Eighteen months ago, we launched “Our Solar Electric Trailer Journey” with a grand vision of buying an electric truck, probably a Rivian, to two a trailer we’d equip with solar power. We still don’t have a truck, and the latest estimate for when one will arrive is still months in the future.

We didn’t let this stop us. We bought an Aliner Scout camper we could tow with our Chevy Bolt EV. We added solar panels and a 200 amp-hour, 2.5 kWh lithium battery, along with a top-of-the-line inverter/charger and charge controller. After months of research and education, we installed the panels, battery and all the rest ourselves.

Along the way, we shared our journey with you, including our many woes. We hope the challenges and problems we faced helped you or someone else to avoid some of the pain we experienced.

The pinnacle of our journey was a 1,000-mile trip we made towing our little RV with our little ev along the southeastern coast of the United States from Florida to North Carolina and back. What a blast!

On that trip, we were able to go five out of seven days without plugging in the trailer, operating on solar and battery power. And plenty of people told us it couldn’t be done!

While we won’t be posting here any longer, you can follow Devin’s podcast and newsletter here.

We’ll genuinely miss you. We’ve loved building relationships in the real world, from random folks we’ve met at charging stations who share what they’ve learned from our videos to our podcast and YouTube friends who’ve invited us to be guests on their shows. We’ll miss you all.

Thank you for the kindness, support and patience you’ve shown us. We’ve learned a great deal from you!

Now, good luck on your solar electric trailer journey, whatever it may be to you!

P.S. The Aliner is now for sale.

You may recall that a blowout left our rig out of the game. We were surprised by how long it took to get the little popup camper trailer back in service.

Here’s a recap of what has taken so long.

Step 1: Insurance

We were pleasantly surprised by how quickly State Farm received our claim and processed it, sending us an estimate of the cash required to cover the repair, net of our deductible. That entire process took only a week.

Step 2: Find Someone to Do the Repairs

It took about three weeks for us to find someone willing and able to do the repairs. One challenge for us was that there are no Aliner dealers in our area. Not only wasn’t there a dealer with a repair shop we could automatically call, few of the repair shops around were familiar with Aliners or interested in the sort of repair we needed.

Step 3: Find Parts

Of course, finding parts wasn’t our job, it fell to the team that agreed to do the repairs. Not having done much Aliner work, they didn’t have a good supply chain in place for those parts. It took about a month for them to get the parts ordered and then another month for the parts to arrive.

Step 4: Get Permission From the HOA

The next challenge, with parts in hand, was to schedule the work. We hadn’t fully appreciated when we found a team willing and able to do the work that they didn’t have a facility to do the repairs. Their plan was to use our driveway. Our HOA didn’t think that was a good plan, so we had to apply for a waiver of the rules. That application process pushed the repair out another month. The HOA was gracious and quickly approved the plan.

Step 5: Do the Repairs

Last week, in our driveway, the team did the repair. They did a great job cutting out about 10 percent of the floor of the trailer and replacing it. They sealed everything up good and tight. Critically, they took out all the solar power electrictronics and put it all back in. Not surprisingly, it looks like they did a better job than we had done as novices.

Next Step: Go Camping!

With our trailer repaired, we’re planning a little excursion for next weekend!

We haven’t talked much about the Aptera we’ve pre-ordered, so we thought we’d use our newsletter, podcast and YouTube show this week to explain the seven reasons we pre-ordered one of these solar-powered EVs.

The Aptera is a solar-powered, three-wheeled vehicle enclosed like a car (so you’ll frequently catch us calling it a car) but regulated more like a motorcycle.

Reason #1: Extreme Efficiency

We expect the Aptera to be the most efficient vehicle on the road. With 10 miles per kWh of range, the little EV will be 2.5 times more efficient than our Bolt and five times more efficient than the Rivian electric pickup we’ve ordered.

Reason #2: George Jetson Style

Devin says the first thing that came to mind when he saw a photo of an Aptera was George Jetson’s flying car. It is that spacey!

We love that! We get that not everyone wants a car that attention-grabbing, but we do. We want to be talking to people about energy efficiency, solar power and Our Solar Electric Trailer Journey.

Even with our Chevy Bolt, we are frequently stopped by people curious about EVs. We can’t wait to drive the Aptera!

Reason #3: Solar Panels

The solar panels on the Aptera can provide up to 40 miles per day of driving! To get that, you’ll need to upgrade from the base model’s limited solar panel coverage to get the whole vehicle covered with solar.

With that upgrade, you could get 10,000 miles (theoretically even more) of free electricity from the sun every year! It is hard to imagine.

Reason #4: The Incredible Range

We’ve pre-ordered the 600-mile range version of the Aptera. The longest-range option will run 1,000 miles on a single charge! Production will begin, the company says, with the 400-mile range option and then move to the 250-mile battery.

The batteries in the Apteras don’t appear to be designed for super fast charging, but that may come. For now, the company promises 40 to 60 kW fast charging (about the same as our Bolt). Keep in mind, however, that given the vehicle’s efficiency, it will be charging 2.5 times faster than the Bolt in terms of miles per minute.

At this rate, the Aptera should be capable of adding 100 miles of range in ten minutes!

Reason #5: Affordability

The Aptera starts at an almost unbelievable price of just $25,900. The version we pre-ordered with all-wheel drive, the full solar package and 600 miles of range still comes in under $40k.

That is an excellent price for a car that doesn’t require charging for routine, around-town driving or even short road trips.

Reason #6: Speed

With the all-wheel drive package, the Aptera will have a 0-60 time of just 4 seconds. That’s fast.

We think of our Bolt as fast with its 7.2 second 0-60 speed. We can’t wait to put the hammer down in the little Aptera!

Reason #7: We’re Invested

Aptera is raising money via investment crowdfunding. We invested shortly after we pre-ordered the vehicle. Today, you can invest as little as $210 via the crowdfunding site Republic.

Let’s be clear about a couple of things here. We’re biased. Aptera can’t make our car until it raises more money. We want people to invest. We’re not financial advisors. Don’t invest because we did!

So, there you have the seven reasons we’re excited to have pre-ordered an Aptera!

Do you need a hook on the garage wall for your EV charging cable? This one might work.

If you’re interested in investing in companies that help address climate change, you may wish to learn more at SuperCrowd23. Subscribers get 50 percent off!

We left with a list of 13 RVs we’d consider towing with our Rivian R1T when it arrives this summer. We want a trailer that is in that sweet spot for towing range (weight) and comfort (size). The smaller the trailer, the farther we can go. The bigger the trailer, the farther we want to go. Here’s more of our analysis.

We’ve narrowed the list down to eight models with floorplans and features we like.

Here’s our list, showing dry (unloaded) weight and length.

We anticipate that the fully loaded weight of the trailer will be about 2,000 pounds more than the dry weight. We’ll review them in this order, from lightest to heaviest.

Gulf Stream Vintage Cruiser 23RSS

Devin’s favorite is the smallest trailer that made the cut—not entirely for that reason. The Gulf Stream Vintage Cruiser 23RSS is styled inside and out with a retro feel that Devin loves. The bathroom divides the bedroom from the rest of the living space. It does lack a feature we both want—theater seating.

Venture Sonic 231VRL

Gail’s favorite, perhaps she’d call it a reluctant favorite, is the next up on the list in terms of weight. The floor plan does an even better job than the Vintage Cruiser of using the bathroom to divide the trailer into three private rooms, which is important when we need quiet for work or when we have house guests. Like the Vintage Cruiser, it lacks theater seating.

Forest River Rockwood Mini Lite 2104S

The Forest River Rockwood Mini Lite 2104S is the shortest trailer on the list. With a murphy bed and good-sized slide-out, the trailer feels roomier than we’d otherwise expect. The short trailer would be more maneuverable, too. There is a theater seating option that eliminates other beds for guests or when Gail makes Devin sleep on the sofa.

JayCo Jay Feather 21 MML

The JayCo trailer offers theater seating, a dinette and a sofa/murphy bed set up. Still relatively small among the trailers on our list, we see how this one could work for us. The open floor plan creates a sense of spaciousness but doesn’t provide anywhere to have privacy.

Keystone RV Passport SL 229RK

The distinctive feature about this floorplan is the bona fide wall and doors between the bedroom and the rest of the trailer. It has an option for theater seating that we love.

Cruiser RV Shadow Cruiser 228RKS

The Shadow Cruiser 228RKS is similar to the last trailer but lacks the wall and has a curtain for bedroom privacy. It does come standard with the theater seating we love.

Twilight RVs Twilight Signature TW2280

The Twilight RVs Twilight Signature is the only one in the size range we found with a king-size bed. That’s pretty compelling. It also has theater seating but privacy is limited to a curtain around the bedroom.

Grand Design Imagine XLS 23LDE

The heaviest and longest trailer on our list, it is the only one with two doors—one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen. It features theater seating and maximum privacy with a big bathroom dividing the trailer.

We’re not sure which of these we’ll get. Almost certainly, we’ll find a fairly new but used model so we can use the savings to install the solar panels and battery storage we want.

You can help us decide. In the comments, please answer any of the following questions we have for you:

* Which is your favorite?

* Which would you pick for us?

* What else besides weight, length and theater seating should we consider?

* Does weight correlate with durability?

* Does weight correlate with insulation?

We’re excited to get your feedback before the Rivian arrives and we hit the road!

Recently, we had an experience that will serve as a powerful object lesson for you. While traveling to southwestern Florida to help with recovery efforts following Hurricane Ian, a tire on our Aliner Scout blew out. We’ll not only share the surprisingly bad story but also some tips for avoiding this fate.

The Devastating Blowout

Devin made the trip alone to join a group of volunteers from our church helping people recover after the storm. About halfway, while passing through suburban Orlando, a passenger in a passing car signaled to Devin that something was wrong.

He pulled over to discover the driver’s side trailer had blown. There were few real challenges changing the tire and getting underway. Within an hour, Devin was back on the road.

He called Gail to report the problem noting, “It could have been much worse.”

Upon arriving in Port Charlotte where he “camped” in a church parking lot, he set up the trailer and discovered it was much worse.

It was a rainy day and there was water inside the trailer. The electrical system wouldn’t work at all to power anything. A quick investigation yielded the truth: The blowout did serious damage to the trailer, including large holes in the floor of the cabinet with almost all the electronics.

Everything inside the cabinet was wet; there was debris from the road and from the tire inside. It was a mess.

“I was despondent,” Devin said afterward.

The following day was dry. While Devin worked with the volunteers, the trailer sat in the warm sun drying out. That evening, Devin tried the electrical system and found it operational.

Looking back, Devin admits the first sign of trouble came an hour before the blowout. He picked up a vibration coming from the trailer that he correctly judged to be a problem with a tire. He stopped to check it out at a rest stop but couldn’t see a problem. Nervously, he proceeded—a choice he now regrets.

The trailer is currently out of service and awaiting repairs. It is difficult to get the necessary parts, like the replacement wheel well destroyed by the blowout. While insurance will cover some costs, new tires would have been much cheaper than our deductible.

How You Can Avoid the Same Fate

While there are no absolute guarantees you can avoid a blowout, there are three keys to avoiding one. Two are common knowledge but one we believe is important is rarely considered.

* Tire Pressure. Always check the air pressure in the tires before every trip. We are diligent about this and confident that this wasn’t a factor in our little disaster. Improper air pressure is, however, the leading cause of blowouts—especially under inflation, which increases stress on the tire causing failure at freeway speeds.

* Tread. When a tire is worn out from too many miles, easily seen in the tread, it is more vulnerable to blowing out. Our trailer is fairly old but had seen little use. The tread on the tires appeared virtually new. The tread itself was not the cause of our blowout.

* Age. Our tires weren’t worn out, but they were old. For nearly a decade, they lived outside holding a trailer. They didn’t have many miles, but they’d lived too long in service. We considered replacing them but put it off, another decision we regret.

So keep in mind these three simple tips:

* Always check the tire pressure.

* Check the tread wear before every trip.

* Replace the tires every 4 or 5 years even if treadwear doesn’t require it.

By following these simple steps you like (likely) avoid the sort of disaster we experienced.

The Aliner Scout A-frame popup trailer roof features four springs, two on each side. The springs make lifting the roof easy. One of our springs broke. We replaced both springs on that side. This is how we did it.

With one spring broken, the Aliner folks recommend discontinuing the use of the RV.

This project scared us. Aliner recommends having it done by a professional. When opening the roof without the bungee cords attached, you can do catastrophic damage to the camper.

To prevent that, you’ll want to open the rig next to your garage or other structure that will block the wind or gravity from grabbing the roof and overextending the hinges.

Before you can do that, you have to disconnect the bungee cords. Do this simply by removing the caulk that hides the screws holding the bungee. Then remove the screws. Save them to reattach the cords.

Before opening the roof, we’d recommend taping the loose bungee cords to the top of the roof to keep them out of the way.

The springs are mounted in holes in the front and back walls of the trailer. The other end of the spring is inside a sleeve about five inches long mounted on the aluminum frame of the roof/ceiling.

To remove the springs, you just remove the sleeve and then pull the spring out of the hole. To remove the sleeve, which is attached with rivets, just drill out the rivets.

Pulling the springs out of their holes takes only a minute or two of tugging with some enthusiasm.

Getting the replacement springs in the hole takes a bit more time and finesse. We found a rubber mallet helpful. Before you remove the old ones, take a careful look at how they are seated so you can put the replacements in the same place.

Once the spring is in position, you can slip the sleeve back into place and use rivets to secure it just the way you found it. We fastened these rivets with this rivet gun.

With the springs installed, you now need to reattach the bungee cords. The key is to create some slack at the end of the cords so you have maximum flexibility and ease. I used a clamp like this one.

With the end of the bungee hanging slack, you can now easily use the same screws and caps to reattach the bungee cords in the same place they were originally attached. Be sure to squire plenty of caulk under the caps before tightening the screws. Don’t over-tighten! Then be sure to add more caulk over the screws and around the cap to ensure a good seal.

That’s it. It really is about as easy as that sounds. Below is the video we found from Rick at Going Nowhere Fast that is helpful. I’d only note that you can save some steps he needed simply by getting the right rivets. Again, these worked.

If you have tips or questions, please leave them in the comments. We love hearing from you.

Shopping for gifts for RVers can be challenging. We’ve created an eclectic list of things that weight and power-conscious RVers—in other words, most RVers—will use and appreciate.

Everything we’re adding to the list we own and use and recommend based on our experience. A few links we’ll provide are to items like ours but not the same make and model.

By the way, we’re saving the best for last! Check out number 11.

We know you’re—that is, Santa is—busy, so we’ll get right to it.

* Katchy Indoor Insect Trap. This currently $35 item is nearly silent and uses low power. It attracts bugs with dim light, sucks them in with a fan and then traps them on sticky paper. It can operate off USB power; you could power it with your USB backup battery, even in a tent! We love that it works so well and draws so little energy out of our solar-powered battery.

* Kindle Fire. Devin’s been using his 7-inch Kindle Fire for nearly a decade. He loves having it on camping trips. Lightweight and drawing little power, he can use it for hours to read, surf the web, check Twitter, watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and so much more. The new 8-inch model has an HD screen, more storage and a faster processor, all for just $55 (at the moment).

* Small USB Desk Fan. This little guy is mostly about saving energy by avoiding the use of the air conditioner. There are times when it is just too hot to rely on a fan alone, but when temps are in the upper 70s at night, a little breeze can be just enough relief to save power and the noise of the air conditioner. You may want one of these $15 items for everyone in the RV to have their own!

* Electric Blanket. Based in Florida, we’re not doing any cold-weather camping. On cool evenings, we use electric blankets to stay warm rather than using a space heater. Blankets use much less power than a furnace of any sort and, in mild weather, can keep you comfy-cozy while sleeping. When you’re in the rig when it’s cold in the daytime, using it as a lap blanket can make the chill tolerable.

* Collapsible Storage Bins. We bought these bins because they fit perfectly into some of the cupboards in our trailer. We love them because they collapse into a tiny fraction of their volume for storing them when we’re not using them.

* National Park Annual Pass. We’re glad we qualify for the senior lifetime pass. For years before we did, we bought annual passes. They make great gifts. (The NPS doesn’t allow gifting for the senior pass.)

* 50 States, 5,000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do. This isn’t just a great reference book for planning trips but is readable, cover to cover! We’re excited to use it for planning our 2023 trips.

* VacLife Handheld Vacuum. We bought this to help us clean up the RV after working on it. We’ve loved it for that purpose, but also for use in the car and even in some spots in the house we can’t reach with a conventional vacuum. It is excellent for quick cleanups anywhere!

* Ozark-Trail Folding Wagon. You see folding wagons everywhere. Once we got one, we figured out why. They are unbeatable for hauling stuff. You'll want one if you ever need to transport anything while camping! (We found a much better deal at Walmart.)

* GOOLOO Foldable 100W Solar Panel. You know, we’re all about the solar panels. We’ve got 500 Watts of solar on our tiny RV. We love it. This portable solar panel is a great introduction to solar for folks who don’t have any. It pairs well with item number 11.

* Portable Power Jump Starter. We received our unit as a gift. We use it all the time. We use it on every single RV trip. It has saved our bacon a few times! We won’t camp without it. We couldn’t find our unit online, but we did find this Dewalt unit with all the same features.

Those are our gift ideas for 2022. If you have gift ideas, please share them in the comments. Let’s help each other find great gifts!

The holidays are rich with meaning and significance for all of us. Giving the perfect gift is a great way to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.

You mean the world to us. We send our love. Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Blessed Kwanza! We wish you a wonderful New Year’s celebration and a prosperous 2023.

Hilde (81) and Jay (76) Meyer started camping in a tent 50 years ago but quickly migrated to an RV. Though they didn’t maintain a rig for all those years, last year, they acquired a new Sunseeker Class C motorhome by Forest River.

Their first trips allowed them to visit many of the lower 48 states, traveling from Florida through Texas to visit Utah’s five National Parks. Upon returning from that trip, they quickly tackled a trip to New England.

Since completing those incredible journies, they’ve stayed closer to home, but continue camping regularly.

Today, we’re excited to share their 16 RV pro tips for seniors:

Tips:

* Recognize your limitations. As we age, we need to acknowledge the limitations we face. For most seniors, this won’t prevent camping; it will require greater planning and preparation to enjoy the experience.

* Avoid dirt. By parking on cement pads in nicer RV parks or by placing a big mat outside your RV parked on a dirt or gravel surface, you can keep dirt out of the RV, reducing the time spent cleaning.

* Remember, camping is safe. Generally, people are on their best behavior in campgrounds. In well-chosen campgrounds, it is often safe to leave your gear outside unsupervised.

* Check out Recreation Plantation. Hilde and Jay have a favorite campground, Recreation Plantation, in Lady Lake, Florida. It is a 55+ RV resort offering day, week, month, and 6&6 contracts. The 6&6 contracts are for snowbirds who want to spend half the year in Florida and the other half somewhere else, presumably up north.

* Camp with people your age. In general, Hilde and Jay recommend finding 55+ campgrounds where all the guests are similarly situated. Many offer programming tuned to the interests of the silver-haired crowd.

* Use the towed car for storage. For those driving motor homes, you can use your towed car for storing gear, including outdoor gear that may never need to go inside the RV.

* Stay longer in each place and drive less. As we age, we need to adjust the balance between travel and rest, meaning we need to stay longer in each place we go. Unpack when you arrive, stay, and pack up. Jay jokes this is possible only after visiting Inspiration Point in Bryce Canyon National Park.

* Attach a screen to your RV canopy: Jay and Hilde found someone to make a custom screen for their RV to get protection from the sun. Other vendors sell wrap-around screens that create outdoor living spaces protected from bugs, like the one below.

* Get a griddle for outdoor cooking. A griddle can be a simpler way to cook outside than toting a large barbecue grill. They come in both gas and electric versions.

* Limit travel range. As we age, it is important to manage your travel in accordance with your health needs and related factors. Hilde and Jay now keep their travel within about 150 miles of home.

* Take your car with a tow dolly. If you tow a car, Jay and Hilde recommend using a tow dolly like the one displayed here. Most cars aren’t designed to be towed without one. It also has all the required lights, potentially simplifying the task of towing.

