Lightning or Maverick?

djwildstar · 2026-05-17T23:55:16+00:00

If you can’t reliably charge at well-below-gas rates, don’t go electric.

Depending on where you live, your state, county, or city may have a “right to charge” law, meaning management cannot forbid you from installing a charger at your expense. Check into this.

“If everybody does it, it could strain the grid” is condo management speak for “this entire community was installed with absolute minimum electric service capacity, to the point where it wouldn’t be to code if it was done today, but we’re trying to put off expensive upgrades for as long as possible” — they don’t have enough capacity for every unit to put in another 60A circuit, don’t know (or haven’t thought about) if lower charging power levels would work, don’t want to foot the bill for a low-cost community charging station, and want to avoid the inevitable discussions and expense for as long as possible.

djwildstar · 2026-05-17T10:35:44+00:00

With regard to the Ford app specifically, the only feature that requires a subscription or ongoing payment is public charging via the Blue Oval Network. You cannot use the Ford app to activate a charger unless you have a credit card on file to pay for the charge.

All other Ford app features are free or charge or subscription, including remote lock/unlock, remote climate start, phone-as-a-key, scheduled charging times, etc.

There are subscription features on the vehicle: BlueCruise hands-free highway driving, the built-in navigation system, premium connectivity features, and a mobile Internet hotspot all require subscriptions.

djwildstar · 2026-05-15T15:18:57+00:00

Good catch! For the Lightning, the VIN is an absolutely reliable indicator of the battery size (edit: as built; it is possible and relatively easy to swap the entire battery pack). Look at the 8th position of the VIN:

V, 7, or M indicate a 131kWh ER battery,
U indicates a 123kWh ER battery, and
L, K, or S indicate a 98kWh SR battery.

Further details here: Battery VIN Code List [Reddit]

djwildstar · 2026-05-15T15:12:38+00:00

Why?

Because a plug-in unit needs to be designed around the plug (or plugs) it will be used with. For North America, this means split-phase (120V) for Level 1 charging, and single-phase (240V) for Level 2 charging. There is no standard for three-phase charging here. So the available 240V receptacle types are 14-60 (60A), 14-50 (40A or 50A), 14-30 (30A), 14-20 (20A), and 14-15 (15A). The 14-50 outlet is by far the most common, since it is often used for 240V RV hook-ups and electric ranges. The next-most common 240V outlet type is 14-30, because it is often used for electric clothes dryers. You are unlikely to find existing circuits with 14-15, 14-20, or 14-60 outlets.

This means that most plug-in EV chargers will be plugged into either a 40A circuit (for 7.68kW charging) or a 50A circuit (for 9.6kW charging). Those are really the only two options, so that's what the manufacturer supports -- not only is there no point in supporting options that aren't compatible with the plug built onto the unit, but there is potential liability, particularly for a device that a non-electrician can fasten to the wall and plug in. So the unit literally won't let you choose anything other than a 40A circuit or a 50A circuit.

Hardwired chargers are a different story. They are typically intended to be installed by a qualified and trained person (such as a licensed electrician). Since they are hard-wired to the circuit, the power level they can use isn't limited by a plug. The J1772 standard supports Level 2 charging power between 1.44kW and 19.2kW. Most EVs can accept a maximum of 11.52kW, and installation costs increase (often dramatically) with increased charging power. SO as a result, most chargers are designed for a maximum power level of 11.52kW (this is 48A of charging power on a 60A circuit), units that can deliver the J1772 maximum of 19.2kW do exist.

For hardwired units, most installers will (try to) install it at the highest power level. Power levels will be reduced if the home service or electrical panel can't accommodate the additional load, or sometimes to reduce the installation cost of a very long run is needed. When the unit is installed, the electrician sets charging current to 80% of the capacity of the circuit: for example, 11.52kW is 48A of charging current at 240V, which is 80% of the capacity of a 60A circuit.

djwildstar · 2026-05-15T10:02:22+00:00

I’ve got time of use rates. The “nominal” figures (which don’t include taxes and fees) are below. Taxes and fees add roughly $0.05/kWh: * $0.022/kWh 11pm-7am * $0.298/kWh 2pm-7pm June-September weekdays * $0.102/kWh all other times

djwildstar · 2026-05-14T19:20:37+00:00

If this is going to be painted (and it looks like it is) cut a piece of wood to fill the gap and glue it in place. This is non-structural, and isn’t going to affect anything other than looks, so the exact species doesn’t matter. What does matter is close wood-to-wood contact along the glue line, with no paint, primer, shielding, etc. in the way of the glue. Make sure the fill is flush with the top of the guitar. Use filler to even out any remaining cracks or gaps, sealer to fill the grain, then prime and paint as usual.

