Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
Now I'm curious about your big picture goal: To show how you can further refine an off-the-shelf vehicle to reduce your own running costs? To develop a new vehicle for sale/licence? To market add-ons/kits to other owners?
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Good questions.
The answer is number 2. To develop a new vehicle for sale/license. I've always wanted my company to become a niche OEM. Building 6, or 10, or 100 hyper fuel efficient rigs per year. But a licensing arrangement may be a better way to go.
Answer number 1 is not correct because other than the rolling chassis, which we could have built, nothing on this truck is off-the-shelf. And the only reason why I used this new rolling chassis was that after selling the brand new cab, hood, bumper, skirts, etc., it was actually cheaper than building it from scratch. And it saved an estimated 6 months in our build time. Our hyper aerodynamic cab is built entirely from carbon fiber and foam. It is shipping
today from California and we plan on having it at my shop next week. We'll install a chrome-moly safety cage once it gets here. But basically the cab is a safety cage surrounded by a hyper aerodynamic super lightweight cab envelope. All of the OEM's use stamping machines, or presses, and dies worth millions, and millions, and millions of dollars and stamp the cabs out of aluminum or steel. So they still build relatively square trucks because they all have ALL of that money invested in tooling. But when one starts with a truly clean sheet of paper and works with composites.......
Answer number 3 does not work either because IMHO, all other Class 8 trucks are an aerodynamic mess for the stamping/tooling reason above. They are narrower than the van trailers and then the OEM's add fairings to divert the air around the trailers and the sleepers, etc. I mean those OEM guys are STILL in the 20th. century.
I have already been approached by a large automobile OEM who wants me to build a Class 8 truck for them. I cannot say anything about that at this time, of course. And I am under contract with my wonderful current build customer until 2018, and I truly enjoy working with them. We have already been talking about a CNG or possibly all-electric next-generation rig. So stay tuned.