4/14/2016
The City of Houston is expected to order 18 new Autocar E3™ refuse trucks with the RunWise series hydraulic hybrid driveline from Parker Hannifin. Houston is to place an order for 13 trucks in June and another five in July, says Cliff Buck of Autocar.
The order follows a comparison of Autocar hybrid and compressed natural gas-fueled trucks, Buck says. Houston opted for the hybrid, which uses conventional diesel fuel, in part due to concerns about fuel availability in the case of a hurricane, he told F&F. Advantages of the RunWise-drive trucks include diesel better fuel economy – “RunWise typically reduces fuel consumption 35%-50%,” says Parker Hannifin – and reduced brake wear.
Brakes? ‘Once in Six Years’
“Your don’t have to do the brakes but once in six years,” Buck says.
The City of New Braunfels, northwest of San Antonio, operates ten of the RunWise hybrid trucks.
The City of Austin operates four RunWise hydraulic hybrid and 48 CNG-fueled Autocar trucks.
WCA Waste in the Houston Area Too
According to Buck, “68% of our production right now is CNG.”
WCA Waste, which operates more than 100 CNG-fueled Autocar trucks, recently received 12 more for Missouri City, southwest of Houston.
Switching to Heil
The City of El Paso, which already operates 15 CNG-fueled Autocar trucks with McNeilus bodies, has ordered eight trucks with Heil bodies and Type III CNG fuel tanks from Worthington.
Autocar’s CNG trucks have 8.9-liter ISL G engines from Cummins Westport. The E3 hydraulic hybrids have a Cummins ISL H variant – “H is for hybrid,” Buck says – to accommodate the lower torque requirements of the Parker Hannifin hydrostatic drive.
Originally appeared: http://www.fleetsandfuels.com/fuels/cng/2016/04/autocar-parker-runwise-hybrids-for-houston/
Back to News