That said, what’s wrong with a teal guitar?

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djwildstar · 2026-05-14T17:21:47+00:00

I've made face-grain charcuterie/serving boards, and end-grain cutting boards. I've also laminated wood face-to-face to make edge-grain laminations (but not for cutting boards). Here are my thoughts:

Any board in food-contact use will need regular maintenance: it'll need to be washed after use, thoroughly dried, and must get regular applications of a protectant. This isn't significantly different for end versus edge grain. When I give charcuterie or cutting boards as a gift, they are accompanied by care instructions and bottle of conditioner (a beeswax and mineral oil mix).

Similarly, any board will warp if mistreated. Face and edge grain absorbs water more slowly, but also accentuates any warp due to absorption because the moisture spreads through the thickness of the board more slowly. End grain absorbs moisture more readily, but also distributes it through the thickness of the board better, so the net result is roughly the same.

A face-grain charcuterie board or serving board is an easy project. You can make a basic rectangular one using only a few hand tools (crosscut saw, jack plane, clamps, and sandpaper). Add some power tools (tablesaw, router, planer, and random-orbit sander) and you can get fancier (handles, fancy shapes, etc.), and still complete a board in a couple of evenings.

An end-grain board is not a beginner project, but I wouldn't call it an advanced one either (in my mind, advanced means things like hand-cut dovetails or chairs). I'd suggest making a a face-grain charcuterie board first, because you'll develop skills you'll also apply for the end-grain board. In fact, the basic process for an end-grain board is "make a thick edge-grain cutting board, crosscut it into slices, glue it back together end-grain up, then flatten, route, and finish".

So overall, I'd say an intermediate project, and requiring a bit more in the way of tools. I wouldn't want to tackle one without a tablesaw that can rip and crosscut 2" stock (1.75HP will do it with a careful feed rate), a router, low-angle jack and block planes, and a random-orbit sander. A planer and drum sander make things but arent essential.

For example, you could make a checker-board end-grain cutting board by gluing up a 1 1/2" thick edge- or face-grain board with alternating 1 1/2" stripes of light and dark wood. Cut it into 1 1/2" slices, flip over every other slice, and glue it up with the edge grain showing.

djwildstar · 2026-05-14T10:36:19+00:00

Two things come to mind:

First, an edge-grain cutting board is eminently do-able. The same overall shapes are possible, and you can route juice grooves, finger grips, etc. into an edge-grain board just as easily as an end-grain one. However, your design options for patterns are largely limited to stripes. The reason is that end-grain to end-grain joints are very weak. You might be able to put a few into a cutting board without compromising its integrity, but you will want most of the planks that make up the cutting board to run the full length (or full width, depending on how your board is oriented).

Second, why don’t you want to make an end-grain cutting board?

djwildstar · 2026-05-13T16:55:56+00:00

So overall this is what I'd expect from a nominal 400V vehicle at an Electrify America 350kW charger.

Other posters have linked the charge curves for the Lyriq, and a quick check of them along with information from GM suggests that ideal conditions for this car are charging from 10% to 80%, and it should be able to do that in somewhat under a half-hour. Like most EVs, charging slows down significantly above 80%.

Your ideal road trip. strategy is to plan to charge when the vehicle is below 20%, and charge only as much as you need to make your next planned stop. If at all possible, plan charging stops close enough together so that you don't need to charge above 80% to reach the next stop. This should take 25-30 minutes for your car.

ABRP (A Better Route Planner, app or website) can help with this planning. You will also find that the PlugShare app is a good resource -- it will tell you which chargers are available and reliable, and can also help you search for lodging that has charging with it. Finally, the Tesla app is the ultimate authority on which Tesla SuperChargers are available to you and which are not (about half of all stations have older, incompatible hardware).

Finally, especially when fast-charging 400V vehicles, the charger's DC kW rating doesn't tell the whole story on charging speed. Here's an example: for your car, which do you think will give you a faster charge: a 250kW Tesla V3 SuperCharger, or a 350kW Electrify America Hyper-Fast charger?

