Alternative power sources

They are supposed to be working on one right now. Its has an electric motor on all four drive wheels, lots of batteries and a small generator to charge said batteries. Dont know how far it will go due to cost and weight.

 

I'll bite. Give me some examples.

 

I've always thought the tops of vans would be a good place for solar panels, all these places that have rows and rows of them could have the drivers plug them in when they drop and reduce their electric bill.

For actually powering our trucks I can't imagine anything being too sustainable with electric or solar. Batteries are just too heavy to add on, sure you could fill a trailer with 40,000 lbs of batteries and drive that truck for a few days, but then you can't haul anything but the batteries.

 

Solar panels are a good idea, but how would you keep them clean so that they stay at optimum capacity? They'd only work during the day. You'd either have to cut the trailer down a few inches or get an overheight permit. Snow and ice would make them ineffective.

 

The newest technology in solar panels is very thin and light like paper. I'm not sure how much of a problem keeping them clean would be, or how much reduction in output as a result. A solar panel the size of a trailer roof would generally be enough power for 4 or 5 energy conscious households, however that hardly makes a dent in the power we use going down the road with a loaded trailer, I don't think it would be practical as a power source for the truck.

 

Some "napkin math":

Average household power draw (without heat/AC) is about 15,000W (15 kW). (An RV uses about that with AC.)

Before factoring losses, 350 HP (a small truck engine) is 261,100W (261 kW); a more reasonable number is 300 kW.

Side note: A battery bank large enough to run full power for 30 minutes (hill climbing) would weigh about 10 tons...

 

Dice has a big solar panel on the back of his sleeper (770 Volvo) looks to be folded onto the sleeper and pivots up when he is parked.. he has commented on it before, says it keeps his truck batteries fully charged when using accesories, but he hasn't been around TTR for a while now.

 

Had on my truck for over 3 years now.....










I mainly set it at a 45 degree angle like the 2nd picture shows and never move it.

I am working on getting peel and stick panels with a charge controller to market to the trucking industry.

Here is a peel and stick panel that is for RVs that is not exactly what I looking for because I want more watts output at 15 volts than this one produces. (this one is about 70 watts)



and I want to match them up with this company's product....


Northern Tool sales these: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200365182_200365182

Northern Tool also sales this with a 15 watt solar panel that is very small: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200328565_200328565



I am trying to find a solar panel manufacturer that will make me a 180 watt @15 volt peel and stick solar panel that will stick to the condo roofs of most OTR trucks with a charge controller/battery maintainer complete with 35' of wire that all you have to do is peel and stick, plug it in and hook to batteries for under $1,500.

I would like to hear from some of you guys if there is any interest in this before I make the investment to have some of these made?????