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Cybertruck or F-150 Lightning to power cabin vs batteries (weekend stay).

Lt.Dan said:
They are around here. Shaver Lake, CA is where we frequent, nearest Tesla supercharger is less than 40 miles from the Cabin we usually stay at. There is also a universal J1772 charger less than 5 miles away. Side note, we went in February when they had a huge snow storm come through and bury 7 feet of snow in 2 days. I spent several hours shoveling to un-bury the Tesla and I was super worried about getting out. To my surprise, the brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee with All-Terrain Tires had a harder time than I did lol.

EV's definitely, 100%, have the range of gas vehicles. My Tesla has a 300 mile range. The Lightning has a 320 mile range. The Cybertruck has a 320-340 mile range, and has an option for a range extender to get 440-470 miles. Meanwhile most 1/2 ton pickups are in the 320-350 range. I don't see the correlation here.

Did you think its 2010 and EV's only have a range of 40 miles?
Click to expand...

Ok. So range, charger availability and time to recharge is no longer an issue with ev's and using them to power your off grid cabin is fine because while it is close to grid, you didn't bother running power cuz you spent all the money on an EV??

I would prefer my EV have a backup generator built-in but I'm just one idiot.

When you get it up and running, let us know how that works out with stopping to charge etc.
 
yabert said:
I would prefer my EV without generator for two reasons:

1-I have hard time to extract and refine gas in my backyard. It's a solar forum here, right ?
2-Extra maintenance of a second powertrain (ICE here) is pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

Then you choose to live the "EV Life" which is akin to owning horses.

You must preplan extended stops to charge, cancel plans when range isn't what you expected, not take that side road because you know...there are no EV chargers along there.

Electric vehicles currently provide zero benefits over gas vehicles. It'll be better once they have a bit more range, waaaaasyyyyy more chargers and far less time to charge.

If you run your ev dead, a kind citizen cannot go to the ev charger, fill up a can with some kilowatts and bring them back to you on the side of the road.

Hybrid is the superior choice.
 
Checkthisout said:
Then you choose to live the "EV Life" which is akin to owning horses.

You must preplan extended stops to charge, cancel plans when range isn't what you expected, not take that side road because you know...there are no EV chargers along there.

Electric vehicles currently provide zero benefits over gas vehicles. It'll be better once they have a bit more range, waaaaasyyyyy more chargers and far less time to charge.

If you run your ev dead, a kind citizen cannot go to the ev charger, fill up a can with some kilowatts and bring them back to you on the side of the road.

Hybrid is the superior choice.
Click to expand...
AAA tried exactly this -- built a bunch of service trucks with big batteries to charge dead electric vehicles on the side of the road. They got rid of the trucks because they weren't used enough. BTW, If you tow an EV in regen mode it will charge the battery.

EV drivers are less likely to be stranded than ICE drivers because they keep closer track of their range.

Stop trying to apply ICE thinking to EVs.
 
Checkthisout said:
Electric vehicles currently provide zero benefits over gas vehicles.
Click to expand...
It think it's time for you to try to drive few differents EV.
Brisk acceleration, instant torque, low noise, no engine vibration, few 0.01$ / mile to run, no bad smell/fume, charge at home/full range each morning...
You can clearly find downside to EV, but they are far superior over ICE in many domains.
Checkthisout said:
If you run your ev dead, a kind citizen cannot go to the ev charger, fill up a can with some kilowatts and bring them back to you on the side of the road.
Click to expand...
A kind citizen with an EV don't need to go to the EV charger to fill up and bring back electrons, it have electrons to share right now ;)
Haha, this one will be reality in few years only. At the moment, only few EV can share their energy via V2L (vehicle to load).
 
Checkthisout said:
Then you choose to live the "EV Life" which is akin to owning horses.

You must preplan extended stops to charge, cancel plans when range isn't what you expected, not take that side road because you know...there are no EV chargers along there.

Electric vehicles currently provide zero benefits over gas vehicles. It'll be better once they have a bit more range, waaaaasyyyyy more chargers and far less time to charge.

If you run your ev dead, a kind citizen cannot go to the ev charger, fill up a can with some kilowatts and bring them back to you on the side of the road.

