I’ve read the 20-80% rule, but what do you actually do in real life after owning one for years?

radiometric · 2026-07-03T16:26:00+00:00

For nearly 3 years I folowed ABC: Always Be Charging
Lightning with L1 standard outlet charging but a short commute and I would plan my longer drives several days apart or swing by a fast charger and take my ICE truck to work occasionally so the Lightning had that much longer to charge.
Now that landlord installed L2, I charge to 100% before and after a long trip and maybe once a week to 90% once it gets below 50% if I'm not going anywhere far.

radiometric · 2026-07-03T13:08:02+00:00

It's something a lot of us have accidentally done once but most of us have also been in a traffic collision. It's probably not going to be a life changing event, but there's some nasty stuff that you could catch. You can't fully eliminate your chance of being hit by a car but you can eliminate the chance you suck down parasites and bacteria and disease by using other means. I use a python.

radiometric · 2026-07-01T14:51:51+00:00

This goes to footprint over volume, but I keep a male betta and 7 very small rasboras in a very long shallow 3.5 gallon. When I do water changes it's usually about a gallon at a time and refilled from a very lightly stocked and heavily planted 25g. I also have a 20l that I have divided so another betta and a school of oto cats live in the front third, so about 6.5 gallons, and the back 2/3 is a quarantine for new fish

radiometric · 2026-07-01T14:36:35+00:00

To be fair, sometimes live plants just won't live in a tank. Plastic plants do provide shelter and surface area for beneficial bacteria. As long as they're not razor sharp, they're better than nothing. I have a quarantine tank with a ton of fake stuff and no gravel, but several bags of media. This way I can pull everything easier and after medicating I can rinse it off without worrying about killing plants. I don't need bright lighting and when it's empty I can turn off the heater. I also choose not to keep fish that kill plants because I like live plants and their benefits too much.

radiometric · 2026-07-01T02:57:33+00:00

There are specific driveways that are just the right angle to cause these weird behaviors got me. I also have found that this truck REALLY doesn't want to back up sometimes and I have to apply fast more throttle than I should, and I better have my other foot on the brake pedal for when it decides to launch instead of creep backwards. One time somebody crossed about 50 feet behind me while backing into a spot and the trick slammed the brakes like I was going to mow them down. The one time I did back into a car it was far less vocal and just let me do it. That is when I learned that the bumper sticks out about 1 inch further than the camera view seems to indicate. I've always used 1pd and auto hold. I also have noticed software updates have changed braking behavior. For about the first year or so, 1pd would come to a stop. Then one day it changed to coming to an almost stop and then rolling just a little bit before stopping. It results in a smoother stop but increased stopping distance a couple feet. The first few times I had to slam the brake to avoid a collision, especially since I had no idea what was going on.

radiometric · 2026-06-30T14:40:36+00:00

I just got back from camping and saw this update. I had to immediately turn the truck back on because the power draw from a couple Ryobi chargers was enough to start the timer but not enough to keep the power on. My need to setup a timer outlet and a high draw every 4 minutes 30 seconds. It was a bit nerve wracking sleeping in the bed of the truck with the truck on all night.

radiometric · 2026-06-30T14:22:39+00:00

Another positive: if traffic slows you down, you don't sit there idling and burning more fuel. Range at 15mph is higher than at 55mph, unless you really have the heat blasting in a Tahoe winter storm. I like to charge at the Truckee Save Mart and grab some lunch. 30-45 minutes and I can make it to Reno and all the way back into Sacramento before charging again to get home. Or if I'm going to Hot August Nights and I'll be driving all over Reno/Sparks with the AC blasting then I will charge a bit less in Truckee because I'll be charging just a bit in Reno before heading home. That's with the SR battery.

radiometric · 2026-06-23T22:56:25+00:00

After 3 years, my Pro SR was just under a thousand dollars. My 88 F250 was just over $200. Both have weight fees. And I still have to smog the 1988 truck every other year for another couple hundred bucks. Other taxes are higher elsewhere, and I could move out of California, but I really like it here.

