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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
Yeehaw, Texas! Short memories. Mismanage their own (independent!!:R) grid and now want to be turned loose on the rest of the country? Thanks but no thanks.
Not really mismanaged, but rather we spent money to secure our electricity production during heat waves (which is more common here than week long freak cold snaps) and forced to shut down coal plants due to expensive EPA regulations in favor of cheaper wind electricity. In the past 10 years, there have been more than 11 power plants shut down in Texas due to ever increasing EPA regulations making them more expensive to operate. One of them, the J.T. Deely plant near San Antonio, had enough capacity to supply power to over a half a million homes, but would have cost $3 billion to bring it up to the recently changed EPA standards under the Obama Administration. These plant shut downs don't get reported in the news when talking about the one week when we were without power.
So we had enough power for many years, but federal regulations played a huge role cutting that power and forcing us to rely on more wind and solar power which is highly susceptible to extreme cold weather conditions. We also placed our bets and money on hotter weather, like we normally get, effecting our grid, not colder weather.
This is why we don't have that many brown outs during the summer when it gets to 105 yet other places and grids like in California that had brownouts during the summer years ago. Can you really call a grid mismanaged when it prepares for the weather it gets 99.9% of the time and not being prepared for a freak week long cold snap that hasn't happened in decades versus California not protecting itself from weather it gets most of the time and having brown outs during the summer?
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ShinerBock
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06/30/22 07:07am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
Also, what happens to the US dollar has a major effect on the world becuase the US dollar is world's reserve currency that is uses for many transactions and trades worldwide. If it is worth less here, then it is worth less everywhere.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 05:04pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
Well if it is all because of the infrastructure bill you better hold onto your hat. We are just six months into a five year plan.
I am actually amazed that this has actually resulted in the world wide inflation at the same time.
Who knew we had such influence from building a few local projects.
I never said it was all becuase of the infrastructure bill. In fact I never mentioned the infrastructure bill which is bill that releases money over time which requires smaller chuncks to be printed over time unlike the stimulus bills which requires money all at once.
I also never evens stated that the stimulus bills(like most countries around the world past at the same time) were the sole reason for inflation. I was just pointing out that while a president, governor, or legislator cannot control things like inflation and higher cost, they do have an significant influence from their actions and policies.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 04:55pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
More like get vaccinated and get back to work far more than any shutdown. I remember there would be vaccinations available to everyone and 4th of July 2021 was going to be the new freedom with 95+% of the population vaccinated.
Of course there was a lot of resistance to getting vaccinated and any mandates went nowhere. We have seen the enemy and it is ourselves ;)
The last administration printed more than any one previous or since.
But that was not the case. Many blue states still shut down or shuttered even after the vaccine(unless you were rioting). The current administration supported these shut downs and even chastised red states like mine who stayed open.
Also, as you can see in the link federal reserve showing the amount of money in circulation. The money in circulation exploded in March 2020 after the bill signed by the current administration and the amount put in circulation during the previous administration was no where near the increase in the past two years. So I am not sure how you can say more was printed with the last administration when there wasn't that much of an increase in circulation unless they destroyed trillions of currency.
Currency in Circulation
I looked at your graph.
Jan 2017 to Jan 2021 1504 to 2093 is 147 average annual increase
Jan 2021 to jan 2022 2093 to 2233 is 140 during the first year.
The pressure has been building for probably a decade.
It was not pressure building over the past 10 years. The increases in the amount of circulation coincide with the covid stimulus packages. The first few packages, the left filed it with so much pork barrel spending(that had nothing to do with covid) that the previous administration fought to remove. The next administration wanted to add even more money than what was in the bill. This spending is was caused the need to print more money.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 03:25pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
Double post
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 03:17pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
More like get vaccinated and get back to work far more than any shutdown. I remember there would be vaccinations available to everyone and 4th of July 2021 was going to be the new freedom with 95+% of the population vaccinated.
Of course there was a lot of resistance to getting vaccinated and any mandates went nowhere. We have seen the enemy and it is ourselves ;)
The last administration printed more than any one previous or since.