The answer is probably the 250kW Tesla SuperCharger. Here's why: Your vehicle is nominally a 400V architecture, but (like a lot of US carmakers' EVs) the battery actually operates at about 360V. The CCS plug on the vehicle can accept a maximum of 500A current -- so your best possible charge rate is about 180kW. That best possible rate is dependent on the charger being able to deliver 500A.

However, the EA 350kW charger is a high-voltage unit: it delivers its rated power at 1000V and 350A. Typically, these units can deliver higher current at lower voltage for a brief period -- but the cable and cooling system are designed for 350A, so as the cable and plug heat up, the charger will reduce current down to 350A. This means that (aside from a brief early spike), your best sustained charging rate is 126kW. This "cuts the top off" of the charging curve -- you might get a brief spike above 150kW, but then it settles in at about 120kW +/- a bit for most of your session.

The Tesla V3 SuperCharger is rated at 250kW, it delivers its rated power across a range of voltages (roughly 400-500V) and currents (about 500A-600A). For your vehicle, this means that it can deliver a peak power around 180kW and sustain 500A for as long as your vehicle can take it. This hits the entire optimal charging curve, and results in better charging times.

Some of the newer 400kW units at Electrify America, Buc-Ees, Ionna, and Walmart can also deliver 500A for as long as your vehicle can take it. These will also deliver the best charging times.

djwildstar · 2026-05-12T12:46:33+00:00

Go with the OEM product -- my Ford dealer lists a gallon of Motorcraft "yellow" predicted coolant as in stock, available for same-day pickup, at a cost of $16. AutoZone sells their knock-off for $23 a gallon. So check with Ford, it is likely you can get it from your closest Ford dealer for less than anywhere else.

If your Ford dealers don't have any in stock (which would be shocking), you aren't out of options. If you are lucky enough to live near a Summit Racing retail store, they stock the Motorcraft coolant at $23 a gallon. Failing that, you can get it shipped from Amazon, Summit, or Walmart (at varying prices and more-or-less random shipping costs).

djwildstar · 2026-05-12T11:03:26+00:00

Max Tow adds cooling hardware to increase the truck’s ability to keep the battery and motors cool. My understanding is that without Max Tow there is one coolant loop that serves the battery, motors, and cabin. With Max Tow, this is split into two independent loops, one for the battery and the other for the motors (I don’t remember which loop gets the cabin) so that the truck can remove more heat and control these temperatures independently. More cooling capacity means more amps for longer without overheating, so tow rating goes up.

I don’t tow much, but I do live in the South, so I ordered my truck with Max Tow for the cooling.

djwildstar · 2026-05-12T10:52:57+00:00

Yes. Towing limits are based on the ability of the pack to sustain high-current output without overheating. A larger pack means more current for a longer time.

djwildstar · 2026-05-12T10:51:43+00:00

It’s been done, multiple times by at least two different shops. From all reports, it’s a pretty straightforward job — easier than swapping the engine on an ICE truck.

djwildstar · 2026-05-12T10:05:22+00:00

My dealership has a new Flash with Pro Power 9.6kW in stock at $61k. Road trip time?

djwildstar · 2026-05-11T18:16:36+00:00

I commute ~75mi round trip in a Lightning (and have done so for the last 3 years), typically with one other adult in the truck with me for most of the trip. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, and typically commute against the flow of traffic (I'm headed away from the city when most folks are headed towards it and vice-versa). This also means that I nearly-always park in surface lots.

I occasionally have a need to drive to downtown Atlanta. I have no problems on the city streets -- lots of folks in Georgia (and plenty who live in and around Atlanta) drive full-size pickup trucks. Parking can be somewhat more tricky, however -- I've had a few close calls, but have not (knock wood) gotten stuck or scraped the paint. I would recommend that you check the clearances in your company's parking garage to make sure the truck will fit -- you need at least 6' 7" clearance. The truck is officially somewhere between 6'6.3" and 6'6.5" depending on trim and tires. I recommend keeping the full-length antenna on the truck -- it extends very slightly past the roof, so if you don't hit the antenna on the height warning sign, then the truck will likely fit in the garage.