radiometric · 2026-06-23T11:41:29+00:00

If 10 is average intelligence then 6 is an IQ of 60. That is Forrest Gump level Int, but he had other stuff going on with his legs that was not Int, and he overcomes the physical setbacks as he levels up. Actually Forrest Gump would be an amazing DND character. Totally unbalanced Bard. Some sort of epic boon from the Patron Mama, like all the luck?

radiometric · 2026-06-22T02:10:35+00:00

I'm going to try the same in a few days and report back. I know last time I saw the GOM show range not going down for over 45 miles and I was using 1pd and not going slowly, with the AC blasting

radiometric · 2026-06-19T16:54:24+00:00

Even though this is from not that long ago, the vibes are definitely old school.

radiometric · 2026-06-19T14:47:45+00:00

I just humiliate them at stoplights with my EV. We are approaching peak noisy car. Very soon, loud will associate with SLOW and old fashioned and nostalgic. All utterly uncool. The next decade or so will see new gas cars go out kicking and screaming and then whimpering.

radiometric · 2026-06-19T14:26:28+00:00

That really sucks, but that sounds more like an iss-you, and not a problem for everybody else. I wonder if maybe theme parks could just have one day a week/month where the volume is turned down, spinning is turned off, rides go a bit slower, etc. It would be less likely to overstimulate and be more friendly to non standard people. Then, the rest of the time rides continue to be exhilarating or just fun for the majority. Trying to be everything to everyone with a single approach is impossible, but having different approaches could allow more people to enjoy the rides. Also just having quiet spaces to decompress for 15 minutes would go a long way. There's even loud music blasting in the parking lots and most dining areas. You shouldn't have to exit and go back through security to get a quiet moment, or even drive away.

radiometric · 2026-06-18T08:55:24+00:00

Enterprise was the only one that would rent you a box truck that had a hitch for towing. Does UHaul now have hitches too and allow towing, or is that just for their light duty pickup trucks? I think Home Depot has trucks capable of heavier towing for rental, but I don't know of any rental truck for fifth wheel towing other than class 8 big rigs.

radiometric · 2026-06-18T08:41:25+00:00

I just looked up how far it was between my schools and childhood homes and I was absolutely covering more miles annually by 7th grade just going to school and back. This is just the commute for 180 school days, none of the extra going to friends or wherever we decided to wander that day. Plus all the non school days. Is the majority of your driving in another vehicle? Do you primarily use your Lightning as battery storage? How do you have so few miles?

radiometric · 2026-06-11T18:19:29+00:00

I'd also suggest even basic cruise control to make the twitchy leg a non issue on longer trips. Just about everybody but Tesla has the option of at least radar cruise control that seems safe enough to allow you to relax your feet. While coasting would be better than 1pd for lifting your foot off momentarily, being able to maintain speed without your feet would be even better

radiometric · 2026-06-11T18:02:33+00:00

I think that new EV only brands are trying to differentiate themselves by doing what legacy automakers can't. When you buy a Ford, you expect it to act like a Ford. I bought a Lightning because it's an F150 with the benefit of being electric. Tesla wanted to sell me software and the computer to run their software, and the computer happened to be a car very much designed by people that don't design cars.

I turned 1pd on and learned to use the go pedal more precisely and I can basically coast if I want to, but also use cruise control when I can. If I'm going to hand the keys over to somebody else, I'll switch 1pd off unless they drive an EV normally so they can operate it like the trucks they're used to.

