Other Vehicles You Are (Fo' Real) Contemplating...

[7milesout]

Also, I think the rules that prohibit people in a moving trailer are stupid, the thought of having to pull off the roadway if my kid needed to use the washroom is ridiculous if I have 2 washrooms no more than 40 feet away.

You might change your mind if you see how trailers & 5th wheels fly apart. Barely more than a gust of wind and they're demolished. You wouldn't want Sweetums in there when that happened.

An RV will fly apart too, but it takes more than a gust of wind with an RV. RVs are not put together as haphazardly as a trailer / 5th wheel.

I had an uncle (recently passed away) who drove a semi. Back in the mid-80's I think it was, there was a truck pulling a camper out of some lot, going to turn left. My uncle was coming along from their left, and was coming around a curve. My uncle couldn't get his truck stopped. And he SMASHED COMPLETELY through the camper. Unfortunately, there was a guy asleep in the camper who became unalive. My uncle never got over that. Even in 2023, I was visiting my cousin (his son) and my cousin brought up how my uncle still feels bad guilt for that guy. Law enforcement did not ticket my uncle, he got in no trouble, the accident was deemed not his fault. But it was bad all around. My uncle felt bad remorse for probably 35 years. I remember my uncle talking to my dad about it when I was a kid. And my uncle was saying stuff like, "but I could have been going slower." He considered it his fault, though no one else did.

Anywho - you wouldn't want that sort of thing to happen to Sweetums, especially if she's making a tee-tee.

[Wallythacker]

I have seen a few boats come off trailers, but never anything large, like a 30 ft or more.
Still, the thought of not having access to all the trailer stuff while on the go I do not like.

There are two nice rigs in town I am looking into. but, as luck has it a house I have been watching went on the market. I better decide my priorities and fast. What's funny is the house for sale also has a diesel pusher in the drive (it's a big lot) that would work for me but she is adamant the RV is not for sale.

[Eggman]

Personally I would miss gas stations. I find the whole visit there ... romantic. Not male/female kind of romantic. I would guess that 85% of the women out there visit a gas station 85% of the time only when they're running behind going somewhere and they'll run out of gas if they don't stop. That would kill the romance. I go after work most of the time, when I'm in no hurry. I like the whole process, including going in for some coffee, getting a feel for the ambiance in the store. Watching the little kids with their parents. I like checking the earl level. And changing the earl at home? I love it. It gives me a legitimate reason to stay away from The Warden, gives me a feeling of satisfaction when I'm finished. I might feel like I lost a friend if I owned an EV and lost all those things.

You can still go to your 'gas' station. Some Sheetz gas stations have installed charging stations. Considering how long it takes to recharge - depending on how low the state of charge when plugging in and how much you want to charge up - you'll have time to wash up, stretch your legs, get a cup of coffee and/or a bite to eat.

My charging stops on trips were 10% to 20% charge when plugging in and around 90% to 100% charge when unplugging to continue the trip. Those charging stops took 30 - 40 minutes, cost under $20 (usually around $18) and got +300 miles range per charge stop (probably more, I didn't keep track.) The charge rate depends on how powerful the Supercharger is, how many are in use, and if the battery is properly pre-conditioned for fast charging. And unlike refueling with petroleum, I didn't have to stay at the pump.

I have found other things to pay attention to & learn about instead of oil & oil changes, such as what impacts charge rate, where other Supercharger stations are located, there's even games to play on the screen (there are game controllers for this, I don't use the games so I don't know much about them.) I just don't fuss over that stuff anymore. It's been an adjustment, a learning curve in how I approach traveling by car, but it's not a big deal. Most of the major concerns have been addressed.

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Bloomberg: How Sheetz Partnered With Tesla and Brought EV Charging to Rural America

July 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM EDT

A summer road trip in an electric car, fueled by the convenience store chain that has aggressively moved into the charging market.

