Journal zogger's Journal: Canyonero 19
six lanes wide, etc Canyonero!
Notice none of these big three or big sixteen now or whatever offer a real practical contractors/farmers/ranchers truck, which would be a diesel electric hybrid, so you would have a *large, practical sized, able to run a full crew or your entire house or shop, etc* portable generator all the time with you. They just don't freekin get it, trucks are useful yes, but just to get you and your stuff where the work needs to be done, and frequently it would be real handy to have large quantities of electricity there to use, and frequently in the real world there ain't no handy plug, so now you got to fill up half the back of the cargo bed with an additional generator, when you are ALREADY toting around a big engine and fuel tank. Knuckleheads.
Anyway, there's a business model for someone. Those suits in deetroit and tokyo just *don't get it* on what a pickup work truck is, they are fixated on dang sportscars and luxury sedans and keep trying to turn their trucks into one.
Nope, got to work on heated GPS cupholders, etc. Whoopedy zing a big engine, you can go out today and buy a mid sized work truck with a big engine, on truck lots all over. And what's weird is they are sometimes loads cheaper than getting the alleged "pickup" sized truck. Just a tiny scosh bigger, still easy as snot to drive around anyplace, as in for instance we have an f450 flatbed dump here I used to drive around a lot, easy after a few miles familiarity with it, no different from a full sized old van or big pickup, for big bucks savings and double the practical workload. No heated gps enabled cupholders though.
Big trucks (Score:2)
My pet peeve is the number of big trucks I see in the parking lot at work, and just about anywhere else for that matter, with pristine beds and no hitch.
The biggest cargo they ever haul is the owner's ego.
You get the tool to fit the job. Big trucks are for hauling things, either in the bed or behind, in a trailer. Driving a big truck to feed your ego just puts one more big vehicle on the road and uses that much more fuel. It's even worse than that, because some who would otherwise buy a smaller vehicle d
I used to be good friends with the big family (Score:1)
I call them that because they were. The mom was over six foot, she was Cherokee, the dad was way over six foot, he was italian. So I called them the wopawattamies, and they thought that was funny.
Anyway, I was best friends with one of the sons, he was six seven,(we walked around looked like mutt and jeff) his older brother was your size, the younger bro was six six, and the daughter/sister was six four. She had at the time the second largest kid ever born in tax-achussetts, that they had records of. The kid
Re: (Score:2)
Old beetles and buses had PLENTY of headroom- Round for a Reason wasn't just marketing, it was engineering fact.
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There's pretty much only three things that have to fit in order to drive a car:
1) Your head
2) Your knees
and the most important:
3) You have to be able to see under the rear view mirror.
I learned #3 the hard way, and now after years of driving a car where I had to hunch down to see the road, I think it's permanent. (Seriously, I'm thinking of taking a picture from my eye level and captioning it "what color is the car that's about to pull out in front of me.") If I'm stopped at a 4-way stop sign sitting up st
Re: (Score:2)
I have some sympathy for this. I'm 6'4" and my son is 6'7". But there are a few cars that fit us, and for us those fill the bill. Your problem is worse than ours, so you have to look a little bit further.
But most people aren't in this situation.
Heck, the airlines are gearing up to shaft tall people now, too. Continental wants to charge a lot more to get an exit-row seat. I can squeeze into coach, but I'd rather not. I think my son can too, but at even more discomfort.
Agreed (Score:1)
Oh, I agree with you. I see the same thing a lot. I use my truck all the time and get by with an old half ton mini pickup, a small one. It is no larger, longer or heavier than most commuter sedans**, and gets 40 mpg at minimum highway speeds, a little under that on the back roads here in a lower gear. Best I can do. The style is more practical to me than an enclosed sedan, because I *do* need to haul oddball stuff. So I have a truck. Anything that needs more oomph for hauling or toting, right to a real siz
Unless something happens to sabotage them... (Score:2)
I see Mahindra getting pretty popular with people who actually need pickups.
