the future of the haulage industry

The future of the haulage industry







Wagons use a lot of diesel because they need a lot of power to move heavy loads.


To move them more efficiently they would need more power but that would use more fuel – a problem that.


If you run a unit on its own without its trailer it is very fuel efficient but when it has a loaded trailer on it has to work harder – less fuel efficient.


What if the loaded trailer helped out a bit?


This was the start of my idea.


The roof of a trailer is 45ft by 8ft – what if you covered this with solar panels?


A little bit of research tells me that a 3 inch square panel will put out 1.5volts at 1.2milli amps.


So 12 panels will make up a square foot – 18volts at 1.2milli amps.


45 x 8 = 360sq ft so = 6480volts at 1.2milli amps.


With a bit of wiring in parallel and all that this could be a lower voltage and a lot higher amperage.


Now the clever bit. Run this into a bank of batteries in a cradle under the trailer and this will keep them charged up.


Now to the trailer axles, change these for drive axles and hook up electric motors to them – these need to be about 20 horse power motors possibly more.


Now you need a control system to run it all – this is quite simple really as most wagons run by computers these days.


Basically you need two feeds from the wagon one to say it is accelerating and one to say it is slowing down.


Now when it is accelerating the trailer motors kick in and help out a bit – this will improve acceleration and improve economy.


When it is slowing down the motors switch to generators and put power back into the battery bank – the added resistance of this will help with braking force and cut down on brake wear.


I reckon with a bit of trial and error you could cut the fuel bill by about 25%

wind turbine update

been busy with other stuff as late(surprise,surprise) so progress has been slow

have collected up some of the parts i need to get a start

have got hold of two 24v wheelchair motors and just using a cordless drill have found that i can get a good voltage at fairly low rpm(about13-15v)

also got a six inch end cap from a stainless steam pipe that is nice and round and already drilled in six places - i only need three as i will be only using three blades

i have got some soil pipe and have marked this up ready to cut when my new cutting discs come

i will be using 60cm blades which will give me a diameter of approx 1.4m

i dont know what this will produce - but thats what its all about

have a few ideas on the turntable for the tower which is either a set of cut down push bike forks and yoke(360 degree rotation and built in bearings not to mention a hole in the middle to run the wire through)

the other idea is a heavy duty caster from a trolly - bearings again and hole in the middle for the wire

as you can guess i have decided on the wire running through the tower for now to keep it simple - my logic in this is that it can rotate either way so is just as likely to untangle itself as it is to tangle - we'll see

keep you posted
nick...