* Have someone guide you as you drive the car onto the tow dolly. To avoid a disaster, have a spouse or friend guide you as you drive the car onto the tow dolly.

* Get a trailer dolly for the tow dolly. Moving a 600-pound tow dolly around the garage or campsite can be tough the older we get. A trailer dolly like the one displayed below can help you move a trailer. We use one like this to easily move our 1,500-pound Aliner Scout around the garage.

* Develop a new sense of defensive driving. Driving an RV is different from driving a car. The weight, stopping distance, height, and turning radius are all different. Add to that, our slowing reflexes and the need to be extra cautious is clear. This highly-rated book offers a guide.

* Check your ability to do RV stairs. Motor home and travel trailer steps are often larger than the stairs in your home. Before you buy a rig, be sure you are comfortable with the steps. You may want to get a handrail or add a step on the ground for your rig to make access easier.

* Split duties in and out of the RV while cooking outdoors. To avoid repeated trips up and down the RV steps while grilling outside, one of you should stay inside the rig while the other cooks outside. This allows you to pass items up and down the stairs to one another without traipsing up and down every time.

Certainly, there is more to RV camping as seniors than this list, but if you’re human, you’ll find more of these ideas feel relevant the older you get. We’re grateful to Hilde and Jay for sharing their insights with us.

If you have additional tips for seniors, please be sure to add them in the comments!

We’re also grateful for all those who drive electric vehicles. Driving zero-emission vehicles contributes to better urban air quality. Given that we enjoy breathing and love so many others addicted to at as well, we appreciate those who drive EVs. Thank you!

We’re also grateful for innovators making exciting new electric vehicles and putting solar panels and other new tech on RVs. We are excited to get our new EVs over the next few years and can’t wait for January’s RV Supershow.

We’d love to hear from you! What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our friends Jay and Hilda Meyer live just down the street from us. As members of the Orthodox Jewish community, they keep kosher strictly, even when camping in their RV. They shared insights with us about following their faith and observing the Sabbath.

Keeping Kosher

Most gentiles are familiar with kosher basics like avoiding pork, but may not appreciate all that keeping kosher requires.

For instance, food and its containers must be keep meat and dairy strictly separate. Plates, pots and silverware is used only for meat (including anything with meat) or only for dairy (including anything with dairy). Food that contains neither, including eggs, grains, fruits and vegetables, is neutral or “pareve.”

Hilda labels every drawer and cupboard in the RV with a D, M or P. All of the items are dedicated to use with only corresponding food.

“I have to do a lot of planning,” Hilde says. “I have recipes about that deep [holding her hands to suggest a foot-tall stack] on a single page where I bring with me so that I can cook whatever we need.”

“I'm lucky that I have a two-well sink so that I can use one for dairy, one for meat,” she adds. The strict separation means that dairy and meat are never served at the same meal. She can clean up from a meal using only the correct side of the sink.

“I have three burners so I can make whatever I need to here,” she says of her stove. She has color-coded handles on the implements she uses to cook. “Blue is dairy, green is pareve and the red is meat.”

Hilde and Jay have two toaster ovens. One for cooking meat dishes and one for dairy. “We're now all the time carrying dairy and meat, so we just switch them out,” Jay says. “The cab-over serves as a storage area for the bigger appliances.”

Hilde keeps the kitchen linens separate. “I have separate wash cloths, dishcloths dish towels. So, I wash my items, whatever is dirty, dry them and put them away right away so that I don't have to worry about mixing anything up.”

“For people to keep a kosher home, this, I think, is not as difficult as it sounds to the uninitiated because they're already living the experience,” Jay says. “All they're doing is transferring to a much smaller venue and learning to adjust and go without when necessary.”

Keeping kosher begins with buying kosher food. “There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kosher products on almost every grocery shelf,” Jay says. “You don't know it, but we know it because they carry little symbols that we look for.”

“Kosher meat is very expensive,” Jay says. “They're not found in a lot of supermarkets that are situated in an area where they don't have a Jewish population because the meats are more expensive and people, if they're not Jewish, they would just walk by when they see the prices.”

“We take whatever we can for frozen foods and we work down that inventory,” Jay says. They stock up when they “get to an area where we think there might be a kosher section in a supermarket.”

Sabbath Observance

Observing an orthodox Shabot, Shabbos or Sabbath may seem complicated to other folks, but habits, priorities and patterns allow Hilde and Jay to take it in stride.

“There are electric restrictions, electricity restrictions,” Jay says. “The restrictions make people think that we live in the dark. We don't live in the dark. The restriction is that you cannot initiate electricity, you can't flip a switch.”

“Liquids create a problem on the Sabbath,” he says. :If they're cold, we have rules where you really can't take a cold liquid and put it into a hot crockpot because that can be construed as cooking.”

The secret is to start cooking before the Sabbath. “If you put it in before the Sabbath starts and you let it sit overnight, that's fine,” Jay says. “We do this all the time.”

That guides what they eat on the Sabbath. “I don't use milk-based soup or cream-based soup because 36 hours is too long for that to sit,” Hilde says. “A lot of soups I can put in the crock pot.”

“In the summer, I make a lot of salads like macaroni salad or something like that,” she adds.

“We have a bread called challah,” Hilde says. “I make that usually once a month and we use three rolls and I make rolls because a whole loaf of bread is too much for the two of us.”

They keep the Sabbath and the rest of their religious observance even on the road in their Sunseeker motor home. “There's a lot of sanctification to bread and to wine, all of which we take with us,” Jay says.

“A lot of these units, ours included, have two motion sensors, a motion sensor on the step by the door and a motion sensor on the floor in the bathroom,” he says. “At night, it would activate that. We can't do that on the Sabbath.”

Jay has a solution. “To alleviate that problem, I just cover it with tinfoil and masking tape. Then it doesn't go on.”

Another strategy for Sabbath observance is their strategy for hot water. “We have a big urn,” Jay says. You always have plenty of hot water. So and that goes from before sunset, Friday till after sunset Saturday.”

“At the conclusion of the Sabbath, we have the evening service. It's called Havdalah,” he says. “It's a ceremony that lasts two, three, four minutes where we light candle. We say prayer. We have wine. We say a prayer and we have spices. We say a prayer. They all have significance.”

“When we're done with that, the Sabbath is over,” he concludes.

Mezuzah

“Mezuzah is a Hebrew word, translated into English means door post,” Jay says. “So, it says in the Bible that you should put this on your door post of your home.”

“Some people think it's a good luck charm,” he says. “It isn't a sign intended to be good luck. It's a reminder that we have a Jewish home. It's a reminder that we have a creator higher than us and that this is not our house; it's his. And we need to behave and act accordingly in our lives. So we put that on the door.”

The mezuzah contains a small scroll of animal parchment on which scripture has been handwritten.

After planning some long trips, Jay found vital guidance. “If you're going to live in this [RV] for more than 30 days, you are required to have a mezuzah on the door.”

From the moment we installed the solar power system in our Aliner Scout camper, we experienced a problem we didn’t fully understand. On the sunniest days, the system would quit generating power!

The problem seemed to be in the charge controller. We purchased and installed the Victron Energy Smart Solar MPPT 100 volt, 20 amp charge controller. At 100 volts and 20 amps, the little $159 (as of this writing) has a theoretical capacity of 2 kW—quite a bit of power.

That limit is enough to power our air conditioner and refrigerator with power to spare. Recognizing we neither had room for that much solar on our trailer nor needed so much, we installed just 25 percent of that limit or 500 watts of solar. We naively assumed it would be adequate.

Watts = Volts x Amps

A friend, Barry Lindler, who has a solar setup on his RV, warned us that the little charge controller might not be up to the job. We quickly determined that we couldn’t run the panels in parallel because the amperage would exceed the 20 amp limit on the controller, but concluded that for the 12-volt system, we could easily run five panels under the 100-volt limit running them in series.

Connected in parallel, the amperage of the panels piles up, and the voltage remains consistent with one panel. Connected in series, the amperage remains consistent with one panel, and the voltage piles up. So five panels that produce 20 volts and 5 amps could be wired in parallel to produce 20 volts and 25 amps or in series to produce 100 volts and 5 amps—yielding 500 watts in either case.

We were wrong! A YouTube follower with the handle CreepyCharly explained the problem after viewing the solar unboxing video we recorded in May. (If only he’d watched it in May!)

The panels are designed to produce 17 volts (not 12) because charging the battery requires producing at least five more volts than the battery produces. The 17 volts represent a floor. The range tops 20 volts. So, with five panels on a sunny day, the voltage exceeds the 100-volt capacity of the charge controller.

So, as we said up top, on the sunniest days, our charge controller shut down, and the system produced no power. With CreepyCharly’s explanation, we now understand why.

We replaced the little charge controller with a bigger one, the Victron Energy BlueSolar MPPT 150 volt 35 amp one, for nearly twice the price of the smaller one. With 150 volts and 35 amps, the charge controller has a theoretical limit of 5.25 kW! Carefully configuring solar panels in series and parallel (grouping panels in series with the groups in parallel), I think you could come much closer to that limit than we did with our 500-watt (.5 kW) system.

When we say it’s bigger, we mean literally bigger. Although it is still a pretty small device, about six by eight by three inches, it is about four times the size of the little one. That meant we couldn’t put the new charge controller where the old one was.

We had to find a new spot and run longer wires inelegantly back across some of the other components of the system to connect to the solar input and the battery output. Our system wasn’t Instagram-worthy before, but we’ll definitely be keeping our baby out of public view now!

We got the new charge controller just before Hurricane Ian hit Florida. We worked late into the evening before the storm hit to get our trailer ready so we could have a source of emergency power if the power went out.

Luckily, we were unscathed by the storm and never lost power. Devin has spent two weekends volunteering to help with recovery efforts in Southwest Florida since. We’ll have more to share about that in coming weeks.

When you purchase a charge controller for your RV solar power system, you’ll want to shop carefully to ensure you’ve got all the capacity you need for the sunniest days. You don’t want that sunlight going to waste!

Last week, we reported that we’d completed a 1,000-mile trip up the Southeastern Seaboard towing our solar-powered Aliner Scout with our Chevy Bolt EV. This week, we will share the nine lessons we learned along the way.

Lesson #1: Don’t Drive Too Far in One Day

Our Chevy Bolt EV can go about 150 miles on a single charge towing our Aliner Scout, and leaving a bit of cushion allows us about 125 miles of practical range. Charging to about 80 percent for the second leg gives us a total one-charge range of about 220 miles. If we charge nearly to full again, we can reach close to 250 miles on a single stop to charge.

On the trip, we carelessly planned a 300-mile day. It was a challenge. Not only did we have to charge twice, both times required unhitching the trailer. Driving back roads, we averaged just 40 miles per hour when we were moving. The result was a ten-hour day that got us into our next campground at about 8:00 pm.

Lesson learned. Keep daily travel under 250 miles.

Lesson #2: Charge the Trailer Battery With Solar Before the Trip

To maximize the number of days we utilize solar power only in the trailer, it is essential to charge the battery by parking it in the sun to charge the battery before leaving.

We have a 2.4 kWh battery, enough to power the refrigerator and various other devices and lights for more than 24 hours. We can even run the A/C for a while. To get the full benefit of the battery, we need to start our trip with a full charge.

Lesson #3: EV Charging in RV Parks is Great Except When Prohibited

On this trip, we stayed in four campgrounds. In three, we charged our EV successfully each night. It is delightful to wake up to a fully charged vehicle right outside your camper door.

At the Savannah South KOA Holiday, managers told us immediately to unplug the EV. Well, they actually sent a teenage staffer to tell us. He said he was instructed to tell us that KOA national bans EV charging.

Gail and I will follow up with KOA to let you know what they say. We view it as our role, in part, to advocate for EV RVers to ensure that arbitrary rules like this are eliminated. We’ll follow up with KOA and report on what we learn.

Lesson #4: Choose Campground Sites Without Shade

For us, choosing campgrounds and sites within campgrounds without shade is essential. We loved our secluded campsite but didn’t get a watthour of solar power. Lesson learned!

Lesson #5: Put a Toddler Security Latch on the Fridge to Keep Raccoons Out

There are no raccoons in our trailer, but it sure looked like there were. On a couple of legs of our journey, we opened the trailer to find a mess that resembled raccoons rummaging through the trash.

What had happened was the food in the fridge popped the door open, escaped and made a mess.

We bought these baby-proofing refrigerator straps that seem to solve the problem. If you use something else, let us know in the comments.

Obviously, ours was a newbie mistake.

Lesson #6: Charging the EV Is Easy With a Small Trailer (Most of the Time)

More than half the time, we could pull up to an EV charger to charge without unhitching the trailer. When that works, we figure it saves about ten minutes. Those are happy times.

Unhitching isn’t the end of the world, but it is a bit of pain, and we love it when we don’t have to do it!

Lesson #7: These Backrest Pillows Instantly Convert Beds to Recliners

We bought backrest pillows like this one at Walmart for half the price of the one on Amazon.

The pillows effectively convert the beds to comfy places to work with a laptop or to watch Netflix on an iPad. That eliminates the need to set up the table in the morning and convert it back to a bed in the evening. Five minutes twice daily over a week saves us more than an hour!

Lesson #8: Organize

As relatively new RVers, we’re learning the need to organize everything for camping. Everything needs an assigned place and should be in it all the time. We’re acquiring tubs and bins that fit strategically in tight spots to maximize the stuff we hold in cupboards and under beds.

Keeping the trailer tidy gives it a roomier, more comfortable feel. While that isn’t a big deal on a two-day camping trip, it starts to matter on a week-long journey.

Lesson #9: Electric Blankets

The Aliner Scout is lightweight and all-electric. There is no furnace. To keep warm on cool nights, we bought electric blankets. They use much less electricity than an electric space heater would.

They do a great job of keeping us warm on cool nights; they won’t do the trick in genuinely cold weather. With our Aliner living in Florida, we plan to avoid the cold for now.

There you have our nine lessons learned on this trip. Some of these, we learned the hard way—we’re looking at you, raccoons. We hope you learn them the easy way! Please share your experiences with us!

Over an eight-day trip, we traveled through four states, leaving Florida, passing through Georgia and South Carolina, and finally visiting North Carolina. We traveled on five of the eight days, averaging about 200 miles per day. On the three other days, we enjoyed sightseeing.

Of the five travel days, two were short enough not to require us to charge the Bolt, making for relaxing days. On two other days, we traveled between 200 and 250 miles, requiring us to charge once or twice quickly. Those were long days that allowed us to get to our destination before dark without leaving early.

On the fifth travel day, we tackled a 300-mile trip, requiring two long charges. The route also had us on back roads averaging about 40 miles per hour. Sadly, both charges required unhitching, making for a long day. We didn’t get to our campground that evening until about 8:00 PM. We’ll have more to say about this next week.

First, on our travels, we visited Savannah, Georgia. What a beautiful town. Here’s a video report:

Next, we spent a night in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Sadly, we didn’t really get a chance to see or do anything.

The following day, we drove up to the mainland near North Carolina’s Outer Banks. We thoroughly enjoyed a drive through spectacular beauty on the National Outer Banks Scenic Byway. Then we visited the rather more-impressive-than-expected Fort Macon State Park.

On the return trip, we spent two nights and a busy sightseeing day in Charleston, South Carolina. In case you missed our video report last week, you can view it below.

After a delightful stay, we headed home. On our last travel day, we connected with a YouTube follower at the Electrify America chargers; it was great to put a face to the audience. We were a bit jealous of his new Kia EV6—it was charging six times faster than our Bolt!

On the trip, we spent seven nights. We were able to rely on our solar power five out of seven nights. We had a couple of nights when clouds, rain and other glitches combined to leave us powerless in the evening, requiring us to use shore power for two nights.

Next week, we’ll share some lessons we learned on the trip about towing with our EV and camping with solar power.

Our visit to Charleston, South Carolina, began with a visit to Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. To access the fort, we took the designated ferry, a 30-minute ride that provides a beautiful tour of the harbor.

The fort is now part of a National Monument operated by the National Park Service. The tour of the fort and the artificial island it sits on was fascinating.

We next stopped at St. Philip’s Church, Anglican. The congregation was formed in 1680; the church that now stands was built in 1838. It is so tall that it served as a lighthouse for the harbor.

French Huguenot Church served as our next stop. It is the heart of the Charleston French Quarter.

Across the street, the Dock Street Theatre built in 1736, is also historic. The theater was the first place an opera was performed in the United States.

The Pink House was built in 1712. Over the centuries, it was home to a tavern, a brothel, a law office, an art gallery and who knows what else. Today it is a private residence.

We also visited the Old Slave Mart Museum, which was built as a slave mart. It serves as a museum chronicling the history of slavery in Charleston. It is a must-see site in the historic district.

Charleston is a great city with historical significance that demands a visit. We found this walking tour a helpful guide. You could also use the Fodor’s guide.

Share your charleston stories in the comments or by replay. Services there are conducted in French.

During our one-day visit, we visited seven sights—and enjoyed them all.

* Chippewa Square. This little park is not famous for the native people it was named for; rather, this is the delightful place where Forrest Gump famously sat on a bench waiting for a bus chatting with those who happened to plunk down on the bench with him. The bench he sat on is a prop that has been moved to the Savannah History Museum.

* Savannah History Museum. If you’re a fan of Tom Hanks, the price of admission is likely justified just by seeing the movie prop. Sadly, it is protected, so folks don’t sit on it—the temptation is obvious. The museum does a passable job of highlighting the history of Europeans in Savannah, with some meaningful but, we’d argue, inadequate discussion of Africans and their descendants. The museum provides virtually nothing about the Native Americans who lived in the area before Europeans arrived.

* Forsyth Park. This 30-acre park is the largest in town and features a 19th-century fountain that, thanks to good maintenance and restoration, still works in the 21st. Ordered from a catalog, you can find similar fountains ordered from the same catalog in several cities.

* Congregation Mickve Israel Synagog. This synagog traces its roots back to 1733. Its significance was apparent in 1789, such that President George Washington wrote a letter saying, “May the same wonder-working Deity who long since delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in the promised land - whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation - still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.” Conde Nast named the synagog one of the 15 most beautiful in the world.

* City Market. This shopping mall dates back to the 1700s and is now a celebration of the city’s vibrant present, with trendy shops and restaurants.

* River Street. The waterfront area along River Street in downtown Savannah began a restoration process in the 1970s that helped revitalize the entire city. The street was home primarily to cotton exporters for centuries, including the 1800s when Savannah, leveraging the free labor of enslaved people, led the world in cotton exports. The last cotton exporter here closed in 1956.

* The Savannah Belles Ferry. This free ride is another great way to see the waterfront. The route features three stops, two on the south side of the Savannah River and one stop at the Convention Center on the north side. If you’re not attending a convention, there may not be much attracting you to the north side, but the view of the south side from the north justifies the trip. The light is best in the morning. The captain does not require anyone to disembark, so feel free to ride the 30-minute loop, hopping off where you boarded.

Savannah is a delightful place to visit. It is extraordinarily walkable in that the historic district is small enough for you to comfortably cover the distance, but the little parks and squares around town—featuring lots of benches—make for comfy resting points, making long walks pleasant.

If you don’t want to walk, there are all manner of tours to choose from in almost any imaginable vehicle, from busses to trollies, carriages and even a hearse. If you don’t find our notes helpful, you can get Fodor’s guide.

Let us know what you think in the comments or by reply to the newsletter in your inbox.

The tires you put on your EV are more critical than you may imagine. Tires are likely the most expensive routine maintenance cost for your electric vehicle. The tires will also impact the ride you get, safety, road noise and the efficiency of your car—and, therefore, its range.

We’ve identified six considerations to help you choose new tires for your EV. There isn’t a perfect tire for every car; what you prefer may differ from the tire we choose.

Here are the six considerations:

* Rolling Resistance: Tires can be designed in terms of tread and material to have different features, including, among them, lower rolling resistance, improving efficiency and, therefore, range. The data suggest that this can make a difference of about 1 percent, perhaps impacting your range by three to five miles.

* Road Noise: EVs are quiet. The primary noise you experience driving the car on the freeway is the sound the tires make on the road. The motor makes a fraction of the noise that an internal combustion engine makes. Manufacturers design some new tires to produce less noise in a variety of ways.

