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Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

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Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#231

Post by cperciva »

SoftTalker wrote: post #150
cperciva wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of cities have banned them now, at least for personal use. (Last time this was debated in my area, some businesses had justifications for why they couldn't just use electric tools, but none of those applied to regular homeowners.)

A lawn service that is working 8-10 hours a day can't use battery tools unless they buy a lot of batteries and/or have a way to recharge them in the field (from a gasoline-powered generator, most likely). So their complaint has some validity.

Yeah, that's one of the issues they raised. The other issue was that they often get called in for jobs where battery tools simply aren't powerful enough. (e.g. clearing a completely overgrown yard as opposed to regular lawn maintenance.)

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#232

Post by cosmic_cheese »

cperciva wrote: post #231
SoftTalker wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lawn service that is working 8-10 hours a day can't use battery tools unless they buy a lot of batteries and/or have a way to recharge them in the field (from a gasoline-powered generator, most likely). So their complaint has some validity.

Yeah, that's one of the issues they raised. The other issue was that they often get called in for jobs where battery tools simply aren't powerful enough. (e.g. clearing a completely overgrown yard as opposed to regular lawn maintenance.)

It’s not practical for all crews at present due to costs, but as EVs become more entrenched, the problem will solve itself. You keep an extra set or two of batteries that the truck charges and you swap as needed, not that different from having to stop to refill on gas.

Energy density of batteries is improving too, so the amount of time between swaps will be increasing.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#233

Post by mitjam »

A relative of mine drives a VW Polo with 3 cylinders and below 1000 ccm. It always sounded a bit off, like a tractor, but the car now has around 450.000 km on the clock and is still going strong, looking great, and is low-maintenance and fuel-efficient.

The secret: she lives in a rural area and cruises most of the time with constant 80-90 km/h.

A similar car used in a city with many start/stop cycles would probably not last as long.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#234

Post by cperciva »

Thlom wrote: post #210
SoftTalker wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 40V electric lawn mower. It takes nearly the full charge on two batteries to cut my average suburban-sized lawn. Sometimes I can't even complete it on that depending how tall the grass is. Add in edge trimming and blowing away the clippings and then multiply that by a number of lawns or larger properties and I think you would need dozens of batteries. BTW "more convenient and cheaper" are strong arguments when…

Insane that there's a market for a dude with a lawn mower these days when you can get a good enough robot mower for $1000 ...

Good enough for what? I'd love to have a lawn mower which can dump grass clippings in my compost pile (mulching them and leaving them behind is better for the lawn, I know, but my wife is allergic to grass so this would basically mean she never gets to use the lawn). Also, we have two apple trees which spend a few months dropping apples on the lawn, so I'd like to have a robot lawn mower which can pick up the apples and toss them in the compost pile too. Oh, and there's a gate separating the front yard from the back yard, so it would be great if it can open and close the gate.

Robot lawn mowers are getting better, but I have yet to see one which can handle every situation that humans routinely handle.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#235

Post by cperciva »

SoftTalker wrote: post #201
senorrib wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BS. Gasoline is just more convenient and cheaper for them. 40V batteries last long enough that you only need a handful of them to last a whole day.

I have 40V electric lawn mower. It takes nearly the full charge on two batteries to cut my average suburban-sized lawn. Sometimes I can't even complete it on that depending how tall the grass is. Add in edge trimming and blowing away the clippings and then multiply that by a number of lawns or larger properties and I think you would need dozens of batteries. BTW "more convenient and cheaper" are strong arguments when…

I have a 40V (well, 2x 20V) mower, and use two pairs of batteries to mow the lawn. But that's fine; between the lawn mower, the leaf blower, the weed whacker, and the snow blower, I've got plenty of spares.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#236

Post by cperciva »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #232
cperciva wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's one of the issues they raised. The other issue was that they often get called in for jobs where battery tools simply aren't powerful enough. (e.g. clearing a completely overgrown yard as opposed to regular lawn maintenance.)

It’s not practical for all crews at present due to costs, but as EVs become more entrenched, the problem will solve itself. You keep an extra set or two of batteries that the truck charges and you swap as needed, not that different from having to stop to refill on gas. Energy density of batteries is improving too, so the amount of time between swaps will be increasing.

Yes, we're definitely moving in that direction.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#237

Post by j45 »

jbeard4 wrote: post #69

> Over the years, nearly everything on the vehicle has been replaced or repaired, and Campbell says the only original part is likely the body, and even that has had work done on it. It’s the Tercel of Theseus: if every part has been replaced, is it still the same car? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

They clarify the body is still original in the article. So nearly everything isn’t everything.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#238

Post by __d »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #182
burnt-resistor wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metrication will happen after Americans give up ICE vehicles like the Ford Expedition, ICE gestapo, ultraprocessed hamburgers, and climate change denial. Metric is really far simpler, while Freedom Units are like going back to counting change in Roman-inspired £sd.

> Metric is really far simpler... For the common, everyday use case it isn't meaningfully simpler, which is why the US hasn't switched. The conversions are certainly harder to memorize, but by the time you're an adult you have memorized all the common ones (12 inches to a foot, and so on) so that downside only applies to people who have to learn this stuff (largely children, who don't get a vote). The math is also ha…

And yet, many other countries have managed to transition to metric measurements without too much issue.

My parents were in their 30’s when Australia switched. They instinctively think in feet/inches, pounds for body weight (especially babies), but oddly miles hasn’t lasted.

I was educated in metric, but learned imperial lengths doing woodwork with my dad. I don’t have any intuition in pounds or miles, but feet (up to maybe 10) and inches are ok.

My son is purely metric. He can do the arithmetic, but has no intuitive sense in any imperial units.

So .. my anecdata is that it takes two generations to really switch.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#239

Post by hermitcrab »

jbeard4 wrote: post #69

> Over the years, nearly everything on the vehicle has been replaced or repaired, and Campbell says the only original part is likely the body, and even that has had work done on it. It’s the Tercel of Theseus: if every part has been replaced, is it still the same car? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

It is the same broom, it's just had 2 new heads and 3 new handles.
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