I love electric vehicles. But increasingly I feel duped

[Deleted member 371759]

Youngsters today looking under a car hood are like a chimpanzee looking into a pocket watch.

I saw a quote some time ago "In the day they used to include the valve adjustment procedure in a new vehicle owners manual. Toady they put a sticker on the battery advising not to drink its contents"

 

[Eagle1]

I saw a quote some time ago "In the day they used to include the valve adjustment procedure in a new vehicle owners manual. Toady they put a sticker on the battery advising not to drink its contents"

While the quote is true... there is still a decent car culture in today's youth. Still building motors and hopping up performance. Today the ponies come from the computer used to tune the engine but do not underestimate those machines. Most don't have the skills (just like in the bygone days) but the ones that have them, use them quite effectively.
Not sure they do as much with junk parts like the old timers, but they get some impressive results.

 

[Fixastuff]

The other side is you can easily get a "regular car" that has more hp and performance that most of the old school modified machines. (There are obviously exceptions, I know someones about to post about the 900hp car they built in the 60s from junkyard parts, lol)

 

[Deleted member 371759]

While the quote is true... there is still a decent car culture in today's youth. Still building motors and hopping up performance. Today the ponies come from the computer used to tune the engine but do not underestimate those machines. Most don't have the skills (just like in the bygone days) but the ones that have them, use them quite effectively.
Not sure they do as much with junk parts like the old timers, but they get some impressive results.

You are right there is still a car culture. Lots of tuning and stuff. In the day though it was not just people involved in the car culture who did their basic maintenance. It was dad and junior on a Saturday. Dad didn't want to do it but he did so he could go to work on Monday. Most everyone knew how to do basic maintenance even if they didnt they knew it had to be done.

 

[Eagle1]

True so many today can't even change a flat, I would not let my kids drive until they could do so unassisted. My kids both (male and female) know how to do basic maintenance and my oldest is more capable than he thinks. We do pretty much everything on vehicles that needs to get done including rebuilds if it's worth doing.

 

[NoTrespassing]

True so many today can't even change a flat, I would not let my kids drive until they could do so unassisted. My kids both (male and female) know how to do basic maintenance and my oldest is more capable than he thinks. We do pretty much everything on vehicles that needs to get done including rebuilds if it's worth doing.

The last time I had a flat I called a tow truck. I have roadside assistance on my insurance policy and I was on the shoulder of an interstate.

 

[Eagle1]

The last time I had a flat I called a tow truck. I have roadside assistance on my insurance policy and I was on the shoulder of an interstate.

Hard to do out here where cell service is very spotty and houses can be miles apart. Pretty sure I can change a flat in a lot less time than it would a tow truck to trundle down miles on backwoods gravel roads. We have roadside coverage but even my daughter can change a flat rather than walk a few miles to get cell service..

 

[3930dave]

You are right there is still a car culture. Lots of tuning and stuff. In the day though it was not just people involved in the car culture who did their basic maintenance. It was dad and junior on a Saturday. Dad didn't want to do it but he did so he could go to work on Monday. Most everyone knew how to do basic maintenance even if they didnt they knew it had to be done.

It has shifted, a lot. Self-sufficiency used to be regarded as an important skill/attitude..... today it's often cast as something nefarious.....

A guy my age (ish) finally convinced his sister to let him change the oil on her vehicle "I'm in real-estate, I don't have time for that"........ Said owned-from-new SUV (not that old) had NOTHING left of the filter element, except the plastic frame of the cartridge, when he pulled the filter. Good example of what happens with acid contaminated oil.

Even in the old days, there were people content to let the hood hinges seize.... but it's much more widespread today.....

Easy bit of a marketing-play for EVs....... Zero Maintenance.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Hard to do out here where cell service is very spotty and houses can be miles apart. Pretty sure I can change a flat in a lot less time than it would a tow truck to trundle down miles on backwoods gravel roads. We have roadside coverage but even my daughter can change a flat rather than walk a few miles to get cell service..

it's good to have the self-actuated Option.

Young lady @ work spent a couple of hours last Winter, waiting in her very new vehicle on the side of a Canuck Interstate. Good cell coverage, no trucks available. She tore a strip of the dealer, as they had messed up installing the tpms on a set of brand-new snow tires.

There are tons of videos... but I always remember the one Trooper's comment, on the side of an Interstate "Just, like That".

He'd pulled over a lady, late 20s, for speeding. They're on the shoulder, he's standing at the very edge, nearest the gravel. He's calmly talking with her, she's walking around flailing her arms (not at him) trying to talk her way out of a ticket, or maybe she just likes drama. As she's walking, she keeps moving back into the space between the cruiser, and her car.

Trooper had to repeatedly say to her "Ma'am, that's not a safe place to stand, please move over to near the gravel portion".

It really struck me (his non-reaction, and pun-intended) when a vehicle slammed into the back of the cruiser, and drove it into her car. He didn't even flinch, said "Just, like That", with no more emotion than he was commenting on the weather....... actually, ^ not a great analogy, many people get way more animated about Weather.

