Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicman
Actually, the only one of those that will inconvenience me is in a few years when I have to retrofit my truck to be legal. It's an '06 so I have a few years yet before I'll have to make the change. Luckily, it’s a Cummins engine, which is supposed to be the cheapest to convert over (once the technology is actually out of R&D).I have an APU that is a Tier 3 unit, so the most I'll have to do to it is add a particulate filter when they force me to finally comply with that regulation.
It's mostly the idea that those bastards think they have the right to make such radical changes. I think global warming is either complete BS or just the natural cycle this planet has been in for millennia; but I agree that a clean environment is a nice thing to live and work in and don't mind making SENSIBLE changes to help achieve that end, like using an APU... besides it saves wear and tear on my truck and saves a ton of fuel. It's just that some of the things they are mandating, the technology doesn’t even exist yet to make it possible. I don’t think CARB will be happy until our trucks run on sunshine and expel purified water from the exhaust.
What I’m really hoping for, though I’m not counting on it, is that by the time I’m mandated to make these changes, somebody in government will have grown a brain and put a stop to the madness.
It's going to come down to electric motors. Eventually they will realize it is impossible to achieve what they want to achieve with combustion engines.
There are a lot of pros and cons to an electrical solution however.
Pros:
Obviously no footprint by the vehicle itself (Emissions, fuel, etc)
Electric motors are much more efficient
Electric motors can have much greater torq for pulling
Electric motors are much more quiet
Electric motors have easyer upkeep and maintenance
Cons:
Much heavyer and heftyer in size (Including batteries)
Much much more expensive upfront costs
The real problem too will be how to keep these electric motors going. There are 2 options, one is onboard generator much like how a train works. Trains are much more efficient then straight diesel engines, however you will need a rather large rig therefor very heavy to accommodate everything required to make it possible, plus you are still generating emissions. Second is to use shore power, which means you must recharge your truck. This means all trucks would have to park somewhere with shore power hookup. Also would be a problem with how quickly it would take to charge vs how long you can run on a charge. It would be possible to probably setup a system to allow you to fully charge a truck in 10 hours and get 700 or so miles out of it.
Personally the most realistic method would be to use a diesel generator. Ultimately your full tanks of fuel could last you many days, vs having to fuel up every day and a half or so, plus your emissions will be much much lower.