Caterpillar has been making the D7E hybrid for few years now, and they have been very well received in the real world. It’s a diesel engine cranking an alternator which in powers two electric motors (one for each track) at the rear of the dozer.
This arrangement allows the engine to run in a very efficient sweet RPM range all the time saving fuel. Cycle times are improved with the very quick but smooth transition from forward to reverse. Then there’s the ancillary benefits of no torque converter and transmission with all their oil and service intervals to mess with. And being an “electric-centric” design, the cooling fan is now run via and electric motor doing away with drive belts.
Nephew is a field tech at a CAT dealership and seems to be the in-house expert on the D7E. He says the pipeline contractors love them to death. I think CAT has just introduced the D6 hybrid which is a tad smaller than the 7. They also have a hybrid crawler hoe and wheel loader, the 988K XE.
Most all of the larger off-highway mining trucks are diesel over electric drive.
Electric motors are just neat beasts.
D7E hybrid for few years now...
New to me, thanks!
Regenerative braking?
Yep, they claim it can cut fuel consumption by almost half. This is how the train locomotives work too. It’s a good system and is very simple, practical, and efficient. I have no idea why they are so absolutely stuck on using batteries, grants, awards. an write offs maybe? I have been searching for a diagram of a battery-less design like that for over an hour now and can’t find one. You just gave me a new source direction to look at. Thank you!
Found a video showing the drivetrain, simple... Engine/generator/electric motor drive.
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Yes this is definitely the way to go!
The most comon and costly failure in earth moving equipment is the torque converter getting overheated.