US Factory Boom Disproportionately Favors Poorer Counties

Hans Blaster said:

How do you tell the difference between an electric F150 and a gas-powered one without looking at the badging on the back? A "cybertruck" is easy to recognize. It looks like it was designed and built by an 8-year-old from a refrigerator box and a can of silver spray paint.

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The Ford F-150 Lightning has no front grill, and has a light strip running the width of the front. The first time I saw one, it was in my rear view mirror, and the lack of grill made it distinctive. That’s the easiest and quickest way to identify one.

Incidentally, much of the front of a Ford Lightning is cargo space, like the original VW Beetle.

Addendum: In contrast is a small electric car I saw yesterday. It was used as a delivery vehicle. For the life of me, I can’t identify the make or model. The only indication was “EV”’in front of the name on the side toward the front. I asked the driver how she liked it. She said “He” did, meaning the owner, but she was always afraid the charge would run out. I intended to look up the vehicle to find the range, then realized I couldn’t recall the name, having focused on the “EV” in blue.

Hmm…might could look it up that way.

wing2000 said:

So presumably in your example, the trees were not marketable. If a company had chosen to build a warehouse or factory on the site, it would have likey done the same thing.

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That very thing. House; factory; solar panels; pasture; field: the same. The difference is a house and factory has a smaller footprint. Since the trees were too small to log, they were all pushed up and burned.

Note that while converting from trees to fields and pasture goes through the same steps, usually that’s not the case due to expected return on the investment. Hurricane Helene changed that some. I know of a grove of pecan trees blown over that was converted to field, and no effort was made to salvage some good sized wood. Have seen some clear cut stands of pines converted to fields as well. Damage pine trees and the pine beetles say “thank you,” so the only way to salvage it is to clear cut it. Ironically, the small pines like those on that solar pane site weathered the hurricane with no problems.

Something worth mentioning while on the subject: It used to be that the only way to set out pines was with what we called a dibble, a T handled narrow spade looking tool. Then hoedads became popular. This is a long, curved, blade at the end of a short handle (disclosure: never used a hoedad). You don’t have to clean up a clear cut to use one; you just dodge the stuff in the way.

In the last two decades have seen mechanical devices pulled behind tractor that set out pines on field and pasture. And have noticed clear cuts that weren’t pushed up being burned odd this year. Will be watching to see if they go back and set out pines with some of those machines.

Tuur said:

The Ford F-150 Lightning has no front grill, and has a light strip running the width of the front. The first time I saw one, it was in my rear view mirror, and the lack of grill made it distinctive. That’s the easiest and quickest way to identify one.

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OK, minor trim stuff.

Tuur said:

Incidentally, much of the front of a Ford Lightning is cargo space, like the original VW Beetle.

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Hmm.

Hans Blaster said:

OK, minor trim stuff.

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Lack of grill isn't really minor in a vehicle the size of a full-sized truck. Rather than post a link that could be considered advertising, look for images for the Ford F-150 Lightning. A good one will clearly show the front, whether it's a head-on or quartering view.

OTOH, the small electric vehicle I saw yesterday was harder to identify as an electric. Had I not seen "EV" in front of the name, I wouldn't have realized it. Four cylinders are so quiet these days that even the low volume of noise wasn't a tip-off.

FWIW, while looking (and failing) to identify the vehicle I saw yesterday, came across a GMC / Chevy full sized electric truck, and it, too, didn't have a front grill. One isn't needed for either, as they don't have an internal combustion engine to cool. And no, haven't seen a GMC / Chevy full sized electric truck on the road or in a parking lot.

BTW, looked at a Hyundai EV6, even though the name I saw on the vehicle wasn't that, and it had a range in the 380-ish mile range. For deliveries in a rural area, that could be pushing it. That's from the years I was out in the field most of the day. But since the vehicle I saw wasn't a Hyundai, I really don't know the range.

Tuur said:

Lack of grill isn't really minor in a vehicle the size of a full-sized truck. Rather than post a link that could be considered advertising, look for images for the Ford F-150 Lightning. A good one will clearly show the front, whether it's a head-on or quartering view.

