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Long bed EV pickup trucks

3K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  lcmdpc 
#1 · (Edited)
It certainly seems that, when it comes to electric vehicles such as pickup trucks, there’s a ways to go before they become practical for multi-useful purposes. What I have in mind with that statement is the possibility to put a slide-in camper on a long bed pickup truck.

I’ve looked at Rivian, Ford and Tesla. All appear to emphasize camping trailers for pickup usage. At the same time the emphasis is on horsepower and hauling capacity. That implies that efforts to reduce weight in the frames is at work in order to highlight range as a sales pitch.

I notice that the Ford F150 Lightning’s batteries are Nickel Manganese. I’m not sure how Ford gets around the charge degradation using a NI based battery. Having worked at the Space Center near Webster, TX, I was told during a briefing of the Moon Rover that the NI based batteries had to be kept fully charged to avoid battery degradation. But that was in 1971.

So here we go, back to diesel or high capacity gas models to get adequate frame capacity.

This post IS NOT MEANT to advertise any particular brand of truck. What is meant is to highlight range statistics across the expanding range of available manufacturers, including Rivian, that are purposefully avoiding one of the more common usages of pickup trucks; that being the capability to accommodate slide-in campers. Obviously such capability could be engineered into a structurally sound pickup truck, except for the fact that range estimates would be severely impacted (without the camper). So it looks like something akin to long bed gas or diesel pickup trucks will be the only viable option into the foreseeable future.

I also notice that avoidance of the inclusion of air conditioning is absent from electric pickup truck descriptions; an obvious additional effort to pad range statistics. So it’s doubtful anyone would take mortal risks driving any of these on a hot summers day in Death Valley.
 
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#4 ·
I prefer the all electric design because of its simplicity and high reliability. Looking into the future, and admittedly ignorant of the problems associated with maintenance of hybrids, I view hybrids as having limited maintenance outlets nationally. I don't particularly like all the high tech additions included, such as touch screens. I view these as high cost future maintenance problems that could well morph into lack of replacement availability in the future in EVs that will last MUCH longer (except for the stated high tech additions). That is also why I chose the screen name, BareBonesRivian.


On the issue of EV simplicity, that definitely doesn't include batteries. These are Rube Goldberg offerings containing hundreds of individual cells. No wonder they are expensive. That complexity has to be addressed to make batteries more affordable for EVs. There are some Lithium options to replace standard lead acid batteries. That implies maybe some lower cost manufacturing might have been introduced. They are still very expensive.

Bottom line, electric is the way to go in the future. Until then gas or diesel has been around long enough for a wider selection of available manufacturers and models with long track records where historical reliability is available for potential customers.

I guess I haven't looked thoroughly enough at EVs, as far as the air conditioning aspect is concerned. The previous answer to my post suggested A/C is widely available. If so the ads by dealers are remiss when stating what is included in their EV offerings. On gas and diesel models A/C is always mentioned as part of what is included.

If anyone has read any of my previous posts they will know I've been "around" for quite awhile. It seems many here that post are too young to have experienced the history of "motorized wheel transportation".
 
#8 · (Edited)
Don’t mind the very short bed of my R1T. Problem is if you lower the rear gate to load stuff the size of the bed you can’t close the rear gate. Same if you place any heavy material on the third piece behind the cover and the bedside of the rear gate that pivots. Not very practical for those of us who actually use it as a pickup truck.
Told that extra piece in the Rivian bed is used to lock the floor piece that covers the spare in place. Hopefully you need the spare rarely and there’s other simpler ways to have done it. Whereas the way it is if you use the bed frequently it’s a major PIA. Another example of engineers being too smart by half.
 
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