Showed me how often it happens, on the side of a highway.

(P.S. young lady didn't get a scratch, thanks to the Trooper).

Rgds, D.

 

[Oaktree]

I recently repaired our neighbors 1946 Olympic console, her Dad's first thing he bought after marriage for $600, a lot back then. Unusual being AM & FM.

Yikes! Using an online inflation calculator, that would translate to over $10k in today's dollars!! Curiously, is the FM band different than today's? It was moved to the current frequencies (88-108) some time in the mid-ish 1940s so this could have gone either way.

I also like old audio stuff. Not tubed per say but vintage solid state Sansui is what I mainly like. I have a 8080db, 5000A, G6700, and a 1000A.

I restored a model 6050 a couple years ago. Nice receiver, found it at the dump. Had a helluva time finding a schematic for it...apparently there were 2 versions of this and of course the one I have was the rarer of the two. Only one or two modules were different, but as luck would have it one of those was part of what was wrong with mine.

The other side is you can easily get a "regular car" that has more hp and performance that most of the old school modified machines.

Not to mention way better handling and braking. Even some entry-level modern econobox will run rings around a "performance" car of that era in 'most anything but straight line acceleration (and styling).

True so many today can't even change a flat,

Thing is, flats are so rare these days that many/most people never have one (except for my wife who has a talent for finding nails in the road ).

 

[Eagle1]

Thing is, flats are so rare these days that many/most people never have one (except for my wife who has a talent for finding nails in the road ).

I guess that is true for folks that drive on paved roads and don't live in an area where 90% of the roads are gravel. I see lot of our customers with flats because they have city tires on remote gravel roads.

 

[5030]

What exactly is the difference between a 'city' tire and an all season tire, which is what most folks run today on their buggies.

 

[Eagle1]

4 ply vs 8 or 10 ply..... Low profile R17 or 20 vs some sidewall R 60 or better.

 

[Oaktree]

4 ply vs 8 or 10 ply..... Low profile R17 or 20 vs some sidewall R 60 or better.

While I agree low profile tires look stupid...they ride like crap and are a PITA to mount/dismount, but that's what fits many modern sedans. I guess it's an attempt to fit a larger brake rotor without having the vehicle sit high, and I'm sure there's a customer base that think they look cool. Not sure you could put anything else on them and have it fit.

 

[Eagle1]

There is point to low profile tires, on the pavement. Not really suited to towing a camper down miles of gravel roads. I've towed a few rigs up gravel hills because their tires would not get enough traction to make it.
Just had a contractor put 27" wheels and low profile tires on his truck. Hope he can make it out of the holler when he hooks up his camper. Of course the front wheels fell of once all ready due to a faulty lift kit install and the fenders are beat in where the wheels hit when hits a pothole. But it look cool to him.... I've done stuff I regretted many time in my youth (still do)

 

[3930dave]

This one, on the Lightning...

'Biggest Scam of Modern Times:' Canadian Man Abandons Electric Ford F-150 After His Family Is Left Stranded

Illustrates a few things..... but one that stuck with me was his own infrastructure cost (whether the chargers cost 20k or 10k - vague across a few other articles, by the time you add 6k installation..... at even Canuck prices, a minimum of $16k CAD still buys a lot of fuel).

Rgds, D.

 

[mrmikey]

A lot of people suffer 'range anxiety' me included, not that I would ever buy an electric vehicle anyway.
Gas, if you ever get into a situation where you're going to be away from a source of fuel, you can throw a jug of gas in the bed, volts....not so much.
On a similar topic, at the local HD Friday, the amount of electric lawn equipment out weighs the fuel by 80% and the prices...holy crap. A 'cheap' lawnmower is $600 and that's nothing special, no cappuccino or expresso maker, just a blade that goes 'round and 'round...for awhile anyway.
A 42" ZT I think it was, $7,900 not a chance in he77.

 

[CH4Ohio]

You often hear that the Chinese are bringing a coal-fired power plant on-line every week, on average. (That's a startling real statistic if you think about it.) The most shocking thing that I never hear mentioned is that they're burning US coal in those plants. The Chinese buy coal mined in the US, ship it all the way to the other side of the planet (using large amounts of fossil fuel), and burn it to generate electricity.

These barges of US coal float past dozens of our power plants on the way there. We won't use it because we're too environmentally-conscious. Actually, we're too misguided.

How many ridiculous wind turbines and solar panels will we need to install to counter this trend?? Wouldn't it be better to keep it here, burn it here in the cleanest way possible, and lower our energy costs?

 

[Rockbadchild]

I do not understand why electric vehicle do not have a generator built in to be able to keep going and charge its own batteries...

you know instead of doing this...

or getting rescued by this

 

[ruffdog]

Back when "horseless buggies" first came about, there were similar arguments. The cars definitely had their issues and sometimes were left by the roadside broken. Horse driven buggy drivers would happily give them a ride to town, then tell everyone about it. All these years later, we are still improving the horseless carriage and are questioning new technology. What will we be riding in 50 years from now?