Hybrid is the superior choice.
Click to expand...
I think with a single car, I would def have a hybrid. But wife and I have two, and we almost always drive the electric. It's nice to always leave the house with a "full tank" every time you get into the car.
 
Q-Dog said:
I had a RamCharger. I loved that thing. I would be interested in an electric RamCharger. Then I could install a RamCharger charger.
Click to expand...
We're in snow country and totally offgrid. An EV works well here March-October. But then I'm screwed (my little cabin system usually makes 150-200kwh/month. Nov was 62kwh). Being able to just use the range extender as a power source is a game changer for us. But I'm not buying until all the charging standards harmonize and it's got a decent track record for reliability.

My dad's Ionic 5 has been in the shop for 8 weeks and counting, all sorts of things replaced. It still won't charge the 12v battery and dies randomly. Who knew EVs still had lead acid batteries?
What I don't understand is when I had a smart EV from 2013-2017, it worked fantastically, it's range just sucked and the 3.3kwh onboard charger really made it difficult to commute with. How could that be flawless, but something a decade newer is just a rolling disaster?
 
Lt.Dan said:
They are around here. Shaver Lake, CA is where we frequent, nearest Tesla supercharger is less than 40 miles from the Cabin we usually stay at. There is also a universal J1772 charger less than 5 miles away. Side note, we went in February when they had a huge snow storm come through and bury 7 feet of snow in 2 days. I spent several hours shoveling to un-bury the Tesla and I was super worried about getting out. To my surprise, the brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee with All-Terrain Tires had a harder time than I did lol.

EV's definitely, 100%, have the range of gas vehicles. My Tesla has a 300 mile range. The Lightning has a 320 mile range. The Cybertruck has a 320-340 mile range, and has an option for a range extender to get 440-470 miles. Meanwhile most 1/2 ton pickups are in the 320-350 range. I don't see the correlation here.

Did you think its 2010 and EV's only have a range of 40 miles?
Click to expand...
Weeellll, ... I adore my EV's, and my Niro far exceeds it's rated 240 miles under most conditions, I generally get closer to 280. That being said... My much larger Sonata PHEV would go right at 600 miles with a full charge and a full tank of gas. So I'm not buying "100% have the range of gas vehicles", if you are comparing apples to apples. Some guys in Europe took a Tesla, a Niro, and a couple other EV cars and drove them 70MPH on the interstate, mimic'ing a road trip, until they fell over. the extended range Tesla did the best, but did not make the advertised 300+ miles. It did just under 300, the Niro did ~270, the other cars were all over 200. I'd say the average electric vehicle has about 60% the range of it's ICE counterpart. I expect this gap to close even more within the next 10 years. That being said my old RX-8 would only do about 220 miles on a tank of fuel which never bothered me. I think there is an irrational fear of running out of electricity in some cases.

Long ago, as a child driving across Texas with the p-units from El Paso to San Antonio or Fort Worth, in the 10MPG Town Car with the 28 gallon gas tank, you had to plan a bit so you would not run out of fuel. For some reason having to do something similar to not run out of battery is intolerable and creates "range anxiety". Managing battery charge is somewhat more complex than managing liquid fuel, but in reality modern ICE hybrids can go really far on 10-14 gallons of fuel. You can't compare an LR Tesla with a Dodge RAM doolie, but I'd also say it's a bit easier to carry 4 5-gallon jerry cans, than some extra batteries.

Some of the new thin film rollable solar panels could change this paridigm fairly dramatically. If you could carry a couple of rolled up 8x12 solar arrays maybe 4KW with a simple angled frame, and some DC-DC box to hook up to your vehicle. Find some open sunny area, park, roll out a couple panels and just let the thing charge your vehicle. Now you can run the modest electrical needs of a rural cabin, and drive your EV up and back with plenty of wiggle room in the planning.
 
Q-Dog said:
AAA tried exactly this -- built a bunch of service trucks with big batteries to charge dead electric vehicles on the side of the road. They got rid of the trucks because they weren't used enough. BTW, If you tow an EV in regen mode it will charge the battery.

EV drivers are less likely to be stranded than ICE drivers because they keep closer track of their range.