But that was not the case. Many blue states still shut down or shuttered even after the vaccine(unless you were rioting). The current administration supported these shut downs and even chastised red states like mine who stayed open.
Also, as you can see in the link federal reserve showing the amount of money in circulation. The money in circulation exploded in March 2020 after the bill signed by the current administration and the amount put in circulation during the previous administration was no where near the increase in the past two years. So I am not sure how you can say more was printed with the last administration when there wasn't that much of an increase in circulation unless they destroyed trillions of currency.
Currency in Circulation
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 02:58pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
So a few marginal players went bankrupt during the extreme drop in fuel demand during the pandemic and during the previous administration..... now the economy comes back and it is the fault of the current administration?
This is just part of our economic system more than the administrations.
JMHO.
Same in other areas. We were unknowingly living in a bit of a bubble that has now burst.
Either way the terrible fail Ford Lightning is sold out for at least three years.
I was just naming a few ways a president, governor, and/or legislator has an effect on prices. The current administrated supported the "shut everything down" policy even though many economist said we will pay for it later down the line. He also supported and pushed the Covid spending Trillion dollar spending spree bill where more than half went pet projects that had nothing to do with covid which causes us to print more money which in turn causes higher inflation because the dollar is worth less. There are many more ways that these people can effect current prices and supply shortages.
Many new or special edition vehicles are bought out by those who can afford them so they can sell them at exorbitant prices later on. That is nothing special or new.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 02:27pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
Are you implying that along with fuel the president also controls the price of trucks? What about Milk, he control that too?
Control? No. Influence pricing due to policy, legislation, and regulation? Yes.
You can have the EPA make up new environmental laws that force refineries to shutdown or close the economy due to aggressive covid policies causing many energy companies to lose profit for a few years meaning they had to shut down at least five refineries in the past two years. You can force states to go renewable energy like wind mills that are more susceptible to harder climates, then when you have a freak cold snap for two week, then refineries that are making the additives for oil and fuel are forced to shut down due to no power.
There are many more things that a president, governor, or legislator can do and have done that effect costs.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 12:16pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: The cost of a Diesel Truck
I think many people purposely do not include resale to help justify their choice. They only want to talk about recouping the upfront cost through fuel only.
The diesel engine option is one of the few engine option upgrades that actually pay for themselves and then some for most people. Other engine upgrades like going from a base 3.3L to the 5.0L in an F150 or the base 2.7L to a 6.2L in a GM will not only cost you over $2k upfront, but will also cost you more money the longer you own it due to the lower fuel economy of the upgraded engines yet no one ever seems to talk about recouping their money in those scenarios. However, any time a diesel is brought into the conversation then that is the only thing some seem to talk about.
Fact is, the diesel engine option is just like higher trim option like the High Country, Lariat, or Laramie. The $7k-11k you spent up front on these options will mostly be recouped at resale because they increase the value of the truck the same way a diesel (or any other engine upgrade option) does. At the end of 100k or 200k miles, the value of the diesel truck is not the same as the value of the base engine just like the value of a Laramie truck is not the same value as a Tradesman.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 07:44am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Dino juice v Electrons....
So this is just a troll thread post?Yep. Since virtually nobody is considering an EV as a tow vehicle, these threads are just an opportunity to bash EVs in general. Kind of like whining that your Cheerios suck because they don't taste like Corn Flakes.:S
That is not true. If you search through the Tesla semi thread, there are numerous posts by a few that even posted in this thread regarding EV towing and how well EV's towed. Some even commented how well their Tesla truck will tow when they get it. They also start new EV threads constantly in a "TOW VEHICLE" forum yet cry foul when an EV is put to the test and used in the same manner as an ICE tow vehicle.
Problem is, they only want to hear the good or positives about EV's and anything negative, even if it is true, is viewed as trolling even though they continue to troll the Tesla Semi thread with false pictures and misinformation. They also continue to post about EV's in "TOW VEHICLE" forum(yes, I meant to mention that twice). Don't start new EV threads in this forum if you don't want them compared and their weaknesses pointed out.
