The future of the haulage industry






Wagons use a lot of diesel because they need a lot of power to move heavy loads.


To move them more efficiently they would need more power but that would use more fuel – a problem that.


If you run a unit on its own without its trailer it is very fuel efficient but when it has a loaded trailer on it has to work harder – less fuel efficient.


What if the loaded trailer helped out a bit?


This was the start of my idea.


The roof of a trailer is 45ft by 8ft – what if you covered this with solar panels?


A little bit of research tells me that a 3 inch square panel will put out 1.5volts at 1.2milli amps.


So 12 panels will make up a square foot – 18volts at 1.2milli amps.


45 x 8 = 360sq ft so = 6480volts at 1.2milli amps.


With a bit of wiring in parallel and all that this could be a lower voltage and a lot higher amperage.


Now the clever bit. Run this into a bank of batteries in a cradle under the trailer and this will keep them charged up.


Now to the trailer axles, change these for drive axles and hook up electric motors to them – these need to be about 20 horse power motors possibly more.


Now you need a control system to run it all – this is quite simple really as most wagons run by computers these days.


Basically you need two feeds from the wagon one to say it is accelerating and one to say it is slowing down.


Now when it is accelerating the trailer motors kick in and help out a bit – this will improve acceleration and improve economy.


When it is slowing down the motors switch to generators and put power back into the battery bank – the added resistance of this will help with braking force and cut down on brake wear.


I reckon with a bit of trial and error you could cut the fuel bill by about 25%