Stop trying to apply ICE thinking to EVs.
Click to expand...

It was a smidge tongue-in-cheek

I'm almost got a Tesla but opted for a gasser mazda with awd instead.

The electric just wouldn't work for 80% of my personal driving.

My cabin is remote, 180 miles from home. The nearest charger to the place is 60 miles away. I would have to stop for 45 minutes on the way there to full it up and once I got there, I like to drive around and do stuff, fish, hike etc. I would have to limit what I do or I would run the risk of not being able to make it back 60 miles to the nearest charger.

What if the chargers are occupied on the way there or the way home? I'm adding an hour, maybe more to my drive time each way. Etc
 
kennyb said:
We're in snow country and totally offgrid. An EV works well here March-October. But then I'm screwed (my little cabin system usually makes 150-200kwh/month. Nov was 62kwh). Being able to just use the range extender as a power source is a game changer for us. But I'm not buying until all the charging standards harmonize and it's got a decent track record for reliability.

My dad's Ionic 5 has been in the shop for 8 weeks and counting, all sorts of things replaced. It still won't charge the 12v battery and dies randomly. Who knew EVs still had lead acid batteries?
What I don't understand is when I had a smart EV from 2013-2017, it worked fantastically, it's range just sucked and the 3.3kwh onboard charger really made it difficult to commute with. How could that be flawless, but something a decade newer is just a rolling disaster?
Click to expand...
It's a production volume problem. Tesla's are more reliable because they have been doing a lot of vehicles for a fairly long time at this point, they've worked a lot of the bugs out, and it was a little rocky early on. Nissan has gradually and incrementally improved the Leaf, but it really never sold a lot of them, Tesla passed them in total volume quite a while back. The other players like Hyundai are still learning, but they are getting better. As new panels come around, it might not be too difficult to expand your cabin with say 8 winter angle optimized 500w panels on a ground mount.

I'm suprised the Ioniq 5 is proving this problematic. The EV forums do not reflect most users having that many issues but parts for all the Hyundai electrics are a problem, as they are only made in Korea.
 
Lt.Dan said:
EV's definitely, 100%, have the range of gas vehicles. My Tesla has a 300 mile range. The Lightning has a 320 mile range. The Cybertruck has a 320-340 mile range, and has an option for a range extender to get 440-470 miles. Meanwhile most 1/2 ton pickups are in the 320-350 range. I don't see the correlation here.

Did you think its 2010 and EV's only have a range of 40 miles?
Click to expand...
There’s superduties with 48 gallon tanks. Half tons with 36 gallon tanks. When not hauling it’s not unreasonable to get 550-650 miles of range.
Many times when going out to a cabin or such, one may be also hauling fuel for a generator, atv, or as back up as well which is much simpler than the alternative.

I’m just playing devils advocate here. I think everyone should own one of each lol
 
I do wish that the chademo plug would have been expanded as advertised as they were supposed to offer bidirectional or at least V2L at minimum. It does in Asia but not here. There’s a mythical cord apparently for sale but not actually available.
As others have referenced, ground clearance is a concern. Nothing saying one can’t rally inspire it
The VW ID4 is supposed to offer V2L, is AWD, can be found affordably, and has one of the highest ground clearances of the non truck offerings.
 
Checkthisout said:
Ok. So range, charger availability and time to recharge is no longer an issue with ev's and using them to power your off grid cabin is fine because while it is close to grid, you didn't bother running power cuz you spent all the money on an EV??

I would prefer my EV have a backup generator built-in but I'm just one idiot.

When you get it up and running, let us know how that works out with stopping to charge etc.
Click to expand...
I should add, I'm not the one trying to power a cabin with my EV, or any vehicle. I personally think that should be done with its own standalone system. So no, I will not be doing this.
Checkthisout said:
You must preplan extended stops to charge, cancel plans when range isn't what you expected, not take that side road because you know...there are no EV chargers along there.
Click to expand...
Never had to do any of this. I've never had to cancel plans because I couldn't get there. I've never had to take "extended stops". I've done 1200 mile road trips in it multiple times, and never ONCE stopped for longer than 20 min. I have always pugged in, gotten the kids out of the car, and had us all go to the bathroom/get food etc, and the car is always ready for a trip before I am. I have never had to "wait" for my car to charge before I could continue my trip. If you are waiting, you're doing something wrong.
Checkthisout said:
Electric vehicles currently provide zero benefits over gas vehicles
Click to expand...
Maybe to you.
Checkthisout said:
If you run your ev dead, a kind citizen cannot go to the ev charger, fill up a can with some kilowatts and bring them back to you on the side of the road.
Click to expand...
Again, WHO IS RUNNING THEIR EV DEAD? It SCREAMS at you if you cannot make it to your destination. It will even tell you "Reduce speed to X mph to reach destination". If you run it out, I blame the DFO, and not the EV.

