Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

Pickup of the Future?

So I dont know much about these electric vehicles, but I can drive across country to PA and stop for gas every 400ish miles and be back on the road in 5 minutes. Doesn't it take like 5 to 12 hrs to charge a tesla depending on the model? To me thats a problem. Thats adding 40hrs to my drive give or take a few. Am I wrong on that?
That's the major problem with these electric vehicles.





.

If you're commuting locally or have a fleet that just runs around town I can see a use for them. Long road trips or heavy daily milage is a no go.
 
I live in a subdivision in a suburb. There are 20,000 homes in this place. The place is full of small pickups hundreds and hundreds of them. 95% of those pickups have never been off road, towed anything or drove more than 100 miles a day. These folks are the target market for these electric trucks. they toss there kayak , cooler or bike back there. They have four wheel drive in case they get in the sugar sand on the side of the road or a dirt parking area but most put their truck in four wheel drive once or twice the whole time they own it, if ever. Most of us arent interested at this time but there is plenty of interest out there for electric trucks. Our utility department in the subdivision could replace their ten pickups with electric trucks without any lack of performance. Cost might be a consideration as they buy small cheap work trucks.
 
Not sure why folks get so spun up in 400 miles of range. My Tundra gets 10-12 mpg in the two tracks. On a 26 gallon tank, well you do the math.
Same reason they rifle and scope up for those 400-700 yard shots at the animal of a lifetime when they have never shot or will shoot anything over 150. And let me say I am a guilty party. LOL.
 
As far as charging goes, it does take more time than I would want. But not sure why you would have to wait on a full charge. I just put 20 gallons in the Silverado at the 7/11. A lady pulled up on the other side of me and squirted in 8 bucks worth in a few minutes. Maybe people would stop and charge up just enough to get home. No reason to have to fully charge everytme they needed juice.
 
Seen 2 vid's recently on the Ford Lightning and it does look interesting. Like a real truck.
The others I've seen are for hollywood or short offroad.
The drive system on the Ford seems like it would work in similar situations as I run into everyday with my 150. Most folks would consider our hwys offroad conditions. lol
The charging systems need to be worked out so one could set up a charger/panel system for home use,reasonably. Roll out flex panels as bed covers or campershell top for charging while parked would make them very use full.
Nobrainer if these things are worked out.Here in NM for sure.

Times change.
I see old cars that never made it to a gas station,abandoned from dust bowl days.
Glad I'm not trying to take the buckboard to town too. And get home in one day.

Show me a tractor or big rig and I'm in.
 
Extend that research to 10 minutes, or open your mind, and you might come to a different conclusion.
Well I did the research, and opened my mind. The mining process for the batteries still hasn't changed and does environmental harm. The fuel it stakes to get the components here from other countries offsets the the fuel "savings". The disposal problems when the batteries go bad still exists, the charging problems and locations are still a problem. So its still dumb. I have had several friends who have had both Hybrid ( the only real option that makes some sense), straight hybrid and they all went back to gas. The cost savings is not there. The prices have dropped dramatically because they do not dell very well and they have to to meet the GPM overall ratings set by the government. Sales prove everything.

Although you do get a front row parking spot in most places.
 
Well I did the research, and opened my mind. The mining process for the batteries still hasn't changed and does environmental harm. The fuel it stakes to get the components here from other countries offsets the the fuel "savings". The disposal problems when the batteries go bad still exists, the charging problems and locations are still a problem. So its still dumb. I have had several friends who have had both Hybrid ( the only real option that makes some sense), straight hybrid and they all went back to gas. The cost savings is not there. The prices have dropped dramatically because they do not dell very well and they have to to meet the GPM overall ratings set by the government. Sales prove everything.

Although you do get a front row parking spot in most places.

How does that compare to the supply chain for conventional vehicles? I can't imagine it's a much cleaner process.
 
I'm going to get a cyber truck at some point. Everybody makes fun of me, but that truck makes me feel a certain kind of way. like Batman. 500miles of range for their tri motor version? hell thats better then my truck right now. I could just hold on to my f250 for longer hauls for hunting and do my communting an errands around town. Even if you never take it off road trucks are just so useful. Although, im bombing down some trails with that mofo as soon as possible.
 
