Two Pleasant BEV Discoveries

[BEVeedom]

1. My driveway enters the State Highway in the middle of 2 curves. Not a problem 25 years ago but increased traffic and speed make it tricky to enter the highway safely. At night I can see the lights and it's OK. In the daylight it's cross your fingers and hope for the best. Enter the Nissan Leaf. Shut off the stereo, climate control, and crack open the windows and I can hear well beyond my sight limitations. This is an absolute safety feature in my case.

2. I needed to haul a tall bookcase so I strapped the open hatch down and off I went. I came to my first stop and realized - no exhaust smell coming through the open hatch, cool! Old thinking dies hard. Give my an operable window in the hatch like the old Mercury Monterey of the 60's. Maybe I can keep the A/C off longer this summer and enjoy more of the outside - inside, yes?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Now if you come home with a phone call going on, you can pull into the garage and finish the call with the A/C on and not worry about turning the garage into a gas chamber.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I can hear well beyond my sight limitations. This is an absolute safety feature in my case.

I see a future Tesla Model S showing his buddies how fast and quiet his car is... while you're "listening" for him and turning into his lane, head on.

 

[mynameisjim]

The tire noise he can hear without his own idling engine is still likely safer than nothing. But yes, don't depend on it.

I see many blind driveways have a large mirror across the street to see oncoming traffic.

 

[Nubo]

As a bicyclist I can vouch that for most vehicles, at all but slow speeds, tire noise overwhelms motor or exhaust noise. I track approaching vehicles not by the engine noise, but the tire noise.

 

[hansr220]

I agree that tire and wind noise are plenty. I'm sad that our transportation safety board wants to add more noise to the beauty of quiet.

Also, my 2nd week with my Leaf, and I'm hauling a 50 gallon hot water tank to my fathers house. His Buick Park Avenue couldn't do that, love the hatchback... and yes, no fumes coming in the back, maybe a little snow on New Years Day.

 

[GeekEV]

I needed to haul a tall bookcase so I strapped the open hatch down and off I went. I came to my first stop and realized - no exhaust smell coming through the open hatch, cool! Old thinking dies hard. Give my an operable window in the hatch like the old Mercury Monterey of the 60's. Maybe I can keep the A/C off longer this summer and enjoy more of the outside - inside, yes?

Now if you come home with a phone call going on, you can pull into the garage and finish the call with the A/C on and not worry about turning the garage into a gas chamber.

This "benefit" does, however, make it impossible to commit suicide by the old standby of running the car in the garage...

 

[KillaWhat]

This "benefit" does, however, make it impossible to commit suicide by the old standby of running the car in the garage...

Insert "Blonde Joke" here?

 

[TomT]

Actually, that hasn't been possible for many years. Modern cars emit virtually no carbon monoxide... In fact, the exhaust is sometimes cleaner than the prevailing air...

This "benefit" does, however, make it impossible to commit suicide by the old standby of running the car in the garage...

 

[gbarry42]

An early demonstration of, "Can you hear an EV coming?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bMtNkB8iFyI#t=540s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(From "Fully Charged").

Also, if you spot an oncoming or following vehicle while entering the road (right where it's kind of "too late") you have 200 ft-lb of torque to get you safely to speed...quickly!

 

[hgoudey]

Also, my 2nd week with my Leaf, and I'm hauling a 50 gallon hot water tank to my fathers house. His Buick Park Avenue couldn't do that, love the hatchback... and yes, no fumes coming in the back, maybe a little snow on New Years Day.

I see your 50 gallon tank and raise you a 50 gallon tank full of water. The LEAF handled the 420+ pounds way back in the stern just fine around town. My water pump required 24VDC and I didn't have an appropriate DC-DC converter, so I couldn't run it off the accessory battery. It is powered by a small pack of A123 LiFePO4 cells in the cardboard box. As for other heavy trunk loads, I also drove across the Bay Bridge with four L16 lead acid batteries in the back, a total of 480 pounds. I know it's sacrilegious to haul all that lead with lithium, but it did it handily.

Indeed no fumes driving with an open hatch, but it is entertaining to look at the rear view camera when backing up (a lot of sky).

Howdy

 

[keydiver]

Actually, that hasn't been possible for many years. Modern cars emit virtually no carbon monoxide... In fact, the exhaust is sometimes cleaner than the prevailing air...