* Strength: EVs are heavy, weighing about 20 percent more than otherwise similar cars. You may want to consider strength and stability, given the weight of your car.

* All-Season Traction: depending on where you drive, you may want all-season traction. If you live in an area with a lot of snow, you may prefer to use snow tires in the winter. If you live in Florida like us, you may not need to worry about this.

* Weight of the Tire: When we replaced the tires on our Chevy Bolt EV, we chose tires with run-flat features because the Bolt doesn’t come standard with a spare tire. When we took our first road trip, we discovered the mileage and range were about ten percent worse! Thankfully, the vendor offered to swap the tires for free; we chose a set that recovered our range. The most significant difference was the weight of the tires.

* Order Online: One of the lessons we took from our tire purchase was that the tires available at a typical tire dealer are somewhat limited. Their expertise in selecting tires for EVs is limited. You may be better off researching tire options for your EV and then ordering them online. Your local tire shop can then mount them for you.

The famous CarTalk team recently published a list of popular EVs and good tires for them. The list includes three tires for a Chevy Bolt:

* Michelin CrossClimate2

* Bridgestone Turanza Quiettrack

* Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus

Of these, we think the Continental Extreme Contact is the best for our needs. We prioritize efficiency over road noise. The Continental is the lightest weight tire of the three. That said, it is not explicitly designed for low rolling resistance or low road noise. We’d give those up for weight to get what we hope would be peak efficiency. You might prioritize low road noise and therefore choose one of the other tires.

The Continental ExtremeContact is the cheapest of the three tires, but not especially cheap. Amazon sells a popular tire called the Milestar MS932 Sport All Season Radial Tire that fits the Bolt and weighs less than a pound per tire more than the Continental but, as of this moment, costs 45 percent less. If cost is a priority for you, this tire, with over 7,000 ratings averaging 4.6 out of five stars, could be worth considering.

Whatever you do, we encourage you to plan ahead, do your research and be strategic about the tires you put on your EV.

Share what you’ve learned about EV tires in the comments or by reply.

Hurricane Ian passed through Florida this week. We recorded this episode outside in the storm. Here in Jacksonville on Thursday, as we recorded this, the wind was blowing gusts up to 35 miles per hour with steady, light rain. Ian had been downgraded to a tropical storm and was centered about 60 miles southeast of us in the Atlantic Ocean.

While the impact of the storm on us was modest in the end, it was horrific for many. Fort Meyers on Florida’s southwest coast was devasted. The sheriff estimated fatalities could reach into the hundreds. We pray he’s wrong, but photos and videos make clear the damage was horrific.

Just 30 miles to the south of us, St. Augustine was flooded by the storm surge that arrived near high tide.

In that context, we want to explore how EVs fit into the overall hurricane picture.

Florida has more EVs than any state except California. EV owners are beginning to appreciate the advantages of EVs during hurricane season.

Of course, the first issue is evacuation. Range anxiety grows in an emergency. EVs have an advantage over VICEs (vehicles with internal combustion engines) in that they are “fueled up” at home. Most EV owners can and do charge at home. We shifted from a 90 percent to a 100 percent charging strategy early this week, so when the storm arrived, we had a full charge.

Most people with VICEs don’t keep their cars topped off like that, requiring a special trip to the gas station before a storm. If they forget and the power goes out in their community, they may end up with real range anxiety in their VICE. Will that quarter of a tank get them to a community with operating gas pumps?

Our EV, mediocre if extremely affordable, can go 250 miles on a full charge. We now appreciate that you don’t need to go that far to get out of the way of the storm. The worst damage comes in a swath about 50 miles wide. Typically, you only need to go 50 miles in the right direction to reach safety.

An EV offers another big advantage if the power goes out. The EV can power devices and even the home. The Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck is designed to power the house if the house is also properly equipped. The truck can power the house in a conservation mode for a week to ten days, keeping the fridge operating and hot water running. For those optimistic about power restoration, the truck can run everything, including the a/c, for two or three days.

All EVs have big enough batteries to run the house entirely for one to three days, but most aren’t designed for that. Increasingly, vehicles are equipped with outlets of various types to allow you to get that juice out if you need it.

For our Chevy Bolt EV, we have a device like this one that can power the small fridge in our camper, allowing us to keep our most important things, meds and Diet Coke, chilled until the power comes back on. It isn’t much, but it’s more than nothing! If we lose power, we’ll have to eat the ice cream fast!

Before the storm, we took time to ensure that our RV solar system was up to snuff. With power out, we’re prepared to keep our digital devices charged and our most valuable things cold indefinitely.

As the storm moves up the coast to the north it will bring storm surge, damaging wind and rain to the Carolinas, having regained hurricane status. From there, it will move inland, potentially impacting Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. Get your EVs charged up!

Our suggestion, simply put, is to charge more often for less time, cumulatively spending less time plugged in.

We recognize that, at first blush, this tip is a bit counter-intuitive. Hang with us to be sure you see how and when it may work for you.

The rate at which an EV battery charges slows as it fills. You can imagine electrons finding a spot in the battery operating like people finding seats in a theater.

When you walk into an empty theater, you instantly find a seat you like. By the time the theater is half full, you may discover aisle seats taken and have to wait for people clumped in the aisles to get to your seat. When the theater is nearly full, it may take a while to spot a seat, longer still to walk to it through crowded aisles and finally, you may have to scoot awkwardly past seated people in the row you choose to find a seat. It takes much longer as the theater fills.

We don’t understand the physics, but charging a battery seems to work similarly. Most EV batteries can only charge at their peak rate up to about half full, then charging begins to slow. By the time the battery is 80 percent full, the rate of charge typically drops by half—or more.

Even on the fastest chargers, our car won’t charge at a rate much faster than using our at-home charger plugged into a 120-volt outlet as its battery approaches 100 percent.

So, our strategy for a road trip is to charge frequently for less time at each stop. So, on a long day, we might charge three or four times when we could have charged just twice. In our Chevy Bolt, this makes for a faster trip.

The optimal strategy for you depends on several factors.

* How fast your car charges. If your car charges at a peak rate above 100 kW and there are charges on your route that support charging at that rate, you may be unable to save enough time to justify an extra stop.

* Whether your destination has a charger. If you need not only to charge to get to your destination but also around once you get there—say, at a National Park—you’ll need to be patient and keep charging.

* Your route. If there are few chargers on your way, their location will determine when and how long you charge. This problem is disappearing quickly as states and companies leverage funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to install chargers.

* Your meal plans. If it is time for a meal and you want to get out of the car and relax, you can charge while eating. This approach makes perfect sense; we encourage this thinking. Still, extended meal charging won’t be the fastest way to reach your destination.

* Don’t forget potty breaks. Devin likes to drink a Diet Coke virtually every leg of the journey, meaning he needs to make a pit stop every 60 to 90 minutes. The result is that we never stop just to charge. Despite a bias toward short, frequent sharing stops, we often stop between charging sessions.

Your intuition may suggest minimizing stops. That’s not bananas. Sometimes, that is the fastest way to get to your destination in an EV. But sometimes, more stops make for a quicker trip. Here’s the math.

If you need 40 kWh to finish your journey, you could get that in one or two stops. To get that much additional juice in our Bolt, we’d usually need about an hour of charging at a single stop. If we split that evenly between two stops, each one may be only about 20 minutes, for a total of 40 minutes of charging.

The difference is that two stops require 20 minutes less charging. If you have to stop anyway to use a restroom, you can save 20 minutes by stopping twice. If you wouldn’t have to stop the second time and stopping takes you 10 minutes getting on and off the freeway, you can still save 10 minutes by splitting the charging session in two.

Sometimes, this strategy will also save money. While Electrify America and other companies often bill you on a per kWh basis, in some places, regulations force them to bill by the minute. In those places, you save money by splitting your charge.

With our Bolt, we can add 20 kWh in about 20 minutes when the car is nearly empty. As it approaches 80 percent, charging takes twice as long. When paying on a per-minute basis, that means we’re paying twice as much per kWh.

To be clear, frequent, quick charging won’t always work to shorten the trip or save money. But sometimes it works!

Be careful to pair the strategy with caution. Be careful not to find yourself somewhere you can’t charge without any juice in the battery. When charging, you can typically check the status of the next charger you plan to use with an app. If it is out of service or in use, you may want to continue charging, so you have more options.

Please share your road trip tips in the comments. Together, we’ll find the best ways to enjoy EV road trips.

* The car is durable. Ours has 85,000 miles now and barely shows wear inside and not much out.

* Comfortable for long drives. We’ve driven the car tens of thousands of miles on the road. While it’s no luxury auto, it’s comfortable for long days in the saddle.

* Affordability. We bought ours used and got a fair deal, but Chevy is practically giving away the Bolt EVs now. You can get a new one for little more than we paid for a used one three years ago.

* Cargo capacity: We love how much we can haul inside the Bolt. It can hold five people (four comfortably) plus stuff. Not living where we get curbside recycling service, we routinely haul a carload of stuff to the dump two counties over.

* Android Auto. Access to Android Auto provides some benefits of fancier cars included in what you’re already paying for your phone. This includes navigation apps, books on tape, music and many others, including some that are free.

* Better looking than our 2012 Nissan Leaf. Gail and I disagree about whether our 2012 Nissan Leaf was the ugliest car we ever owned, but we agree it was a contender. We were thrilled to trade it in on our much cuter Bolt.

* The Bolt is fast. Of course, it’s not Corvette fast, but this little car is quick and fun to drive. When you need to get out of the way, you can.

* The trunk in our premium model. The trim we have includes a cover over the bottom of the behind-the-seat storage, providing a flat surface when the seats are down and hiding all the junk in the trunk.

* Mileage and efficiency. We get close to 5 miles per kWh (mpk) around town, about 4 mpk on the freeway and 2.6 when towing our trailer. The Department of Energy assigns the Bolt a 120 mpg-equivalent rating.

* Towing. While Chevy doesn’t recommend towing with the Bolt, and we’d encourage you to use great care in deciding whether to tow with yours, we love that it tows so capably.

The Chevy Bolt is a great car. It is a dream compared with our first EV, the 2012 Nissan Leaf. When we acquired the used Leaf, it had a functional range of just 50 miles. We bought it about 50 miles from home and never went 50 miles without charging again.

What do you love about your EV? Share in the comments.

If you’d like to tow something with an EV, you’ll be glad to know there are lots of options. We’ll feature just ten. Here’s a much longer list.

* Volkswagen ID.4 Pro: 2,200 pounds

That 2,200-pound capacity is more than enough to pull our little popup trailer and lots of others that are a bit roomier.

* Hyundai Ioniq 5: 3,500 pounds

There is a big jump in capacity here; there are lots of options between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds.

* Tesla Model Y: 3,500 pounds

The Model Y remains one of the more affordable Teslas but is much pricier than some of the cars on this list.

* Volvo C40 Recharge: 4,000 pounds

There are several options among EVs that can tow 4,000 pounds.

* Kia EV6 GT: 4,000 pounds

There are several trim levels for the EV6; note that only the GT trim has 4,000 pounds of towing capacity.

* Audi e-tron 50 quattro: 4,000 pounds

There are several Audi e-tron trim packages that offer this level of towing capacity—not just the 50 quattro.

* Tesla Model X: 5,000 pounds

For several years, the Model X had the most towing capacity among all EVs. That is no longer the case.

* BMW iX: 5,500 pounds

This BMW EV sport utility vehicle has an impressive towing capacity.

* Ford F-150 Lightning: 10,000 pounds

There are a couple of trim levels; be sure to check the details as not all are capable of towing 10,000 pounds. The base model tows just 7,000.

* Rivian R1T: 11,000 pounds

Based on what we can find, no EV you can buy today can tow more than the Rivian R1T. We’ve got one ordered but don’t anticipate receiving our “Max pack” version until about Christmas of 2023.

In the comments, tell us about what you hope to tow with an EV!

You definitely want to avoid the recent problem we had with our Chevy Bolt EV.

After returning from a business trip to Puerto Rico, Devin hopped off the airport shuttle bus on a hot, humid night, reflecting on the story our hair stylist shared of her sister’s EV dying in the airport parking lot because she left the dome light on.

Devin was relieved when the car started right up as usual. Leaving the airport, Devin spotted a Circle K. Craving a soda for the 40-minute drive home, he stopped. When he exited the vehicle, it shut down and locked up in an unusual way.

Before panicking, he went inside for a soda. Returning, he discovered the car was completely dead. The main battery had been more than 75 percent full. The problem was the 12-volt battery that the car uses to run everything except the motors. That little battery is required even to “start” the car.

Devin called Gail for help. She requested an Uber, dressed and grabbed a portable battery designed to help start a car with a dead battery. Some dear friends gave us the device that we use all the time. It has an air compressor for filling tires and cables to start a car, like this one.

While he waited, Devin requested help from AAA. None ever came.

Gail arrived within an hour. Within a minute, we began charging the 12-volt battery with the one Gail brought. We charged for five minutes and then tried to start the car. We repeated this a few times. No luck.

Then, we tried charging for ten minutes. Repeatedly. No luck.

Finally, we charged for 30 minutes. The car started!

Here’s the weird thing. Apparently, the juice won’t flow from the big battery to the little one until the car is in motion (or perhaps only in gear). We couldn’t put the car in gear with the external battery attached and the hood up. The car’s safety systems won’t allow it.

So, we disconnected the external battery, and the car died immediately. We repeated the process with no better luck.

At this point, we’ve noted that so near the airport, we are almost surrounded by hotels. It was 1:00 AM, so we begged Circle K not to tow the car overnight and proceeded to find a hotel. The nearest one refused us, saying they don’t rent rooms to locals.

Better luck at the second hotel, we crashed into bed.

With a full day planned for the next day, we got up early to get to work solving the problem. As auto parts stores opened, we called to find a battery. At the third one, we got a yes.

Devin hopped in an Uber to pick up the battery. Then he jumped in another to get back to the Circle K to install it. He did so using only a crescent wrench that happened to be in the car. YouTube was a big help.

Oddly, the battery was a bit larger than the one it replaced, so he couldn’t reattach the anchoring metal strap.

The auto parts store had promised a small rebate for returning the dead battery, so we headed over to drop it off. While there, we commented on the poor fit. The fellow who sold us the battery assured us it was the correct battery for a Chevy Volt.

We pointed out that we drive a Chevy Bolt. He had no batteries for the Bolt in stock but promised to get one by that afternoon. After our full day, we circled back to get the correct battery. We were grateful that they treated us well and gave us the Bolt battery at the Volt battery price (a difference of $6) and swapped the battery out for us.

Amazon will help you find the right battery for your car. Here’s the one it suggests for the Bolt. The one we bought from the local parts store was much more expensive but had a five-year warranty rather than a three-year one.

In total, we spent more than $200 in costs related to the problem on top of the cost of the battery. We also spent close to 16 person-hours dealing with it. It was a pain.

It could have been an absolute disaster. If the battery had died in a more remote place, in bad weather or a dangerous neighborhood, we could have been in real trouble. You don’t want to have this problem.

The key to avoiding this problem is to replace your battery before it dies. There are two ways to estimate when that will be: an easy way and a harder way.

The more complicated way isn’t challenging. After a drive of at least 20 minutes that should leave the battery fully charged, use a voltmeter to test the voltage. Wait an hour and try it again. If the voltage declines, the battery is struggling to hold a charge and may need to be replaced.

The easier way is just to Google the estimated battery life in your car. The Bolt’s OEM battery life is about four years. Ours lasted 5.7 years. If your vehicle hasn’t had a battery replaced already, check inside the driver’s door frame to see when the car was built. If your battery is at or past its expected life, replace it. If its expected death is in the future, put it in your calendar and when that date arrives, replace the battery without hesitation.

Note: swapping out the battery isn’t tough with the right tools, a good socket wrench set, including a long extension.

You may be replacing a battery that could last another year or more, but the pain you avoid is well worth that cost!

We recently completed our longest-distance camping trip, towing our Aliner Scout with our Chevy Bolt EV: 420 miles.

Last week, we reported on what we saw in Plains, Georgia. We had a ball. If you missed it, check it out.

This week, we want to share seven lessons we observed on this longest-to-date journey.

Lesson 1: Sometimes, you don’t have to unhitch to charge.

It is annoying to unhitch the trailer to charge. There is no way to access the connection at some chargers without disconnecting the trailer. We could charge both times on our trip in different places without unhitching the trailer!

Lesson 2: Target One Charge Per Day When Towing

Charging with a trailer is a bit more complicated than without, so target just one charge per day in your planning. We were able to go about 135 miles on a full charge. A 70 percent charge then provided us with the range to go another 75 miles each travel day, giving us a total of 210 miles per day with one charge en route.

Lesson 3: The Trailer’s Solar Panels Are Holding Up Well

We’re thrilled to see that the solar panels we installed (similar to these) on the trailer appear completely unphased by freeway winds and rains. You can see our solar installation here.

Lesson 4: We Charged the Bolt EV Easily Overnight in the RV Park

We were pleased to be able to charge the car overnight using the power at our spot at Albany RV Resort. The connection had 15 and 30-amp 120-volt connections plus the 50-amp 240-volt connection we used to charge the car. With that 50 amp connection, we can charge our car from empty in about 10 hours.

Lesson 5: Pro Tip—Be Sure to Plan Ahead

We’ve learned that not all campground connections include both a 50 amp and 30 amp plug. You want both, one for the RV and one for the EV. Be sure to check and specify when making your plans and reservations.

Lesson 6: Mileage Not As Good As Hoped

On this trip, we averaged 2.6 miles per kWh. We had hoped to get 2.8 miles. On our 2,000-mile trip to Houston and Back in June—without the trailer—we averaged about 4 miles per kWh. Averaging 2.6 mpk on this trip suggests we lost about 35 percent of our mileage and range with the trailer in tow. Not bad, but we confess we’d hoped to do better.

Lesson 7: Cost per Mile Was $0.06

We feel great about our cost per mile on this trip. Including only the energy cost, we paid a total of $23.26, yielding a cost per mile of $0.06 over the 420 miles. We carefully included an estimate of the cost to recharge the mostly-drained battery when we returned. We didn’t assign any part of the cost of our RV spot to power.

We also learned on this trip that we have a lot to learn about using our solar system effectively. We expected to arrive with a cold fridge and a full battery but instead arrived with a cold fridge and an empty battery, having enjoyed an overcast drive. Two days of often rainy weather left us without really using our solar. We have a lot to learn!

Next week, we’ll share a frustrating EV experience and give you the information you need to avoid it!

Plains, Georgia, is not that different from other small towns in rural America and yet is entirely unique. President Jimmy Carter was born there and plans to continue living there. He’ll reach the age of 98 on October 1st.

Elected President in 1976, he sealed the town’s place in history. His homes and haunts would become historic. In some ways, the town is a bit of a time capsule. If Carters had a connection to a place, the community has sought to preserve it.

Downtown Plains is a don’-miss part of your visit. A row of nine buildings comprises the heart of the community. The businesses include an antique shop, an inn, a peanut store (that sells locally famous peanut-flavored ice cream) and a political collectibles store claiming the most extensive inventory in the world.

Just across the street from downtown, you’ll find the train station where the former Governor of Georgia launched and ran his Presidential campaign. He chose the building because it was the only one available for rent in the tiny town in 1974 with a functioning restroom.

This famous peanut statue is just a few blocks out of town. RVers, note there is a little RV park at this spot, along with a convenience store. We camped in a beautiful RV park in nearby Albany, Georgia.

The Carters both attended Plains High School. Today, the National Park Service operates the building as a museum. The exhibits focus on the segregation that Georgia imposed strictly during the years the Carters attended. The Carters are champions of inclusion and always have been.

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the childhood home of Jimmy Carter. He lived here from age four until he entered the U.S. Naval Academy. Typical of the 1930s, the rural dwelling had no running water or electricity. The family kept a battery-powered radio in the living room.

A complete visit to Plains should include attending a service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Mr. Jimmy, as locals often call him, famously taught Sunday School for four decades following his Presidency. An avid woodworker, he made the cross that hangs at the front of the sanctuary and the collection plates.

Near Plains, we visited Albany and found the Ray Charles memorial downtown. The artist, born in 1930, lost all vision by age six. He had an extraordinary musical career before passing away in 2004. The plaza is part of a large, beautiful river-front park. It is well worth a stop.