As I said before in other threads, EV's have their pros and cons and this is one of the cons. You can't tout their pros and cry foul when someone mentions their cons.
In regards to the video, TFL should have chosen the GM 3.0L diesel if their goal was to show the best towing distance with that size of trailer.
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ShinerBock
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06/29/22 07:05am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Tesla Semi truck unveil & test ride set for Oct 26th !
Personal question- just how many Elon Musk posters do you have on your bedroom walls? Not judging or anything.
I wonder if he feels the same about Elon now that he said he will vote Republican because he feels that Democrats have become the party of "division and hate".
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ShinerBock
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06/27/22 12:29pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Is It Worth It?
Your answers will be very subjective from one person to the next based on everyone's personal feelings, taste's, and opinions. Not everyone's answer will be the same just as not everyone's answer will be right or wrong. To some, an extra $1k-$2K over the life of the truck after trade in is worth the added power and ease of towing, to others it may not be.
There are some objective answers to your question regarding cost, but that will also vary depending on everyone's location. Some like me only have around a $.40 cent difference between diesel and gas while other like yourself may have more than a dollar.
Although, I will say that the higher the fuel cost in general, the more you will benefit from a vehicles that gets better fuel mileage. For instance, a Ram 2500 Cummins gets an average of 15.5 mpg while the gas version is 12 mpg. With that, if diesel is $5.19 then it would cost $.34 cents per mile while the gas version will be $.35 cents per mile with gas being $1.04 cheaper at $4.15. If both gas and diesel were exactly $1 less then the gas truck would cost per mile of $.01 cent less than the diesel. So as fuel prices increase, it benefits the diesel due to it's better fuel economy. When they decrease, then they benefit the gas. Kind of the opposite of what most people think.
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ShinerBock
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06/23/22 12:23pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
OK if I load my F150 with a 40' 5th wheel and complain that it fails is that my fault or am I trying to use the truck in a way that it was not designed?
Or if I cannot arrive at the same time as my buddy that flies in an airplane is that a vehicle failure? Or a failure to have proper expectations?
The truck actually made the destination right? To me that is success. Fail would be rolling in on a tow truck.
I think you are going way off track here to make your point and biases more relevant. No more than TFL.
We will have to disagree here. They are using the truck the same way they would use and ICE truck. Just because it does not perform the same and adds hours to the trip, does not mean it isn't relevant. In every cross country review and article I have seen of an EV vehicle, they have all added time to trips. Everything has pros and cons, and currently this is a con of EV's. You can't just boast about the pros of your favorite thing and then cry foul or bury your head in the sand when a con is exposed or report on.
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ShinerBock
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06/16/22 03:46pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
OK if I load my F150 with a 40' 5th wheel and complain that it fails is that my fault or am I trying to use the truck in a way that it was not designed?
Or if I cannot arrive at the same time as my buddy that flies in an airplane is that a vehicle failure? Or a failure to have proper expectations?
The truck actually made the destination right? To me that is success. Fail would be rolling in on a tow truck.
I think you are going way off track here to make your point and biases more relevant. I don't believe they used the vehicle in any way that it's owners manual would tell it not to like your silly example of using an F150 to tow a 40ft 5th wheel that is out of its limits. Does it say anything in the owners manual that they have to stay over night somewhere for 12 years to charge?
Does it say they can't let it charge for 6 hours?
They have done similar cross country videos with ICE vehicles and I don't see them doing anything different with this EV other than stopping so many times and waiting to charge. Just because this EV fails to do something just as well or not better than an ICE when they use it in the same manner does not mean that TFL failed(unless you can show me where they used it against the owners manual).
All it means is that the EV is not as good as ICE vehicles in certain areas yet. In other areas like power and efficiency, the EV is better. However, in range, overall time of travel, weight, and ease of extending your range by filling up, the ICE is better.