Huh? :? We just had another one of those last week here in Florida. An older woman left the car running in the garage, and she died of carbon monoxide poisoning in her house. It seems to happen with rather worriesome frequency. It has become even easier now, with cars that have a Smart Key. Granny parks the car in the garage, puts in in park, forgets to hit "START" to shut the car off, doesn't hear the motor running because cars are so dang quite nowdays, and she merrily goes off to bed in the house.
http://www.local10.com/news/Man-hospitalized-woman-killed-by-carbon-monoxide/-/1717324/18054984/-/y2i64qz/-/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[davewill]

Actually, that hasn't been possible for many years. Modern cars emit virtually no carbon monoxide... In fact, the exhaust is sometimes cleaner than the prevailing air...

Huh? :? We just had another one of those last week here in Florida. An older woman left the car running in the garage, and she died of carbon monoxide poisoning in her house. It seems to happen with rather worriesome frequency. It has become even easier now, with cars that have a Smart Key. Granny parks the car in the garage, puts in in park, forgets to hit "START" to shut the car off, doesn't hear the motor running because cars are so dang quite nowdays, and she merrily goes off to bed in the house.
http://www.local10.com/news/Man-hospitalized-woman-killed-by-carbon-monoxide/-/1717324/18054984/-/y2i64qz/-/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Your link goes to a story that seems to blame a new stove, not a running car.

 

[Computerizer]

Actually, that hasn't been possible for many years. Modern cars emit virtually no carbon monoxide... In fact, the exhaust is sometimes cleaner than the prevailing air...

However they still do emit carbon dioxide and consume oxygen, which would eventually lead to suffocation of both the human and the car. The question is: which would suffocate first?

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Actually, that hasn't been possible for many years. Modern cars emit virtually no carbon monoxide... In fact, the exhaust is sometimes cleaner than the prevailing air...

Please explain this one to me. When you say "prevailing air" I presume you're talking about the air surrounding the car. So after this air gets pulled into the combustion chamber, mixed with fuel, which is then burned, it somehow comes out cleaner than it went in? So the car is actually filtering the air? Even with horrible air going in, I can't see this happening.

Sure, the air coming out of my tailpipe might be cleaner than the air in LA (sorry to whomever lives there, but that smog is unbearable), but that's because the air going in is much cleaner as well.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Sure, the air coming out of my tailpipe might be cleaner than the air in LA (sorry to whomever lives there, but that smog is unbearable), but that's because the air going in is much cleaner as well.

I don't spend much time in LA, but the last 20 years have only gotten better there.

Some of the worse smog that I've breathed recently is in places you wouldn't even guess... Missoula, Montana and Spokane, Washington.

Oh, ya, and Lagos, Nigeria.

 

[EVDRIVER]

What is the tank for?

 

[hgoudey]

What is the tank for?

If you are referring to the tank pictured in my previous post, it holds 55 gallons of water that I am using to water some young native plants I'm trying to get established along a city owned footpath weed patch that doesn't have water available on site. We got about 0.25" out of typically 4" of rainfall in January, so I had to resort to watering them a bit. The water was collected rain water (from December) off my garage roof.

It is amusing to note that while I was able to fit this barrel upright in the LEAF with the hatch open, the same barrel does not fit upright in a 1997 Chevy S10 Blazer SUV that I have access to, so the LEAF turned out to be more capable for hauling this particular item.

Howdy

 

[KJWL]

Worst air pollution in the nation this winter, hands down, Salt Lake City & Wasatch front cities.
Also, I call "urban legend" on the "no suicide w a modern ICE car" claim.
As to the topic of this thread, I thought for sure you were going for the acceleration, not the quiet. But the combination of the two . . . beautiful. ML

 

[vsaphill]

I just lost a good friend from carbon monoxide

Mark Balelo, the flamboyant auctioneer who appeared on A&E's "Storage Wars," was found dead in his car on Monday morning, in what appeared to be a suicide.

According to the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office, the 40-year-old Balelo died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes. He was found in a car parked in a garage at his Simi Valley auction house, Balelo Inc.

Balelo, known as "Rico Suave" on the series, which follows a team of auctioneers who sell off the contents of reclaimed storage units to buyers, drew interest for the outlandish outfits he wore to auctions and for the large sums of cash he brought to auctions to buy items.