We were surprised to find a little place to stand outside the Carters’ home with some signs and information. The home, difficult to see in the photo above, is a 3,200-square-foot ranch-style house built for them in 1961. They have lived there, except for time spent in public housing in Atlanta and Washington, ever since. Assigned a driver for security, the Carters converted the garage to a woodworking shop, representing the only significant change to the home. Talking with Zac Steele, who visited the Carters in their home on the day of our visit, we learned that it remains virtually unchanged inside.

As we visited the delightful town, we routinely felt that the community had preserved it much as it was when the President returned from Washington in a downpour locals attributed to heaven weeping.

Gail: Welcome to our solar electric trailer journey. Today we are so excited to have fellow YouTuber and EV owner Bill Bortzfield with us. I’m so excited to be talking to you and learning from you. But before we begin, Devin and I want to thank you so much for having us on your show.

Bill: Well, I’ll tell you, when I saw you guys with your Bolt and towing your Aliner and putting solar on it, you quickly intrigued me because I’m a big believer in EVs, just like you are. So I enjoyed the chance to get to meet both of you. And I want to say also welcome to Jacksonville, Florida, since you were both new residents of Jacksonville.

Gail: Thank you so much. I appreciate that so much. I’ll put a link to the episode in our newsletter for you to follow. Bill, we understand that you and your wife have three EVs. Tell us about those EVs.

[Note: we’ll add the link to Bill’s video as soon as he posts it. Check back!]

Bill: Yeah, we’ve got this Zero SR/F motorcycle made by a California company. They’ve been in business for more than a decade now. We also have a Ford Mustang Mach-e. My wife Susan drives a Mini Cooper SE EV.

Gail: Nice. I love those Mini Coopers. So how did you come about buying all EVs?

Bill: Well, it goes back to my time at the Florida Times-Union. I was doing automotive coverage. I got invited to Tesla’s supercharger opening back when Tesla still had a public relations department. They offered to let me take a Model S P85 out on the back roads of St. Johns County.

When I felt that torque, I was blown away. There was nothing like it I had ever experienced. I had driven Dodge Vipers and Porsches and Ford GTIs, but nothing prepared me for that Tesla. I couldn’t afford to run out and buy a Model S, but I could afford a Zero. It’s got a similar feel when it comes to torque and handling.

I believe that electric vehicles are The way we need to go in terms of the environment. I mean, climate change is the biggest threat we face right now. So, while electrics aren’t perfect, they are certainly a step in the right direction.

Gail: Yeah, that’s exactly how we feel, too. What year is the Zero?

Bill: It’s 2020. I got it back in 2019.

Gail: And what’s the model?

Bill: It’s called a Zero SR/F. Zero has quite a few different models. This is what I would describe as their current generation framework. Its sister models are called the SR/S, which is more of a sport touring motorcycle. You can get optional luggage, and it comes with a fairing and then it has another in the line called the SR, which is the base model.

Gail: Oh, I just love it. It’s just absolutely a gorgeous bike. How fast can it go?

Bill: Well, I don’t know from experience because I’m not about to go in excess of 100 miles per hour to find out. But I will say that no motorcyclist will be wanting for power on an SR/F. For motorcyclists who might be watching this, in terms of torque, I mean, you’re talking about Ducati, levels of torque.

You’ll get to 60 in approximately low to mid threes--somebody that knows what they’re doing. And it’s a very easy ride because, just like cars, electric motorcycles have no manual transmissions.

It’s direct belt drive. So, it’s just twist and go. You get that throttle right down low and just go.

Gail: What’s the fastest you’ll admit to having gone?

Bill: 70 miles per Hour.

Gail: Okay. I love it. Good answer. Good answer. So how far can you go on a full charge?

Bill: On a full charge? It’s really like electric cars. It depends on how you’re riding. I would say the most I’ve gone on this, I believe, was somewhere around 114 or 116 miles. That would be going down A1A, which as a new Floridian, you may not know, yet, but it’s a beautiful ride. It tends to be a stop-and-go, slower ride.

On the Interstates, if you were going with the speed of traffic, you might only see 75 miles to a charge. And the longest day I’ve driven is 371 miles.

Gail: Wow! Okay. Nice. And how long does it take to charge on a level two charger?

Bill: It depends on what option package you have. In my case, I have the mid-level charger, so to go from 10 to 80 percent would take me about an hour and a half. If you had the fastest version of level two charger, you could knock that down to an hour. So this one has a six-kilowatt charger on it, but they also sell a model with a 12-kilowatt optional charging package called a rapid charger.

Then they also have a software store where they’re going to sell upgrades this fall. I’ll be able to up the charging speed somewhere around 6.6 kilowatts. If you had the 12-kilowatt charger, you could go up to about 13.

Gail: Yeah, we have found that when we stop in charge, we also use that as a bathroom break or go in and get a meal or a drink or something so that our charging is no big deal.

Bill: What I do on a motorcycle is I find that a lot of towns and cities have level two charging stations in their urban cores. So, I usually plan my trips to take advantage of that. I lead a motorcycle group as well. One of the things that we like to do is ride to cities and towns. We’ll get a meal together.

I’ll take them to Fernandina Beach or Saint Augustine. We’ve gone up to Savannah, Saint Simon’s. No, not Saint Simon’s on this one. That was a different motorcycle, Jekyll Island, Georgia. Taking them over to Gainesville. Places like that.

I find that about the time we get at lunch, I usually get a recharge for the return trip.

Gail: What is the approximate cost per mile for the fuel on your bike?

Bill: Well, here in Jacksonville, as this is being recorded, the residential kilowatt rate is $0.12 a kilowatt. This holds a max of 14.4 kilowatts. So basically, a charge would cost me roughly $1.20 from empty to full. That would be good, as I say, for roughly 100 miles, depending on how I’m riding.

Gail: Oh, wow. What a good deal nowadays. That’s fantastic.

Bill: And you know, give you a quick example. I went down to South Florida, to Boca Raton and back on the Zero in the spring. And that didn’t cost me a penny because every beach town I visited happened to have free level two charging.

Gail: Nice. Wow, what a nice trip. That’s one you will always remember.

Bill: It was Fun. For your Viewers, if anyone is interested, there is an entire episode on that on my EV rider.

Gail: Good, good, good to know. Devin and I used to own a Harley Davidson; let me get this right, Sportster 1200. How does the Zero compare to that?

Bill: Actually, that’s a pretty good comparison in terms of weight, size, and displacement. I can’t tell you the weight of your old Sportster off the top of my head, but I can tell you this one is 498 pounds.

Gail: Many bikers—now, you know, Harleys are noisy—many bikers think that that noise keeps them safe on the road with other cars going around them. The Zero is quiet. How do you protect yourself from other cars?

Bill: Well, you know, first off, to me, as a motorcyclist, it’s all about defensive driving. You will not catch me on the road ever without a helmet, without long pants, without gloves. It’s all about what you were taught when you first got your license about being very defensive in your riding.

I always look for the whites of people’s eyes. I always look for escape routes. I try never to allow myself to be boxed in, in traffic where if somebody does something unexpected, I can’t maneuver around it. As a motorcyclist, you never count on the other person seeing you. You just can’t.

For those that believe that loud pipes save lives, well, you know, when you think how many people are on their phones, listening to their radios, have their windows up, have the air conditioning going and all the rest. Being defensive and riding safely with a full-face helmet and armor is a much better defense when riding a motorcycle.

Gail: Perfect protection. Absolutely.

Bill: Well, nothing’s perfect, but...

Gail: It’s better than... You have to be defensive when you ride a motorcycle. For sure. What are some of the best rides you’ve ever taken?

Bill: Well, boy, I would say back before my EV days, back when I lived in California, going from Palm Springs up to Big Bear down to San Diego and back up the Pacific Coast Highway would probably be what would rank at the top of my list.

Stunning beauty in a very different way is riding across the desert from Palm Springs, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here in Florida, I think A1A running along the Atlantic Ocean is just stunning in a different way than it is out in California. I’ve been very blessed to ride in some different environments throughout my lifetime. I’ve lived in multiple states since I’ve been a motorcyclist.

Gail: Tell us about your fabulous EV Rider channel on YouTube.

Bill: Well, I just started that less than a year ago. I decided the time was right to retire from my media career in journalism. I worked for several of the Jacksonville news outlets and Houston and California.

And I just decided I wanted to do something fun. What’s more fun than having an excuse to get on the motorcycle and jump in my cars! I’m a big automotive aficionado. Although I’m an EV proponent, I love all types of motorcycles and cars. So, for example, last week, I did an episode on a couple of people who had BMW i8s, which are plug-in Hybrids. I still go to classic car shows. I still love muscle cars from the seventies.

I’m excited about what’s coming down the pike with all the EVs. I’ve already been fortunate enough to drive a, you know, Ford F-150 Lightning and a Mach-e GT Performance. And this gives me an excuse to get out there and enjoy all the technology coming our way.

Gail: Yeah, and it’s coming fast, and it’s nice to get in on it. Please tell us how we find EV Rider on YouTube.

Bill: Yeah. So EV Rider, if you want to watch it on YouTube, you type in the EVRider channel. You can find me on the web at EVRider.TV. I’ll plug the website because occasionally, I’ll put things on the website that didn’t necessarily make it into the videos. For example, you might find some additional facts and figures about an automobile if I do a car review. Every once in a while, I’ll do a story without video on EVRider.TV.

Gail: Okay, now you know how to get a hold of Bill. That’s wonderful. It’s a great channel. I’ve watched it.

Bill: Well, thank you.

Gail: I love it. Thank you so much, Bill. It has been a joy to interview you and learn from you. I’m excited for the future of EV cars and motorcycles. I’m excited for all of that. Your channel, as I said, is spectacular. So, again, we want to thank you very much for being here with us today.

Bill: Well, thanks for taking time out of your day. And for your viewers, of course, we are doing a cross episode on the Bolt and the Aliner at EVRider.TV. I hope folks will check that out as well. And I look forward to continuing to watch your journeys, especially your camping journeys and your solar trailer.

Gail: Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We love our Chevy Bolt. Today, we believe it is the most affordable EV option with more than 200 miles of range. By current standards, however, the Bolt charges pretty slowly.

Recently, we took a 2,000-mile road trip in our Bolt and genuinely enjoyed it. Charging didn’t ruin our trip. We’re excited to share a list of eight 2022 cars that charge much faster!

Below, we’ll share a detailed table with the information we gathered about some EVs that charge faster than our Chevy Bolt.

We’ll rank the vehicles on our list from slowest to fastest charging.

Number 8: Polestar 2 Long Range 2WD 

The Polestar has a price tag of $48,400, putting it in the more affordable half of the list. It has an EPA-rated range of 270 miles. Our estimate is that you can add 5.7 miles per minute, about 60 percent faster than our Bolt.

It is important to remember that we’re talking about peak charging rates. All EVs slow the charging rate as the battery fills. Slowing begins as early as halfway and is significant above 80 percent.

Number 7: Tesla Model Y Long Range Dual Motor

All Teslas charge faster than our Bolt, but this one may be the fastest in terms of miles per minute because it is so efficient.

The Model Y has a price of about $66,000; it offers an impressive EPA-rated range of 330 miles. It is the only car on the list that is more energy efficient than our Bolt–though just barely–with an EPA-rated MPGe of 122. It charges at a peak rate of 6.2 miles per minute.

Wow! At that rate, you could add 125 miles of range in just 20 minutes!

Number 6: Rivian R1T

We’re excited about the next vehicle on the list because we’ve got one ordered! We pre-ordered the “max” pack battery and won’t get it until Christmas of 2023. That’s a Christmas present we’re excited to get!

The R1T base model comes with the biggest battery on the list–which is important because it is the least efficient, earning an MPGe rating of 70. Of course, it is unfair to compare a truck to a car. The battery holds 129 kWh giving the truck a range of 314 miles. Charging at a peak rate of 220 kW, you can add 7.6 miles per minute, more than twice the Bolt’s charging rate even though the Bolt is almost twice as efficient.

We can’t wait to get ours!

Number 5: Mercedes EQS 580

With a list price of almost $120,000, Number 5 is so pricey I don’t even dare dream about it! The EQS 580 is remarkably efficient.

For such a large, luxury vehicle, its MPGe of 95 is impressive. The big 108 kWh battery gives it a 340-mile range. Its peak charging rate is 8.2 miles per minute.

Remember, you can’t extrapolate far.  Most of these cars can’t maintain the peak rate past halfway full. Starting with a near-empty battery, most of these cars can maintain the peak rate for 10 to 15 minutes adding 100 to 150 miles of range!

Now, let’s talk about the most affordable car on today’s list.

Number 4: Hyundai Ioniq 5 Long Range 2WD

It is particularly impressive because we believe you can charge this car from 10 percent to 80 percent in under 30 minutes!

This car is remarkable. It is a popular car we frequently see at charging stations. With a 77.4 kWh battery, it gets a 114 MPGe rating and a 303-mile range rating from the EPA. That efficiency combines with a peak charging rate of about 175 kW to deliver an estimated 9.7 miles per minute! That’s approaching three times the rate of our Bolt!

Number 3: Audi e-tron GT quattro

The Number 3 car on the list is the Audi e-tron GT quattro with a price tag of $102,400. 

Like the Ioniq 5, it is a member of the 80 percent in under 30 minutes club!

This one is definitely out of our price range, but boy, can it charge quickly! It has an 83.7 kWh battery with a modest range of 238 miles–less than the Bolt! With an MPGe of 82, it is more efficient than only the Rivian and one other car on the list. It charges at an impressive 10.7 miles per minute, fully three times as fast as the Bolt.

Number 2: Porsche Taycan Plus

The Taycan doesn’t just charge quickly, it is fast, with a top speed of around 160 miles per hour. It has a price tag that begins at $82,700. Top-of-the-line models more than double that price!

The Porsche has a modest range of just 225 miles with its 84 kWh battery. Its 75 MPGe rating is better only than the Rivian’s–and just barely. We understand this Porsche can charge at its peak rate for only four minutes, but for that brief period, it can add 10.8 miles per minute.

Number 1: Kia EV6 Long Range 2WD

We love that the fastest charging car on the list is affordable! 

The EV6 is also a member of the 80% in under 30 minutes club. Kia and Hyundai are cousin companies and share some parts, but the Kia EV6 beats its cousin in charging speed. With a list price of $41,400, it is cheaper than every other car on the list except the Hyundai. It has a range of 274 miles and an MPGe rating of 106. With a peak charging rate of over 200 kW you can add 10.8 miles per minute. That ties the Porsche, but the Kia isn’t capped strictly at four minutes, so we give it the title of fastest charging EV on our list.

See the latest updates to our database here. We admit our list isn’t comprehensive. We’ve relied in large part on a ranking published by Electrek.co.

We hope this helps you get more comfortable that there  is–or soon will be–an EV that is right for you!

This is the third and final chapter in our series about installing solar on our RV. You can read chapter one here and chapter two here. See video one here and video two here.

A solar power system in an RV is mostly about stuff you can’t see from the outside. Once upon a time, we believed most of the cost and effort of running on solar power was the panels. We’ve learned a lot in the last year.

This week, we’re sharing the seldom revealed details about the many components that comprise an RV solar power system.

To build our system, we worked from and made some adjustments to a plan from Nate Yarborough at Explorist.Life.

After we brought the wires from the panels chained in series on the room through the roof, we ran them in conduit under the bench seat that converts to a bed through the cabinet that houses the refrigerator and sink to the cabinet where our existing fuse box lives.

The wires from the roof end in a miniature single breaker fuse box. Amazon sells the box and the breaker separately. The breaker serves as an on/off switch for the solar power, allowing us to turn off the juice to work on the system. Even under dim garage lighting, we found the panels generate a few drops of juice.

The wires then connect the breaker box to the Victron Energy charge controller. This device enables the power from the panels to charge the battery. There is an app you can install on your phone to see what the charge controller is doing.

The charge controller connects to the battery through the busbar. Amazon sells the busbars we used for the positive and negative wires separately. The busbars allow you to see more clearly what you’re connecting to the battery. The fancy Victron Energy positive busbar we bought has a gap for fuses. (We relied on Nate to pick the right ones.) The fuses protect the wiring from short circuits.

Between the positive busbar and the battery, we inserted a switch like this one that allows you to instantly disconnect the battery from the rest of the system while you work on it.

Similarly, between the negative busbar and the battery, we inserted a shunt that connects to a Renogy battery monitor (Amazon sells this as a kit). The monitor shows you the state of charge and whether juice is flowing into or out of the battery at any moment.

We also connected the busbars to the Victron Energy inverter/charge controller. Why do we need two charge controllers? It took us a while to figure that out. This inverter/charge controller does two key jobs:

* Converts DC power from the battery to AC power for the appliances that need it.

* Converts AC shore power to DC power that will charge the battery.

So, to be clear, you need one charge controller to convert the solar power into energy the battery can use and another one to convert AC shore power into energy the batter likes.

This bad boy was the most expensive component in the entire system. Alone, it cost much more than the solar panels we bought. A Renogy inverter/charge controller may be adequate at half the price. We discovered it well after purchasing our Victron Energy device and haven’t tested it.

We disconnected our existing shore power cable from the fuse box it supplied and instead connected it to the Victron Energy inverter. We used a new length of similar cable to connect the inverter to the fuse box.

The fuse box has an inverter that converts AC to DC power. In our little trailer, we only know of two overhead lights plus our turn signals that run on DC. It is silly to convert DC to AC back to DC, but we do that with only a tiny bit of juice and doing so made the installation simpler for us. Your situation could be vastly different.

It took more hours than we’d imagined possible for this work. Given our lack of prior experience with RV electrical systems, we had to do a lot of research. We didn’t even know the questions to ask. As a result, each step took time and patience.

If you already know whether 10 AWG wire carries more or less power than 8 AWG wire, you will likely have an easier time with this project than we did.

As we’re fond of saying, if we can do this, anyone can. Let us know if you have any questions we might be able to answer.

This is the second of three chapters in our series about installing solar on our RV. You can read chapter one here and chapter three here. See video one here and video three here.

Our work installing the solar panels on our Aliner Scout popup trailer continues. While we aren’t far from being experts, we’re sharing what we did step by step so you can see exactly what we did.

Before you consider copying us, be sure to find alternative examples so you can decide what’s best for your RV.

We decided to wire the solar panels in series. The basic alternative is to wire in parallel. In series, the panels connect one to the next. In parallel, all the negative wires connect in one feed to the system, and all the positive wires do the same. In either case, the wires run through the roof into the RV where they connect to a charge controller that converts the power to charge the battery.

After simply connecting the first four panels one to the next, we found the fifth too far from the fourth to connect. We needed to create an extension. Using a length of the 10 AWG (American Wire Gauge) wire, with a single MC4 connector for assembly.

We start by crimping the little metal connectors onto the wire using a crimper like this one. The black outer female part goes over the little male connector; the black outer male connector goes over the little metal female connector. We disassembled the MC4 connector ends and reassembled them over the little attached connectors.

With that extension cable, we quickly connected the fourth panel to the fifth.

Next, we cut a hole through the roof for the wires. The wires pass through an entry gland that allows for a tidy, water-tight seal over the hole. We slip each wire through all the gland’s components and then tighten them up to seal out the water.

We then attach the gland to the roof using outdoor two-sided tape; then, for good measure, we applied some roof seal tape around the edges.

We’re excited to go camping in our RV with the solar panels working. There’s still more work to do, but we’re getting closer!

Watch for future posts with the rest of our work to complete the solar panel installation.

We’ve been driving EVs for almost five years now. We don’t know everything, but we’re confident we have some lessons to share.

EV charging is the biggest worry for people who don’t own EVs. We understand that it is scary, but we want to put your mind at ease.

Charging is easy. Charging is cheap. Charging will get even easier over time as more charging infrastructure is installed.

To talk about EV charging, we have to talk a bit about electricity. When we talk about fuel and mileage, terms like gallons, miles per gallon, miles per hour and their abbreviations, mpg and mph, are second nature.

With EVs, there is a bit of new language to learn. A kilowatt hour or kWh of electricity is a good starting point. On your home electric bill, you probably get charged per kWh. The fee likely ranges from about ten cents to 30 cents, depending on where you live in the country.