The summer travel season has been marked by a resurgent global pandemic, flight delays, staffing shortages, $5-a-gallon gasoline in many parts of the U.S. and extreme weather. Despite all this, my teenage son and I were determined to take an American-history and democracy-focused road trip from Washington, D.C. through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that we’ve been trying to do for a few years. Not just any road trip: We would drive nearly 1,000 miles. We decided to rent a Tesla, which would reduce our fuel costs. But the next question, for us and so many American EV drivers, was: Where will we charge up, particularly in more rural parts of the country? For us and other EV travelers in the Mid-Atlantic, we were in luck: Sheetz.

Sheetz, the Pennsylvania-based chain of convenience stores, bills itself as a “mecca for people on the go.” It’s open around the clock, every day of the year, and sells all the fuel you could possibly need for a summer excursion: coffee and soda; Tastykakes and Necco Wafers; hot dogs and cheesy bacon tater bombs; made-to-order smoothies with the option of adding Red Bull. And, of course, gas. Today, 645 Sheetz stations operate across six states: Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

But over the last decade, Sheetz has worked to be more than a convenience store that sells gas. Nearly 14% of Sheetz locations offer electric vehicle charging through partnerships with Tesla Inc., Electrify America and EVgo. Tesla sells the most electric vehicles in the US, and Tesla-branded fast chargers known as Superchargers make up the vast majority—over 70%—of the EV chargers located at Sheetz. Similarly, charging sessions by Tesla owners vastly dwarf those by customers driving other electric cars.

“We’ve been very early adopters of EV charging,” says Trevor Walter, the vice president of petroleum supply management for Sheetz, during an interview. “We installed our first EV chargers in Pennsylvania in 2012.”

There's more detail from the Bloomberg article at the link.

[7milesout]

You can still go to your 'gas' station. Some Sheetz gas stations have installed charging stations. Considering how long it takes to recharge - depending on how low the state of charge when plugging in and how much you want to charge up - you'll have time to wash up, stretch your legs, get a cup of coffee and/or a bite to eat.

In Japan and just a couple or few airports in the U.S. have these really small "hotel" rooms. In Japan they're like a tube you crawl into. Rent by the hour, maybe by the minute too. Same in the small ones inside those couple/few airports in the U.S. Except they're shaped more like a big photo booth thing. Anywho - They should have those paired with public car chargers. Plug your car in, crawl in the mini-hotel thing and get some sleep. Have an air-raid horn blast you back to consciousness when your car is finished charging. Pay for both simultaneously.

[Eggman]

In Japan and just a couple or few airports in the U.S. have these really small "hotel" rooms. In Japan they're like a tube you crawl into. Rent by the hour, maybe by the minute too. Same in the small ones inside those couple/few airports in the U.S. Except they're shaped more like a big photo booth thing. Anywho - They should have those paired with public car chargers. Plug your car in, crawl in the mini-hotel thing and get some sleep. Have an air-raid horn blast you back to consciousness when your car is finished charging. Pay for both simultaneously.

Make 'em a shower like an automatic car wash lol. Eat, shower, shave, hit the road.

[Fummins]

I found something that’s more in my price range. Might be able to haul it around with the Mirage too!

[7milesout]

You are a friggin bloody genius!

[Mark]

I found something that’s more in my price range. Might be able to haul it around with the Mirage too!

A 2024 Kawasaki Brute Force 750 LE ESP CAMO ATV (not a UTV) has a MRSP of $11,999 + $550 destination charge.

Makes paying $9,299 for a brand new 2017 Mirage seem cheap!

I cannot fathom someone paying over $5,000 for an ATV.

I assume you meant a used ATV?

[Fummins]

[QUOTE=Mark;162953

I assume you meant a used ATV? [/QUOTE]

It's an 07 360 that they're asking close to what I paid for my Mirage. I need more projects.

I see that bolt that I looked at is still for sale.

[7milesout]

I can't stand people that say something is "super clean" or "great condition" and they're asking top dollar, only to find out it's beat to snot, stains all over the place, paint is scuffed and scratched, then have the balls to ask for a deposit after they say it's not really for sale until they're new car shows up and there's no eta.

That's they way those dammed EV owners are! Right Eggman?