Andrew is an environmental engineer by day, "youth activity volunteer" by evening, and EV advocate / blogger in his remaining spare time.
He is very passionate about the future of energy generation & usage. He prefers bikes & buses to cars, but acknowledges that Canadian cities have been developed primarily with cars in mind, so if we're going to drive, let's make them all EVs!
Nice, how long is the lumber, 16, 18 ft? I hall that kind of stuff on and in my 06 Outback all the time. I just don’t get the mpg of the vw. Looking to go ev as soon as possible so thanks for your thoughts.
Hi Gideon. Thanks for the comment. That is about five pieces of 16 foot x 5/4 composite decking. Composite decking is very heavy, maybe more thank twice that of regular lumber. The overhangs and the bending was less then ideal, but we made it home without incident. You could probably do the same on a Leaf but the longer lumber will be more difficult because the Leaf will be a bit shorter. You might need to build a wood rack for the roof rack to provide more support.
Definitely wait until 2017 if possible for a new EV. If you have cash burning a hole in your wallet look at a 2016 Leaf or a Tesla! Do not buy a used 2011 or 2012 Leaf unless you know what you are getting and know what you need.
Of course you may no longer want a VW TDI (almost bought a Touareg TDI last week…) but with the diesel fiasco we might get some nice gas plug-ins soon or more BEVs too.
Nice, how long is the lumber, 16, 18 ft? I hall that kind of stuff on and in my 06 Outback all the time. I just don’t get the mpg of the vw. Looking to go ev as soon as possible so thanks for your thoughts.
Hi Gideon. Thanks for the comment. That is about five pieces of 16 foot x 5/4 composite decking. Composite decking is very heavy, maybe more thank twice that of regular lumber. The overhangs and the bending was less then ideal, but we made it home without incident. You could probably do the same on a Leaf but the longer lumber will be more difficult because the Leaf will be a bit shorter. You might need to build a wood rack for the roof rack to provide more support.
Definitely wait until 2017 if possible for a new EV. If you have cash burning a hole in your wallet look at a 2016 Leaf or a Tesla! Do not buy a used 2011 or 2012 Leaf unless you know what you are getting and know what you need.
Of course you may no longer want a VW TDI (almost bought a Touareg TDI last week…) but with the diesel fiasco we might get some nice gas plug-ins soon or more BEVs too.
-David