A kWh is a measure of energy used, produced or stored. In contrast, when we talk about kilowatts—without the hour—we’re talking about a rate of flow. Think of it like the rate at which gasoline is filling your tank.

Our Chevy Bolt can hold 65 kWh. A top-of-the-line Tesla battery stores about 100 kWh. Our old Nissan Leaf battery was designed to keep about 24 but deteriorated to the point it would hold only about 14 kWh when we traded it in for the Bolt. 

Most EVs on the road now get between 3 and 4 miles per kWh. So, a Tesla Model X that gets about 3 miles per kWh with a 100 kWh battery has a range of 300 miles (100 x 3). Our little Bolt, with a 65 kWh battery that gets about 4 miles per kWh, has a range of approximately 260 miles (65 x 4).

Chargers are categorized into three tiers or levels. They are creatively called level 1, level 2 and level 3 chargers.

Let’s start with level 1 chargers. You’ll likely only use these at home.

Level 1 chargers run on the 110 power you use to run your vacuum or your toaster. That 110 refers to the number of volts of power. That outlet produces about 110 to 120 volts at up to 15 amps. To determine the kilowatt rate, multiply volts times amps and divide by 1000.

We think our car charges at 120 volts with 12 amps for 1,440 watts, which is about 1.4 kW (120 x 12 ÷ 1,000).

If you have a garage, you likely have a 110 outlet there that you can use. Your new EV will probably come with a charging cord designed to plug into your regular 110 outlets.

We can charge our 65 kWh battery in just over 46 hours at that 1.4 kW rate. This required no additional investment in our garage.

We generally keep our car plugged in at home to keep the vehicle close to or at 90 percent of a full charge. We only charge 100 percent for a road trip.

This is a cheap way to charge. Our residential rate here in Jacksonville is about 15 cents per kWh. Our former home in Utah was only about 10 cents.

So, if we drive 1,000 miles in a month and get all our juice at home, we’ll need about 250 kWh (remember, we get 4 miles of range per kWh on average, so 1,000 ÷ 4 = 250). That will cost us approximately $37.50 (250 x $0.15) per month–less than 4 cents per mile.

Now, let’s talk about level 2 chargers. These generally run on 220-volt power at about 30 amps, delivering about 7 kW. In our car, that adds about 28 miles per hour of charging. That’s helpful in a pinch, but not how you want to charge on a road trip.

Level 2 chargers are pretty common. Some office buildings have them for guests and employees; some retail locations have them, especially grocery stores and automobile dealers. Sometimes these chargers are available for free!

You can buy a level 2 charger to keep in your car. We have one. The trick is finding an open 220 outlet. One source we’ve found is RV parks. In an emergency, that could be your solution.

Many people with EVs have an electrician install a 220 outlet in the garage to allow faster charging. Almost any car can charge to 90 percent overnight. The new trucks with giant batteries will need more time to charge, even with a level 2 charger.

Level 3 chargers, sometimes called DC fast chargers, typically deliver at least 50 kW, but we’ve found a few at Harley Dealerships that provide just about half that. Our local Harley dealership doesn’t charge for charging!

The fastest chargers we’ve found will charge at a rate of up to 350 kW. That would theoretically charge a big 100 kWh Tesla battery in 17 minutes.

Few cars on the road today can accept a charge at a rate of 350 kW. Our Chevy Bolt is among the worst, topping out at under 60 kW.

Some of the best cars on the road will accept a charge at over 200 kW, meaning that the best cars on the fastest chargers can truly add 200 miles of range in under 20 minutes (200 miles ÷ 3.5 mpk = 57.1 kWh; 57.1 kWh ÷ 200 wk = .285 hours = 18 minutes).

Our Bolt needs an hour to add 200 miles in the best-case scenario. One of the reasons is that all EVs, even the best ones, slow the rate of charge as the battery fills. That is why owners and operators frequently talk about charging to the 80% level. Above that level, charging is slow. 

Our experience with charging on level 3 DC fast chargers is generally favorable. Using a variety of apps, you can find them on your way to just about anywhere.

The cost of DC fast charging varies. Most charging networks have a membership fee, so most of us belong to only one. When we charge outside the network, we can pay up to about 50 cents per kWh–but we rarely do so.

We’ve also paid as little as 14 cents per kWh while charging in-network on Electrify America in a place where the company bills per minute.

Many new EV owners worry about the hassles of charging. Because you can charge mostly at home, it is easier and more convenient than getting gas.

On the road, charging our Bolt is inconvenient compared to gassing up a Vehicle with an Internal Combustion Engine or VICE as we call them. We plan our meals for charging stops, and road trips are relaxing. 

Cars with 300 miles of range that can charge from 20% to 80% in about 20 minutes are now pretty standard. A 500-mile road trip in one of those would take only about 10 or 15 minutes longer than the same trip in a VICE and would cost less than half as much.

About 5 percent of cars sold this year will be electric. Will you be one of the buyers?

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However, there are two questions answered in this article that are not answered in the video. If you watch the video, be sure to skip down to the bottom of this article to read the bonus questions and answers.

Question 1: What is one-pedal driving?

One-pedal driving is a feature in most EVs that allows you to operate without using the brake pedal.

Question 2: How do you activate one pedal driving?

Cars have different ways of activating one-pedal mode. In both our 2012 Nissan Leaf and our 2017 Chevy Bolt EV, we found the one-pedal mode was labeled “L” on the gear selector. This non-intuitive label leads people to conclude this is low gear—the car only has one forward gear. Once you get over the label and really give it a try, you may love it as much as we do.

Question 3: How is one-pedal driving different with a trailer?

Just like towing with any other vehicle or with an EV in regular drive mode, you need greater distances to stop while towing. Plan ahead and use longer following distances in traffic.

Question 4: Should you practice one-pedal driving in a private place before trying it on public roads?

Nope. Well, if you want to try it first in an empty parking lot we shouldn’t discourage you, but it really is easy to get the hang of it. Go ahead and try it the next time you leave home.

Question 5: How long does it take to learn how to use one-pedal driving?

You can learn the basics of one-pedal driving on a single round trip to the grocery store. It takes a bit longer for it to become intuitive. Keep it up for a few days and you’ll likely never go back.

Question 6: How is the feel of stopping different with one-pedal driving?

When stopping with brakes, there is a bit of a jerk or rocking back sensation we’ve come to expect when the car finally stops. The harder the stop, the bigger the jerk. It is challenging to stop without the tiniest rock back.

In one pedal mode, the car eases to a stop with no jerk at all. That said, the car will end up several feet forward of where you’d likely have stopped with the brakes.

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Question 7: Is one-pedal driving safe?

Yes. Last year, Tesla decided to give its safest drivers the first crack at beta testing its full self-driving mode. One of the criteria for getting on the list was using one-pedal mode and never touching the brakes to stop.

Question 8: How does weather impact one-pedal driving?

Generally, we should all be more careful in bad weather. Rain, sleet, snow and ice make driving more dangerous no matter what we’re driving or how. Still, one-pedal driving is likely safer because stopping is done with more even friction by the motor than we apply with our feet on the brakes, reducing the risk of slipping and sliding.

Question 9: Do you use one-pedal driving while in reverse?

Nope. It only works in the forward gear.

Question 10: Does one pedal driving improve mileage and range?

Yes. But not as much as you might expect. When you use one-pedal mode all of the energy your car is capable of recovering stopping and going down hills is captured. When you use your brakes, the energy captured by the traditional brake pads is converted into waste heat and lost irrecoverably.

However, when you use your brake pedal the car first engages the motor to do the stopping until you firmly engage the brake and the car determines you want more stopping power than the motor can provide. Then the brake pads are engaged. Since most of the stopping is done by the motors, most of the benefit of regeneration is captured even when you drive the traditional way.

Question 11: Why do you like one-pedal driving?

Very quickly after adopting one-pedal driving, we felt like it was simply more natural. It is simply easier not to have to move your foot back and forth between the brake and the gas pedal. Add smoother stops and greater efficiency and we were hooked.

Bonus Questions and Answers

The following questions and answers are not addressed in the video.

Bonus 1: Can you use the brake when driving in one-pedal mode?

Yes! This is important to remember. Most EVs in one-pedal driving mode won’t stop fast enough in an emergency situation without using the brake.

Bonus 2: Do the brake lights come on if you slow without tapping the brake pedal?

Yes. The brake lights come on when you slow the car by easing up on the gas pedal—even before your foot is completely off the pedal.

Now that we’ve shared what we’ve learned about one-pedal driving mode, tell us about your experience. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Why?

We did it!

After six months of talking about it, we put solar panels (similar to these) on our trailer.

We made a 300-mile road trip mostly by freeways through hot sun and pouring rain. The panels came through without a hint of wear or loosening.

While we’re eager to share what we did, keep in mind that this is the first time we’ve put solar panels on anything, so be sure to check with an expert before you tackle a project like this.

We started with a mockup of the trailer’s roof on the garage floor. There, we put two-sided tape (Scotch Mount Extreme) across the back of the NewPowa solar panels, eight lengths on each.

Then, after cleaning the roof, we placed the panels on the top to mark the exact spot to which each would be attached.

To make room for Devin atop the trailer, we removed all but one of the panels and then began removing the backing from the tape and placing the panels back on the spots we’d marked for each one.

Then, we used some knock-off EternaBond RoofSeal tape (we’ve decided to switch to the real thing in the future) to tack down the leading edge of each panel. We want to prevent the wind from catching the edge of a panel while driving.

This week, we made a quick trip down to Cape Canaveral, hoping to see a launch (our visit missed a Falcon 9 by just four hours).

Over the next few weeks, we’ll share our work wiring the panels and setting up the rest of the system. If you haven’t subscribed to our newsletter, we encourage you to do so now so you don’t miss the following posts.

We love to hear from you. We read and respond to every comment. Subscribers can reply to the newsletter, too. We respond to every email.

Note that we have not received any compensation or free product from any vendors. We chose these products purely on the merits. Having done that independent research, we have used affiliate links to the products in the descriptions that allow us to earn small commissions if you make a purchase. The links do not result in an increased cost for you.

EA has the biggest network of charging stations by location in the country. We’ve done lots of road trips. Without EA, the trips would be impossible.

We learned this secret from one of the customer service agents, so we confess, it isn’t exactly classified information. Still, what we’re going to teach you contradicts the written instructions Electrify America provides. You read that right. A customer service rep told us how to avoid all kinds of hassle by ignoring the written instructions! And it works!

We’ve been charging on the network for years and have had consistent problems. This secret method has dramatically improved our success rate with charging.

Before we give you the charging step-by-step, you’ll want to download the app and install it on your phone.

Next, you’ll want to set up an account. If you’re going to charge twice or more on a road trip, we’d recommend signing up for the “Plus” account, which costs $4 per month and saves you that much on almost every full charge. The app makes it easy to cancel and restart if you don’t take frequent road trips and don’t need to charge with EA locally.

Get set up before you hit the road to avoid stress. Remember, charging on a road trip is typically stressful. When you pull in for a stop, the weather may be unpleasant–hot, cold, rainy or snowy. You may be tired and cranky. Worst of all, you may be anxious to use the restroom. That is not the best time to be figuring things out or dealing with problems.

Now, here’s the step-by-step for you to follow.

* Use the app to find a charging location and tap it.

* Touch the “Directions” button on the menu that pops up to engage your default navigation app.

* Upon arrival at the charger, pull right up to a charger, choosing carefully and parking your car appropriately based on where your vehicle’s charging port is located.

* Without getting out of the car (if possible) identify the two-digit number of the charger. Note: on the charger screen, you may see a message that says, “Plug in first.” Ignore that! That’s the secret!

* Before you even get out of the car, open the app. Pull up on the tab that appears at the bottom of the screen that says, among other things, “plug in first to charge.” Don’t plug in first to charge! Using the app, tap the charger number where you’re parked. If it is out of order or otherwise unavailable, you’ll be notified in the app. If it is ready for use, another screen will pop up with a swipe button at the bottom for starting the charge–don’t swipe it (yet).

* Now, it’s time to get out of the car and plug in. This is trickier than it sounds. The cable is liquid-cooled to allow for super-fast charging. It’s kinda heavy. When you insert the cable into the car’s charging port, lift it up and push it in. This is vitally important in cold weather!!! Devin sometimes uses his knee for this purpose so he has hands free to use the app on his phone.

* OK, swipe the swipe button that says swipe to charge. A screen that says “initiating charge” should pop up on the app. Over the next 30 seconds, the charge will begin. The first sign that the process is working is that your car should lock on to the charger with an audible click. Now, it’s OK to let go of the charging cable. The car should then recognize that the charge is initiating. The charger itself will also start making a whining sound like it is spooling up for something big. Within about 30 seconds, your car should signal that it is receiving juice.

* Now you can go find lunch and a restroom.

* While charging, you can and should check the app for status updates. When you open the app, you’ll see a blue charging status balloon at the top of the page. You can swipe among three different data sets or tap the balloon to bring up a screen with complete data. Occasionally, the charging will stop unexpectedly–this is an Electrify America glitch–so check regularly. EA threatens to bill for the idle time you remain connected even if the charge quits before your battery is fully charged.

* When you’ve got the charge you need, head back out to the car to disconnect. Push the button on the charging cable handle or press the stop charging button in the app. Within a few seconds, the car will release its lock on the cable so you can remove it (which may require you to push the button on the cable handle again). Then stow the cable on the charger.

* If you check the app now, you’ll see a Session Summary report. We never look at that because EA sends an email with the same data.

Now you know the secret to more successful charging on the Electrify America network.

This secret step-by-step has worked great for us over the past six months. We still have trouble occasionally, so it doesn’t guarantee success. EA may change its app and systems at any point. If you’re reading this in 2036, we’re pretty sure these instructions won’t work anymore! There’s no telling how long they will.

We’d love to hear about your experience charging with Electrify America. What are your tips for successful charging?

We logged every charge along the way and tallied the cost. (See lesson 13 below.)

* The price per kWh varied dramatically. We charged almost exclusively with Electrify America. In every case on this trip, the company billed us per minute. Because the rate of charging varies, the cost per kWh varies.

* The lowest price per kWh was $0.14—that’s less than what we pay at home!

* It is easy to find chargers for road trips. That’s a significant change from three years ago.

* We discovered a new-to-us app, A Better Route Planner. It is super helpful. People often call the app ABRP.

* New Orleans is lacking in charging infrastructure. We couldn’t find a public, high-speed charger anywhere in the city.

* Per-minute charging fees encourage you to quit charging when charging slows.

* As a result of number 6, it’s best to charge only enough to get to the next charger plus a cushion. This makes your trip both faster and cheaper.

* Electrify America is the key to driving an EV on a road trip. In the United States, it is the biggest network by location—even more places than Tesla.

* Electrify America features some glitches. When it works, it is a joy to use. The reliability is improving—we’ve been road tripping with Electrify America for years. Still, glitches can lead to frustrating delays. As a result, we spent two hours on the trip on a single charge.

* After driving 1958 miles, we were shocked at averaging 4 miles per kWh. We expected to be well below that level with almost entirely freeway miles with the a/c running.

* It was fun to meet EV drivers and see impressive new cars. At a charging station in Houston, we spotted a pair of identical white Porche Taycans charging. At another, we spotted a Rivian, and the owner invited Gail to sit in it. She loved it! We can’t wait to get ours.

* Speaking of glitches, our Chevy Bolt EV logs the kWh used and miles since the last full charge. The car stopped counting miles after 1,272.6, which made calculating our mileage a bit tricky.

* We spent just $116 to drive almost 2,000 miles. The average cost per kWh was just $0.25. We found a free level 2 (6 kW) charger in New Orleans at Whole Foods and picked up about 6 kWh in an hour of free charging. If we’d had to pay for that, it would have added about a buck to the cost of the trip. Driving an EV is joyfully cheap.

Data for Nerds

Here’s our mileage log:

This chart shows how much we traveled and charged for each leg of the journey. The Yellow columns reflect data from Electrify America (except at the Whole Foods in New Orleans, where we just made an estimate). The green columns reflect data from the car. The white columns are calculations.

While Devin could write an entire post about each number on the spreadsheet, we trust no one else is that nerdy. If you have questions, post them in the comments or reply to this if you’re reading it in your email.

The 2013 Aliner Scout features two beds. The larger of the two beds approaches queen size, and the other is nearly the size of a standard double bed. If you, your partner and the kids are small, you could sleep four in this little guy.

You can convert each bed into a little booth that would seat four people around a small table. It would work for chit-chat, drinks or cereal, but it wouldn’t work great for dinner involving more than a hot dog wrapped in a napkin. Still, with two such tables, you can definitely seat and feed everyone who can sleep in it.

The trailer comes standard with a little sink and a fridge. (The newer Aliner Scout Lite units don’t include the refrigerator.)

It doesn’t come with anything to cook food. We were thrilled that it didn’t come with any propane tanks or appliances. We’d have removed them anyway.

We are trying to decide what the most weight and energy-efficient device for cooking would be. At the moment, we’re thinking a skillet like this one might do the trick. It weighs under five pounds, much less than the smallest microwave, and we can cook burgers, brats or pancakes in it. What else do you need?

The Aliner Scout has three standard outlets, each with two plugs. When relying on solar and batteries, we’ll want to be stingy with the power, but iPads, phones and laptops—our primary needs—won’t draw much. One meal cooked on the skillet would likely use more energy than all our digital devices combined.

Finally, there is a lot of storage. We have to travel light, so the available storage far exceeds our needs. If we had a more capable tow vehicle, we’d love to put some outdoor seating under the seats inside, along with an awning or umbrella for shade.

We’ll have to wait to haul more gear for the days when we’re towing a larger trailer with our Rivian R1T, our Tesla Cybertruck or our Chevy Silverado EV.

This week, we touched a Rivian, and Gail even got to sit in it! We met the owner at a charging station in Louisiana. We think ours is at least 18 months out. (We hear that new buyers of Rivian trucks willing to take precisely the configuration presently being produced can take delivery in as little as six weeks!) We think we need the max pack battery for maximum range while towing, so we’re willing to wait—impatiently.

The Tesla is likely two or three years away—it isn’t even clear when production will begin. The Silverado should be available first, but we know it won’t tow as much as the others, so we may pass on it if we’re confident the Rivian will come soon enough.

In any case, we hope you enjoyed the grand tour.

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A good friend and neighbor, Jay Meyer, who has a fancy Class C motorhome, pointed out that we needed an external water filter. It hadn’t even occurred to us.

Of course, the water you connect to is generally safe in campgrounds, but there are some “buts” in this equation.

Typically, a camper will attach the gray water or sewer connections immediately before or after connecting the water. Hence, the last thing the hands touched before the water spout might have been contaminated. A water filter can provide meaningful protection.

Less dramatically, the water filter will clean up all the minerals in the water, which vary from place to place. You’ll experience more consistent tasting water as a result.

The good news is that a water filter isn’t expensive. As we write this post, the filter we bought is selling for less than $10 per filter in a two-pack.

The filters are easy to use. We connected it directly but temporarily to the water supply in the campground to flush it. The water poured out black as you’d expect when you rinse the charcoal from the filter.

Next, we detached the filter from the water supply and connected the hose. We made the mistake of connecting the adapter to the RV and then the filter to the adapter and then tried to connect the hose to the attached adapter. That order of operation isn’t optimal.

Instead, attach the adapter to the RV and then attach the water filter to the hose. Finally, connect the filter to the adapter.

If that is confusing, be sure to watch the video to see the mistake and why you want to use the recommended order of connection:

* Adapter to RV

* Hose to water supply

* Filter to hose

* Filter to Adapter

It is easy and doing it in the wrong order can be immediately corrected. No big deal.

We hope this is helpful. We wouldn’t know about this if Jay hadn’t shared it with us first!

Note that we have not received any compensation or free product from any vendors. We chose these products purely on the merits. Having done that independent research, we have used affiliate links to the products in the descriptions that allow us to earn small commissions if you make a purchase. The links do not result in an increased cost for you.

Gail won’t claim to be any handier.

So, replacing the air conditioner in our 2013 Aliner Scout popup trailer was intimidating.

We spent a lot of time on YouTube. We followed and watched a YouTube video by Rick, who also owns an Aliner popup trailer and calls his channel Going NoWhereFast. He’s replaced his a/c unit twice and made videos each time. Here’s the first. Here’s the second.

