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Heaviness of EV trucks is one of the reasons I can't actually buy one. I'm in sand pretty often and after watching videos of trucks like the Hummer (which is pr
by xeromal 4y ago
Heaviness of EV trucks is one of the reasons I can't actually buy one. I'm in sand pretty often and after watching videos of trucks like the Hummer (which is probably the heaviest of them all), I don't think I could safely use one without fear of getting stuck when they all weigh 7000+ pounds. I think the lightning might be the lightest but then you'll end up with 150 miles of effective range. The hummer weighs about 10,000 lbs!
- gwbas1c 4y agoI thought heavier vehicles did better in sand? The beach near my house allows either 4x4 or an RV. (The RVs on the beach are not 4x4.)
- jackmott42 4y agothey all do about equivalent when the tires are sized appropriately to the mass of the car.
- MSFT_Edging 4y agoRVs get stuck all the time. Sand driving isn't all down to one variable. RVs are terrible because the back wheels will just dig themselves into a hole. Check out the youtube channel "Matt's offroad recovery". There's a ton of big pickups and RVs that just get themselves in trouble and dig themselves deep. Their recovery vehicles are usually comparatively light Jeep Cherokees and a custom tow rig they built.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- xeromal 4y agoYou need those balloon tires if you want to do that. You see a lot of them in iceland. Beach sand is a little different though because it's compacted by the water.
- Ekaros 4y agoTo have effective off-road vehicle you need some features like locks or good drive. That does add weight, but still being heavy does not help.
- rascul 4y agoIt depends. Terrain, vehicle, tires, and driver all play a role. Lockers and 4wd aren't always necessary to be effective but they can usually help. It might surprise you what can be done with a sedan.
- almost_usual 4y agoYou need to air down for these scenarios. I’ve gotten so many people unstuck just by letting them borrow my tire deflator.
- jackmott42 4y agoThe real world highway range of the smallest battery option lightning is about 213 miles.
- argiopetech 4y agoOnly if you aren't towing anything...
- xeromal 4y agoIs that including the 20% you have to lop off? Don't go below 10% battery and don't charge above 90% to ensure the life of the battery? Sometimes it's even don't go below 20% of the battery which takes away even more.
- theluketaylor 4y agoUsing the top and bottom of the battery adds very little wear. What is bad for a battery is leaving it at high or low states of charge for an extended period. Occasionally on road trips going down to low states of charge or filling all the way before departing is fine.
- jackmott42 4y agoBeing at any low level of charge at or above indicated 0% is fine. In fact that is the longest lasting way to store the car, very low charge. What is bad is going below the minimum rating for the cell, which is a bit below when the car says 0%. So driving down to 0% is fine, doing so and letting the car sit for a few days can be bad
- jackmott42 4y agoYou can go below 10% for as long as you want, you just can't go below 0%. Going above 90% is also fine, there isn't any step change in harm to the pack at any given percentage, degradation over time just steadily increases the more you charge the pack. Charging to 100% for a few hours before a trip is fine. Leaving the car at 100% for a month would accelerate wear a bit.
- sandworm101 4y agoWhat matters in sand isn't vehicle weight but contact pressure, which is dictated by tire pressure. That's why tanks use tracks. A giant M1 Abrams tank has a contact pressure dramatically lower than any car. Its weight is spread across the tracks. You could drive a 30,000lb vehicle on sand, so long as it has enough soft tires to keep the contact pressure down to something like 10psi. Deflate your tires before you get stuck in the sand. Conversely, this is why road bikes are horrible on soft surfaces. With narrow tires at 100+psi a bicycle has a higher contact pressure than any car or SUV and so sinks in sand.
- xeromal 4y agoFor sure, but you'd need big big tires to do that with a heavy truck like an EV when you can do that with a much smaller and cheaper tire with a ford maverick for instance.
- sandworm101 4y agoIf you deflate your tires from 30psi to 20psi you will add roughly 50% more contact patch, akin to adding another axel to a two-axle car.
- xeromal 4y agoYeah, already do that with my current rig.
- londons_explore 4y agoI'm surprised modern cars don't have automatic tyre inflators/deflators. That way, when going slow on the mud, you can go all the way down to 5 PSI for great traction. And on the highway you can go up to 40 PSI so you don't overheat the tyres or destroy the rims when you hit a stone. It could auto inflate or deflate depending on speed, terrain, and tyre temperature. And obviously a manual override for those who want ultimate control.
- nradov 4y ago
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoIf you're not in sand often enough to "get good" you're probably not in sand often enough for slight vehicle to vehicle differences to matter to you. The difference between a Tacoma and a Ram 1500 is inconsequential and nobody is cross shopping a dually truck and a minivan. Even among comparable vehicles the performance goals they had when programming it are going to dominate over weight differences. Source: Grew up on a glorified sandbar full of jerks
- xeromal 4y agoI'm in sand quite a bit. Several times a month. If your comment means getting good enough not to get stuck, my concern is more I don't want to actively fight a heavy machine. Getting stuck in the sand in a hot climate out west is a recipe for dying so I want advantages, not disadvantages and a heavier truck is a disadvantage. I can offset that with massive tires but a small truck with massive tires is even better.
- el_nahual 4y agoI wouldn't buy one because they are such profoundly antisocial vehicles. Size, mass, and racecar like acceleration do not exist in a vacuum. They destroy pavement, they are dangerous to basically everyone around, difficult to control, and also incredibly loud at highway speeds. They are not vehicles intended for living in a community, and it's a travesty that the government has not put regulation in place meant to protect those outside the vehicle.
- CoastalCoder 4y agoJust curious, what makes them particularly loud at highway speeds? And are they louder than similarly sized / weight ICE trucks?
- jsiepkes 4y agoJudge for yourself: https://youtu.be/gulh7AxESyA?t=103 https://youtu.be/gulh7AxESyA?t=103
- fortytw2 4y agofwiw that's a vehicle with a modified exhaust (and not a particularly fast one to begin with)
- neogodless 4y agoSo that's a truck EV... that has a Hemi V8 in it? I can see why you'd expect one to be loud. (Jokes aside, most ICE trucks are not loud on the highway, unlike this one with a modified exhaust being demonstrated with wide open throttle.)
- denimnerd42 4y agoprobably similar to a dually heavy duty truck. the sources of the sound is the enormous tires hitting the pavement with that much weight behind it
- el_nahual 4y agoAt highway speeds, tire and wind noise dominate over engine noise, even for ICE cars. That "roaring" sound you hear emanate from a highway is actually due to those two factors. Tire noise in particular is affected by vehicle weight (I suspect--don't quote me--as a square of the weight). EVs are MUCH heavier that comparable ICE cars. The hummer EV weighs 9,000 lb (!). So they are extremely loud at highway speeds.
- sschueller 4y agoThe reason I can't ever buy one is also weight. The hummer will very unlikely ever be sold in Europe as it weighs more than the max allowed for a regular drivers license. You will need a special license and you will also be very limited where you can drive it.
- thrill 4y agoArbitrarily set numbers can be arbitrarily changed.