
marktruck

[PackRatTDI]

They experimented with gas turbine engines in trucks decades ago. They were rather inefficient and put out way too much exhaust.

[Ian Williams]

Turbine engines have ungodly fuel consumption. For fuel consumption they dont really have a "low" setting, they use almost as much at idle as under load.

IIRC the M1 Abrams tank gets about 3/5 of the mileage of comprable tanks (Leopard 2, Challanger 2, Merkava 3, Lecleric) equipped with a modern diesel.

According to the wikipedia just starting the engine on an M1 uses 40 literes of fuel!

It would be a total non-starter in a commercial application.

[allan5oh]

Not only that, they run SUPER hot just idling. They need to move to cool down!

[The_Tucson_Kid]

Doesn't caterpillar use turbines in their very large mining dump trucks. Seems that there must be more to the story. I always thought it was an expense issue and that they were more efficient than standard reciprocating engines but that the technology did not make them cost effective for anything less than the most expensive vehicles like dump trucks and locomotives.

[The_Tucson_Kid]

http://cwcdn.geimaginationatwork.com...ork/flash.html

OK maybe not locomotives.

[PackRatTDI]

Originally Posted by The_Tucson_Kid

Doesn't caterpillar use turbines in their very large mining dump trucks. Seems that there must be more to the story. I always thought it was an expense issue and that they were more efficient than standard reciprocating engines but that the technology did not make them cost effective for anything less than the most expensive vehicles like dump trucks and locomotives.

I used to deliver soda to a copper mine in southwestern NM and all the big mining trucks there used big quad turbocharged V-16 Caterpillar diesel engines.

[Blind Driver]

Locomotives use a diesel engine to power the generator that runs the electric motors

[KD7MIR]

most of the big haulpacks you see in mining are deisel electric. The diesel runs a generator which powers electric motors at each wheel

[The_Tucson_Kid]

Yep, you guys are right, I had my facts all wrong. Sorry for the confusion. I even checked Komatsu, all standard diesel engines.