If you and 2 or 3 other neighbors get Cybertrucks and the 240v charging kit, be sure to buy some lanterns and candles because transformers will be popping like water balloons on a hot summer afternoon at the playground.

"Local distribution grids are not built to accommodate the huge spikes in demand where electric cars will be particularly prevalent. Transformers, which connect every home and business to the power grid, are the most vulnerable and affected elements of the system. Most residential transformers serve between 10 and 50kVA of load, a single plug-in vehicle (PEV) with a 240V (Level 2) charging system consumes approximately 7kVa." - https://www.fleetcarma.com/ev-clustered-charging-can-problematic-electrical-utilities/

I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to 30 to 40 cents per kWh electric bills. And the cost in materials and environmental disturbance to move and manage that much load will not be trivial. Of course that disruption may be offset by the mandatory solar panels we'll all be forced to buy, you know, "for the children."
 
Or the manufacturer could buy hydropower from WA, wind from WY/TX, solar from CA/AZ

In terms of maintenance... wait, what maintenance?
Currently we're
60% fossil fuels
20% nuclear
20% renewables

An electric car uses ~ the same energy in a year as a average single family home. (Lots of variability, but it's a lot of electricity)

I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that we will build a lot of fossil fuel power plants, natural gas primarily, to meet the electricity demand.


Our neighbor just bought a Tesla, it runs on Natural Gas.
1621532134840.png

Green would be looking at a transition to more public transit and promoting ultra cheap, long lasting vehicles with far fewer bells and whistles. Teslas might be sexy but they aren't green.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm not opposed to this - I'm still all for getting my F150 Raptor with my next vehicle purchase - but up here in Alaska, Canada, the North West - the bitter cold kills batteries. How are you going to make this not die. I don't want to pay to charge it EVERY time i stop. I'm assuming that they will have to come up with something to combat -50 Fahrenheit at some point but until I seem some actual solutions I'm not buying in.
Also our electricity is pretty stupid expensive too. So charging this better be better then a tank of gas.
250 miles also doesn't even get me to Anchorage from Fairbanks - I'd have to stop some where to charge up.
1621533307021.png
 
Currently we're
60% fossil fuels
20% nuclear
20% renewables

An electric car uses ~ the same energy in a year as a average single family home. (Lots of variability, but it's a lot of electricity)

I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that we will build a lot of fossil fuel power plants, natural gas primarily, to meet the electricity demand.


Our neighbor just bought a Tesla, it runs on Natural Gas.
View attachment 183742


Green would be looking at a transition to more public transit and promoting ultra cheap, long lasting vehicles with far fewer bells and whistles. Teslas might be sexy but they aren't green.
Theoretically part of this is that power can and should be treated like an actual market. That's the point of green energy credits. So if your neighbor wants to buy green energy they can.

"long lasting vehicles with fewer bells and whistles..." what exactly do bells and whistles have to do with green? And I do see green being electric. But I don't abide by the "has to be perfect to be good" mentality that many of the nay-sayers do. I also view my old ass honda as green. I'll drive it till it dies (or till I give it to one of my kids so I can finally buy something that does over 65 mph without feeling like it's going to fall apart... but I digress).

I just bought 7 quarts of completely non-renewable dino blood for my truck, not to power it, just to keep it from ceasing up, it feels like I'm always do it. How much oil does it take to maintain an electric motor?
 
Theoretically part of this is that power can and should be treated like an actual market. That's the point of green energy credits. So if your neighbor wants to buy green energy they can.

"long lasting vehicles with fewer bells and whistles..." what exactly do bells and whistles have to do with green? And I do see green being electric. But I don't abide by the "has to be perfect to be good" mentality that many of the nay-sayers do. I also view my old ass honda as green. I'll drive it till it dies (or till I give it to one of my kids so I can finally buy something that does over 65 mph without feeling like it's going to fall apart... but I digress).

I just bought 7 quarts of completely non-renewable dino blood for my truck, not to power it, just to keep it from ceasing up, it feels like I'm always do it. How much oil does it take to maintain an electric motor?