Re: (Score:1)
Only seen the tractors, not the pickups yet. I am aware of them, but haven't seen one yet.
well, both (Score:1)
You'd want the option, 110 or 220, like most portable gennies come with, because you might need to run a small welder or your well pump, etc if the mains power is out or not available where you be at. A couple big heavy storage batts would be sufficient for electric cushioning.
I am thinking of modding my truck for this as a compromise to what I want being unobtanium on the market. There's a spiffy mount where the AC compressor used to be.(ripped that crap out, didn't work, too expensive to fix, etc) I can f
Re: (Score:2)
You *CAN* get a generator that bolts onto the engine and makes 110VAC - see http://www.realacpower.com/ [realacpower.com], or http://www.planmypower.co.za/PowerTek_Generator.htm [planmypower.co.za].
Cool (Score:1)
Cool, thanks for the links! I proly can't buy one outright, have to cobjob one with stuff I already have kicking around, but good to know they exist. My previous options were (still are) built in gas genny to my larger RV, then my smaller one had two batts separated with an isolator circuit, then an inverter that only pulls from the non starter batt. Not powerful, but good enough to run light duty Ac stuff, at least for short times. I put a larger alternator on that engine as well.
I have a "s
Subsidized market (Score:2)
Part of the reason for that is a huge related-but-subsidized market: School buses. All the R&D for mid-sized diesel and gas trucks, is done first for the School Bus market, because government is paying for it.
Which tells me how you can get your idea in. One of these states looking for "Green Jobs" ought to pass a law that the school bus fleet, which turns over every 5 years anyway, needs to be 100% diesel-electric hybrid by 2018.
By 2025, the majority of Farm & Construction Work Trucks on the road
Never thought of that (Score:1)
But that's a good idea....
With that said, dodge DID have such a beast as a prototype, then it disappeared. it was called appropriately enough, the Dodge contractor. They just never built the thing yet for sale. dumb@$$ hedge fund managers running a car company... Let me see if I can find a ref...
http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/news/ram_contractor.html [pickuptrucks.com]
they sell a gas electric hybrid, but it isn't a big rolling generator, just a fancy suv
http://www.allpar.com/reviews/2009/aspen-hybrid.html [allpar.com]
Generators (Score:2)
You'll never see that for the simple reason that most people don't need a 100kw gen-set. It's not economical to run, it's dead weight the rest of the time, and if it's built-in, it can't be left on the job site.
they had one (Score:1)
Dodge had one built, was planning on selling them, it was 20 Kw in stationary generator mode, then it just *disappeared*. I remember this from back then because I went "hot damn, me want!", as soon as they had a diesel option for the ICE part.
http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/news/ram_contractor.html [pickuptrucks.com]
20 kw is enough to run a decent jobsite, or your house during a power outtage. Seems good enough. According to that article, only added 300 lbs to a normal pickup weight.
As to not left on the jobsite, I see that
FYI: they are getting close.... (Score:2)
http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1042350_want-a-micro-turbine-plug-in-hybrid-supercar-call-velozzi [greencarreports.com]
Summary: company has 40HP, no cooling, no oil, no fooling single-spindle diesel turbine generators, and is marrying them to a electric car.
I don't know about the car per se, but if they'd put this into a decent van (NOT MINIVAN), set up the heating/cooling system to run off the traction battery so that it can be quickly warm or cool as needed, and make available 220VAC/50A from the traction battery, I'll be
moof (Score:1)
Point #1:
385 horsepower and 735 pound-feet of torque
<drool> Drop that in a sports car (with steamroller tires for traction), and now we're talking some real (tire-burning, neck-snapping) fun!
Point #2:
EPA regulations do not require automakers to provide mileage figures.
WTF? Seems like if Lefties really were serious about the environment, for the environment's sake and not instead as just as a power grab, they'd have closed loopholes like this. The all-powerful gubermint that we have should tell the aut