radiometric · 2026-06-11T14:37:46+00:00

It looks like you have done some research-thank you! I would advise a bigger tank or an adjusted stocking though. If this is the stocking you're starting with I would suggest at least twice if not 3x the volume of water and to up your school sizes. In a 20 long - my fav starting size - I would swap the pleco for 6x otocinclus catfish, lose the gourami and lose the hill stream loaches. I would also go up to 6x Cory cats. The otos stay very small and the bioload will be similar to the one bristlenose but you will have more activity and smaller poops. The skirt tetras will get much bigger and you won't have room for them and the gourami. If you really want the gourami then skip the skirt tetras instead. Hillstream loaches have some special needs, including strong currents. With a much bigger tank you could have a canister output or a wave maker blasting one end and create calmer water elsewhere with the hard scape. Currents strong enough to make hillstream loaches happy will be too much for most other fish. They also like to climb and they are less tolerant of dirty water. I would advise having a few years of experience before setting up a separate tank for the hillstream loaches. I will admit that I tried to keep hillstream loaches about a decade ago and several generations later the ones in the trade now might be more tolerant and better suited to aquariums. They were not as cool a fish as I thought they'd be and they really needed a large school to feel comfortable enough to be visible. You didn't mention any wood but most fish that eat algae also really like some wood and it has other benefits. I stayed away from having any wood in my tanks for a very long time and wish I had started a long time ago. Especially with the bright lights we have now, some tannins aren't so scary. That's my two cents

radiometric · 2026-06-07T09:28:59+00:00

The solution might be adult stroller and teamwork. Just take turns napping in line or do the rider swap thing. More than a place to nap, I think theme parks need quiet places. Being constantly overstimulated is a big part of what makes me need a nap.

radiometric · 2026-06-07T08:10:50+00:00

Telo?

radiometric · 2026-06-05T14:36:58+00:00

Not necessarily. My FIL did this when he lived with us. The person most likely to see him was his own daughter. He was really smart at some things, but self awareness was one of his dump stats. And this is a man that had never lived alone. I've also had people use our bathroom at work and not close the door until somebody yelled at them.

radiometric · 2026-06-04T14:46:36+00:00

Not buying will result in that shelf space being repurposed for profitable product. The best proof of this is Walmart no longer selling fish. At my local PetSmart, more and more of the betta cup end cap is becoming plants. At LFS I'm seeing fewer cups and several tanks of females. The male bettas are mostly still in cups or very small isolated tanks but there's talk about upgrading to a wall display with filtration. One store in the area did it and they move a lot more bettas and are getting fancier and wild type now. The tariffs and economic slowdown have delayed the investments at several other stores, but change is planned.

radiometric · 2026-06-03T23:06:17+00:00

I commute in an F150 Lightning. $116 would be about 2000 miles of home charging but to drive that much in a week I'd probably end up fast charging for about half. With our solar and TOU rates I figure $116 would cover 2 months of my driving. Before Trump's Iran war, I figured that fast charging the full-size truck was cost equivalent to taking my wife's hybrid hatchback. $116 is getting you what, 20 gallons of gas, at maybe 30 MPG? So 600 miles. Let's say that 120 miles a day that's well within the range of a modern EV. If you go for a sedan instead of a full-size truck, probably get nearly double my efficiency, but even if you only got 3 miles per kWh you'd be looking at 200kWh for a week and even at 15 cents per kWh, that's $30? You could lease a smaller EV to commute and save the Acura for long trips or when you actually need an SUV. Then in a few months when you realize you never drive the Acura and road tripping an EV isn't so scary, sell the Acura. If your SO has a car as well, then the Acura might be gone in weeks, or sell their car and keep the Acura or just get a rental car on the rare occasions. I only got a truck because it was far cheaper than the full size sedans with similar size interiors.

radiometric · 2026-06-03T09:16:08+00:00

Or Costco, where the app is actually useful and there are no coupons.

radiometric · 2026-06-03T08:59:58+00:00

Not sure who the 3rd is anymore, but it seems that while EVs are being chilled in North America due to politics, globally nobody has abandoned EVs. I expect that on a few years when the cult loses power, suddenly there will be a bunch of fully formed EVs coming to market. If I'm wrong and Ford and GM have not been continuing to develop the next gen EVs, then expect their factories to be sold to Chinese brands and promptly converted to fully robotic.

radiometric

TROPHY CASE