[HD FLATCAR]

"My, how far afield this thread has gone from my original inquiry of which gives best steamer bang for the buck."

Yeh, this thread has really "jumped the tracks"

 

[vpchianese]

Yes it has but it is good to see that it didn't get into political finger pointing.

 

[JeffHurl]

It's funny how the law of averages works...

On average, a person puts 15,000 miles per year on a car. I would also say that on average, a person drives 5 days a week, give or take... That amounts to ~260 days that we use our cars each year.

So... doing the math, the average car travels about 58 miles in total on any given day that the car is actually used. This is in-line with the national average commute time of ~30 minutes, plus a little more for running errands, etc.

Without any other data, I would conclude that an electric car with a 350-400 mile range would be far more than anyone needs... To be honest, if the only reason I needed a car was to commute and run errands, I would already own a plug-in hybrid. But, I need to tow heavy loads occasionally. And several times each year, I make road trips that are far longer than 400 miles one way, let alone round trip... often spending the night in a little no-tell motel along the way... cheap, convenient and simple.

 

[vpchianese]

We just sold our 44' motorhome. We were full timers for just under 7 years. There is a market that has just been opened up. Tesla didn't want to see their car ever towed, period, end of story. Something Musk insisted on or so I was told. But there are two pickups that are now coming on the market that advertised they can be flat towed, which is the only way to go. We flat towed a Jeep Grand Cherokee for the better part of the six + years. Never a problem. But an electric would have been ideal. When we went someplace we were in a campground and being a larger coach we are alway hooked up to 50A service and when we weren't we had a 10kw generator that supplied over 50A. From the campsite most trips were short. Less than 100 miles in any one direction because if we were going any farther we just moved the coach not the towed.

An electric car or truck would have been ideal. It could charge while being towed or over night. But alas they were not available until now.

One of those companies can hit a home run. Make a deal with Newell or Prevost or even Newmar. Buy a new coach and we will give you a free toad. On these coaches that sell for $1.5-2.6 mil there is plenty of room in the markup for a $70k truck. There is a good marketing plan there for someone to get into. Once they are seen in the upper end campgrounds the keep up with the Jones will take over.

 

[sjm9911]

If the campground can support the extra power. Right now most can't even keep up with the campers they have. Without redoing all the infastruture, it will not be happening. My 30 amp power supply for the camper gets cut off for low voltage like 3 times a year while camping.

 

[vpchianese]

We had very little trouble with 50A. Most of the time it was due to older circuit breakers not the availability of the electric.

Also we didn't fit in some campgrounds that were really old so by default we were in newer campgrounds.

 

[sjm9911]

Its not always the older boxes and the amprage. ( i have had my share of reverse wireing, and surges also) Go to disney when its 100 degrees, everyone has the acs on, more draw. I had low voltage there, and thats a top of the line campground. Sometimes the supply to the campgrounds just can not keep up. But yea, I here you about the older used boxes. Unfortunately, we all have acs, tvs, cooking gagets, ice makes, fridges, phones, pads, awning lights, heaters, water heaters, etc. Lots of stuff to be plugged in that people never had in the past. I for one use the voltage instead of the propane as its easier. People like convince. Plus you wouldn't even know unless you had a ems system. Most people dont.

On another note , at a state campground a tesla owner rented a spot in a campground to charge for the day across from me.

 

[sjm9911]

 

[Madman]

I don't disagree that is a hold back for some but the newest battery tech seems to say they can recharge in less than 10 minutes up to 90%. If that is true then pull into WaWa, plug in go to the head and come out, unplug and you have 300+ miles more of charge. That is enough until the next pit stop for your bladder. And make no mistake WaWa and others are going to have charge stations. We have several restaurants here in South FL that have charge stations as well as a lot of the hotels.
In 1935 my grandfather opened a gas station on the East Side of town. There wasn't another for at least five mile in any direction until several years later.

Totally off subject, but I remember when WAWA stores were only in our area around Philly. I must be getting old. As a matter of fact, the architect on a job I was doing never heard of WAWA, and that was in 2000 !

 

[Steve Rothstein]

Totally off subject, but I remember when WAWA stores were only in our area around Philly. I must be getting old. As a matter of fact, the architect on a job I was doing never heard of WAWA, and that was in 2000 !

That isn't old. I remember when no one in Philadelphia had even heard of Wawa.

 

[HD FLATCAR]

That isn't old. I remember when no one in Philadelphia had even heard of Wawa.

Just out of curiosity.... What is a Wawa??

 

[Steve Rothstein]

Just out of curiosity.... What is a Wawa??

Wawa is a convenience store chain, much like 7-11 but on steroids now. By that, I mean that most of their stores have been enlarged and are more than the traditional C-store.

It started in one of the Philadelphia suburbs (in the 60s, I think) and has grown to cover a lot of the east coast.

 

[Patrick1544]

Where did the OP question get buried in here. I think Coal burns better and you can heat up a Ham sandwich in the cab on the boiler shelf. I wouldn't want Ham and fuel oil flavor on my Ham and Swiss sandwich.

 

[Madman]

Where did the OP question get buried in here. I think Coal burns better and you can heat up a Ham sandwich in the cab on the boiler shelf. I wouldn't want Ham and fuel oil flavor on my Ham and Swiss sandwich.

We've moved on to a "Hotter" subject, pun intended.

 

[Madman]

Wawa is a convenience store chain, much like 7-11 but on steroids now. By that, I mean that most of their stores have been enlarged and are more than the traditional C-store.

It started in one of the Philadelphia suburbs (in the 60s, I think) and has grown to cover a lot of the east coast.

It started as a single store.....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawa_(company)

 

[Old_Hobo]

And here I always thought Wawa was a town in northern Ontario….

 

[Madman]

And here I always thought Wawa was a town in northern Ontario….

When I was a teenager, 7-11 was the only game in town as far as convenience stores went. WAWA hadn't yet reached my part of Philly. Slim Jims were ten cents. Tastykake pies and cupcakes were still ten cents but went to twelve cents. Franks soda was great. Yoohoo was advertised by Yogi Berra. Cumberland Farms stores gave 7-11 a run for their money, especially on milk.

By the way, are we still on which burns hotter.....🔥

 

[DonW]

While I stayed overnight in Wawa and had breakfast there, I have never heard of a store named Wawa.

 

[NorthwestPennsyGuy]

Please! I worked in the nuclear energy field, and can say it is man's greatest folly, bar none. Cheap? No!, the real costs have been buried, both figuratively and actually by the government. They want the nuclear reactors built and running because they are easily repurposed into producing nuclear weapons. Since we put treaties in place preventing stockpiling of nuclear weapons, the country that can produce them quickly has the upper hand.Sooner or later that cost will rear up it's ugly head. We have already seen the tip of the iceberg at Chernobyl and Japan (not to mention by pure luck just barely missing out on the incomprehensibly largest disaster in world history in our own country at Three Mile Island).
Coal is by far the largest reserve of energy in the world. Shutting down coal as an energy source would decimate the world economy in just a few decades.

actually there is a kind of nuclear reactor that is cheaper safer and has a higher energy output and it can't be used to make bombs and that is Thorium reactors as thorium is easier to control and its main ore is granite

 

[sjm9911]

actually there is a kind of nuclear reactor that is cheaper safer and has a higher energy output and it can't be used to make bombs and that is Thorium reactors as thorium is easier to control and its main ore is granite

We moved on to wawa now, you missed the boat with the reactor thing!