He’s clear that his method is not the standard or authorized approach—it’s just easier, and it works fine. It was certainly easy enough!

We have added a bonus step to make the installation a bit more secure. You’ll see that additional step at the end.

We tried to buy an identical air conditioner. We got pretty close. We ended up with a newer replacement model built by the same manufacturer, LG. The company designed the little 5,000 BTU a/c unit for a window in a small room in a residence, not an RV, but the old one apparently did the job for almost a decade!

Phase I: Remove the Old A/C

Step 1: Remove the upper cover mount

Above the a/c unit is a narrow slot that serves as the top mount for the unit’s cover. Ours is lost, so we’ll be ordering a custom new one. As it turns out, our new a/c unit is not the same size as the old one, so we’d need a new cover anyway. The mount could be in the way and is easy to remove and reattach.

Step 2: Clean off excess caulk

We trimmed away the old caulk using our handy 3-in-1 Caulking Tool.

Step 3: Use a putty knife to cut the a/c out of its frame, cutting through caulk and rivets

This is the essential step for removing the old unit. Cutting through the caulk is no challenge, of course. Four rivets hold the unit in the frame, two on each side. You’ll find one near each corner. You can cut the aluminum rivets easily with a putty knife; just tap the handle with a hammer.

Step 4: Remove screws inside the trailer connecting the a/c unit to the drip tray for condensation

On the bottom face of the a/c unit, there are three screws attaching the unit to the tray that collects and drains condensation. Remove those screws before you try to yank the unit out of the trailer. You’ll also want to unplug the unit inside the trailer.

Step 5: Lift the old a/c unit out of its frame in the trailer

Now you can take it out. Resist the temptation to yank it out.

Step 6: Optional: Remove the lower cover tie hooks

We removed the old, rusted hooks to replace them with new ones. You can probably skip this step if you’re happy with your hooks.

Phase II: Install the New A/C

Step 1: Bend the flanges perpendicular to the bottom of the a/c unit

On the bottom of the new unit, there are two flanges designed to help you mount it in a window. To adapt it to the trailer, you need to bend the flanges as flat as possible, perpendicular to the bottom of the unit. We used channel lock pliers for the job.

Step 2: Drill holes through the condensation tray sides into the aluminum frame

Position the tray where it belongs, tilting slightly to drain outside the trailer. To attach the tray to the trailer, drill small holes through the plastic directly into and through the aluminum frame.

Step 3: Rivet the tray into the a/c frame window

Using a pop rivet gun, insert a rivet into each of the holes you just drilled and pop it. I wish every step were this easy. We had to buy a rivet gun for this process. Here’s what we bought.

Step 4: Leading with the power cord, place the A/C unit into the frame

Being sure to insert the power cord ahead of the unit, place it into the trailer through the frame. Push it through until the flanges snugly rest against the aluminum frame. Don’t let it go without checking that it is holding in place. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to use some duct tape or something to hold the unit in place until it is secure.

Step 5: Drill holes in the flanges (do not drill into the aluminum frame)

Drill holes just large enough for your screws to slide through without catching on the threads. Don’t drill into the aluminum frame. Steps 5 and 6 are the essential steps of the installation. Be careful. Take it slow. Do it right the first time.

Step 6: Use self-tapping screws through the holes in the flanges to attach the A/C unit to the frame

We used screws with hexagonal-shaped heads and integrated washers. This screw allowed us to use a drill with a hex socket-wrench style bit to quickly install the screws through the holes in the flanges directly into the aluminum frame.

Step 7: Caulk around the three upper sides of the a/c unit along the edge of the frame

Caulk serves two purposes. First, it helps keep water out of your camper. Water entering through the a/c unit vents will find its way back out. Water that penetrates the seam may ruin your walls.

Second, the caulk helps to lock the unit in place.

Step 8: Reinstall the upper cover mount

Reinstall the upper cover mount by replacing the screws just like you found them. Adding a bit of caulk in each hole should protect the wall from moisture.

Step 9: Bonus Step! Use roof seal tape along the sides to hold the a/c unit in place

This is the step we added. This simplified installation approach relies on two screws near the center of balance at the bottom of the a/c unit to hold all the weight and keep the unit straight. The only additional support is the caulk.

Gail and I determined that we weren’t confident enough in Devin’s caulking skills to gamble for our rig. The four original rivets—two on each side—provided a much more stable mount than the two screws on the bottom.

We decided to run a strip of roof seal tape along each side to supplement Rick’s approach and lock the unit in place. Removing the tape will be messy, but we’re hoping that having it there will also reduce the number of times it fails.

Note that we have not received any compensation or free product from any vendors. We chose these products purely on the merits. Having done that independent research, we have used affiliate links to the products in the descriptions that allow us to earn small commissions if you make a purchase. The links do not result in an increased cost for you.

We’ve been driving electric vehicles since 2017. Road trips in an EV are easier than most people without EVs realize, but it isn’t easy to find an affordable hotel with an EV charger. When you do, there is often competition for it.

Camping is a whole different story. If there are RV hookups, you can likely get a full charge on your EV overnight. Traveling this way is so much simpler than tracking down the nearest charger and waiting 30 to 60 minutes for a fast charge.

Virtually all EVs come with a charger that will work in the RV park. A vandal destroyed our original charger during Devin’s Congressional campaign back in 2020, so we bought a replacement.

We bought a Duosida level 1+2 (120-240V, 16A, 25ft) portable charging station at that time. We’ve been using that as our at-home charger ever since. Although the charger is capable of using a 220 volt, 16 amp power source, we’ve never had one in our garage and didn’t find one in the RV park.

Using this charger, we can add about 1.4 kWh or about 6 miles of range in our Chevy Bolt EV per hour. Over a twelve-hour night, we can add about 16.8 kWh or 72 miles, about a quarter of the battery capacity in our car. When we return from a road trip with a nearly empty battery, it takes almost a week with our typical daily use to get the battery full again.

Of course, if we’re not immediately doing another road trip, there’s no problem. When we have back-to-back trips planned, we find a public fast charger.

On our last camping trip, we used this charger to top off the battery overnight. We were so close to home, about 24 miles, that we didn’t need to charge but decided to test the process in the field so we could share what we learned with you.

In the campground where we stayed, we had three power options. We had two 110-volt plugs, the sort you use at home for your vacuum or laptop. There were also two 220-volt plugs, one a 30-amp and the other a 50-amp version.

We had our Aliner Scout popup trailer plugged into the 30-amp plug, which worked out perfectly, leaving the 50-amp plug open.

Last year, we visited family in a remote part of California without a public charging station in town. The Airbnb vacation rental where we stayed had a 220 volt, 50-amp outlet in the garage, so we bought a corresponding charging station to use, allowing us to get a full charge every night. It was great.

The Duosida level 2 portable EV charger has a 50-amp style plug but draws only 32 amps at 220 volts, allowing for a charging rate of about 6.7 kW. We can charge our Chevy Bolt EV from empty to full in about 10 hours with this charger.

Even with our trailer connected, we had the option to use either charger. If you’ve got a big trailer you’re towing with your EV, and it uses the 50-amp port, you’ll want a charger that will work on the 30-amp port like this one.

Pro tip: we’ve learned by blowing a fuse that it is important to plug the charger into the power source before connecting it to the vehicle you want to charge.

At least for now, we’ve not heard of any campgrounds or RV parks charging extra for EVs. What you’re paying for your stay typically includes the cost of electricity, so getting a full charge for your EV is essentially free!

Note that we have not received any compensation or free product from any vendors. We chose these products purely on the merits. Having done that independent research, we have used affiliate links to the products in the descriptions that allow us to earn small commissions if you make a purchase. The links do not result in an increased cost for you.

This is the perfect example of the model for our newsletter, podcast and YouTube show. We make mistakes, learn from them and then share what we learn so you don’t have to make the same errors.

Camping in Florida, where there is plenty of water, is different than camping in Utah’s deserts or other places where it may be okay to drain your gray water on the ground. We really want to connect to the sewer hookup in the campground to avoid creating a puddle of toothpaste and dish soap near our rig.

The Aliner Scout we tow with our Chevy Bolt is super lightweight. It not only has no bathroom and so no black water system or tank, but it also has no tanks at all. We can connect water, but there is no holding tank for clean or gray water. This is great because it keeps the trailer light and towable.

For us, without tanks, we need to have the gray water connected to the sewer so we can have water in the trailer when we camp.

After we discovered our error, we asked around and quickly learned that this is an unusual configuration. Most RVs have small bathrooms and holding tanks of various sizes. It was hard to find anyone who could guide us. That also helped us conclude this was an important subject for us to cover.

There are three parts required to drain the gray water from the Aliner Scout directly into the campground RV sewer. A standard hose carries the water using two different adapters, one on each end.

At the trailer, the drain is 1.5 inches. We couldn’t find any hoses that size. We found the Valterra T01-0091VP Swivel Drain Connector, which allowed us to connect the hose to the trailer.

We purchased the Valterra Flushing Hose for RVs. Virtually any hose would work. The only reason we chose to buy this one is that it is gray. By getting a gray hose, we won’t confuse it with the blue one we use for clean water. The last thing we want to do is use this gray water hose to connect our clean water supply in the future.

The final piece was the most difficult to find. When you don’t know the name of the thing you want, it is hard to search successfully. With some help in an RV forum, we got some clues that helped us find this Camco Easy Slip Gray Water Drain Adapter. It connects to the standard RV sewer connector you probably already have.

Connecting those three parts is pretty simple. If you have questions, be sure to watch the video above, which should answer them. Feel free to post suggestions, comments and questions below or, if you’re reading this in your email, just reply.

Note that we have not received any compensation or free product from any vendors. We chose these products purely on the merits. Having done that independent research, we have used affiliate links to the products in the descriptions that allow us to earn small commissions if you make a purchase. The links do not result in an increased cost for you.

* Charge Controller

* Bus Bar

* Battery Monitor

* Inverter

* Battery

* Solar Panels

We’ll share some details and links for each of these items in this newsletter. We ordered everything from Amazon.

Note that we have not received any compensation from any of these vendors, nor will we earn anything if you purchase any of these products. We don’t necessarily recommend any of these products, but they are the ones we chose.

Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 100V 20 amp Charge Controller

We’ve already concluded that the charge controller we chose is underpowered for our system. While it can theoretically handle 2 KW of solar panels, that would only be true if the total voltage were precisely 100 and the total amperage were 20. Using this controller, we can install our 500-watt system of five panels in a series producing 60 volts (12 each) at 8.33 amps but not in parallel, which would produce 12 volts at 41.6 amps—more amps than the little unit can handle.

4 Post Power Distribution Block Bus Bar

The bus bar allows us to keep the wiring to the battery a bit more organized. In that regard, we can use all the help we can get!

Renogy 500A Battery Monitor

The battery monitor allows you to see how much charge you have in your battery, which is essential when relying entirely on the solar system for power.

Victron Energy MultiPlus 2000VA 12-Volt Pure Sine Wave Inverter

The inverter converts the direct current energy stored in the battery into alternating current, just like the power in your home, to run things that plug into the wall in the trailer. In our Aliner Scout, the air conditioner and refrigerator run on a/c power. The inverter also incorporates a charge controller that converts shore power or grid power into direct current to charge the battery. We hope never to do this, but want this capability in case of a storm or a long, hot night. The inverter weighs almost 30 pounds! That is a big dent in our towing capacity.

PIONERGY 12V 200Ah Plus Lithium Battery,Built-in 200A BMS

Made in China, this big lithium battery will hold about 2.4 kwh of energy—pretty good for one battery. We found some highly reputable domestic batteries at three times the price. We decided to gamble on replacing this three times rather than spring for the more expensive model. We’ll let you know if we have to replace this and how long it lasted. The battery can discharge energy at up to 2 kW, which matches the inverter’s capacity. We hope they are both big enough for everything we want to do.

The battery weighs about 47 pounds, but it will replace an old lead-acid battery that holds much less energy and weighs a similar amount.

As of this moment, the battery is delayed due to weather, according to FedEx. We haven’t seen it yet.

Newpowa 100W Semi-Flex Solar Panel 12 Volt Monocrystalline Lightweight Module

We purchased five of these 100-watt solar panels that weigh just four pounds each. Together they will produce 500 watts either as 12 volts at 41.6 amps or 60 volts at 8.33 amps. As mentioned above, given the constraints of our charge controller, we plan to install them in a series generating the 60 volts at 8.33 amps.

At just 4.2 pounds each, the panels together weigh just 21 pounds. We don’t anticipate much trouble resulting. Fingers crossed!

Future Updates

Over the next six or seven weeks, we’ll be installing all of these components on the trailer. We’ll share what we learn. If you have tips, insights or suggestions, please share!

Note that we have not received any compensation or free product from any vendors. We chose these products purely on the merits. Having done that independent research, we have used affiliate links to the products in the descriptions that allow us to earn small commissions if you make a purchase. The links do not result in an increased cost for you.

Managing Weight

Given our limited towing capacity—we’ve decided we’re safe to tow 1,600 pounds and our trailer weighs a bit over 1,400—we have to pack light.

Hanna Park Campground

We traveled just 24 miles to Hanna Park Campground, a Jacksonville City park on the Atlantic coast with spectacular beaches protected by beautiful dunes. To get there, we avoided freeways and had no problems. We averaged about 3.8 miles per kwh, only about 10 percent below our long-term mileage average of 4,1 mpk.

Challenges

We arrived and set up camp. We had a couple of challenges at this point. We connected the little RV to power without trouble. We didn’t have the right gear for connecting the gray water drain to the sewer hookup, however. We had a standard host for draining an RV’s black water tank but our rig doesn’t have a bathroom so no black water.

Our Aliner Scout has no tanks. No clean water. No gray water. No black water. That’s one of the reasons this trailer is right for us. We can’t add the weight that water would add.

Without connecting to the sewer, we couldn’t connect to water.

Thankfully, we were parked near a restroom so water and sewer issues were no problem.

We found the next challenge when we turned on the A/C to cool the trailer at the peak afternoon heat. Initially, the A/C unit made a few noises without blowing any air but quickly refused even that.

In the beautiful April weather, we opened the windows and survived without difficulty.

Working

Our long-term plan is to acquire a Rivian R1T electric pickup (or something similar) to tow a nice comfortable trailer. Because Devin isn’t retired, we need to have tools for working when we travel.

During this outing, we conducted an hour-long Zoom meeting and did a bunch of other work. We also watched some Netflix. All-in, we feel pretty good about developing the capacity to work effectively from the road.

Sleeping

Our little popup has two beds. Each is large enough to sleep two small people who don’t mind sharing, but we prefer to split up to have lots of room. Devin slept like a rock after having returned to Florida on the redeye after a quick trip to Utah. Gail struggled a bit more. We’re hoping fixing the A/C will remedy her sleeplessness.

Peaceful

Hanna Park has a large campground that hosts hundreds of people every night. It is also within the city limits (albeit in the largest city measured geographically in the country) so we weren’t sure what to expect about noise. It was delightfully quiet. At dawn, we were awoken by a bird who was joined by lots of friends as the sun rose.

Recycling

We are big recyclers. We’re recycling about 80 percent of our waste so we were thrilled to see recycling bins with the trash receptacles in the park.

Upcoming Reports

We’re making a second trip to Hanna Park to work out some of the kinks next week. We’ll have the report coming up. In addition, we’ll be reporting on the replacement of the A/C unit.

We’ve placed the order for our solar system. It is going to be challenging to install the panels, the battery, the inverter and the charge controller and all the miscellaneous stuff that connects it all.

In the coming weeks, we’ll report on our progress. We’ll share what we learn, including lessons from our mistakes in hopes you can learn from ours and avoid your own.

Keep in Touch

We love to hear from you. Please comment on this post or reply to this email to let us know what you’re up to.

The first challenge was to remove the old decals. We learned that they peel off easily if you apply some heat. We used Gail’s old blow dryer, the one she’s used for years each morning. It worked great on low.

Using a plastic putty knife to catch the edge while blowing heat on the sticker, we peeled off the 24 by 12-inch decal in about five minutes.

After removing the sticker, we had to clean off the residue. At Ace Hardware, we bought a bottle of De-Solv-It solvent. It worked great. We found it more effective to use the plastic putty knife to lightly scrape the residue off with the solvent. After all the visible adhesive was gone, we wiped the remaining solvent off with a microfiber cloth. Again, this took about five minutes.

Starting with a freshly wiped clean surface, we then applied the new decals we bought from YouCustomizeIt.com. We got the new logo from a Romanian designer on Fiverr for about $35, including a tip and fees.

YouCustomizeIt.com gave us the option to trim the background close to the logo. They delivered the sticker between a square front and back lining.

After choosing a place to mount the decal, we peeled off the backing and stuck it to the trailer. We found some bubbles under the decal. We tried removing them by moving them with our fingers and the putty knife. Nothing worked until we simply popped them like blisters with a sharp pin.

* Do you have any tips for applying decals that we should have used?

* What do you think of the new logo?

The MKing RV Lock we used was a perfect match for the lock on the RV. The lock we replaced showed some evidence of being a replacement, too.

For the video above, we recorded the entire process and edited it down to under ten minutes. It took an hour to do it three times.

The first time, my efforts worked great except for the quarter-inch gap on the exterior side of the lock.

The second time, I put the lock back on with a plastic piece that I had removed from the old lock, solving the gap problem, but failed in a different way. By installing the lock with the latch open, it refused to work.

So, one final time, I removed the lock and reinstalled it, taking care to avoid both of my prior mistakes.

I hope you’ll find my failures either entertaining or helpful for avoiding mistakes of your own.

Thanks, Beaver Chevrolet

The folks at Beaver Chevrolet in Jacksonville did a great job with the recall replacement. Chris, who heads the service department, took personal responsibility for us. The dealership provided us with a loaner vehicle with an internal combustion engine. It felt weird to drive that, especially when it came time to buy gas at what we think of as the soda pop store.

The Replacement Battery

The new battery holds 65 kwh, five more than the old one that GM recalled. Because the old battery was five years old, it only held about 56 to 58 kwh, so the upgrade gives us up to nine kwh more than we’ve had. At 4 miles per kwh, that’s an increase in range of up to 36 miles.

The Test Drive

Last Sunday, while listening to our church’s annual General Conference, we took a long Sunday drive up to Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. This barrier island is a great tourist destination. Our total drive took us 208 miles over six hours. We had so much range left, we never had to worry about charging.

We arrived home with 94 miles of remaining range, suggesting a total capacity of 302 miles under these optimal conditions. We took back roads and so didn’t ever drive freeway speeds. The weather was perfect, warm enough to keep the battery happy but not requiring us to run the A/C about half the time.

We averaged 4.9 miles per kwh, well above our long-term average of 4.1. While we attribute that to the particulars of the drive, we’re tempted to hope the battery will magically improve our mileage. Is that possible?

Towing With the New Battery

So what does that mean for towing? Our experience has been that we lose about one-third of our range when pulling our trailer. So, we’d expect our towing range to be about 200 rather than 300 miles for the route we drove.

Put another way, we think we can comfortably plan to drive 150 miles to our destination with the trailer without charging once. With a single stop for charging, we could go 250 miles, giving us a delightful travel range.

The Jekyll Island Campground

Of course, we checked out the campground on Jekyll Island while we were there. It was not super impressive as there was relatively little privacy; there were no barriers, natural or otherwise, between campsites. There were lots of tall trees, which made the area delightfully shaded.

Delightful unless your trailer has solar panels. We’re inclined to return to stay at Jekyll Island for a day or two and will report. We’ll let you know how much energy we generate with that dappled sunlight under the trees if we have our solar panels.

The Rivian Mess That Has Us Even More Excited

As you likely recall, we have pre-ordered a Rivian R1T. When we ordered it last fall, we hoped to get it this summer. Now, we’re not expecting it until early 2024!

On March 1st, Rivian announced a significant price increase. For our truck, it represented about a 20 percent price increase. We honestly weren’t sure we could afford the new price.

Lots of people felt the same. Many people canceled their orders!

Rivian quickly repented and announced we who had pre-ordered before March 1st, 2022, could keep our pre-order pricing.

