Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bobcat releases first all electric (no hydraulics) track loader

Head to head specs will tell the tale...

Until then it all just a publicity stunt.

They have been using all electric autonomous haul trucks for years in the Alberta oil sands.

What do you do with all those hydraulic attachments?

All this has been done, clear back into the 1920's, as far as electric over mechanical, what has changed is the control circuits. Linear actuators are usually a bi directional motor mounted 90 deg to the log axis, the motor pinion engages a worm gear which is internally threaded onto the 'cylinder rod'. They control all this schidt with square wave DC and you knew it...computer boards. It's great stuff, developed into a fine art in railroad service, marine and hugely successful and profitable. IMO though, as the work environment gets harsher the little things that crash the system are always, supply voltage, wiring, Bosch connectors, vibration, heat, cold, and sensor failure. The same things that causes the endless complaints of engine light in the pickup you drive. One other thing that is a problem that has never been addressed, starting under load. Electric don't like it. So then they have to compound wind the motors and provide the switch gear to handle 2 types of current for one motor. These problems will be solved, but not tomorrow. 30 years from now they'll look back at electric vehicles and just laugh at our first efforts.

What do you do with all those hydraulic attachments?

I didn't spend an hour looking, but I did look.... For some specs. Like how much it weighs, how much it lifts to full height, what the run-time is when you are using the loader for heavy jobs.

Call me when an electric loader can run a heavy duty cutter 8-10 hours a day cutting 5 foot growth... Or lift 4500 pounds to full height. Or have enough power to push a huge pile of trees into a brush pile.



I won't hold my breath.

Every airliner above you has linear actuators running the flaps, elevators, etc.

Not for eight hours straight.

That right there is the problem.

4hrs runtime makes it still a non viable option for 95% of the market yet 100% of the market will be paying for it.

I made a lot of money 25 year or so ago contracting work in large commercial kitchen operations, this would have been perfect. In those buildings fumes were not allowed.
If I had them today it would have to be a pair, one for first half the day then one for later. I’d imagine electric Dingo’s can’t be far behind.
We’re we still doing large concrete jobs particularly outdoors 4 hours run time wouldn’t cut it. Most days up here on the place I rub one more than 4 hours pretty often. Current good skid steers running 80k and better this electric one has to be a whole lot more.

Osky

well, you sell them and buy new electric ones from Bobcat, of course!

I got to believe that the machine is still using hydraulics for the loader and also for the propulsion system.

I'd be willing to bet that the number one cause of catastrophic loss of construction equipment is electrical fire. Abrasive conditions, recesses full if debris, and lots and lots of vibration make for parts salvage yards full of burned out equipment.

In addition to being much less complicated machinery, electric fork trucks and mobility carts (I don't know what an SVG is) operate in an entirely different environment.

Nope, just talked to a buddy of mine that is a dealer. All-electric motors.

Makes sense for the propulsion. Just like an electric car. Assume that they use an electric motor to power the hydraulic pump? Has to be faster and stronger than linear actuators. Dave

There's no reason to expect that the lift and auxiliary functions wouldn't be hydraulic. The drives on the other hand would likely see a large gains in efficiency if they were electric rather than electric over hydraulic.

This is another example of a purpose built machine designed for a very specific task in a very specific environment. A skidsteer is the complete opposite and likely the most universally utilized piece of construction equipment ever built.

We had electric lift trucks running parts and materials all over the plant when I was doing my apprenticeship almost fifty years ago.

In the 1950's RG LeTourneau designed and built the "land train". 50 or 60 driving wheels if I remember correctly, 150 to 230 ft long? Put them to work in Libya for British Petroleum who literally was able to haul an entire oil field deep into Libya. The DEW line in Alaska was supplied with an even better version of the land train. There is supposed to be one sitting outside of Fairbanks, but I've never found it...but I was drinking a bit in those days they say.