This episode of the Edison Motors Podcast dives into the wild mix of building electric and hybrid trucks, fighting holiday shutdowns, and trying not to die on cheap mountain sleds in deep Golden, BC snow. Hear how the team is racing to finish the next winch tractor for CONEXPO in Vegas, lining up a road trip to CanSec in Ottawa, and scrambling around supplier delays, warped axle mounts, and wrong‑way parts that don’t fit until the last bolt proves them wrong.
Chase, Yale, Jordan and Theron break down where the flagship electric truck build is really at, what went wrong with the Cummins X15 timing, and why welding distortion on the axle mounts turned into a full‑blown Christmas frustration video on YouTube. They talk about meeting rig‑up partners like Marsep and Peerless, why only two production bays changes everything, and how the plan is to build two identical hybrid trucks side by side instead of reinventing the wheel twice.
On the hybrid side, Yale explains the complete redesign to the V4 hybrid platform: new battery system, integrated BMS, safer contactors inside the packs, fewer batteries (from six down to two), less weight, better packaging, and about thirty percent more horsepower out of the system while integrating motor controllers into the axles to cut EMI and simplify wiring. The crew also talks about new hires on the mechanical and electrical engineering teams and how getting the mechanical truck engineering done frees everyone to focus on the Royal hybrid and the Tolko logging truck hybrid builds.
The guys explain why the old shop is getting torn down, how they scored a used CAT log loader for around seventy grand and put roughly thirty thousand into undercarriage and hydraulic work to handle demolition themselves, and how glulam beams and steel from the teardown will be repurposed into new offices, a proper merch store, and a media space.
The episode also hits real‑world trucking life: holiday shutdowns in parts supply, engineers off while mechanics are still wrenching, waiting on cab mounts, axle mounts and critical components through the Christmas lull, and the headaches of rig‑up coordination when a mechanic drives all the way to Winnipeg without the parts he was supposed to bring. They talk about launching the Edison service truck as a mobile repair unit across the scales from the inspection station, how mechanics can use their “week off” for premium mobile work, and why field service is the best way to force engineers to experience what their designs are like to fix at night in the snow under a truck.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Edison Motors without some chaos: deep snow around the property, a DIY toboggan/GT track off the front door, night sledding with the kids, and Chase and Yale learning the hard way how not to reverse a sled in powder and why rolling the sled is sometimes the only way out. There are stories of GT injuries, sketchy ten‑foot drops onto flats, and plans to groom the test track, drag an old truck box liner behind a sled to make cross‑country loops, and even build ski jumps on site.
The crew also rants about winter driving in British Columbia: DriveBC not having a proper app, repeated Rogers Pass closures, avalanche control, idiots running four‑way flashers in every snowflake, and the real danger of hazard light fatigue or when you actually come across a broken‑down fuel truck with no lights on a steep mountain highway. Mixed in are candid shop stories about forgetting parts, turning around with critical pieces, and needing to tighten up processes as Edison scales from prototype chaos to a repeatable production operation.
If you care about electric trucks, hybrid logging rigs, real blue‑collar engineering, and what it’s actually like to build a truck company in a snowy corner of British Columbia, this Edison Motors Podcast episode is packed with updates and stories straight from the shop floor and the sled trail.
Jan 12 202647 Min.