- Messages
- 12,006
- Location
- East of Los Angeles
"It has enough power, but every 15 minutes we have to stop for 14 hours to recharge the batteries so we can drive for another 15 minutes."Can you imagine a battery powered RV Behemoth?
"It has enough power, but every 15 minutes we have to stop for 14 hours to recharge the batteries so we can drive for another 15 minutes."Can you imagine a battery powered RV Behemoth?
Speaking of Ford …
Now that there’s an all-electric F-150, it’s time for the Neds to put down the pitchforks and accept that electric vehicles are increasingly replacing gas burners. Gasoline (and diesel) powered vehicles will likely be with us as long as most of us here will continue drawing breath, or so I suspect, but, like two-strokes, they’ll mostly be relics of a bygone era.
Honest to god I could do that as long as the fridge worked and I had cold beer."It has enough power, but every 15 minutes we have to stop for 14 hours to recharge the batteries so we can drive for another 15 minutes."
The longer I live the more strongly I understand this to be true.As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say, "It just goes to show, it's always somethin'."
Many (most) RVers drive for 6 hours a day. It is called the power of 3. 300 miles covered ...parked and drinking by 3:00PM. And electricity is readily available in RV parks and some state parks.The batteries required for an electric RV is not the problem. The real problem is charging it.
Electric motors can easily spin the wheel. Bigger batteries and more batteries will increase the operating hours. But the increased capacity will take longer to charge. The current technology allows for a car to charge overnight for a full battery. The full battery will operate the car for a few hours.
The problem with the RV is the same as a car. How many hours of driving are you doing, and where do you recharge? If the RV has enough battery capacity to go for 4 hours, it will probably take up to 12 hours to charge. Tesla has quick charging, where in a few hours, you can get a charge, but not a full charge. Then there is the problem of finding a charger, where ever it is that you run low.
People who live in big city apartments, who park on the street, don't have any way to consistently charge the car. Public charge stations are not empty, awaiting you. You find a charger, and another car is plugged in. Then there is distance. Where I live, there's no charge station. Closest is almost 3 miles away at a mall.
electricity is readily available in RV parks and some state parks.
It may have been stated already, but ALL Reality Television.
"All news" broadcasting formats in general. They've degenerated from "give us ten minutes, we'll give you the world" to a distasteful melange of shock headlines delivered by glass-voiced anchors, idiotic "analysis" by idiots who should be seeing analysts, thundering music cues composed by "Guitar Hero" devotees, and witless commercials for shoddy products designed to prey on the desperate, the gullible and the stupid. If they think their listeners are "news junkies," well, they're half right.
Now that there’s an all-electric F-150, it’s time for the Neds to put down the pitchforks and accept that electric vehicles are increasingly replacing gas burners. Gasoline (and diesel) powered vehicles will likely be with us as long as most of us here will continue drawing breath, or so I suspect, but, like two-strokes, they’ll mostly be relics of a bygone era.
As for electric cars, I have no view one way or another, except I think they should be required by law to have some kind of noise-making attachment simulating the sound of a conventional engine. I've almost been run down in crosswalks twice this summer because I couldn't hear the electric-car coming.
The batteries required to move my 18,000lbs of RV would probably take another vehicle to house them.
"It has enough power, but every 15 minutes we have to stop for 14 hours to recharge the batteries so we can drive for another 15 minutes."
It’s not such a stretch to imagine a time when autonomous (aka self-driving) cars that come when summoned will eliminate the need for many people (most, maybe) to own their own personal vehicles.
At present most cars sit unused the overwhelming majority of the time, and most get the overwhelming majority of their use within a fairly short radius from home.
It’s really no great wonder that we’re seeing more and more all-electric cars. For many people, they’ve proven quite practical. If you put a solar array on your roof, you can quite literally be driving on sunshine. The setup is spendy, which is why I don’t have one. Yet. But I welcome the technology. And I’m guessing that prices will come down.
But nah! Who am I fooling? It’ll never replace the horse.
At an RV park, you have full hookups. Plumbing, electricity.....probably propane, diesel, cable TV, internet.....like when a trucker stays overnight at a truck stop. Completely possible for someone to travel from Trailer Park to Trailer Park..... unless the distance to the next trailer park is beyond the range of the electric vehicle system. A little more to consider when trip planning. Unless your idea of seeing the country is seeing Trailer Parks.
Most electric vehicles have the batteries on the underbody. RVs being bigger, can carry more batteries. An electric RV could also be built to use 4 separate motors, independently driving each wheel. A true 4 wheel drive RV could be engineered. RVs could also have a couple of solar panels on the roof.
The special magic is in engineering the perfect combination of battery capacity to load. A larger, heavier vehicle could easily roll with a more powerful electric motor. How many batteries would it take to keep that vehicle on the road, for what amount of time? And as you add more batteries, it gets heavier, requiring more energy to move the heavier load.
The real limit is today's battery technology. We simply haven't invented a better battery. It's not like nobody wants to, or that nobody is trying. The best that we have currently is lithium ion. The race is on. Not to make a better electric car. But to make a better battery.
Sure, sure. And in the early-1970s most people were convinced we would have colonized the moon by now and that trips between our moon and Earth would be commonplace. You could be correct, but I'll wait until the so-called "experts" make good on improving things first....Thirty years from now, 99% of the current drawbacks of going electric will be eliminated completely...
Over here I think it's 2040 has been set as the date at which, by law, all petrol engine car production must cease.
Sure, sure. And in the early-1970s most people were convinced we would have colonized the moon by now and that trips between our moon and Earth would be commonplace. You could be correct, but I'll wait until the so-called "experts" make good on improving things first.
You can't legislate technology. Just because a politician signs it into law, it doesn't mean that it can happen.