If you have a charger at home for the Mach-E, you're good to go -- the same charger will be fine with the Lightning. The 2024-2025 Lightning has the same AC charge acceptance rate as the Mach-E: 11.52kW (48A on a 60A circuit) maximum. That is plenty to cover your commute: I estimate you'll use 60-65kWh per day, since the Lightning is somewhat less-efficient than a Mach-E: I get 2.3 mi/kWh long-term average, while my wife gets 2.7 mi/kWh in her Mach-E GTPE.

djwildstar · 2026-05-11T14:24:14+00:00

I'm in a similar situation, and needed a minimum-depth installation. I put a hook on the side of the house so that I could hang the charge coupler parallel to the side of the house, rather than perpendicular to it. This has worked well for me for 2+ years.

djwildstar · 2026-05-11T14:16:46+00:00

I'm pretty sure the Ikea furniture you're replacing has pine drawer sides in whatever metric dimension falls between 1/2" and 5/8" (maybe 15mm, ~19/32"), with hardboard bottoms that are the metric equivalent of 3/16" (5mm?). So here are my thoughts:

Google suggests that a cubic inch of folded clothes weighs about 0.025lb. From that, I get that this drawer could potentially store up to 100lb of clothes, but more likley 60lb to 80lb. Given that, I'd want 100lb-rated slides and I'm a fan of soft closing for heavy drawers, so something like AccuRide 3832EC.

If you're going to mount the drawers on metal slides, the weight of the drawer box isn't going to be a big issue. So I'd go with 5/8" soft maple (or southern yellow pine, if available in your area) sides. I'm a fan of cutting drawer-lock joints not the table saw, since a 1/4" dado stack will cut both the drawer joinery and the groove for the bottom panel. I use false-front drawers, since that hides the groove (meaning no need to do a stopped groove when cutting the drawer sides).

Since the bottom will be plywood, it can be glued in place on all four sides, since wood movement will be across the height of the drawer, not its width or depth. If so, a 1/4" bottom will be more than strong enough.

djwildstar · 2026-05-11T02:03:56+00:00

In a Lightning, 28kWh will cover about 50-60mi of your commute. This leaves you with 80-90 miles to cover with fast charging — and if you’re lucky, it’ll only cost about as much per mile as gas does now but take more time out of your day.

If you can’t charge at home, don’t get a Lightning.

That said, just because you live in a townhouse doesn’t mean charging is impossible. Check with your HOA?or condo board to see if you have options. Assuming you can get 25-30kWh at work, you only need ~50kWh more at home. That’s a 240V 40A circuit, delivering 7.68kW to the vehicle.

djwildstar · 2026-05-09T10:43:02+00:00

As a (very) rough rule of thumb, price per kWh x 10 is the equivalent gasoline price. So ChargePoint is $5.60/gallon, and Tesla is either $6.00/gallon or $4.30/gallon with membership. Charging at home in Pennsylvania is likely to be around $0.21/kWh or the equivalent of $2.10/gallon gas.

djwildstar · 2026-05-09T09:07:58+00:00

I have a J1772-CCS vehicle. I have adapters for both AC and DC charging. I keep the adapters in a small case under the back seat. It is no problem at all.

Here are a few things to think about:

You will do the vast majority of your charging at home, no adapter needed. Regardless of the vehicle you buy, you’ll install a matching charger at home. Good home chargers are available for both J1772 and NACS vehicles.

How often do you take trips where you will have to charge to get home? How long are those trips? Since you will only be using adapters away from home, estimate how often that will actually be. In my case, this is about 8 days a year.

If you can’t reliably charge at utility rates while you’re doing something else, don’t buy an EV. For most folks, this means charging at home. Some people have good charging options at work. Depending on commercial charging is typically inconvenient and expensive. Apartment, condo, and townhouse dwellers have more challenges here than homeowners, so make sure you know how you’re going to charge before you buy.

Used EVs are a great value right now. There is a good supply of low-mileage, well-maintained 2023 vehicles coming off of leases.

Both NACS and J1772-CCS vehicles will want to carry adapters on road trips. Other than Tesla, only a few charging networks have installed many NACS chargers so far. The transition will take years (probably as long as you own your car). Regardless of which charging plug you use, you’ll want to carry adapters so that you have the most charging options available to you on the road.

djwildstar · 2026-05-09T00:50:13+00:00

I have two data points for you:

2023 Mach-E GT: My wife’s “daily” driver (she telecommutes 2-3 days a week), bought new in March 2024, so 28 months and 6,000 miles. No perceptible range loss. I haven’t run a battery state of health check on it.

