Crystal Mountain (WA) Gets Diesel Electric Cats

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

The first PistenBully 600 E+ groomers with diesel-electric drive in North America are now operating at Crystal Mountain.

 

Way more torque without having to rev the engine, I guess.  I wonder if these things enable grooming of steeper pitches without a winch?

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Makes sense, similar to how trains are powered.  Not new tech, just new application with improvements no doubt.  I worked on "motor-generators" for many years. Mostly on dock side container cranes , a little on locos. Then on large , very large fan units with VFD drives.

Some of the advantages that they touched on but didn't explain well:

 

Dynamic braking- using the motors to slow the downward momentum (if they had big batteries or were connected to the grid , they could "power" the grid. 

Regeneration, using the motors to generate power as described above. 

Infinite control or "step less" drives = smooth yet powerful control. 

The power plants could actually be used to create a power supply for external use / emergency if paired with dc / ac bridges (scrs or "wheat stone bridges" 

Much easier on the transmission hardware / largely eliminating it. 

 

Draw back, the mechanics will need to brush up on the electrical side of things. Much harder to "haywire" equipment if the drives fail. 

 

[michael.a]

I'm thrilled to see diesel-electric transmissions finally see service in smaller applications.

 

FedEx is planning on implementing a fleet of trucks with D/E drives.

 

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/fedex-wrightspeed-diesel-ev-trucks/

[Corey]

Hybrids pay off most in vehicles that do a lot of start-stop driving. Longer cycles between driving and coasting tend to overwhelm the battery packs' capacity.

However, turning the tiller is likely completely free on the descents by recapturing energy. A series hybrid will also reduce the pumping losses to the tiller and drive motors. Every bit counts though, and a 20% reduction is good.

A hybrid city transit bus can get between 10% and 50% more mileage than a diesel powered one, depending on the route. That's pretty impressive. Recent US government funding programs have highly promoted CNG buses instead though.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

I'm unclear about these new groomers, as I'm not sure that they have batteries.  Can they make a down pass with the engine off, running the tillers only on recaptured energy?  If the engine is still running, then what is the true energy savings?  I wonder if all of the accessories run on electric power instead of hydraulics.  The eco benefit of not spewing hydraulic fluid all over the place whenever a hose or fitting fails would be nice.

[lowrider]

 Seems more like a preemptive strike against high operating and maintenance costs. Could be a big advertising bonus for cat ski operators.With fuel costs declining will others rush out to buy ? With cleaner fuel (bio) and environmentally friendly oil in hydraulic drives I'd say it all comes down to who shows the best bottom line (and finance plan). I'd sooner trouble shoot an electric drive over a bunch of oily control valves and  drive motors. Multimetre beats out a bunch of hydraulic pressure gauges and a box full of leaky hydraulic fittings Look at how big boats have changed with electric thrusters and drives.The only thing that would concern me if I owned or serviced one would be the fact that you are at the mercy of the person who designs and supplies the electronics to operate the system and how much dielectric grease they use when they put it together. It doesn't need to be complicated but for some reason always turns out to be. Job security I guess ? My bet is the coffee cup holders will be on top of the electronic control panel !