Posted on 12/08/2022 6:15:13 AM PST by lowbridge
Winter is coming.
OK, technically meteorological winter arrived last week, beginning as it does every year on Dec. 1. Astronomical winter, which is the one that shows up on your calendar as “First Day of Winter,” doesn’t kick off until Dec. 21.
But if you drive a Ford F-150 Lighting electric pickup truck, it may have felt like winter to you for quite a while already, especially if you live in a colder climate and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for extending the vehicle’s range during the snowy season.
Because I don’t want to be accused of taking anything out of context, I’m going to just list those recommendations in their entirety, commenting as I go. (I’ll put Ford’s wording in italics for clarity, and I won’t cut anything they wrote — you can double-check me here if you’re the less trusting sort.)
(Excerpt) Read more at ijr.com ...
It's supposed to make us happy to be digital slaves, confined to a radius of travel around our pods.
We live in a town where we can do all of these activities within a 5 minute drive, most within a 2 block walk.
The reason for this, I grew up in the boonies and saw my grandparents, who previously had lived where they could walk to everything needing to depend on others for rides to everything, with the closest store or any service at least 10 miles away.
My grandparents could drive 6 horse teams of work horses, but never had drivers licenses.
If I get to the point of being unable to drive, I want to be able to crawl to everything I need.
The furthest thing is the grocery store, 6 blocks away.
Yet I can go 2 blocks in another direction and the next 30 miles is woods.
I can get on the NH snowmobile trail system from my house.
NOT very many actually know how to ride a horse—or take care of it.
Lucky me-—I Do know,
They missed the real big one: “When you get to work, demand a garage, with charging capabilities, to keep your vehicle ready for the trip home.”
rickshaws
11 this AM here in N Nevada high desert.
And-—they will write tickets due to our horse manure......
Second Law of Thermodynamics wins again.
We’re going to need some more global warming to keep these poor saps from freezing to death in their firetraps
“ No rear defrost also or heated seats or wheel. What a joke ( on us).”
I don’t even live that far north and I just love my heated seats with 3 heat levels and heated steering wheel that gets warm almost instantly and heated mirrors I’ve never had to use because she’s my baby and I don’t let her get iced over
And the supercharged V8 doesn’t hurt either 😀
Thanks for the review.
Ford made a truck with a gas engine that had an electric outlet in the bed. During the Deep Freeze of 2021 neighbors of mine would fire up the truck to warm up and provide electricity for the neighborhood to charge their cell phones.
We were out of power for about 24 hours with the outside temp around 7F. In SE Texas of all places.
The funny thing is that I’ve been living that “15 minute” goal my entire life. Everything I do day-to-day is within 15 minutes of home. I try to minimize time in cars (especially commute time) because that is just time wasted and the idiots in traffic sends blood pressure way up.
There are local trips that take more time (going to the beach, going to a park 60-90 minutes away) and longer vacation trips by car or plane.
Did you actually read Ford’s recommendations? They absolutely do say use heated seats and heated wheel and avoid trying to use the HVAC to heat the whole cabin.
Ford’s advice boils down to garage it, leave it plugged in whenever possible, preheat it while plugged in before you go anywhere, make sure your tires are properly inflated (duh), and use the seat heaters and heated steering wheel instead of the HVAC.
All in all, a bunch of kludges or otherwise obvious actions to fix the inherent limitations of the vehicle. But keeping the truck garaged and plugged in all the time is not practical for most users, particularly when used as a work truck. I sure as heck wouldn’t want to be out in sub-zero temperatures relying on seat and steering wheel heaters to keep me from freezing while trying to make it home before my vehicle dies, especially when I just spend upwards of six figure to buy it. It is all fine and good if you live in the south or the west coast, but if you live in the northeast or upper Midwest or mountains, this truck isn’t going to work for you.
All the cool kids drive electric vehicles.
Yes, but it’s by your choice, not forced on you.
You don’t need to beg for permission to be allowed to go on a road trip out of state.
But that is on the agenda.
It is a great idea... if you have a generator available to make more power. A hybrid work truck would be a much more viable option, just make them like a diesel electric locomotive with an onboard generator to charge the batteries that in turn drive electric motors at the wheels. Then you have the best of both worlds: fast refill, no range anxiety, virtually unlimited torque for towing and ready power to run your electric tools or even your house in an emergency.
It is only to appease the greenies that they didn’t go that direction from the beginning.
We had one of the original Ridgelines until an heir got an early inheritance this year.
It was perfect for what you posted: “They are very nice for an old retired guy with the occasional yard work item to throw in the back.”
The joke was that my wife could clean out Home Depot or the Tractor place in a single trip.
Then, she/me would arrange the new plants where she wanted them for our yard guy to plant.
Our MW relatives replaced their other 4 wheel drive pickups in snow country after riding and driving my Ridgeline.
Ours towed fishing boats, Hobie kayaks, and whatever.
The relatives Ridgies’ towes everything on a small farm or a nice home in town.
Pow pow powerwheels!
“All EVs should be tested in metro Chicago or Minneapolis in January—let us see what the real range is on these things.”
That’s going to be a big fat “ZERO” when the batteries freeze overnight.
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