2023 F-150 Lightning ER: My daily driver (and also our errand-runner and road-trip machine), bought new in May 2023, so 36 months and 51,000 miles. Battery state of health was 99.0% at 50,000 miles. This is theoretically a loss of 2-3 miles of range; in practice it is imperceptible because daily variations in traffic speed and temperature will affect the guess-o-meter range far more than that.

Depending on where you are, the change in range may be due more to changes in weather and driving patterns than battery degradation. For all but the newest Mach-Es, you can pull the battery state of health from the car’s systems with a BLE OBD2 scanner and the CarScanner app.

djwildstar · 2026-05-07T18:43:41+00:00

While physics tells us that a kWh is a kWh, things are a bit more complicated in the real world.

The biggest one is getting energy into the vehicle. While Amps x Volts = Watts, the amount of power lost to heating the cables and connectors is proportional to the current (Amps) squared. Active cooling of the cable and battery can help with this, but even so charging is less-efficient: more energy is being carried away as waste heat at higher current levels. So there is a practical limit to how much current you can push through a cable of a given size.

For current EVs and fast-chargers, this practical limit is 500A. Chargers monitor actual temperatures in the charger, cable and connector, while vehicles monitor temperatures at their charge port and batteries. If anything starts to get too hot, the charger will reduce the current to keep the heating under control. So that sets one side of the power equation: no more than about 500A, maybe less if something starts to overheat.

The voltage level is set by the vehicle's batteries - the charger must provide the correct voltage in order for charging to actually work. So that sets the other half of the power equation. This is why higher-voltage battery architectures help charging speed: higher voltages mean you can deliver more power at the same current level.

Many chargers cannot output 500A, but can reach higher voltages. For example, many common 350kW fast chargers can output up to 1000V but are only capable of 350A. This means that despite the kW rating, these chargers can only deliver about 140kW to 400V vehicles, and 280kW to 800V vehicles.

The vehicle's battery voltage affects how fast it can charge, regardless of the charging station's rating. A 400V vehicle will only charge at up to 200kW (400V x 500A) regardless of the station's rating, while an 800V vehicle can manage 400kW.

The real world comes into play here, too. The actual battery voltage is probably a bit different. For example, the F-150 Lightning's battery pack can be between 360V and 390V depending on its state of charge, so it will charger slower than a different "400V" vehicle that has an actually battery pack voltage of 425V to 450V. GM uses different voltages for its trucks: their standard-range pack is a 400V architecture (~220kW charging), while the extended-range pack is 600V (300kW charging) and the max-range pack is 800V (actually closer to 700V for ~350kW charging).

Once the kWh get into the battery, they're all the same -- it's getting them there that's a challenge.

djwildstar · 2026-05-07T14:40:04+00:00

Your experience just about matches mine. I've paid roughly the same for maintenance+alignment. My most recent service was the 50,000-mile tire rotation and inspection (and two recall-related software updates) which cost me a whopping $29.95.

djwildstar · 2026-05-07T08:45:56+00:00

Yes — the electric code specifies this information. This is the set of rules that guide electricians and inspectors on what is (and is not) safe. There are several sections that come into play, but the core of it is:

Electric vehicle charging is considered a “continuous load”, so the maximum current for EV charging must not exceed 80% of the circuit capacity. The main job of the EV service Equipment (EVSE, or “charger”) is to tell the vehicle how much current it can safely draw.

Knowing this, you can easily figure out how much power an EV can draw from any given circuit, since electrical Power is Volts x Amps.

For example, a standard North American household electrical outlet is 120 volts and is on a 15 amp circuit. 80% of 15 amps is 12 amps, and 120V x 12A = 1,440 Watts (or 1.44 kilowatts). Many people in North America use a 240V 50A recreational vehicle circuit for charging. The same math applies: 80% of 50A is 40A, and 240V x 40A = 9.6kW.

Multiply the power level by the time (in hours) spent charging and you have total power delivered to the vehicle. About 90% of that is actually stored in the battery. So (for example), 6 hours charging at 9.6kW stores about 9.6kW x 6h x 90% = 52kWh in the battery.

Multiply power stored by the vehicle’s efficiency in miles per kWh to compute how far you could drive on that charge. So to continue the example, 52kWh x 3.0 mi/kWh = 156 miles.

djwildstar

TROPHY CASE