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ShinerBock
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06/16/22 12:10pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
The last time I did a road trip like that from Texas to Michigan helping a friend move, we only slept for 6 hours both nights. I was driving his crew cab pick up truck and he was driving the Penske van that was towing his GTO. Our goal was to get to the destination and not sight see. I can't image adding another 5-10 hours to that trip.
The two road trip before that was from South Texas to Utah. That one was very similar to the amount of miles in the TFL video of 1,200. Again, both trips up there we only slept for about 6 hours because we were in a hurry to get there. I was also towing my Jeep and bunch of other gear totaling 10k lbs so I can't imagine how much additional time I would have spent charging on on that trip.
So while the times they slept and woke up are not normal, the amount of time they slept is for all of the road trips I have taken where we actually spent the night along the route. There are many road trips that my wife and I teamed up to drive straight through like Florida. I think the truck in the video would have forced us to stay the night somewhere.I recently drove from So Cal to IL and slept 8 hours each of 3 nights and was in at each stop for dinner. I could not imagine cutting sleep to 5 hours to make the journey in 2 stops 3 days. To each their own.
Still to me if someone says they charged overnight I would expect 10-12 hours charging not 5. The truck did not fail to charge and acted perfectly normal as designed. TFL failed to use the truck as designed.
On the Michigan trip, my friend left one job on Friday and started the other the following Monday. We drove as far as we could Friday after work, Got up, drove as far as we could the next day, and got their Sunday night. Seeing that Penske van was limited to 65 mph and there we many hills through Tennessee limiting that truck to 50 mph, we needed as much time driving as possible.
In regards to the Utah trips. I was going for an off road event in Moab towing my Jeep and didn't know how my gas truck would handle the mountains. Split the 20 hours of driving amongst two days and I wanted to spend more time at my destination than on the road.
TFL used the truck based on how they would use a gas truck. Understandably you are biased toward electric vehicles so you will give them more leeway and say you don't mind waiting or would sleep in longer, however, that is not how everyone use their gas vehicles when they are in a hurry to get to spend more time at their destination or on a time crunch. In this regard, the extra five hours on top of the time spent looking for charge stations is somewhat of a failure.
Again, I understand you do not see that due to your biases and willingness to make excuses for EV's, but many who expect the same our of an EV as their gas vehicle will not see it that way.
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ShinerBock
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06/16/22 10:52am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
After watching the video, I think you need to add more context to this to further your point. The charging of five hours was on top of overnight charging while they slept.The first night they pulled in a 3am and slept until 8am. I think TFL failed to get a night sleep.
I would consider 12 hours to be an overnight charge. Pull in by 8pm, leave 8am.
This could cut into driving safely the next day. (TFL fail)
The last time I did a road trip like that from Texas to Michigan helping a friend move, we only slept for 6 hours both nights. I was driving his crew cab pick up truck and he was driving the Penske van that was towing his GTO. Our goal was to get to the destination and not sight see. I can't image adding another 5-10 hours to that trip.
The two road trip before that was from South Texas to Utah. That one was very similar to the amount of miles in the TFL video of 1,200. Again, both trips up there we only slept for about 6 hours because we were in a hurry to get there. I was also towing my Jeep and bunch of other gear totaling 10k lbs so I can't imagine how much additional time I would have spent charging on on that trip.
So while the times they slept and woke up are not normal, the amount of time they slept is for all of the road trips I have taken where we actually spent the night along the route. There are many road trips that my wife and I teamed up to drive straight through like Florida. I think the truck in the video would have forced us to stay the night somewhere.
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ShinerBock
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06/16/22 08:54am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: F150 Lightning Road Trip & Ike Gauntlet Pull
TFL drove the new F150 Lightning from Michigan to Colorado
Test Configuration: Mostly highway miles at 70-75 mph
Total Miles: 1225
Total Charging Time: ~ 5 hours
Summary: (Fail) Efficiency at highway speeds and charging time
Previous Test was the Rivian towing a small trailer up the Ike and the summary was an Epic Fail
Spoiler Alert: Pretty sure the towing test with the Lightning will fall into the Epic Fail category.
