Filippo Lippi
Philosopher
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Oh, the humanity!
Electric Vehicles
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Oh, the humanity!
Fast Eddie B
Philosopher
We tow a 21’ travel trailer with a Ford Flex. With sway control and weight distribution “unhooking” is a multi-step, time consuming affair.
Made worse in inclement weather or extreme heat or cold. It could probably be streamlined, but having to go through the process every couple of hours to charge would be a nontrivial inconvenience.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
I'm not sure what made you think that either Bruto or I were referring to some sort of standard hand tool type extension.
This is exactly the sort of issue that a charging cable extension could address. It wouldn't need to be 100 feet long.
If electric vehicles are to become ubiquitous then these sorts of issues will be addressed.
dirtywick
Penultimate Amazing
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I'm not going to act like it's not an inconvenience, which it is absolutely when compared with not having to spend an extra 5 minutes doing something, but it takes like 5 minutes.
I think the solution is to have multiple charging ports on the vehicle. One of the advantages of it not being a gas tank.
Hybrids will become popular.
Fast Eddie B
Philosopher
Kudos if you could do it in 5 minutes! It’s a multi-step process.
1) Chock the trailer.
2) Unplug power cable.
3) Unhook safety chains (2).
4) Unhook brake safety cable.
5) Detach one end of sway control and secure.
6) Jack up trailer tongue to relieve stress on weight distribution arms (about 30 cranks).
7) Lever chains off and free and secure weight distribution arms.
8) Lower hitch jack to relieve pressure on hitch (again about 30 turns).
9) Release hitch mechanism.
10) Jack tongue back up enough to clear hitch ball.
Done and drive off to charge. Repeat in reverse order after charging. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not a 5 minute job either. And hooking back up takes at least as long. Not all trailers need weight distribution and/or sway control, but many do.
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Shalamar
Dark Lord of the JREF
Started our 14 hour trip from Seattle to Yellowstone.
Driving from supercharger to supercharger.
Driving from supercharger to supercharger.
malbui
Beauf
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A bit late to the party as I've been away. A couple of weeks ago I arrived at a Supercharger in Switzerland to find that a guy in a TMX towing a trailer had parked across six chargers to avoid uncoupling. There was quite a lively discussion going on.
I didn't think you were referring to a standard electrical cable. Nevertheless, an extension cord isn't practical and might not even be possible. The cable for fast chargers isn't just a bundle of wires. It is a system with active cooling. Even if it were possible to make an extension, it would be outrageously expensive and very heavy.
And even if you had a longer cable, where would you park the truck and trailer while it charges? Most charging spots are standard size parking spaces. A truck with a trailer would block multiple spaces as well as the driving lane.
Of course, that was my point. Truck manufacturers are going to have to work with the charger networks and others to update the infrastructure to support trucks and vehicles with trailers. It isn't a simple matter of using an extension cord.
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Not to digress too far, but why is that? An F150 can cost upwards of $40,000. If you've got 40 grand to spend on a vehicle, why is a truck -- big, hard to park, gas guzzling, not very comfortable -- preferable to and more prestigious than one of the many other vehicles in that price range? There might be a lot of reasons to choose an SUV over a traditional sedan or wagon, and that's why they have become such a big share of the market. But I don't understand the appeal of a giant truck unless you actually need it.
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RecoveringYuppy
Penultimate Amazing
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Symptoms of the culture war are everywhere in the US.
Shalamar
Dark Lord of the JREF
Made our third charge stop. This one is about a 30 min charge. We’re going to get lunch and a bathroom break.
A little less than the ‘46 hour charge’ that had been mentioned here.
A little less than the ‘46 hour charge’ that had been mentioned here.
dirtywick
Penultimate Amazing
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I don’t find most of them particularly big or hard to park or uncomfortable(?), but they’re pretty useful even if you don’t “need” one. Like if I want to haul my yard refuse to the dump every week, buy something large from a store, or move many things in a single trip. And forget about worrying about snowy roads or getting stuck. I had an SUV before the pickup and it had many of the same advantages but it was just more of a pain and some things just didn’t fit easily, like a 4ft wide drywall sheet for instance, and anything smelly or wet you were putting inside of your cab. I’ve dumped gas in the back before, that sucked. A car, forget it.
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And as expensive as they are, trucks hold value
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That's generally correct when a heavy vehicle hits a lighter vehicle. It's just physics. But that's not the only or even most common kind of accident. For others, the design and safety features of the vehicle itself can be more important. And a smaller, more maneuverable vehicle might be able to evade an accident that a truck can't.
https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight
https://www.cars.com/articles/size-matters-when-crash-safety-is-involved-iihs-crash-report-422265/
Cars have to meet higher safety standards, so I assumed they are safer. But, I wasn't sure so I added the question mark.
dirtywick
Penultimate Amazing
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Well I got t-boned last month in my truck and it hit the driver's door and back cab door. If I was in a car it would have hit me right in the side of my head.
Guybrush Threepwood
Trainee Pirate
I'm being quite serious. Tiny penis is the only thing I can think of. They really outed themselves a decade or so ago when they started hanging bollocks off the trailer hitch.
Ron Obvious
Graduate Poster
As I recall, SUVs were counted as trucks and thus not regulated as cars with regards to vehicle mileage standards and/or safety, so their profit margins are higher. And so the general public had to be programmed to like them. Previously, people would have turned their nose up at "suburbans". It's to me a classic case of manufactured demand.
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