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Walmart/Peterbilt WAVE


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At the end of the day, we are on the way to great changes in cars and trucks. Hybrid power trains will be common in cars very soon. Aerodynamics is the other area where things are going to get more headway. Trucks will follow that trend as well. My wife and I are looking to replace her car in the next 6 months. The car we are looking at is 19% more fuel efficient than the series before it. That's such good gain in efficiency over 1 model cycle. The 19% efficiency was made up with better aerodynamics, cvt auto and direct injection.

Ben

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  • 3 weeks later...

I sort of like it.

Same here, it is odd to look at, but in hilly areas I can see that set up being of use as it will have the ability to smoothly apply torque climbing hills without having to shift every truck length and can use the regenerative braking much like a locomotive uses it's dynamic braking to slow if not stop without using mechanical brakes and if it has a big enough battery, the rig could be run around on electricity if it truck running around trailerless. Something else too is if that Turbine is anything like Chrysler's Turbine engines, it should be possible to run that on anything but leaded gas! So if they're someplace where gasoline, alcohol, or kerosene if priced better than diesel without it significantly affecting the rigs performance in a bad way or reducing the cost per mile, the truck can be fueled by that cheaper fuel. They may consider starting with a more conventional looking rig, but doing what ever they can to improve the truck and trailer combo's aero numbers, which would improve even a standard truck's mileage.

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When engineers are given a blank sheet of paper and they are told to make this thing the most possibly efficient, they usually end up with something that is quite "out there". That's why you see this Peterbilt more as a UFO than a truck. You will not see many examples of this truck on the road in the near future but you will see an evolution of it and you are already seeing a lot of aero-truck fleets already. When I saw my first KW T600 like 30 years ago I thought Whoa! This is different! Later, like 10 years ago, it was the same thing with the Volvo VN670 and 780 which were pretty much the extreme. What did you say when the KW T2000 came out? I said "Fugly!" myself and today we see more KW T700 and T680s. So these futuristic trucks are here already and the W900, 388-389 and other classics are on their way out, unless somebody thinks of something drastic to make them more efficient, but you would probably end up with another International Lonestar. Maybe that's the way to go for a more stylish rig? Or maybe a more conventional look will stick to the more heavy hauler types such as the newer Mack Titan. Time will tell.

Edited by BigBad
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Pretty well stated. But this thing will never see production as a whole. Elements of it will appear on newer models though. As far as traditional hoods disappearing I've heard that ever since the t600 come out in the 80s and they're still here. Holding they're value better than any aero truck. The modern traditional hoods have less in common with 60s,70s counterparts than they do with the aero trucks. Some of the future tech that works well in the lab doesn't work so well in the real world.

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