Anyone using electric diggers?

R

Russell

Well-known member
I always thought that a sensible halfway point would be a diesel engine with reasonable battery backup using electric rams, motors etc. Not perhaps on a large machine, 15-20 tonne, but on a smaller one.

The advantage of electric motors is that if you run them backwards then they are a generator. For every lift of the boom you drop it, why not recover the energy?


Every digger has an enormous counterweight, which could be called lead acid batteries. They are tougher than lithium and obviously their weight is an advantage.

No fancy brushless motors with a filing cabinet full of electronics but a set of series motors with contactors, nice and simple. Ball screws for rams, but possibly a rack and gear instead, motors are motors.

You mean like this?
 

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F

fred

Well-known member
two hundred and fifty kilowatts ?? :oops::eek: ... the grid ain't gonna support many of them in a square mile :rolleyes: and I would not wanna be paying the bill for it ....tha's 250 units of leccy per hour at say 19p/unit .... tha's £47.50 per hour to charge it ..roughly :eek:

they use a big transformer at the tesla superchargers, they also don't charge you for using them if you own a tesla - for life!

Time of day charging will be the future I think, I am on hourly pricing for me electric as I have solar and a tesla powerwall. It charges when electric is dirt cheap 1/4 of the normal price and then releases it when electric is expensive. The powerwall is 14kwh, now the tesla cars can do exactly the same except they have 90+ KWH of storage which would run a house for a week!

It enables national grid to effectively give away excess power when we are all asleep and then not have to produce as much at peak times as there will be lot of folks powering the house from the car as its sat on the drive.

Interesting times for sure.
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
they use a big transformer at the tesla superchargers, they also don't charge you for using them if you own a tesla - for life!

Time of day charging will be the future I think, I am on hourly pricing for me electric as I have solar and a tesla powerwall. It charges when electric is dirt cheap 1/4 of the normal price and then releases it when electric is expensive. The powerwall is 14kwh, now the tesla cars can do exactly the same except they have 90+ KWH of storage which would run a house for a week!

It enables national grid to effectively give away excess power when we are all asleep and then not have to produce as much at peak times as there will be lot of folks powering the house from the car as its sat on the drive.

Interesting times for sure.
can't imagine what 'the board' would want to charge you for installing a 250 Kva tranny though @fred :eek: the lights'd dim up and down the street :LOL: ... as to free leccy, can see the logic in that but :unsure: ...... and why are they charging you to top up your tesla wall if they can give it away to others??:confused: If one can run a Tesla for free for life they're not such an expensive proposition ... as long as you have one of their charge points within walking distance of home, or conveniently situated to do summat else while yer tin box recharges . Can't see it staying that way though, if take up, 'takes off':unsure: .... and then you're well and truly trapped by the nuts :(

Battery life would be my biggest concern ... fast charging kills batteries, as a rule :confused::confused:
 
F

fred

Well-known member
tesla use loads of tiny Lithium Ion batteries, a little larger than a AA battery. They good for 7000+ cycles and even then only degrade to 70%. Elon has the charging and battery production sorted.

IT will be an interesting decade seeing petrol stations disappear, autonomous driving being the norm - and safer - and no longer having to change a car every few years as its worn out.
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
tesla use loads of tiny Lithium Ion batteries, a little larger than a AA battery. They good for 7000+ cycles and even then only degrade to 70%. Elon has the charging and battery production sorted.

IT will be an interesting decade seeing petrol stations disappear, autonomous driving being the norm - and safer - and no longer having to change a car every few years as its worn out.
Elon is an alien :eek:...... or has access to technology far in advance to that which we were playing with not too long ago.:unsure: too much, too quick:rolleyes: :unsure: take a breath and consider what he's achieved .... some of which NASA has failed to for decades an' he comes along and breezes it :rolleyes::unsure::confused::confused: Hmmm :confused:
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
Elon is an alien:eek:...... or has access to technology far in advance to that which we were playing with not too long ago.:unsure: too much, too quick:rolleyes::unsure: take a breath and consider what he's achieved .... some of which NASA has failed to for decades an' he comes along and breezes it :rolleyes::unsure::confused::confused: Hmmm :confused:

or a time traveler :rolleyes::sneaky:
 
B

Brendan

Well-known member
gonna sell a LOT o' them in a hurry ..... not!! :oops: :oops: :oops:
Biggest issue with electric, is the sheer cost. You could have three JCB htd5's for that price and have enough left over to fuel them for a year.
As for the Tesla cars isn't there now alot of early model s now just refusing to work. Tesla is leagues ahead of everyone else in the ev car industry but they are still only a young upstart so how will the vehicles last in another 5-10 years.
There is a giant push for ev cars but they will just be disposable vehicles, you won't see any 30 year ev in the future as the costs will be too much to maintain. Plus the days if being able to fix your own motor at the side of the curb will be gone too.
 
S

Smiffy

Well-known member
Biggest issue with electric, is the sheer cost. You could have three JCB htd5's for that price and have enough left over to fuel them for a year.
As for the Tesla cars isn't there now alot of early model s now just refusing to work. Tesla is leagues ahead of everyone else in the ev car industry but they are still only a young upstart so how will the vehicles last in another 5-10 years.
There is a giant push for ev cars but they will just be disposable vehicles, you won't see any 30 year ev in the future as the costs will be too much to maintain. Plus the days if being able to fix your own motor at the side of the curb will be gone too.

I don't think Tesla's can claim to be very green atall they have so much pointless gadgets like the enormous LCD screen in the middle
These gadgets add weight and add to the carbon of building them and at the end of the day they still promote the idea of constantly building a new vehicle

There is a Welsh company currently developing a vehicle to be as eco friendly as possible
It has zero gadgets in it to reduce weight the seat alone is something like 150kg lighter than a Tesla as there no motors in it just manual adjustment
A carbon fibre body shell with a 40year life span so it can be updated rather than scraped and it's hybrid with a hydrogen fuel cell to increase range

It's an incredibly interesting concept far more thought out than the current crop of E.V's

This is there website and its well worth a read

 
B

Brendan

Well-known member
Mazda have toyed with hydrogen fuel cells for a long time they did a dual fuel rx8 in 2003
Must be a reason it has never picked up, there was a big collaboration for it, but was dumped in favour of electric
 
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JD450A

JD450A

Feral as Fk 🐾
Issue with all modern tech and vehicles is the shear amount of weight and tech that has been added in the never ending quest to make it safer, comfier and "eco"

IMHO there was f**k all wrong with a basic 90's corsa, hell nor is there anything wrong going even older. People did just fine with Morris Minors when that was what was available.

Past 20 years, Aircon, Electric Windows, ECU's, ABS etc. All adding weight and cost whilst reducing lifespan.
 
Regy53

Regy53

I like cake
I have a electric self loading dumper in the yard. say 1 tonne ish capacity
I find it lethal it has far to much torque for manovering in tight spots and no matter how much you try to feather the levers it just spurts out a huge amount of power and you over shoot.

they are about 30k... new
 
R

Russell

Well-known member
I like the idea of one because my TCP dumper is so bloody loud you need ear defenders to use it. At £20-30,000 that's silly money though.
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
Hmmm like the conventional models are walking out the doors ATM

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