justgary said:
My F150 goes 650-700 miles on a tank of gasoline. I need to stop way before it does.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my 96 F350 has a 30 gallon tank, and a 50 gallon in-bed tank, which gives it 1000 mile range. But dear lord am I going 1000 miles without stopping to piss or eat something? This is very irrelevant.
ksmithaz1 said:
Weeellll, ...
Click to expand...
I understand what you are saying as well, I have a 99 Toyota Rav4, which only gets 26-28mpg on a good day, and with a 12 gallon tank, I can squeeze out 280miles, but its a mission and I'm terrified to know if its going to run out at any second. Again, not an apples to apples comparison, but its definitely not the norm to have 500+ miles of range.

G00SE said:
There’s superduties with 48 gallon tanks. Half tons with 36 gallon tanks. When not hauling it’s not unreasonable to get 550-650 miles of range.
Many times when going out to a cabin or such, one may be also hauling fuel for a generator, atv, or as back up as well which is much simpler than the alternative.

I’m just playing devils advocate here. I think everyone should own one of each lol
Click to expand...
Again, very apples to oranges. There are no 3/4 - 1 ton EV's. Yet.

Why couldn't you haul fuel for a generator in the Lightning or Cybertruck? I guess that could be the answer if someone didnt want to do a standalone system like I mentioned above.

I fully believe you should own one of each either. Thats exactly why I have my 96 F350. I cant get a pallet of 31 solar panels in the back of my Tesla. Yet. :cool:
 
Lt.Dan said:
They are around here. Shaver Lake, CA is where we frequent, nearest Tesla supercharger is less than 40 miles from the Cabin we usually stay at. There is also a universal J1772 charger less than 5 miles away. Side note, we went in February when they had a huge snow storm come through and bury 7 feet of snow in 2 days. I spent several hours shoveling to un-bury the Tesla and I was super worried about getting out. To my surprise, the brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee with All-Terrain Tires had a harder time than I did lol.

EV's definitely, 100%, have the range of gas vehicles. My Tesla has a 300 mile range. The Lightning has a 320 mile range. The Cybertruck has a 320-340 mile range, and has an option for a range extender to get 440-470 miles. Meanwhile most 1/2 ton pickups are in the 320-350 range. I don't see the correlation here.

Did you think its 2010 and EV's only have a range of 40 miles?
Click to expand...
Consumer reports did a test of EVs to see if the EPA range for the vehicle matched their "real world" tests. This is an excerpt.

Of the 22 EVs tested so far, nearly half fell short of their EPA-estimated ranges when driven at highway speeds. CR found the biggest difference in range with the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck: Its battery ran out after just 270 miles—a 50-mile difference from the EPA estimate. A few luxury sedans also fell short.

https://www.consumerreports.org/car...s-models-that-beat-epa-estimates-a1103288135/
 
Sam Cho TX said:
I have been pondering these new vehicles with vehicle to grid/house functionality is extremely attractive. I compare it to a battery bank for a cabin that is offgrid and wonder if is better to simply use an EV to run the cabin. I only plan on using it during the weekend. It will still have a battery back up system but I estimate daily energy usage to be about 15-25 kw the bank I will have will be about 60 kw which is good for about 3 days but may not be enough for a 4 day weekend so having a big mobile battery to supplement would be a huge plus.
Click to expand...
Probably the easiest way to set this up would be to use the 240V supply in the bed of the truck. Because the V2G system is going to cost a lot of money. The f-150 home charger is rated for 80A, but they still have not enabled the V2G functionality.
 
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