AirFlow StarShip Initial Reveal

[redneck]

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Shepherd777

Quote:

And of course I can't forget our special, super-duper, custom Shell Rotella engine, transmission, and differential oil for reducing driveline parasitic losses. We use special Shell "Witches Brew" (very appropriate on Halloween) blends of all of these oils. When we filled the differential with the new oil, it looked and flowed just like light golden beer. Very, very watery looking viscosity. But the Shell scientists tell us that it will protect the differential better than the OEM dark molasses looking and flowing, 85W-90 gear oil that we drained out.



And just where can we find this Light golden "Witches Brew"...???


Never mind, I'm pretty sure I know the answer...

Would someone please pass the molasses...???








>

[ctmaybury@yahoo.com]

Agree with redneck. Light cars can get away with light oil in diff and trans. Heavy trucks need heavy oil. I'll stick with the molasses.

[JockoT]

Originally Posted by ctmaybury@yahoo.com

Agree with redneck. Light cars can get away with light oil in diff and trans. Heavy trucks need heavy oil. I'll stick with the molasses.

What is necessary in an oil is the ability to withstand the pressure between the sliding surfaces. If a lubricant can do that then the thinner the better.
Or do you think we would be better going back to the days of using tallow?

[JRMichler]

Originally Posted by Shepherd777

The BulletTruck would do 17.5-18 MPG on dead-nuts level ground.

Where is that on the engine performance map? Would the energy conversion losses of a hybrid drive train be less or more than engine efficiency gains?

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by redneck

.

Shepherd777

Quote:

And of course I can't forget our special, super-duper, custom Shell Rotella engine, transmission, and differential oil for reducing driveline parasitic losses. We use special Shell "Witches Brew" (very appropriate on Halloween) blends of all of these oils. When we filled the differential with the new oil, it looked and flowed just like light golden beer. Very, very watery looking viscosity. But the Shell scientists tell us that it will protect the differential better than the OEM dark molasses looking and flowing, 85W-90 gear oil that we drained out.



And just where can we find this Light golden "Witches Brew"...???


>

Yeah, sorry about that. You can't even buy the trick stuff that I get. But the experimental stuff in any industry finally trickles-down to the consumer. We just happen to be on the leading-edge, fortunately.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

Where is that on the engine performance map?

Would the energy conversion losses of a hybrid drive train be less or more than engine efficiency gains?

Good question. On the last truck, and especially the new truck, we are WAY OUTSIDE of the normal and supposedly optimal fuel map envelope. My thesis is that the many less combustion events per mile, more than make up for the theoretical advantage of running inside of the fuel map envelope. It seemed to work well on the last truck. Stay tuned for the results of the new truck. The Cummins X15 engine in the new truck will operate at 850 RPM at normal highway cruise speed, for most of the day. Redline is only 1100 RPM.

Good question again. The correct answer is less. We will be installing a hybrid electric axle on the tractor very soon. It will replace the 3rd dead "tag" axle on the rear of the tractor in our current 6x2 configuration. It is basically an E-Assist unit, where it will provide power during climbing grades and taking off from a standing start. Its dedicated battery will charge via regeneration while descending grades or otherwise coming to a stop. We anticipate a 15% gain from the hybrid axle. See earlier in this post where most of the fuel is used climbing grades.

[Galane]

This R&D is all fine etc, but if you can't come up with a truck using it all that will sell at a price that will make the payback come in at no longer time than a current conventional truck, nobody is going to buy them because they won't see any savings, unless the price of diesel goes crazy high.

Or if some large company like Penske replaced their entire fleet with these, that could be the 'watershed' for acceptance, like happened with the Kenworth T600 when one big southeastern freight company (since defunct) replaced all their trucks with T600's to slash maintenance costs on the motley collection of brands and models they were using. With fuel costs at the time, the slight MPG increase wouldn't have added up to as much $ saving as the same improvement would today for the same fleet size.

[JockoT]

Originally Posted by Galane

Or if some large company like Penske replaced their entire fleet with these

Don't you think that Shell. who is collaborating in this design, might invest in it as well?

[freebeard]

This R&D is all fine etc, but if you can't come up with a truck using it all that will sell at a price that....

"Progress is fine, but it's gone on far too long."

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by Galane

This R&D is all fine etc, but if you can't come up with a truck using it all that will sell at a price that will make the payback come in at no longer time than a current conventional truck, nobody is going to buy them because they won't see any savings, unless the price of diesel goes crazy high.

When I initially started this project in 2014, I had envisioned my company becoming a niche OEM, building 5, 10, 25, or maybe 50 hyper fuel mileage Class 8 trucks per year for various enlightened customers.

The heavy duty truck industry has completely changed since then.

There is now Tesla, Nikola, platooning, autonomous vehicles, Amazon, and billions of dollars of venture capital have arrived. Smart people have figured out what was obvious to me for almost four decades. That big trucks get so poor fuel mileage and run so many miles, one can save a ton of dough by doing things differently.

So this will be the last truck that I build. But I have other cool projects in mind after we run the StarShip all around the country in 2018.