APR 29

As a biker, I see hills as a bit of an enemy. On the way up, it's certainly less than fun. On the way down, well, it can be exciting, but not necessarily safe. But it would certainly be worse if I weighed several dozen tons...

For truckers, hills and mountains are a colossal waste of energy. It requires quite a bit of effort to haul a full load up a hill, only to take more effort trying to slow the truck down on the other side. With all that kinetic energy going into the truck’s brakes, you’d be right to think there is a neat way to capitalize on the situation.

The Remote Hybrid Helper is a new system that would attach itself to the back of the trailer to help it up hills, and capture braking energy on the way back down. With its own batteries and electric motors, the pusher would assist the trailer up the hill and then use massive battery packs to capture energy generated by "falling" down the hill.

The neatest thing about this concept, however, is that the remote hybrid helper (RHH) is not just a box that you’re expected to tow around behind your truck forever. The RHH will actually drive itself around, tracking down trucks that need assistance, coupling with them, giving a helpful push, then regen-braking down the hill before finding another victim. One could imagine these things flying up and down mountain passes, linking up with trucks on either side all day long. Certainly a weird idea to conceptualize, but something that would work incredibly well to cut down on emissions and improve efficiency in trucking.

Via AutoBlogGreen

Comments (7)

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written by Keith_Indy, April 29, 2008

Sort of like how roller coasters are helped up the hill at the start. The pusher would then cross the highway to go up the other side of the mountain.

Interesting solution to the problem.

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powered trailers
written by DTM, April 29, 2008

I had often thought that most large pickups were owned for the occasional heavy load or trailer pull. one solution is to rent the big truck if you only need it a couple of times a year. If that big horse trailer had its own hybrid drive it could be pulled by a smaller truck. You see the savings all the time when you don't have the big load.

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That's one way to do it
written by Anon Thinker, April 29, 2008

Or just give the big rigs their own hybrid power much like today's hybrid cars do it. It would certainly be worth the extra 300 lbs of batteries since those diesel engines don't care if they're hauling 5,000 or 25,000 lbs. An increase of 3-4 MPG would give them a huge advantage.

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n/a
written by jason, April 29, 2008

Or, you could just stop shipping goods by trucks. The best long-term solution is to use electric trains, powered by nuclear power plants. The trucks can still be used for local deliveries. Unfortunately, we'll have to close a lot of Stucky's and force the lot lizards to find a new area to peddle their wares.

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Mr.
written by Michael, April 30, 2008

It seems really elaborate and expensive.
Why not have a modified SanFran type cablecar system that lets a vehicle latch onto a moving cable. The trucks going downhill could help pull the ones uphill. Any excess energy can be pumped onto the grid with no expensive batteries necessary. Even without batteries, using electricity from a power plant would be less polluting than a truck or car engine.

A really crazy variation would be to have a series of electromagnets under the road, and by switching them on and off in sequence it would make a magnetic wave that would pull all magnetic things up the hill.

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written by John L., May 01, 2008

This concept has been used for over a hundred years by railroads with helper engines for steep grades. Fortunately, the trains ran on their own right of way (paid for and maintained by the railroads) and automobile drivers didn't have to worry if the remote hybrids could be used without adding safety issues.
Also, how do you charge a truck for the assist? Maybe remote billing for those wanting the service. They could sign up in advance.
Might be a better idea would be hybrid trucks if a way could be found to do that without adding more length or weight to these already-oversize vehicles. They might be diesel-electrics with large batteries and straight electric drive, no transmissions.

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electric power for trucks
written by David, May 30, 2008

obviously people do not realise what we are already capable of,, I mean really,, let take the fossil fuel motor completely out of the truck,, drop a 600 horse 440 volt three phase electric variable speed motor to an automatic transmission,, take the fuel tanks off,, bolt on huge high voltage storage capacitors, and mount 40 12 volt batteries fo a combined 440 volts divided into three phase-- then we can mount solid pullys upon the driveline which maintains 20 high amperage 12 volt altenators, keeping up with 40 batteries plus two of the biggist storage capacitors in the world. and then lets go back to the trailor where we have another under belly mounted kabota 8 hp desiel powering another 20 altenators charging another 40 batteries, a simple switch redirects power through a connector, much like a 7-way plug,, of course we are still going to burn a little deisel,, 20 gallon per 2000 miles.

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