Cleaner dumping with the Electric Super Tipper
Commercial truck manufacturers are just as interested in fuel savings as the rest of us, and the savings a new vehicle might offer in fuel costs would likely go a long way towards swaying a customer to purchase a new truck. That's why we're pretty keen on the idea of a dump truck utilizing electric motors instead of the huge diesel-guzzling engines currently in use. Enter designer Haishan Deng's Electric Super Tipper. Granted, the true goal of the truck you see here is to make the work site more efficient by changing the loading and unloading process, but we imagine that using electric power in addition to the tilting body of the truck could result in even greater cost savings. Not only that, but the four in-wheel electric motors are what makes the entire design philosophy theoretically possible in the first place. We're not expecting to see any dump trucks like this any time in the near future, but forward-thinking designs will always find a welcome home on these pages.
Gallery: Electric Super Tipper
[Source: Yanko Design via Gizmag]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GadgetGav 10:05PM (2/14/2008)
I know it's not real and it's just a designer idea, but even a designer should realize that the center of gravity of that truck is going to carry the entire thing over the edge if it could dump in that direction.
Maybe there's a reason dump trucks are still the same way...
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dean 12:58PM (2/15/2008)
Very interesting that the frame is up top. I agree, I wonder if the designer took center of gravity into consideration. Cool idea though. However, I don't see how the process for loading/unloading could get more efficient. Dump trucks dump and pickup loads just fine. Large garbage/recycling containers are picked up close to 10 minutes with how they pull them onto the frame with a large chain winch. Don't quite understand what they are trying to do here.
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GenWaylaid 9:15AM (2/16/2008)
I can see a couple of novel features in the way this thing operates compared to a normal dump truck. The combination of bottom-dump and end-dump probably wouldn't prove very useful, but giving the driver the ability to visually monitor the dump process could be a significant safety benefit. That might actually be more effective if one just added a rising cab and a swiveling seat to a conventional dump truck to get the driver's view up over the bed.
Loading dump trucks at construction sites actually does seem rather inefficient. Repeated back-and-forth trips by the excavator transfer debris only one scoop at a time. Contrast that with the speed of those big conveyor-like strip mine excavators. Combine the flexibility of a scoop excavator with the speed of a conveyor excavator and you could save a lot of time and fuel.
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Gary Stivers 6:13PM (2/18/2008)
As petroleum disappears or becomes overpriced, electrics like this will be quickly brought online and the end of petrol is but ten or so years off. Since production planning for something this complex seems to take years, I wonder whether Caterpillar, Kawasaki, Volvo and the like have made inquiries on the EST or are pondering such configurations of their own design.
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