Author Archive for Jason Lancaster
Jason Lancaster is the editor and founder of TundraHeadquarters.com. He has nearly a decade of experience on the retail side of the auto industry, and another decade of experience of the part and accessory side of the industry.
Commercial Electric Pickup Truck Conversions
Not everyone is comfortable hacking together their own custom electric pickup truck conversion. The technology used in this type of vehicle is often unfamiliar to even the most dedicated gearhead. It can also take a lot of time, garage space, money, and trial and error to accomplish…items not always in plentiful supply for people who lead busy lives.
Fortunately, there are a number of companies that now offer turnkey electric conversions directed at pickup truck owners. Both the United States and Canada have seen an explosion of entrepreneurs tuned into the electric vehicle movement. These organizations offer professional installations of a complete electric driveline, along with service plans and warranties to help preserve peace of mind while tooling down the highway.
Rapid Electric Vehicle F150 Electric Conversion Specs
Rapid Electric Vehicles Technologies (REV) is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They are focused on both individual and fleet conversions of the Ford F-150 full-size pickup truck, the Ford Ranger compact truck and the Ford Escape SUV. The F-150 is classified as a plug-in hybrid because the company leaves the original gasoline engine as-is and adds an electric motor powered by a lithium battery. This gives the truck a 40 mile range on a single charge. What’s more, the battery itself can be charged by either the truck’s gas-powered motor or regenerative braking.
25 Vehicles Less American Than The Toyota Tundra
Cars.com has found that 4 of the top 10 “most America” vehicles are made by Toyota (the Tundra, Camry, Sienna, and Venza all made the top 10). In light of Toyota’s dominance of the Cars.com list, Cars.com has named Toyota The Most “American” Manufacturer.
Instead of posting the fact that the Tundra is rated to be more “American” than both the Ram and the Chevy Silverado / GMC Sierra (just like the Tundra was last year and the year before), we thought it would be fun to list off all of the vehicles with less domestic content than the Tundra.
Here’s a list of 25 vehicles with fewer domestic parts than the Tundra:
2500 Mile Oil Changes Because You’re Running E-85? P-shaw
Last week a Toyota dealership dropped a link on Twitter with the warning “Did you know you have to change your oil twice as often if you’re running E85?” (or something like that ).
The link went to a page that advocated a 2,500 mile oil change frequency for truck owners using E85. Of course, there was no explanation as to why E85 users needed to change their oil twice as often, just that they should. THAT, ladies and gentleman, is why dealership service departments get a bad wrap. Instead of explaining why 2,500 might be a prudent choice (and it might), they make a blanket statement. I say p-shaw. This recommendation is, at best, paranoid.
First, here’s why this recommendation was made.
Ford Drops F150 “SFE” Package
It feels good to be right about something at TundraHeadquarters.com (since it happens so rarely). Back in September, 2008, we wrote a post about the F150 SFE (Superior Fuel Economy) package saying quote:
