Nautique Going Green?

[Osmosis]

Out of curiosity I checked PCM to see if they were looking toward the future and they mention the use of ethanol.

"Ethanol blended fuel rated E10 or less is acceptable to use." They said anything higher than E10 is not covered by warranty. They also say that just because the engine can accept ethanol doesn't mean the other components are ethanol compliant. I would encourage anyone to check it out just to see what they have to say.

http://www.pcmengines.com/ethanol.html

[surroundsound64]

i see mali-bus and mastercraft had the catilitic converters on their indmar engines. is pcm to follow suit? is it required by law yet? i know it must not be now, but when?

I hope PCM doesn't ever use them... and hopefully it won't ever become a law. Catalytic converters suck. All they are is a performance decreasing band aid.

As long as R&D continues to find alternatives to gas recip engines I think we'll be able to keep them off our boats.

[FLlongball]

i see mali-bus and mastercraft had the catilitic converters on their indmar engines. is pcm to follow suit? is it required by law yet? i know it must not be now, but when?

I hope PCM doesn't ever use them... and hopefully it won't ever become a law. Catalytic converters suck. All they are is a performance decreasing band aid.

As long as R&D continues to find alternatives to gas recip engines I think wble to keep them off our boats.

Word is that everyone will have to do it by 2008. My understanding that the Socialist Republic of California is forcing the issue, so everyone ends up getting stuck with what California wants.

[Laptom]

[quote="surroundsound64"]

I hope PCM doesn't ever use them... and hopefully it won't ever become a law. Catalytic converters suck. All they are is a performance decreasing band aid.

****, they wan't to make our boats cleaner!! 8-)

I hope that they will make it a law. If it's up to the (car/engine)manufacturs they will keep on using fuel un-efficient engines until the last drop of oil.

[ag4ever]

GE's locomotive stuff consists of diesel engines that power generators that charge batteries that propel the train.

Who needs ballast when you have 5 tons of motor.

Actually the locomotive don't use batteries to store the energy.

A diesel-electric locomotive is NOT a hybrid vehicle.

The locomotive uses a diesel engine to turn a generator, then the power is directly transfered to electric motors at the drive wheels, and the electric portion is only used as a convienent means of transfering power to the drive wheels. For this to be a hybrid vehicle, you must have a means of storing wasted energy and releasing that energy when the demand is higher than the current production level. I know of no diesel-electric locomotives that actually store energy in an electric form. also, it is not uncommon for a diesel-electric locomotive to have the engine running 24-7-365 for 10+ years without turning it off. The costs to restart those engine are higher than turning them off.

I do feel there will be all electric wake boats in the future, but right now the storage cost and technology for the storage medium (batteries or super caps) is just not available. Who knows, it might be available in 10 years.

Right now the best all electric cars have a range of approximatly 300 miles. Now translate that to a boat traveling at the same speed, and with the added drag of pushing a boat through the water and you would be lucky to get 20 miles. It just takes a bunch of energy to push a boat over the water, and right now gas or diesel has the best enregy density of any fuel source we can easily use.

[surroundsound64]

[quote="Laptom"]

I hope PCM doesn't ever use them... and hopefully it won't ever become a law. Catalytic converters suck. All they are is a performance decreasing band aid.

darn, they wan't to make our boats cleaner!! 8-)

I hope that they will make it a law. If it's up to the (car/engine)manufacturs they will keep on using fuel un-efficient engines until the last drop of oil.

As I said, a catalytic converter is just a band aid for the inefficiency, but if technology (such as the smaller hybrid turbo diesels, and bio-diesel (http://www.greasel.com) which have already proven to increase the engines thermal efficiency more than 10%) continues to develop, the catalytic converter will be POINTLESS.

[surroundsound64]

GE's locomotive stuff consists of diesel engines that power generators that charge batteries that propel the train.

Who needs ballast when you have 5 tons of motor.

Actually the locomotive don't use batteries to store the energy.

A diesel-electric locomotive is NOT a hybrid vehicle.

The locomotive uses a diesel engine to turn a generator, then the power is directly transfered to electric motors at the drive wheels, and the electric portion is only used as a convienent means of transfering power to the drive wheels. For this to be a hybrid vehicle, you must have a means of storing wasted energy and releasing that energy when the demand is higher than the current production level. I know of no diesel-electric locomotives that actually store energy in an electric form. also, it is not uncommon for a diesel-electric locomotive to have the engine running 24-7-365 for 10+ years without turning it off. The costs to restart those engine are higher than turning them off.

I do feel there will be all electric wake boats in the future, but right now the storage cost and technology for the storage medium (batteries or super caps) is just not available. Who knows, it might be available in 10 years.

Right now the best all electric cars have a range of approximatly 300 miles. Now translate that to a boat traveling at the same speed, and with the added drag of pushing a boat through the water and you would be lucky to get 20 miles. It just takes a bunch of energy to push a boat over the water, and right now gas or diesel has the best enregy density of any fuel source we can easily use.

I've seen some at Eastman chemical that had literally hundreds of batteries, I talked to one of the engineers there and he told me what I posted above... I assumed most/all locomotives were like that now.

Guess not!

[ag4ever]

If that is the case, then that is new technology, and it is great that they are increasing the efficiency of locomotives. Unfortunatly with the number of rail lines they are pulling up, I see the rail industry getting smaller and smaller every day. That is a real shame.

[azwakeboarder]

I still think the solar electric pontoon boat is cool. I would be cool to explore Powell with.