As a result, we feel a bit like we’re getting a 20 percent discount on a major purchase and are more excited than ever!

We’re eager to keep updating you on our progress, so we invite you to subscribe.

We’ll report on our trip much as it happened, by day, recapping highlights of the wildlife we observed and what we learned.

Day 1 took us into Everglades National Park from the Homestead entrance, about 40 miles south of Miami. The Everglades are a collection of different micro-ecosystems thriving in and near a slow-moving river that occupied much of south Florida. After decades of water-stealing development, the Everglades survive just barely today because of a remarkable collaboration of local, state and federal efforts to invest in restoring and protecting what remains.

Everglades National Park is huge, the 3rd largest in the lower 48 after Death Valley and Yellowstone.

One of the most common sightings for us during the visit was Great Egrets. Their stark white color allows them to stand out.

We saw lots of American Alligators. 

This was the first time either of us had seen alligators in the wild.

There are more than 1 million alligators in Florida–many of them live in the Everglades.

We saw lots of birds called Anhinga. The females, as is often the case, have less attractive plumage, allowing them to care for a nest without attracting as much attention. They are beautiful birds that catch their prey, mostly fish, by spearing them on their bills. Lacking the oils that ducks and some other waterfowl have, they have to perch in a tree in the sun after every dive to dry their wings.

There are lots of turtles living in the Everglades, including many species.

We think we saw lots of the Florida Redbelly Turtles on our first day, eating the yellow flowers growing among the lily pads.

As we see lots of lizards in Jacksonville, it was no surprise to see a few in the Everglades. It did seem that there were fewer, suggesting that a natural predator may be missing from the ecosystem up north.

Another bird we saw that we’d never heard of or seen before was the purple gallinule, considered by many to be the most beautiful bird in the Everglades. It is small and lightweight—even for birds—and walks on the lily pads.

Then, we watched the sunset in nearby Key Largo.

On the second day of our trip, we visited the Flamingo visitors center and did a boat tour among the American crocodiles. 

Unlike alligators, crocodiles are a threatened species with only about 2,000 living in Florida. That is up, though not dramatically, from 50 years ago. 

Crocodiles prefer saltwater and brackish water for their habitat, unlike the alligators, which can’t live for extended periods of time out of freshwater environments. The crocs, however, can live indefinitely in fresh water and a few do.

Near the visitor center, a large male croc dominates the local ecosystem. He kills competing males that come into the neighborhood. We saw one fresh carcass a vulture was snacking on.

We also took time to do a short walk around a small, saltwater lake called Eco Pond. There, we saw a white pelican that seemed to have the lake to itself.

On our third day in South Florida, we spent the day in Miami, experiencing a different sort of wildlife. We visited the little Havana neighborhood and ate lunch there. 

In the afternoon, we kayaked around some homes worth tens of millions of dollars, many with boats worth over a million dollars parked at their private docks. It is as close as we’ll ever come to that sort of wealth.

Day four took us to the northern end of the park and featured an exciting private tour on an airboat, which allows the captain to take us through what appears to be grassland but is just part of the great river of grass that is the everglades. The water is not stagnant but flows slowly south hundreds of miles, dropping just about 16 feet in elevation.

The airboat ride gave us a chance to see more alligators, and some amazing birds, including the great blue heron and another purple gallinule. We also spotted some glossy ibis and white ibis. 

Our afternoon included a tram ride out to an observation tower from which we could see for miles across the Everglades.

We experienced a little thrill watching a great egret successfully catch a fish after patiently waiting for one to swim by and then fly away with it in its bill.

Our trip that day gave us a chance to see some softshell turtles, some of which were quite large. We saw them scooting around on land and swimming in the borrow pits in this part of the Everglades.

From the tower, we spotted a roseate spoonbill sitting high in the trees among a small flock of great egrets.

On the return trip from the tower, we saw an exciting and rare critter. We spotted a crocodile living in freshwater among the alligators. This one is known to the rangers and has been living in the area for years. Now over ten feet long, she seems content. 

The Florida Everglades are the only place on earth where alligators and crocodiles live together.

We also spotted another of the beautiful purple gallinule and more anhinga. 

We caught a glimpse of the smaller green heron. 

We also saw some young alligators, less than two feet long. Alligator mothers care for the young for a couple of years. In contrast, the crocodiles only care for their young for a few months. The crocs grow faster and statistically have about the same probability of reaching adulthood–about a 10 percent chance.

Back at the visitors center, we spotted an anhinga nest with three baby birds.

Driving through a nearby preserve, just outside the park, we saw lots of alligators and one eastern ratsnake that happened to be crossing the road. The snake isn’t venomous, though we didn’t know that when we spotted him. We got out of the car to see him but didn’t get too close.

Day 5 had us back in Miami. We walked the South Beach neighborhood with a walking tour guide Kelsey found online to allow us to learn about the historic buildings constructed in the 1930s. 

Then Dayton and Kelsey rented a jet ski. We enjoyed watching them and photographing them.

We spent Day 6 in Biscayne Bay National Park. A nonprofit called Biscayne Bay Institute operates a tour company with the profits flowing back to the National Park. 

The boat ride took us across the bay out to the keys that are part of the park, which includes almost no land. The park includes a few beach areas and some keys, part of the Florida Keys north of Key Largo. We, like most people, thought of Key Largo as the northernmost key. It is the one furthest north you can drive to but there are a string of keys north of there in what is now the National Park.

The tour boat docked on Boca Chita Key, where wealthy industrialist Mark Honeywell had built a retreat in the 1930s. Most notably, he built a lighthouse he intended to light as a sort of bat signal to his wealthy friends that a party was going on and to sail over from Miami. In a conventional navigational sense, however, the lighthouse was on the wrong side of the island and would have caused boats to crash so the Coast Guard prevented him from ever lighting it. Today, it makes a great observation deck for the surrounding area.

We finished the day and the trip with a stroll through a park in Key Biscayne, a beautiful island suburb of Miami.

Our visit in late March is the perfect time of year to go. Although traffic peaks at this time of year, we didn’t find the parks crowded. We had virtually no problem with bugs and temperatures were mild to warm. We didn’t experience the sweltering summer heat the bugs love and people hate.

That said, we did find the campgrounds had plenty of availability. The idea that national park campgrounds aren’t available anymore because of crowds certainly does not apply to the Everglades. Camping in Biscayne Bay National Park is really about sleeping on your boat.

Both parks are well worth a visit. A trip to Miami isn’t complete without at least a day in the parks.

Taking our little Chevy Bolt EV and the tiny Aliner popup trailer to be weighed on a scale designed for big rigs was a bit of an adventure.

We felt like we should get the trailer weighed so we could be confident about safety, to better understand the effect of weight on efficiency and because we were curious.

You may recall that we determined after doing lots of research that we would feel comfortable towing 1,600 founds. (If you drive a Bolt, we encourage you to check with someone smarter than us before towing.)

The trailer we bought has a dry weight of 1,174 pounds officially. We think the trailer has no upgrades or add-ons, except perhaps a small refrigerator.

So, we were a bit surprised to see the trailer weigh-in at 1,420 pounds. We’re not sure why it weighs more than listed. It has no tanks, so there is no water on-board. If you have any ideas for where that weight came from, let us know in the comments.

Having driven the trailer over 200 miles with the trailer, we’ve seen that the car is comfortable with the weight.

Having the trailer weighed with the car and then weighing the car alone gave us a clear indication not only of the weight of the trailer but also the weight of the trailer on the vehicle, that is, the tongue weight. It is, as expected, about 10 percent of the trailer’s weight at 140 pounds.

It turns out that weighing your rig is simple and cheap. The folks who work at the weigh station were kind and helpful and happy to collect $12.50 for the first weight and just $3.00 for the second.

Because weight is such an important factor in efficiency, regardless of your fuel, we encourage you to have your rig weighed before your next trip.

We’re putting together a safety checklist for our use and sharing on a future episode. If you have any suggestions for us, please let them in the comments.

Next week, we’ll be in the Florida Everglades with our son Dayton and daughter-in-law Kelsey. We won’t post from our trip, but we expect to have a lot to share the following week. Please stay tuned.

We did it. We bought a 2013 Aliner Scout, a pop-up trailer with a 1,174-pound dry weight we can tow with our 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV.

The trailer was living in Brooksville, Florida, about three hours away from our home in Jacksonville. To give ourselves a full day to get it home, we traveled to the area on the evening of Thursday, March 3, stopping in Bushnell to charge so we’d have plenty of range to start the day.

We spent the night in a cheap motel about 20 miles from the trailer, arriving there about 9:30 AM. The owners had it set up when we arrived. We got in to check it out. Then we watched them put it down and practiced doing it ourselves.

We hitched it up and pulled it out of a spot behind the house where it had been stored for months. After driving it around the block, we used some gifts from thoughtful friends in Utah, including a digital tire gauge and a tire inflator to get the tires ready for the ride home.

We negotiated a fair price and paid for the trailer and hit the road…

…with one catch. The car’s wiring didn’t match the trailer’s connection for the lights and such. The trailer has a seven-way connector and the car has a four-way version. Our naivete caught us here. We’d never seen a seven-way connector before.

We towed the trailer straight to an RV dealer to buy an adapter to connect the trailer to the car. We couldn’t make it work. Tom, at Register RV Center, volunteered to help us make it work. He did! Thank heaven! We were on our way.

There is some irony in this problem. The seven-way adapter does two things the four-way doesn’t. One is to control brakes. Our trailer has no brakes. The other is to charge the battery. We’re planning to use solar panels to charge ours.

We charged twice on the way home. The first time, back in Bushnell, we had to disconnect the trailer to charge. In Gainesville, however, we were able to pull through adjoining spots to charge with the trailer in tow.

We got home at 7:30 pm, grateful we had planned a full day for the project.

Devin will share some nerd data below, but most people’s curiosity will be fully sated just knowing that towing the trailer reduced the Bolt’s range by one-third, to about 160 miles.

Devin’s Nerd Data

The chart below shows the data we gathered from the trip, showing a pretty apples-to-apples comparison of the mpk (miles per kwh) impact of the trailer.

Some observations about the trip:

* The trip home was longer due to the need to swing by the RV dealer for the adapter

* The technique score given by the car improved a bit with the trailer in tow with slower starts and stops and slightly slower speeds

* Remember the car interprets the weight of the trailer as uphill topography reflected in the terrain score

* Our drive home included using the A/C most of the day

* The cool evening temperatures on Thursday were followed by a hot day for driving home, which the car loves

Charging Record for the Trip:

For my fellow nerds, I’ve summarized our charging experience on the road. We pay $0.31 per kwh so the cost is modest, especially compared to gas these days. At home, we pay effectively about half that.

The low charging rate on Saturday afternoon was likely due to the fact that the car was barely below half full when we started. Charging begins to slow at the half-tank line and is quite slow regardless of the charger when above 80 percent full.

This week, we’ll give you a quick rundown of the trailers we considered and why we ultimately selected the Aliner Scout.

To start, we focused our attention initially on a great article we found on RV Owner HQ featuring ten small pop-up trailers.

Opus Op Lite

The heaviest of the bunch was the Opus Op Lite. Ruggedized for off-roading, the trailer weighs in at 2,380 pounds dry. We never considered this one because we recognized even before getting serious about a trailer, that towing more than 2,000 pounds wouldn’t work for us towing with our Chevrolet Bolt EV.

Coachmen Clipper 12.0TD XL

The next lighter trailer was the Coachmen Clipper 12.0TD XL. Weighing in at 2,147 pounds, we wrote this one off before seriously considering it.

Having eliminated the over 2,000-pound trailers, we began to scrutinize the candidates a bit more closely.

Coachmen Clipper LS 806XLS

The Coachmen Clipper LS 806XLS weighs in at a paltry 1,642 pounds. A traditional tent trailer, opened fully it is large and spacious inside. This is a great little trailer for folks like us. Ultimately, however, as we scrutinized the towing capacity of our Chevy Bolt EV more closely, we concluded we needed to go even smaller.

Forest River Flagstaff 176LTD and Forest River Rockwood 1640LTD

This pair of virtually identical pop-ups were real contenders. These were favorites for a while. Weighing in at 1,465 pounds the Forest River Flagstaff 176LTD and the Forest River Rockwood 1640LTD are weight and space-efficient options for towing with smaller vehicles. The only difference between them appears to be the color.

Coachmen Viking Express 9.0TD

Weighing just 1,418 pounds, the Coachmen Viking Express 9.0TD is a great little trailer, that is a bit of a cross between a teardrop camper and a popup. With a little pop-up wing in the rear, the trailer is bigger inside than some tiny teardrops, but we decided against it because it is so small inside.

Taxa Outdoor Tiger Moth

The 1310-pound Taxa Outdoor Tiger Moth is a ruggedized trailer with an extra bedroom in the form of a tent up on top. We’re past the point of wanting to climb up and down into a bedroom. This one was never a contender for us, although it must appeal to lots of folks.

Aliner Scout Lite

Respecting the order we chose for this article, we have landed on the 1,174-pound Aliner Scout Lite, the trailer we hope to buy. At that weight, we’re confident our Chevy Bolt can tow it. For such a small seeming trailer, it feels spacious with room to work, cook, eat and relax by day and for two people to sleep at night.

Turtleback Trailers Getaway

The 1160-pound Turtleback Trailers Getaway is designed for the most rugged trails. Lacking an appetite for extreme camping, this trailer wasn’t a contender for us. It is great for towing behind a Jeep.

Sylvansport Go Trailer

The tiny, sub 1,000-pound Sylvansport Go Trailer was tantalizing to us because of its 840-pound dry weight. That is so small! There is even a Youtuber with a Chevy Bolt who tows one, proving it would work for us. We were looking for something more finished. The Sylvansport Go Trailer is pretty much just a tent atop a utility trailer. It would not have given us a place to install any solar panels, so we passed.

In addition to the trailers on the RV Owner HQ article, we identified two manufacturers of trailers for motorcycles (and small cars) that we also considered.

Kamparoo

The Kamparoo really had us thinking. This 725-pound trailer would have been easy to tow, but lacks some of the feeling of furniture that we found in the larger pop-up trailers. Critically, the top of the trailer when folded up for towing ends up face down when open for camping. That means that it wouldn’t work well for solar panels.

TimeOut Trailers

TimeOut Trailers also makes a motorcycle towable trailer that would have worked for us. The EasyCamper model is smaller than the Kamparoo with the same design problem for our solar panels plan. We dropped it from consideration quickly after learning about it.

In this report, we’ve focused on our personal needs. We recognize that what works best for you will be different. Every trailer here is a perfect match for some people.

Remember, next week, we’ll have a report on our trip across Florida to check out an Aliner Scout.

For the test, we rented a 4x8 Uhaul trailer weighing 850 pounds. We visited Ikea and quickly found 407 pounds of boxes reportedly containing furniture and loaded it in the trailer.

The total weight of 1,257 pounds exceeds the dry weight of the Aliner Scout Lite popup trailer we hope to buy. Notably, it is a similar shape and size. In other words, this was a pretty good practice run.

All went well. We had no issues stopping or starting.

Notably, the Uhaul trailer has no brakes. Most trailers do, of course. The implication isn’t all bad. Without conventional brakes on the trailer, the electric motors get the full weight of the rig, pushing it forward on the stops, allowing the car to regenerate more electricity on the stops. We used the brake pedal on the Bolt once or twice, but the vehicle may not have engaged the disc brakes. The car only does so when the motors are generating their maximum electric capacity, and the driver pushes even harder on the brake pedal.

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Data Dump for Nerds

We tracked a trip of 36.1 miles, the first 4.6 of which were without the trailer. The car tracks some data between every full charge, so we started the tracking at home; thus, it includes the trip to Uhaul. As a result, 88 percent of the distance reflected having a trailer in tow.

During the trip, we used 8.4 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity, averaging 4.3 miles per kwh (mpk). Given that our long-term average is 4.1 mpk, the load was not overwhelming.

The car scores every trip on four criteria, all on a -5 to 5 scale:

* Technique: 3.5. That score is excellent. I always try to get above zero, but above three is rarified air indeed. A trip at freeway speeds will often drop below zero.

* Terrain: -3.3. This score is terrible. Of course, cruising around level-everywhere Florida, the score reflects the trailer’s weight, not the topography.

* Climate Settings: 0. We didn’t turn on the air conditioner. The temperature was in the low 80s to begin and cooled to the mid-70s when we returned the trailer early in the evening. The climate system uses a remarkable amount of juice, especially in stop-and-go traffic.

* Outside Temperature: 2.8. The car loves hot weather. Around 100 degrees, the vehicle begins to cool the battery, but we think that is a safety measure more than a performance one. The battery likes hot weather. Of course, when it is warmer than yesterday, we’d have to turn on the A/C, which uses more juice. As a result, 75-degree weather is just about perfect.

The car calculates the average mpk every five miles. The bar on the far right reflects the current calculation. The displayed estimate of 6+ mpk is fluky and may represent a short stretch of the trip. Ignore it.

The first six bars counting backward from right to left reflect the 30 or so miles we towed the trailer. Although it is inexact, you can see we averaged about 4 mpk while towing. That compares to 5+ mpk over the 20 miles or so before we hooked up the trailer. The difference is at least 20 percent.

If we use 25 percent as the difference, that is fantastic news! At freeway speeds in pleasant weather, the Bolt has a range of about 200 miles. Losing a quarter of that would leave us at 150 miles. We could potentially travel 250 miles in a day with just one charging stop. We’re excited.

There is a lot to see within 250 miles. If the trailer tows that distance well, we could be convinced to try a two-day travel trip, expanding our travel range to 500 miles. That’s a lot of territory to explore.

That range includes Biloxi, Missippi; Mobile, Alabama; Plains, Georgia; Key West, Florida; Wilmington, North Carolina; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and even Chattanooga, Tennessee!

Check back with us next week when we give you a complete rundown of the trailers we considered and why we’ve tentatively chosen the little Aliner Scout Lite.

Before we report on the hitch, let’s recap. We have reserved or pre-ordered not one, not two, but three separate electric trucks. The Tesla Cybertruck was the first but we now expect our Tesla won’t be ready until 2025! Next, we ordered the Rivian R1T hoping it would arrive in 2022. No luck. That won’t arrive until the end of next year. Finally, we’ve reserved a Chevy Silverado EV. Ironically, it may be the last that comes first! We just want one that will tow a trailer!

So, anxious to start our adventure, we decided to see what our current EV, the Chevy Bolt, could tow. (See our full episode on this here.) We settled on a number (1,600 pounds) and decided to go ahead and have the hitch installed.

We considered doing the work ourselves, but ultimately concluded it was beyond our capability, especially given the safety issues involved.

After doing our research, we felt the best hitch for our Bolt is the EcoHitch from Torklift Central. We concluded that it was the most robust and would allow us to maximize the Bolt’s potential for towing.

The nearest authorized dealer that installs these hitches is in Ocala, Florida, about 100 miles from our place in Jacksonville. We made the arrangements and made a day of it, spending much of it in the waiting room there at The Electrified Garage.

The team was great about letting us film most of the work of the installation, so you can watch them work on the video in the player at the top of this article.

The Electrified Garage only services electric vehicles so the shop is remarkably clean. It was a reminder that EVs are just cleaner.

The hitch is designed to be attached behind the bumper and to then protrude through a cut in it, so it is pretty unobtrusive.

While it certainly isn’t decorative, it doesn’t overwhelm the look of the car. At 38 pounds, we don’t expect a measurable impact on range. (Towing is another matter.)

Speaking of towing, next week, we plan to do a test tow. We’re excited to report on that so be sure to come back. If you’re not subscribed, please do.

We stayed just two nights in Key Largo, driving the entire length of the Keys and returning to our starting point, in between. Our goal was to sample the blissful winter weather there and survey the sights, RV parks and activities available there.

EV Nerd Report: All EVs (all vehicles really) get better mileage at lower speeds and on flatter ground. With regenerative braking, EVs recover much of the energy lost stopping and starting in a car with only an internal combustion engine.

The drive through the Keys along the Overseas Highway averages about 40 miles per hour during our round trip, with relatively little stopping and starting, making it ideal range-maximizing terrain.

