Merit Company to Build Diesel-Electric Hybrid Trucks for Logging Operations

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Several Merit entrepreneurs have wondered if a person could call his electric car company Tesla, why not call his company Edison?

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While groundbreaking inventors real-life Tesla and Edison became fierce rivals, Edison Motors was way ahead of Elon Musk’s car company. But the journey has begun. Chase Barber and Eric Little are building a hybrid electric logging truck backed up by a diesel generator.

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“The fact that there is a car company called Tesla and we are called Edison is pure coincidence. is a tribute to stealing Nikola Tesla’s ideas.”

Edison Motors came up with a unique diesel-electric powertrain with a £6,000 generator.

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“We’re saving 70 percent on fuel,” says Barber. “Basically, we go from 50 liter diesel (engine) to 9 liter diesel, turn off the battery for about 2 hours, depending on the load, and then start the generator for another 30 minutes. , instead of running a 15 liter diesel at 100%, you can turn off the electricity for 2 hours by just running a 9 liter motor for 30 minutes.”

Barber added that what makes trucks particularly suitable for logging is that the brakes fully regenerate the battery when the driver empties the bed of the truck, drives it up a mountain on electric power, and comes down with a full tank.

“It uses stored potential energy to get to the top of the mountain and convert it to kinetic energy on the way down. It works pretty smoothly.”

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The hybrid logging truck can be plugged in and charged, so you can take it into town and plug it into a charging station, but to make it fully electric, the prototype had to have a 40,000-pound battery, Barber said. says.

Barber and Little met at Thompson Rivers College and were business students with a passion for mechanical engineering (Barber) and electrical engineering (Little).

Diesel trains have used this technology for almost a century. Why don’t you two basically build a train on wheels, just like the real Edison borrowed from the real Tesla?

The prototype truck’s cab was a modified 1962 Kenworth Needle Nose and was much more economical than building a truck from scratch. The main work is replacing the axle, removing and installing the transmission, and installing the generator.

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“We’ve noticed a lot of these trucks here. They have good bones.

Amazingly, he and Little also became Tik Tok stars, with their videos seen by millions. This caught the eye of his NBC’s Today Show, where the crew interviewed Merritt’s Barber and Hope Fair. What intrigued NBC was the appeal of the video to those who have traditionally opposed or felt threatened by the switch from fossil fuels to powering their vehicles.

Thanks to Barber and Little for taking viewers on a meticulous video tour through every stage of the production.

“Many truckers don’t like that all the electric truck manufacturers are secretive about their technology,” says Barber. “They say, ‘How do I fix these things? They don’t even tell you what the components are, how to maintain them, or how they work.

“So me and Eric figured it out.

“When they see our Tik Tok and start to understand the benefits of electricity, they say, ‘Oh my God, OK, this actually makes sense. I don’t care about electric trucks now.’ They’re jumping on the electric bandwagon.”

gordmcintyre@postmedia.com

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