Link
After watching the video, I think you need to add more context to this to further your point. The charging of five hours was on top of overnight charging while they slept. They had to stop 11 times to charge which includes 1 overnight charge. I think some people who haven't seen the video are thinking that it was just 5 hours charging without charging overnight.
Also, this 5 hours based on charging time on their app and does not include all the time they spent going off course in order to get to a charger along the route.
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ShinerBock
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06/15/22 08:31am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Will a 3/4 ton do
Question, should I follow my 14k GVWR on my 2015 RAM DRW?
I am not one to go by factory GVWR since it is based on outdated trucks and needs to be updated for todays trucks instead of those half a century ago. Nor is it legally binding to me in any way.
I do go by GAWR since is not based on any government regulation, but rather the limitation of the actual hard parts. In this case, you can't go much over 14k since both of your GAWR add up to 15,850 lbs. The GAWR's of my 2500 add up to 12,500 lbs, but has a GVWR of 10k, while the the 3500 version of my truck have GAWR's that add up to 13,000 yet has a GVWR of 12,300. So your combined GAWR is 1,850 lbs over your GVWR, a SRW 3500 of the same year has a combined GAWR at 700 lbs over its GVWR, and my 2500 has a combined GAWR that is 2,500 lbs over its GVWR.
Why does the 3500 SRW, which is well below the max 14k GVWR of it's class, only has 700 lbs separating its combined GAWR from it's GVWR, yet both our trucks, which are at the max GVWR of our classes, have over 1,800 lbs and 2,500 lbs separating our combined GAWR from our GVWR. Hmmm!?!
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ShinerBock
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06/15/22 07:01am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Will a 3/4 ton do
Some of ya'll worrying about weight ought to come down here to Texas and see all of the things being towed down I-35 to Mexico. You will burst a blood vessel.
You will have a mini van full of people and junk, towing a Chevy 1500(they love their Chevys down there) with the bed and inside full of junk, and behind that is a small Honda full junk. This is a common site heading down to the dear lease, and I will probably pass four or five of these caravans in my three hour drive.
Not once did I ever see one pulled over by the state troopers or in an accident. I did see many broke down on the side of the road though, but the cops just go right by them.
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ShinerBock
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06/14/22 01:47pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Will a 3/4 ton do
The "difference" is some people posses a greater knowledge and the ability to use it to make educated decisions.
Don't sugar coat it. What you mean is, some people ignored the weight ratings, and nothing bad happened, so are now self-proclaimed "experts" on pickup truck design.
No, what he means is some people may have been in the commercial truck industry for 20 plus years and have spec'ed thousands of class 2-8 trucks for commercial fleets to know which classes/truck ratings are limited by old federal and state laws that bureaucrats do not want to change because it is revenue from fleets and which classes/truck ratings are actually limited by the capabilities of their mechanical parts.
Tell me this.
My 2500's front axle is the same as the 3500 version.
My 2500's front suspension is the same as the 3500 version.
My 2500's frame strength is the same as the 3500 version.
My 2500's brakes is the same as the 3500 version.
My 2500's rear axle is the same as the 3500 version.
My rear suspension is the only thing different from the 3500.
My 2500 has a GCWR of 25,000 lbs.
The 3500 has a GCWR pf 25,000 lbs.
My 2500 has a trailer rating of around 17,000 lbs
The 3500 has a trailer rating of around 17,000 lbs
My 2500 has a front GAWR of 6,000 lbs.
The 3500 has a front GAWR of 6,000 lbs.
My 2500 has a rear GAWR of 6,500 lbs.
The 3500 has a rear GAWR of 7,000 lbs.
Only 500 lbs separates their axle ratings yet because the 2500 is a class 2b truck it is limited to 10k GVWR(which means lower payload as well) while the 3500 has a 12,300 GVWR since it is a class 3 truck which has a max limit of 14k GVWR. Only 500 lbs separate their total GAWR's yet 2,300 sperate their GVWR(and payload). Tell me how you think it is limited by hard parts and not laws and regulations?
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ShinerBock
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06/14/22 07:29am |
Tow Vehicles
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