Including the freeway trip down to the Miami area and back, we traveled 1,093.6 miles using 272.5 kwh, yielding a trip average of a hair over 4 miles per kwh. This is just below our long-term average of 4.1 miles per kwh. This is largely due to long stretches on the freeway and cold weather in the upper 40s and low 50s in Northern Florida. (Yes, we are missing the weather in the Keys.)

Of course, the Florida Keys divide the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico. For much of the trip, we enjoyed beautiful vistas on both sides of the highway.

The Overseas Highway itself is a real highlight. The bridges were originally constructed as part of a private rail line that ran all the way to Key West. Some sections of the bridges failed during the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935, leaving the line inoperable.

The State of Florida purchased the out-of-service bridges in 1938 and converted them to carry cars instead of trains. In some sections, new bridges have been built parallel to the original rail lines. Some of the old sections have been rehabilitated for use by pedestrians and cyclists for recreation.

Key Largo is the first stop off the mainland and anchors the northeast end of the Keys. Key West, as the name implies, is at the southwestern end. More notable than the western position is its southern, the southernmost point in the continental U.S.

A concrete buoy painted dramatically serves as a marker, signaling that Cuba lies just 90 miles to the south.

Ernest Hemmingway lived in Key West for a time. His home is now operated as a museum where you can see the typewriters he used and the rooms he wrote in. One quirky feature is the cats that inhabit the home, descendants of Hemmingway’s cats. Many have extra digits.

Between Key Largo and Key West are dozens of others, some with large communities, all with beautiful vistas. A population of endangered deer inhabits a few of the Keys. We stopped at a refuge hoping to get to see some but found it closed to the public due to COVID.

We spotted a variety of RV parks during our trip and look forward to using some on future trips. There are a few state parks in the Keys that allow RV camping. They are the most basic and affordable option. Undoubtedly, reservations must be made the very moment they become available. Florida residents over 65 (so almost everyone who lives in Florida) get a 50 percent discount on the reservation fee.

Peak season is December through April. The luxury RV resorts charge more per night than some of the budget hotels in the Keys. We couldn’t see an open slot in any we passed. Be sure to get your reservations early.

As far as we can tell, the RV parks all have access to water, some also have swimming pools. Come ready to snorkel, scuba, swim, kayak, canoe, stand-up paddleboard or fish.

Next week, we’ll have news about the hitch on our Chevy Bolt. Be sure to check back here for our report.

Thanks for following our journey. If you find this interesting or helpful, be sure to like, comment, share and subscribe.

One of the most exciting for us was the discovery that Habitat for Humanity has a longstanding program for RVers called the RV Care-A-Vanner program. At these builds, the nonprofit subsidizes the campsites for the RVs for two weeks. The Care-A-Vanners work 7-8 hours per day, starting early enough that there is time for recreation every afternoon and evening—plus weekends. We’re excited to do this.

We saw lots of other interesting things, including luxury RV resorts that we didn’t know existed. We saw some security cameras to give us some comfort that our RV is safe when we’re away from it. The show also featured mobile connectivity devices, leveling systems and tire pressure monitoring systems. Much of this is old hat to long-time RVers but we’re learning—sometimes even learning things we didn’t know we didn’t know!

We spent much of our time talking to people selling solar and battery systems for RVs. We still have a lot to learn but we’ve started to design our system.

This system design is for the little tiny trailer we hope to tow with our Chevy Bolt EV. We haven’t narrowed things down to determine final sizes and models, yet but we’re beginning to narrow things down.

For instance, we’re hoping to have a total of 1000 watts or 1 kilowatt of solar panels, split between those we install permanently on the roof of the trailer and some portable panels. That should give us about five kilowatt-hours of power daily. We’ll plan to start by charging batteries in the sun in advance of the short trips we’ll typically take in this little trailer.

We also need to see how much energy storage we can fit and afford in this little trailer. We’re hoping to get a total of two to three kilowatt-hours of storage to power the trailer when the sun isn’t shining. Weight is a key constraint with our little car.

We’ve got a lot of work to do to figure out all the options for charge controllers and inverters and such. So much to learn! Of course, that’s the challenge we signed up for and truly relish.

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Let’s start with the concept vehicles.

The most exciting feature of the event, one of our Twitter friends alerted us to, having previously missed it, was the Airstream trailer concept. It is a self-propelled electric vehicle for towing. We could tow it with the Bolt because it operates under its own power. Once you arrive at your destination, you can disconnect from the tow vehicle and position the trailer using an app on your phone. Wild stuff. Be sure to watch the first few minutes of the video to see the demo.

The parent company for Airstream is Thor, which brought another eRV to demo. It is a small motorhome that is all-electric as well. It has a 100-mile range on the batteries but has hydrogen fuel cells as well. One tank of hydrogen adds 200 miles of range. Hydrogen fuel cells emit only a tiny bit of water vapor so are essentially zero-emission like batteries.

The last of the three concept vehicles is the Winnebago eRV. It has a 125-mile range on battery power and no other source of mobility. Frankly, I’m not sure that platform has much of a market but I’m thrilled to see the company working on this.

We expect all these vehicles to have price tags over $200,000 when and if they come to market. We won’t likely spring for one.

We also found one electric, solar-powered trailer that comes much closer to our target.

Sadly, we didn’t get a great photo of the electric trailer, but the image above is basically what it looks like with the propane tank removed and solar panels added. There is a big battery system that holds about 7 kwh, enough to power everything you’d want in that little trailer for a day or two. With the 380 watts of solar panels extending that, you could enjoy the A/C or heat for several days. If you turn off the A/C and use other things sparingly, you could go indefinitely in this little rig.

For us, sadly, it is too small to be our dream rig and too big for our Bolt to tow.

There was a smorgasbord of trailers we can tow with the Rivian (or the Tesla or the Silverado).

We climbed in and out of dozens and walked by hundreds of trailers our electric truck will be able to tow. It gave us an opportunity to begin forming stronger, clearer thoughts about floorplans and size. We’d been thinking we wanted a trailer between 20 and 30 feet long, with a bias toward the smaller end of that range. After spending time in them, our bias shifted to the trucks at the larger end of that range.

Measuring from hitch to bumper, a 30-foot trailer isn’t as big as you might imagine. We like the ones with a private bedroom, typically equipped with a queen-size bed. One feature we look for is a living room area where a sofa faces a TV. That is far from universal as obvious as this seems to us. We are also looking for a larger bathroom with an easy-to-access shower (no tub).

Finally, we found a trailer we like and can safely tow with our Chevy Bolt EV.

This Aliner Scout Lite folds down to a lower profile than the Bolt and weighs just 1200 pounds, making it a good trailer for us. It has two sitting areas that convert to beds overnight, with storage beneath. With space for some kitchen features, we’re excited to get one. For the moment, we’re looking for a used one so we can invest a bit in the conversion to solar and all-electric equipment.

Next week, we’ll be reporting on some of the information we gained about solar power and batteries for our RV.

We’re in the Tampa area for the annual RV Supershow, the biggest RV show in Florida and one of the biggest in the country. In the coming weeks, we’ll be reporting on some of what we learn.

We filmed today’s episode while we got a free charge on a Duke Energy fast charger. We drove down to the Tampa area from Jacksonville, about 170 miles, without stopping for more juice along the way. Getting ready for a bit of local travel tomorrow, we charged up to over 80 percent in about an hour from about 30 percent. The app reports that we added about 32 KwH or about 128 miles.

Our personal best for the longest trip on a single charge was 245 miles from Reno, Nevada to Danville, California, in the Bay Area via Lake Tahoe. The trip ended at a lower elevation and featured a winding, scenic and slow route. The speed and descent both helped the range.

Having made several trips from Salt Lake City to the Bay Area, plus countless trips around Utah up to 1,000 miles in a weekend, we’ve learned some patterns. We try to synchronize charging with Devin’s bathroom breaks. We generally charge up about every 80 to 120 miles.

All EVs charge faster from 10 to 50 percent than 50 percent to 90 percent. As a result, it is faster to add 100 miles of range to a nearly empty battery than one half full. So, we often choose to hop from charger to charger arriving with less than 15 percent of battery or less than 30 miles of range. The average charging time for us is 30 to 45 minutes.

Towing a trailer with the Bolt will likely cut our range 30 to 50 percent, depending on the size, shape and weight of the trailer and the speed we travel. Still, we should be able to go 80 to 100 miles between charges, meaning that we won’t need to charge much, if any more often. We will, however, have to stay longer each time to ensure that we have the range required to tow to our next stop, pushing our average charging time to an hour or more.

Towing a trailer with the Bolt over long distances may be possible but not practical or fun. This stage of our journey will just be practice. We’ll likely stay within a 300-mile radius of Jacksonville.

Some of you will be thinking how horrible this sounds. For us, the challenge is the sport—it is a vital part of the fun for us. There are two things we want you to remember:

* No one will ever make you buy a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV to tow a trailer. We promise!

* EVs with 500+ miles of range are now coming to market. By mid-decade, we expect several vehicles in various formats to hit that mark.

Stay tuned for more updates!

This issue is significant because despite reserving three electric pickups, none are likely to arrive this year, and there is no guarantee that one will end up in our driveway next year. To take the next step in our solar electric trailer journey, we need to figure out what, if anything, we can tow with our Bolt so we can practice and prepare for our EV truck and a more substantial trailer.

This week, we’ve been stalking online forums for the RV community and Bolt owners. RVers scoff at the idea of towing a camping trailer with a Bolt, but the Bolt community includes lots of happy towers.

There are several trailer hitches available in the market designed for the Bolt. The most popular hitch is the Ecohitch, which includes the following description: “Rated for 300 pounds tongue weight at the trailer ball, and 2,000 pounds towing weight, this Chevy Bolt trailer hitch won’t make you leave anything behind on your next big journey.”

Several other third-party websites indicate the Bolt has a towing capacity of 2,000 to 2,500 pounds. This estimate aligns with the design of the Ecohitch.

Those towing stuff with their Bolts most often pull small utility trailers weighing under 1,000 pounds. A common use is to tow motorcycles. One forum contributor noted that he’s pulling his motorcycles in Southern California. He estimates the weight at over 800 pounds and notes that the mileage held at 3.2 miles per KwH (almost 80% of the mileage we get without a trailer). It is pretty clear that the car doesn’t stress too much under that weight.

The suspension of the car is designed to carry five passengers plus groceries. For the two of us to travel with the trailer should put less stress on the suspension than a full car without a trailer. We should be in good shape there.

The bigger problem with towing is stopping. All EVs, the Bolt included, have redundant braking systems. They have conventional anti-lock disc brakes that can stop the car as quickly as any other. They also use their electric motors to stop, regenerating energy while slowing or driving downhill.

The Bolt includes a feature not all owners use but that we always use. It has a gear marked with an “L,” suggesting low gear, but that is a misnomer. It simply has a higher level of regeneration. When you take your foot off the gas in that mode, the system recaptures more energy, and the car slows quickly to a stop. This mode allows what EV drivers call one-pedal driving. The Bolt also has a lever on the steering wheel to engage even more regeneration, helping the car slow quite aggressively.

Pairing the regeneration with conventional anti-lock disc brakes means that the collective stopping power of the Bolt should be capable of slowing the car even when towing a lightweight trailer.

Some people who tow regularly suggest that it is essential not to exceed about 80 percent of a vehicle’s towing capacity. If we use 2,000 pounds as the towing capacity for the Bolt and keep the trailer to 80 percent of that level, we should be able to tow 1,600 pounds safely. We’ll want to get as far under that threshold as possible to maximize the EV range.

We’ll explore in the coming weeks what the options are in that weight range, but we’ve done enough looking already to know we’re not talking about camping in style.

We can’t reasonably describe our estimate of the towing capacity as authoritative. If you have a Bolt and want to know how much you can tow, we encourage you to do your own research. The 2022 Bolt owner’s manual reportedly includes a warning to never tow anything.

This week, we’re sharing the story of our journey across the country from Utah to Florida. It was not event-free! There is one story we’ll only share in the podcast or video, so be sure to tune in. We’ll also share the bad news we received from Rivian and what we think of the latest from Chevrolet.

Our Move

We packed the U-Haul (after panicking and shipping six big boxes via UPS) on December 21. With help from professional movers, we got everything else in the truck and hit the road.

On Thursday, as we reached Texas, the truck began to act up. With warning lights flashing while in motion, we called U-Haul for guidance. They encouraged us to stop in Childress, Texas (home of the 1974 classic film “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”). Darrell, who responded for U-Haul to our location, determined we should not continue the trip in the vehicle. U-Haul agreed to replace the truck.

That meant events replaced our plans to spend Christmas in New Orleans with quality time in Wichita Falls, Texas. We had a delightful, if unusual, Christmas visiting a nature preserve in Oklahoma.

After a four-day delay, with help from U-Haul, we got a bigger replacement truck and got it loaded on Monday, the 27th, and hit the road, passing the Dallas area on our first day back on the road. Tuesday, we passed through five states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

On Wednesday, we arrived. We entered our home for the first time. We bought it after seeing photos and video. No regrets!

We used the truck to load up on fresh boxes we hope to turn into Ikea furniture and then returned the U-Haul. To save money, we chose to return it to St. Augustine, which allowed us to see the spectacular Christmas light show there.

Bad News From Rivian

As we packed for our move, we got an email from Rivian alerting us that the company would not deliver our truck until the second half of 2023. Considering that when they sent the email, the company had produced only about 1000 trucks and still had a lot to learn, the bad news was some version of optimism. In other words, we think Christmas of 2023 is the earliest we’ll see our new truck.

This disappointment has us thinking about using the next two years to practice with a tiny pop-up trailer we tow with our Chevy Bolt. Of course, it won’t be the same, but we can learn a lot and have some fun. We’ll be better prepared for a big trailer when the truck finally comes! We’ll share this adventure with you, too.

Good News From Chevrolet

The same day that the bad news email arrived from Rivian, we saw an alert from Chevrolet that they would announce their new Silverado EV on January 5. We marked that date and watched their live CES (Consumer Electronics Show). While we were disappointed with the presentation, the truck looks adequate for the job. We think it could work with 400 miles of range and a towing capacity of 8,000 pounds. Pricing details were vague. Chevy priced a loaded RST model at $105,000 in the second half of 2023. Chevy promises to sell the stripped-down work truck starting at $39,900 in the spring of 2023.

We jumped to get at the front of the line. We placed our reservation three minutes after the window opened. We hope we’re among the first few hundred regular consumers to get a truck. If that happens on (or near) schedule next year, we could get it before the Rivian comes.

We don’t want or need three trucks (we have reserved a Tesla Cybertruck, too), but we desperately want one—whichever one will show up first. Well, we prefer the Rivian enough to be willing to wait a bit longer, but if our Rivian date feels soft or distant when the Chevy shows up, we’ll go with the Chevy.

Tesla has removed production predictions about the Cybertruck from its website this week. We’re beginning to think getting one of those is a pipe dream.

We’re excited to report our only son, Dayton, married Kelsey Lyberger and settled in Palo Alto. She works at Stanford using her Ph.D. to figure out the best way to kill mosquitos. Dayton is a senior data scientist at Instacart (the folks who deliver groceries). For their wedding, the two raised money for the fight against Malaria. Earlier this year, Dayton donated $100,000 to a high-impact nonprofit.

Devin wrote another book this year called Superpowers for Good, about insights gained from more than 60 amazing humanitarians. 

We sold our downtown Salt Lake condo and have purchased a suburban one in Jacksonville, Florida. We’ll move over the Christmas break. We’re planning to also buy an electric truck to tow a solar-powered camping trailer to explore North America. You can follow us at OurSolarTrailer.com. Please keep in touch.

On Sunday, December 19th, from 6 to 8 PM Mountain, we’re hosting a Zoom open house to give us a chance to wish you the best for the holidays more personally. Please stop by for a few minutes to give us your news. Type holiday.devin.today in your browser to join.

We love you! Happy Holidays!

We sold our home. We anticipate closing on the 22nd as we drive a U-Haul heading southeast to Jacksonville. We hope to close the purchase of our new place on the 23rd as we continue the drive.

Our new home, a condo somewhat larger than our current one, with an extra bedroom. More importantly, it has a two-car garage. We haven’t had one of those in 33 years! We haven’t had two cars in about 20 years.

We expect our Rivian to arrive in about a year. When it arrives, we plan to keep the more efficient Chevy Bolt for our around-town travel. We are planning to replace the Bolt with an Aptera, a 3-wheeled vehicle that gets about 10 miles per kWh compared to the 4.2 the Bolt gets and the 2 the Rivian will get when it’s not towing a trailer.

Speaking of the Rivian, the trucks are starting to hit the streets and fans like us are watching eagerly. One new owner using the handle @gideontherivian shared their journey in a new Rivian R1T towing a trailer with a Ford Mustang from Detroit to Los Angeles as part of their move.

They shared a dozen photos of charging stops (among the dozens they must have made). They didn’t share enough details for us to make any scientific measurements but they shared some comments to help us understand what we can expect.

First, the driver mentioned their speed several times and they kept the speed pretty high, sometimes driving as fast as 80 mph towing a trailer. Speed and trailers both reduce efficiency but they weren’t complaining.

They learned, as we have with our Chevy Bolt, that more frequent charging is more pleasant than less frequent, longer charging sessions. The vehicle charges more slowly as it gets closer to a full charge. So, operating nearer empty allows for quicker stops.

More importantly, they were often able to charge with the trailer in tow. Of course, sometimes they had to detach the trailer but apparently less than half the time. this is encouraging for us.

We’d love feedback about what you like about our updates, what you want more of and less. We’ll do our best to accommodate the interest, whatever it is.

Next week, as the final days for moving approach, our update is likely to be less formal. Please forgive us. The following week, we’ll be on the road. We intend to share updates on social media but can’t promise we’ll post here on the 24th. We do plan to post an update after we arrive in Florida.

YouTube Channel

We’ve launched our YouTube channel. If you have subscribed to our newsletter, there is no need to subscribe there because we’ll share the videos here. If you don’t want our newsletter in your inbox but want to follow our journey, subscribing to the YouTube channel (and selecting the bell to alert you to new posts) will work to keep you in the loop.

Today’s video is a short introduction. As we move forward, we’ll have more and more to share.

Typically, we’ll share the audio portion of our videos as a podcast. The audio for today’s video is our first podcast episode. There will be many more to come.

Moving to Florida

We’ve previously announced that we’re selling our condo in Salt Lake City and moving to Jacksonville, Florida. Earlier, we noted that we’d written an offer to buy a condo there. We fully expected that deal to close, but, long story short, we pulled our bid when we discovered some unsettling news about the construction.

Now, we’ve written another offer on another condo and as of this writing we’re negotiating toward a final agreement. The Florida one is a bit larger than the one we have here in Salt Lake, so our future will involve a bit of furniture shopping. More importantly, it has an oversized two-car garage, something we haven’t had in our family for more than 30 years!

That garage will give us a place to park the Rivian and keep our Chevy Bolt. Critically, it will provide us with a safe and secure place to charge them. We’ve also ordered an Aptera to replace the Bolt. The Aptera is a three-wheeled vehicle that looks like a vehicle George Jetson would drive. It can go five times as far per kWh as the Rivian, so we’ll drive that whenever we’re not towing the trailer. We’ll have more to share about the Aptera in the future.

Disappointing News About the Rivian

When we pre-ordered the Rivian in September, we anticipated that with production starting soon (it did begin just weeks after we ordered ours), we could get ours by next summer. There are clues that we were overly optimistic.

While Rivian is now delivering trucks to customers, the company has given us no direct, personal information about when it will deliver our vehicle. At the time of the company’s November initial public offering (IPO), the company indicated it had about 150,000 orders on the books. We hope that number increased a lot with the news surrounding the beginning of production and the IPO, putting us near (we hope) order number 100,000.

Rivian has notified some customers when their trucks will arrive. We were not among them. The dates given ran through next fall, almost a year out now. Since we didn’t get a notification, we think our delivery will be later.

To tow the trailer long distances, we ordered the Rivian with the “Max” pack to tow the trailer long distances, a massive 175 kWh battery that allows the truck to go over 400 miles (without a trailer). Sadly, rumors suggest that Rivian will produce the trucks with that feature last. I can’t even bring myself to type the word: we may not get our R1T until 2023.

That will give us more time to find and equip the perfect trailer. We’re going shopping soon!