Not to mention 0-60 in 2.5 seconds :p. I wonder if the cyber truck will use some oils for some lubrication in some of its drive components (diffs, T-case). I can imagine even on the vehicle itself there will be a need for that unless a fully synthetic man made renewable oil of some sort is used for these later on down the road.
 
If you and 2 or 3 other neighbors get Cybertrucks and the 240v charging kit, be sure to buy some lanterns and candles because transformers will be popping like water balloons on a hot summer afternoon at the playground.

"Local distribution grids are not built to accommodate the huge spikes in demand where electric cars will be particularly prevalent. Transformers, which connect every home and business to the power grid, are the most vulnerable and affected elements of the system. Most residential transformers serve between 10 and 50kVA of load, a single plug-in vehicle (PEV) with a 240V (Level 2) charging system consumes approximately 7kVa." - https://www.fleetcarma.com/ev-clustered-charging-can-problematic-electrical-utilities/

I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to 30 to 40 cents per kWh electric bills. And the cost in materials and environmental disturbance to move and manage that much load will not be trivial. Of course that disruption may be offset by the mandatory solar panels we'll all be forced to buy, you know, "for the children."


In AZ, and other areas where high temps and renewables create “duck curve” issues, the possibility of adding more demand at night to alleviate the sudden demand fall off and associated generation/distribution issues that go with it is welcomed.

A lot of money is being spent to hit the throttle on natural gas peakers and then to suddenly shut them off with the wild demand swings we currently see. More nighttime demand(at home charging) would be great.
 
Theoretically part of this is that power can and should be treated like an actual market. That's the point of green energy credits. So if your neighbor wants to buy green energy they can.

"long lasting vehicles with fewer bells and whistles..." what exactly do bells and whistles have to do with green? And I do see green being electric. But I don't abide by the "has to be perfect to be good" mentality that many of the nay-sayers do. I also view my old ass honda as green. I'll drive it till it dies (or till I give it to one of my kids so I can finally buy something that does over 65 mph without feeling like it's going to fall apart... but I digress).

I just bought 7 quarts of completely non-renewable dino blood for my truck, not to power it, just to keep it from ceasing up, it feels like I'm always do it. How much oil does it take to maintain an electric motor?
Feels like a lot of bs marketing for a sports car is all I'm saying.

I think we need to be more pragmatic about green energy. During the pandemic we saw, obviously an explosion in remote working, and honestly we did not see a decline in productivity. Green policy #1 should be, all companies that can go remote should go remote. You don't need to fly across the country for a business meeting 99% of the time, you don't need to commute from the burbs to downtown to sit in front of a screen. That alone will save more energy than any EV vehicle.

In 2019 I put 25,000 miles on my car from March 2020 -> May 2021 I put 4,000. So ~ 32 barrels of oil less. That doesn't apply to everyone, obviously but if you don't need to commute you shouldn't, period.

Public transit, our public transit blows ass, better and well planned public transit reduces drives.

As far as cars, have you been in a Tesla? Compare that to your old ass honda. Cameras, LCD screens, sensors, chips, etc etc. takes energy to produce. In terms of energy used a tesla takes what 10x more to build than an 04' Honda? When your car dies why not buy a used Honda, maybe fix the clutch and some belts, instead of building a space ship, I mean if the whole point is planet saving.

In high school it seemed like ever yuppie was driving a porche boxster and now every they have a Tesla and yeah if that's the trade then sure moving we are moving in the right direction.

In terms of actually doing anything seems too little too late.

... Bruh a Tesla is the pack raft of cars, like can't we agree the world needs more boats that will last a lifetime ;)
 
Not to mention 0-60 in 2.5 seconds :p. I wonder if the cyber truck will use some oils for some lubrication in some of its drive components (diffs, T-case). I can imagine even on the vehicle itself there will be a need for that unless a fully synthetic man made renewable oil of some sort is used for these later on down the road.
I want one too! For the instant torque. If you calculate in the electrical power loss due to resistance from the miles and miles of power lines between the electric power plants and our houses you’ll find they don’t so shiatt for the environment. The government subsidies have skewed true costs too but still...I want to feel full torque from the git go.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
113,576
Messages
2,025,575
Members
36,237
Latest member
SCOOTER848
Back
Top