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I found a picture. it looks like it has a grill. Nothing I would notice on the street. Just another oversized pickup.

Tuur said:

OTOH, the small electric vehicle I saw yesterday was harder to identify as an electric. Had I not seen "EV" in front of the name, I wouldn't have realized it. Four cylinders are so quiet these days that even the low volume of noise wasn't a tip-off.

FWIW, while looking (and failing) to identify the vehicle I saw yesterday, came across a GMC / Chevy full sized electric truck, and it, too, didn't have a front grill. One isn't needed for either, as they don't have an internal combustion engine to cool. And no, haven't seen a GMC / Chevy full sized electric truck on the road or in a parking lot.

BTW, looked at a Hyundai EV6, even though the name I saw on the vehicle wasn't that, and it had a range in the 380-ish mile range. For deliveries in a rural area, that could be pushing it. That's from the years I was out in the field most of the day. But since the vehicle I saw wasn't a Hyundai, I really don't know the range.

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Most of the electric cars don't look "different". A lot of them seem to electric versions of gas cars. I'm not paying much attention to their details as I am not in the market for a car right now.

Hans Blaster said:

I found a picture. it looks like it has a grill. Nothing I would notice on the street. Just another oversized pickup.

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It's solid. That's what caught my eye. Nothing for air to pass through. In small EV's, that's not as noticeable. I just pulled up a Kia EV6 and it has an open space at the bottom of the front that could be a grill if it had an internal combustion engine.

As to oversized, over-tall, yes; oversized, no. Regular cabs have long sat three across. That's the basis of the joke that seasoned cowboys ride in the middle: That way they don't have to drive and they don't have to get out and open gates. Extended cabs are iffy. We had some with "jump seats" where you faced the middle. Some are okay and can seat grown men if you're not going far. Four-door cabs are handy if you're transporting a crew. These days, though, you lose truck bed space and that space is why many of us drive pickups. We once had a long wheel base with a four-door cab. Drove it exactly once, and it took the entire supply yard parking area to turn around. Still, we could haul crews plus material.

Four doors seem popular with families, but to me raises the question of whether it wouldn't be better to get an SUV with towing capacity and use a trailer instead of a tiny truck bed that's practically unusable. BTW, towing capacity is also a big issue for work trucks.

Height gives ground clearance and allows larger tires, but we had little to no problem in the days when they were lower to the ground. Just my opinion.

FWIW:

The small EV was a Chevy Bolt, year unknown. Practical range is between 200 and 238 miles, which explains the driver’s worries about running out of charge. If you have to make a lot of stops in rural areas, you can easily run over that.

Small car fronts, as with a Fiat I saw today, are practically the same between EV and internal combustion. There’s a simple way that doesn’t require looking at the name to ID an EV: Lack of exhaust pipe.

Why go into this? Because if a small EV resembles a conventional vehicle, they might not register on the eye. Here I can cheat when it comes to the number of local EVs because we haven’t had to increase the size of transformers. The business running EVs for deliveries has what looks like a dedicated transformer, size unknown. That’s courtesy of Google Earth Street View. The business is served by another utility.

Tuur said:

The small EV was a Chevy Bolt, year unknown. Practical range is between 200 and 238 miles, which explains the driver’s worries about running out of charge. If you have to make a lot of stops in rural areas, you can easily run over that.

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If one is going to be driving over 200 miles on a daily basis, I agree an EV is not the best solution. As battery technology continues to progress, I expect that concern will go away.

wing2000 said:

If one is going to be driving over 200 miles on a daily basis, I agree an EV is not the best solution. As battery technology continues to progress, I expect that concern will go away.

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As an interim (or final) solution, half of the heavy duty EV trucks in China have swappable batteries. If it's ever infrastructure week, having these along US interstates could work well for long haul trucking.

A new fully charged EV battery in five minutes: Are China's swap stations the future of electric cars?​