real world EVs review

[jmodge]

They’ll probably be worth more dead than alive

 

[turbobrick240]

They show the frame at the beginning of the video. Interesting that it has leaf springs in the back. I guess that's a time proven rear suspension setup for pickups.

 

[oilhammer]

Yeah, tough to make a case against leaf springs... they're simple, and they do double duty as both a spring and an axle locator. Can't put coil springs on a solid axle without also having to add a bunch of links to keep the axle square. So bang for the buck, leaf springs work great. There are pickups that have used coil springs, though. Some newer half-ton Rams have them, and GM tried it way back in the '60s on some half-ton trucks.

 

[TomJD]

They’ll probably be worth more dead than alive

Cue all the e-Golfs!

 

[jmodge]

I owned or bought and sold plenty of those old Chevys. The trailing arms were square cornered C-channel back to back forming an I-beam. They would rust out where they sat back to back. I replaced a few of them. Previous to the square bodies both generations had them. The earlier of the two also had an option of torsion springs up front on the 2wd version

 

[Zak99b5]

Heck, they had front torsion springs up through GMT-800 in both 2W and 4WD.

 

[J_dude]

Heck, they had front torsion springs up through GMT-800 in both 2W and 4WD.

2wd GMT400 had coils in the front.

 

[oilhammer]

GM had a 'light duty' 3/4 ton truck that was essentially a 2WD version of the 1500 4WD, that used the same torsion bar front suspension (and six bolt wheels). They were not very common.

 

[J_dude]

GM had a 'light duty' 3/4 ton truck that was essentially a 2WD version of the 1500 4WD, that used the same torsion bar front suspension (and six bolt wheels). They were not very common.

Oh that's interesting, didn't know that.

 

[jmodge]

GM had a 'light duty' 3/4 ton truck that was essentially a 2WD version of the 1500 4WD, that used the same torsion bar front suspension (and six bolt wheels). They were not very common.

I only saw one, a GMC with the scalloped head V6 a friend had. I don’t recall how many lug wheels it had . The only rear leaf spring light truck, C10 or C20, of that era I saw was 4wd. I did have a C30 flatbed with duals and leafs. My neighbor who hauled junk fell in love with it and talked me out of it.
I liked those trucks, ‘64 and up, the non-kneeknockers. Had a short bed 4wd 1961, my knees still remember that damn thing. My very first vehicle was a 1964 6cyl fleetside long bed Chevy that I put a 307 into.

 

[oilhammer]

Those light duty 2500 trucks were akin to Ford's goofball 1997 F250 (that looked just like the new-for-1997 F150, but had 7-lug wheels). They later renamed them "F150 7700" because that is what the GVWR was. Bigger brakes, beefier springs, V8-only, LT tires.

GM got confusing there for a while, because they had 8-lug trucks with '1500HD' badges on them. Not sure what those were about.

 

[jmodge]

The square bodies started the C/K15 and 25 designations that were just even numbered prior. The next Gen also had 6 lug 2500 series. Anything to confuse people…

 

[jmodge]

When I researched brake parts for my 1999 Tahoe I found 8 lug rotors listed as fleet. I’ve never seen any such animal though

 

[jmodge]

Archived fleet

• jmodge
• Mar 27, 2024
• 3

back in the ‘70’s when we used to get snow. Drug it home with its burnt clutch and smoking 230.
A nice snowy day to put the 300hp 350 from the 1970 Impala and a scrounged 4 spd with granny gear.
Finished product was a dangerous thing in the hands of a 19 year old
Keeping with the thread…still owned a few Slot EV’s, but the public tracks had become a thing of the past

 

[Rob Mayercik]

Those light duty 2500 trucks were akin to Ford's goofball 1997 F250 (that looked just like the new-for-1997 F150, but had 7-lug wheels). They later renamed them "F150 7700" because that is what the GVWR was. Bigger brakes, beefier springs, V8-only, LT tires.

Interesting, I remember seeing one or two of those, but never noticed the 7-lug wheels. I can't imagine why they'd do that - must have been quite a bit more pricey to have the wheels/hubs/brakes/etc. specially made to fit that pattern than just using 6- or 8-lug stuff that they already had on the shelf.

 

[Zak99b5]

Keeping with the thread…still owned a few Slot EV’s, but the public tracks had become a thing of the past

I recently got the old Revell 1/24 scale slot car set from my dad that we used to play with as kids. The tires on the cars (open wheel car bodies like this) are hard as a rock with little grip, so it's more like an ice racing set right now.

