The cars and bikes thread!

[geoffbot]

It doesn’t happen often, but usually at least a couple of times per year that it’s more than 24 hours. Home backup generators are quite common here.

As for the internet, cell service and battery devices still work.


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Some new electric cars can actually run your house in a power cut, or charge with cheap leccy in the day then put it back at night. Big old battery packs.

[mlcor]

Some new electric cars can actually run your house in a power cut, or charge with cheap leccy in the day then put it back at night. Big old battery packs.

I’ve seen that but only with big suvs and pickups, neither of which would interest me. Plus, then you’d have a house with electricity and no way to leave it.


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[Raza]

I’ve seen that but only with big suvs and pickups, neither of which would interest me. Plus, then you’d have a house with electricity and no way to leave it.


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They’ve been pushing this feature a lot in commercials lately. I’ve seen some that make absolutely no sense. In one, someone uses their car to power string lights around a frozen pond so an old man can watch a small child ice skate at night from his house. This raises a lot of questions. (1) Who is this old man? I assume it’s the grandfather of the ice skating girl, otherwise why would he care about a small child ice skating in his backyard? (2) If he is, why don’t they just plug the lights into his house’s exterior outlet? (3) If he’s not, is this some sort of child ice skater trafficking pipeline she’s being forced to audition for?

I’ve also seen one where they use the car to power a bunch of stuff while camping. While I applaud the idea of making camping a less silly exercise by any means necessary using a car battery to power a luxurious campsite seems like a dumb, dumb way to end up dead, because there’s no power source with which to recharge your vehicle. But hey, at least you finished that gym in Pokemon Go, right? Now huddle together with your family while you wait for the sweet release of death or a rescue team that will never come.

There are two things these commercials constantly reinforce: (1) I don’t want an electric vehicle, despite the fact you can use your car as a way to power things when you’d decided to leave society and venture into the outdoors and (2) Camping, the outdoors, and any other dirt-heavy venture that involves not showering and simulating homeless are all awful, awful ways to spend your time.

[geoffbot]

People love a gimmick. 'the cyber truck is bulletproof!' has, I bet, sold at least 1 or 2 unit. Whilst I sort of count this as a gimmick it was a suitable answer to a power outage problem. Or, just buy a diesel generator, I'm surprised you don't have one mlcor?

[Samanator]

It would be practical for me right up until the first storm that knocks our electricity out for a few days, making it impossible to charge at home…or I need to take a long trip where I’d have to sit around and wait for an hour to charge up. Assuming a charging station is available and working.

So…hybrid for me at least for the next ten years or so. Which wouldn’t leave me that many more years of driving…


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Home charging is not a problem for me. My home has a 50' RV carport with two 50 Amp 220 feeds along with a similar sized box that is there for the hot tub I took out. That is all attached to a 24Kw backup generator that has three 120 gal propane tanks. My issue is distance to things, towing and lack of locations to charge that are not home. Costco runs are all day nearly 200 mile runs. Going back to visit in Pompano Beach is almost 300 miles. Our hunting camp or Lake Okeechobee with an EV pickup or SUV towing the UTV or the boat would take two charges based on testing to go back and forth. Adding in charging is not an option if it were even available. I can't have a car be the reason we don't do things. EV seem sound if you have a place to charge and are in an Urban area or near surroundings. I don't want to live there anymore. Our local driving has a tank of gas lasting more than a month so we don't burn much gas on a daily basis. Neither of us has had a commute in over 12 years.

As far as using your vehicle to power your home,only makes sense if you don't need AC. Serge current would be an issue at startup in many cases. Not really an option in most of Florida. An electric oven/stove or cloths dryer would be on the fringe of the capacity of those things over more than a few hours.

As @mlcor said, a hybrid is the better product for the next ten plus years for our needs.

[mlcor]

People love a gimmick. 'the cyber truck is bulletproof!' has, I bet, sold at least 1 or 2 unit. Whilst I sort of count this as a gimmick it was a suitable answer to a power outage problem. Or, just buy a diesel generator, I'm surprised you don't have one mlcor?

Our current home didn’t come with one. Our next home definitely will have one.

As for camping, my idea of roughing it is a three star hotel.


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[geoffbot]

Ha fair enough!

[happyscrappyheropup]

People love a gimmick. 'the cyber truck is bulletproof!' has, I bet, sold at least 1 or 2 unit. Whilst I sort of count this as a gimmick it was a suitable answer to a power outage problem. Or, just buy a diesel generator, I'm surprised you don't have one mlcor?

Friends with auto cutover generators use propane or NG to power them. I have an old school gas and a cutover panel to back feed the house. I haven't used it in years, I take it out and load test it a few times/year just to be sure it's usable.

I have another friend with the entire Tesla setup - Model S car, Power wall batteries, and Tesla solar panels. It's a nice setup but a lot of money and not really necessary in our area.

[litlmn]

Our current home didn’t come with one. Our next home definitely will have one.

As for camping, my idea of roughing it is a three star hotel.


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Can’t add one? I’m sure you know people….

[mlcor]

Can’t add one? I’m sure you know people….

We’re not planning on staying in our current house too much longer, so it wouldn’t make sense.


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