Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

That's the thing. Energy is neither created or destroyed, it only changes form. You lose energy every time you change one form of energy into another. Heat is wasted energy.

 

It works with smaller engines. I know a few guys that made their own using 4 small fans. The ones i know doing this have small engines (m11 cummins, 11.1 detroits, and a couple old Cummins small cams) no more than 400 hp. they also stay in flat ground with light loads. A couple years ago i tried to do the same but it isn't possible in my (or most) operation. I did it in January and it still hurt to darn hot for comfort running up 77. Had to drop several gears to keep from over heating. If it hadnt been the middle of January in a cold spell i would of had to hit the shoulder and call for a wrecker to keep from melting the engine.

 

The use of electric fans came up in the setting of an 48V system. The fact that these particular fans can only be used for engines of up to 450HP or so, is also of no importance. What these fans do show that it is possible to design a truck that uses electric fans for the radiator, and that was the question.

Alternators work very efficiently, not many losses there.

 

True, it will most likely be a starter motor / alternator combination

Yes, the point is that direct drive ancillaries can not be regulated, that is where the power is wasted. With electric drive they can be regulated.

True, but the fact that all these things can now operate with just the required power means that the net effect is that they will use less power.

Well, this is where the industry is heading.

 

If you want to use electric fans, you have to design the whole thing properly. Use the correct fans, put the radiator(s) at the right place, and so on. How do you think 4000 HP diesel locomotive engines are cooled?

 

Sorry, but this is reliability, not efficiency

As things are now, such a compressor can do two things:

1. Compress air for the brake system, I'm sure it will be doing that quite efficiently.
2. Pumping air in and out via the inlet valve, doing nothing useful, and in fact functioning as a kind of dynamic brake.

I'm sure you will have an electric compressor with an air tank. What happens when the maximum pressure in the tank has been reached? The electric motor driving the compressor stops.

What you should have is a kind of clutch that stops the compressor altogether when the maximum pressure has been reached. I really wonder how much energy is wasted with an 'idling' compressor, but I think it is quite a lot.

 

I bet dual chrome breathers and stacks would compensate for those energy losses.

 

The most efficient alternators on the market barely reach 80%.

 

Reliability is synonymous with efficiency when one is paying the bills with and for a piece of equipment, while providing a service.

 

Bu

But the bad reliability of majority of components come from the bad quality control and the aim from the manufactures to reduce costs. As an example, you can have the same design air compressor in the whole ISX series over here (Until 2 years ago, we were still using the CM 570 engines EPA98), but the newer ones trend to fail more often than the older ones. The same comes from the whole engine reliability itself, older ones seems to have better quality than the newer ones.