 

[jmodge]

We had a Tornodo, a Cheetah, and several others. A drop of tranny fluid on the tires really helped with burnouts. A guide pin on the front and rear helped in the corners. Train crossing intersections for crashes were cool too.

 

[bigsexyTDI]

I recently got the old Revell 1/24 scale slot car set from my dad that we used to play with as kids. The tires on the cars (open wheel car bodies like this) are hard as a rock with little grip, so it's more like an ice racing set right now.

We still have a cool slot car track in Louisville KY that has a road course, drag racing and a figure 8
https://www.facebook.com/bullittslotcars/

 

[jmodge]

That is sweet! We had one in the basement and two within walking distance

 

[Zak99b5]

Finally--EVs we can all get behind!

 

[dieseldonato]

Our last local slot car track went out of business years ago. Loved going to it as a kid.

 

[Zak99b5]

I’ve never been to the big “commercial” tracks before, but remember seeing pics of huge 6-lane layouts that boggled my little brain. Growing up in the 70s, pretty much all kids in the neighborhood had some combination of slot cars, electric trains, and electric football. So there was a decent variety of tracks to race on.

 

[jmodge]

We had one that was 10 or 12, can’t remember which. You could bring your own cars or rent theirs and race. It was a good time. Both tracks were housed in old storefronts.
Back in the 60’s and early 70’s GR was like a bunch of little towns within walking distance of each other. Churches with meat markets and halls. Small blue collar work bars, A youth center, parks with organized sports featuring competitions between the parks. We would ride our bicycles for miles.
Lots of pleasant memories, EV’s being one of them.

 

[dieseldonato]

I’ve never been to the big “commercial” tracks before, but remember seeing pics of huge 6-lane layouts that boggled my little brain. Growing up in the 70s, pretty much all kids in the neighborhood had some combination of slot cars, electric trains, and electric football. So there was a decent variety of tracks to race on.

They had 2 6 slot tracks, one was a big oval and the other was more technical, more like a road race track. You could rent cars or bring your own, but everything was bought at the tracks store, so it was all pretty much the same anyway. Only thing they were funny about was tires and motors if you were racing. But kids like me just went in for fun not for the prizes or anything. It was a lot of fun. Didn't cost much to do either.

 

[tikal]

EA road trippers must enjoy wasting hours of time

"Was forced to last minute drive our ID.4 on a road trip because I discovered a slow leaking flat on ICE hybrid minutes before leaving and didn't want to risk it. Unfortunately the ID.4 wasn't fully charged, but I had just enough miles to get to my destination with maybe 20 miles to spare. That alone was a little stressful since to accomplish this task we didn't run the A/C the entire trip, fun fun.

So we reached our destination with 19 miles to spare. I dropped off my family at the hotel and drove back out on a hunt for an Electrify America charger at a nearby mall. Of course 2 out of 4 chargers were broken. 2 people were waiting in line with blinkers...blocking mall traffic because of how poorly placed and designed the chargers were. It took about 45 minutes of blocking parked cars and thru traffic waiting in line just to get a free charger. Then another 45 minutes to get it to 90% charge, just so I could reach my home destination at the end of the trip. Meanwhile my family already ate dinner without me and were relaxing while I wasted nearly 2 hours of my life to get a charge. (Meanwhile a gas station trip would have taken 5 minutes total and I could have done right before we left).

THIS is why electric cars will not be popular with the general public, outside of Tesla, it involves too much time, planning and preparation. Right around the corner from the 2 working Electrify America chargers was about a 20+ Tesla charger stations that had reserved an entire section of the parking lot for just Tesla chargers. It looked so pleasant and simple by comparison.

Well, back to using my ID.4 for it's intended purpose.. daily commuter that I charge at home. Rant over."

 

[jmodge]

The American public is pretty impatient, things run at a very fast pace for most of the crowd

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Of course he could have just put a spare tire on the hybrid. Oh, wait, may not have a spare at all, and if it does it's probably a donut, not suitable for road trips.

 

[turbobrick240]

Fortunately, he and pretty much every other CCS EV owner will be able to use the Tesla superchargers very soon. Ford and Rivian owners already can.

 

[tikal]

At the same time Ford is planning on increasing their hybrid vehicle offerings in the next few years as opposed to EVs.

So this might be good news for Tesla owners as they will not have to wait inline with too many non-Tesla EV owners charging on road trips.

 

[turbobrick240]

Yup it's good news for all EV owners. Tesla will use the extra revenue and govt funding to further expand their massive network, and everyone wins.