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"There were no anemities for the driver," says Bosserman. "First thing, the drivers that were used to the comfort of a cab — having heat, having the means to get out of the rain and snow — they didn't like it."

Complaints ranged from the new necessity of needing transportation out to this vehicle, it could only service limited number of airplanes because it only went 5 mph, no place to write up paperwork, and there's no protection from the weather.

"Delta liked it," continues Bosserman, "because they could actually drive a narrow-body or wide-body right over it without having to move the vehicle to service the airplane. It would cut down the number of airplane strikes and their maintenance costs would go down from not driving the vehicle. But, from the personnel standpoint, they didn't like it."

MAKING THE CONNECTION
"I ran into Don actually last year at the AS3 (Aviation Services and Suppliers) show in Long Beach, California where he had an electric chassis on display," says Bosserman. "I had already been out with Jack Kemper of AirBP, looking in the GSE market for an electric-driven chassis because AirBP is a very environmentally-friendly company. Kemper is on the international refueler group and he's also on the environmental group. I told Jack about Don's chassis displayed at the AS3 show."

"We went out and visited Don and Jack drove one and liked it. So, I ordered one from Don and said [to Kemper] 'Well, I'm going to build a spec BP hydrant servicer and if you buy, it you buy it, if you don't, you don't.'"

He adds, "AirBP had a requirement for San Juan, Puerto Rico where they had just taken over a contract. The ultimate goal was to put 12 [vehicles] down there in the next two years and so we built the first one, sent it down there. Don and I have been hooked up since then."

"GREEN" VEHICLES: A WORLDWIDE ISSUE?
"It's worldwide," answers Bosserman. "AirBP, internationally, has looked at this saying, 'Hey, if this thing works, we're going to put them in South Africa, Australia, England — wherever."

Emerson adds, "A lot of people are being, in some cases, mandated by environmental issues — in some cases mandated by corporate structure. AirBP, for example, doesn't have any mandates in Puerto Rico, but they have a corporate mandate that they're going to go 'green'."

He continues, "American Airlines has stated publicly that their new ground support equipment will be electric. They've made those commitments."

AFFORDABLE TECHNOLOGY
"Today, there are few areas where this 'affordable technology' is really viable," says Emerson. "Airports are one of the areas that the technology that's available today is feasible as a working tool — you don't go over 25 mph, you're never very far away from plug-in, and airports are flat."

"You know, it's extremely expensive to build a vehicle from the ground up," says Emerson, "especially when you look at cab controls and comfort and all that."

He continues, "After going to that GSE seminar at the Expo, we hooked up with a company called Canadian Electric Vehicles (CEV) that has been building electric S-10 pickups, small vehicles, for many years now, but they never really had the ability to do anything larger like a truck. Due to some recent developments in the technology with higher voltages, we were able to sit down with CEV and work out how to configure our Isuzu chassis with an electric-drive system. So together, we developed a kit to fit in these Isuzu diesels and kept it competitive by crediting the cost of the diesel motor that was removed, put in the electric-drive system, and provided all the creature comforts customers were used to — the controls are all the same, it drives the same, turns the same, they've got windshield wipers, they've got windows that roll down. It really is just as cost effective as trying to build something from the ground up because Isuzu makes 300,000 of these cabs a year."

OBSTACLE COURSE
Creating the concept is one thing, but even experienced builders like FMI and Bosserman hit a few snags in product development.

"Well, I think there were a number of obstacles," says Emerson. "There's two kinds of electric motors — Series motor (i.e those found in pushbacks and tugs). A series motor is a really great motor if you want to go to a certain rpm — a powerband, if you will. Now, you buy this series motor and it's designed to run at 2,300 rpm for peak power, if you go to 2,700 rpm, the power drops off real fast, it uses more electricity. That's why these tugs and things are all designed for 5 to 10 mph and they do a great job moving heavy weights and such. But, if you want to have driveability like a customer would expect with a regular vehicle, then you have to go to what is called a Separately Excited motor. That allows you to play with the current going to the field and the armature so that you get a much wider powerband."

He adds, "In order to get the horsepower to run these bigger units, we were looking for higher horsepower in the separately excited. The higher horsepower in the series motor has been around for a long time, but that doesn't take care of the issue. I won't say the technology is brand new, but it's newer — 96-volt is newer. However, until this application came up, there was really no reason why someone would spend a whole lot of time developing this technology."

AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
"The second challenge is something the industry faces with their drivers," explains Emerson. "I don't care if it's our truck or pushbacks or whatever, in some of these areas, there is a mixture of equipment — they have some of the older gas or diesel, and then they have some newer electric. Trying to get people to understand or remember that you have to plug these vehicles in. That's more of a challenge on the operator's side."

Bosserman adds, "Well, I think some of the challenges from the market's standpoint is the uncertainty customers have with this technology. I had a lot of people walk up to me at the show to say, 'I don't want to be the first one with an electric vehicle.' They relate to automotive versus the truck and this is an altogether different vehicle. It won't go 300 miles at 70mph — we're not trying to accomplish that. As Don said, 25 mph, use it for a day, rolling on a flat surface."

DEVELOPING THE ELECTRIC REFUELER
"The truck we had at the NBAA, was an actual refueler that could have gasoline in it," says Bosserman, "which is a lot more volatile than jet fuel and it's a lot more susceptible to sparking. We had to deal with the electrics of the motors and with the potential of avgas fumes and avgas product floating around — that was our biggest challenge to overcome with the electric motor because no one that I know of has ever done an electric refueler."

He continues, "As a builder, we have a good reputation and we had to make sure we did it right because you don't want to have somebody go out and blow up an airplane or themselves. Don worked with us quite well with developing a motor that would actually drive our product pump so that we could get that situation accomplished and move on."

GUIDING THE PROCESS
"Our biggest document that we use and I'm actually on the committee that writes it is called NFPA 407 (National Fire Protection Association), which deals with the design of aviation refueling equipment to keep them from having a fire," says Bosserman.

A new version of the document has recently been released and Bosserman explains that at a recent meeting, he asked the committee about the "what ifs" of someone manufacturing an electric refueler.

"The whole committee actually had no problem with the design of an electric refueler/hydrant servicer based on where the motors were put and just how you run electronics," says Bosserman. "They said if you follow the guidelines of 407, it doesn't matter if it has an electric motor, or gas or diesel motor."

Bosserman adds, "You may have a diesel-driven hydrant servicer or refueler fueling a 757 and no more that five feet away from it is an electric tug and electric belt loader. The committee said, 'What's the difference if he's sitting there or if he's sitting in a [electric] refueler?' Batteries in major airports have been out there five or six years, right alongside other pieces of ground support equipment doing their operation while others are doing refueling. So, it's already there, taking place."

SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
Still, safety has to be a concern in this type of vehicle. Bosserman explains some of the modifications for this refueler.

"Actually, the gist of the chassis did not change. We just had to put an extra electric motor on it to drive the product pump. We moved the batteries so that we didn't have any fueling components over the top of the batteries. Don and I worked that out saying okay, here's where we want the batteries, here's how we'll lay out the chassis. We had quite a few conversations as to the best place to place the batteries based on vehicle weight, based on fumes, based on product making contact with the batteries — so we looked at the overall picture and said "This will work."

BATTERIES INCLUDED
"We use just standard 6-volt lead-acid batteries," says Emerson. "Southwest Airlines, for example wanted gel pack batteries because of their operation and so we can install the gel packs too. Sometimes you can get into these large battery packs that are specifically designed for 80-volt systems or 36-volt systems, but from our standpoint, the standard 6-volt batteries are cost effective and they lay out nicely."

MAINTENANCE?
On the average, the batteries last about two years before needing a replacement," says Emerson. "We use a watering system called the Water Master, which is developed so that when you go to charge the truck, you have one hose that comes out of your battery pack and it plugs into a can on the wall. The water just goes in and after about 30 minutes, it's filled all the batteries and you do that once every two weeks. And that's really the maintenance that's required, other than normal checking for corrosion and things you do annually. There's minimal maintenance on wear items like brakes. Isuzus are designed for a 175hp engine and with an electric vehicle, this strong structure, basically, is like a tank."

COMMON DENOMINATORS
"One of the benefits is that with the Isuzu chassis, Terry can order this truck as a gas truck, a CNG truck, a diesel, or this electric conversion truck and most of it is going to be common for him as a body builder," says Emerson.

TAKING ORDERS
"These trucks are not designed for everybody at every airport," explains Bosserman. "We're not trying to say that everybody in the world better have one. We know that there are certain applications and certain people who are going to be using them."

"We stirred a lot of interest. "In my 25 years of building fuel trucks," says Bosserman. "If you would've asked me five years ago if we would see an electric refueler in our lifetime, I probably would have said you're crazy — never going to see that happen — and here we are, we've done it."