Tag: notes

2022 Ford Maverick XL Hybrid Notes

Mav­er­ick bought Jan­u­ary 2022. This isn’t a review, just some observations/thoughts about the car/drive/ownership thus far:

1. The 12V ports do NOT turn off, but the USB ports do. Even with the car engine turned off and key out of the igni­tion, the 12V will con­tin­ue to run. This has been evi­denced so far by my dash cam plugged into the 12V port. With the car off and sit­ting for 20 min­utes, I can unplug it from the 12V port and the dash­cam chimes off. If I plug it back into the 12V, it turns back on. If I plug it into the USB port, noth­ing hap­pens. This is a seri­ous bat­tery drain! I wish Ford had told me this up front! Or bet­ter yet, don’t allow it to be on for long after the car is turned off.

2. After turn­ing the car engine off and key removed, the engine bay makes fun­ny click­ing nois­es every so often. I won­der what it is?

3. If the back­seat is not latch­ing prop­er­ly, it will move around when the car is dri­ving. In my case, it would­n’t latch because I shoved too many things in the under-seat stor­age cub­by. Once removed, it latched per­fect­ly fine.

4. The seats have zero lum­bar sup­port. Ouch.

5. The “water bot­tle hold­er” cub­bies don’t fit any of my water bot­tles. I have a non-aerosol Febreeze bot­tle that fits in the slot but will fall out the instant I take any turns. Appar­ent­ly, it will fit a small fire extin­guish­er and I will test this soon. EDIT: I did end up test­ing this and I fit a First Alert 2.5lb Auto­mo­bile Fire Extin­guish­er in one of the back door cub­bies.

6. There is a sur­pris­ing amount of stor­age space in the vehi­cle. Very nice.

7. The wind­shield wiper con­trols are oppo­site from my Sub­aru. Con­fus­ing when dri­ving both cars inter­change­ably.

8. The brakes are crazy sen­si­tive at low speeds, and after 4 8 months I still can’t seem to reli­ably depress it smooth­ly.

9. Ford’s CoPi­lot 360 is very dif­fer­ent from Sub­aru Eye­sight. I felt super safe in my Sub­aru whose Eye­sight sys­tem almost was “nag­gy” in an over­pro­tec­tive way. CoPi­lot seems to work when it feels like it, and def­i­nite­ly not under 20mph. Turns out that I have the cheap one that only alerts and does­n’t brake for you. It still isn’t ter­ri­bly reli­able and some­times even alerts a few min­utes after some­thing close hap­pened.

10. I am not famil­iar with any oth­er hybrid sys­tems, but imme­di­ate­ly loved this one. After dri­ving it for 2 weeks, it made me des­per­ate­ly want either a plug-in hybrid or a straight EV. The tran­si­tion is smooth between the gas and elec­tric engines, mak­ing it hard to tell some­times. Even the auto start-stop isn’t frus­trat­ing. It’s smooth.

11. Just because it’s hybrid does­n’t mean it’s slow. In fact, it’s quite zip­py. I just bought it for MPGs not zip­pi­ness. I feel like elec­tric engine boosts the accel­er­a­tor notice­ably.

12. Also, just because it’s small and hybrid, does­n’t mean it’s not a truck. Had zero issues haul­ing heavy soil, lum­ber, grav­el, and pavers. I’ve owned 2 Sub­aru Out­backs in 9 years, one 2.5 nat­u­ral­ly aspi­rat­ed and one 2.4 tur­bo-charged. Hauled many loads of gardening/landscaping in both super capa­ble cars. Mav­er­ick did­n’t even hic­cup. The dri­ve felt nor­mal and smooth. End­ed up tot­ing sev­er­al large loads around while clean­ing out my stor­age unit, and it was just like dri­ving on a nor­mal day.

13. I’ve found that dri­ving elec­tric is eas­i­er under 30mph and around 60mph. Both is because those speeds most­ly see my coast­ing in either traf­fic (~30mph) or draft­ing and feath­er­ing the accel­er­a­tor behind some­one else. EDIT: actu­al­ly, around 20 and 45 is fine, too. It real­ly just depends on how much accel­er­a­tion is need­ed. The absolute best for elec­tric dri­ving and MPGs is a smooth, steady dri­ve at one speed, with very lit­tle to no brak­ing.

14. The hybrid rewards you for being a good dri­ver: accel­er­at­ing grad­u­al­ly, brak­ing gen­tly and far­ther away, and coasting/feathering the ped­al at a steady pace. When I am being a nice, calm dri­ver, I eas­i­ly reach 50mpg in traf­fic and 43mpg in light traf­fic. Aggres­sive, angry dri­ving usu­al­ly nets me 38mpg in traf­fic and 31mpg in low traf­fic. The car is rat­ed 40 city/30 high­way. …still way bet­ter than 19mpg aver­age for my old cars.

15. Work com­mute is about 120 miles a week plus ran­dom dri­ving on the week­end. I hit 1⁄2 tank on the gaso­line every 2 weeks, using 1⁄4 tank every week. The tank capac­i­ty is 13.8 gal­lons. Very very nice. I used to be 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 emp­ty every week in an 18.5 gal­lon tank. That’s 3.45 gal­lons a week vs. 9.25 gal­lons on a good week. WOW.

16. So far, because the car is cur­rent­ly rare, peo­ple will ogle and stare. In fact, an old­er cou­ple lit­er­al­ly RAN up to my car and did a walk around, mouths agape while I was inside of it.

17. Guys in large, mon­ster pick­ups will dri­ve super aggres­sive­ly around the vehi­cle prob­a­bly because my com­pact pick­up truck offends their egos which are as large as their lifts and tires. Hey, it actu­al­ly fits in one park­ing space.

18. Peo­ple who dri­ve behind me hate that they can’t see well around me and the fact that it’s a hybrid, so will con­stant­ly try to dri­ve around only to see that I am, in fact, behind oth­ers and now they’re in the slow­er lane. Inter­est­ing­ly, those who dri­ve behind will try to pass, but those in front will most like­ly change lanes to get out of the way.

19. I am reg­u­lar­ly sad­dened by the fact that I can’t com­fort­ably car­ry longer pieces of wood than around 4′. I mean, you can, I just don’t want to have to rig it up by tying it in the bed with it hang­ing out the back or buy­ing racks. My Out­backs could haul around 6′5″ inside. Beh.

20. I can’t get over how truck‑y the thing feels. It’s small. It’s com­pact, but damn it, Ford knows how to makes trucks. I bought a pick­up and want to feel like it is one even if it’s a baby one. You sit inside and you feel like you’re inside of a pick­up.

21. Also, I LOVE how cheap the darn thing is. I com­plain about a lot of things, but in the end it’s almost half the price of my last Out­back, AND it’s sav­ing me mon­ey with the hybrid sys­tem. I actu­al­ly for­get how lit­tle I paid for it. The return for my invest­ment is fan­tas­tic.

22. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, in the same breath, I regret how cheap it is. I’m ashamed to say that even feel this way, because I’m not usu­al­ly that kind of per­son, but it’s cheap. Ford did a great job of try­ing to spruce it up, but the seats are uncom­fort­able, the plas­tic is, well, plas­tic, I’m miss­ing more lux­u­ry fea­tures like cruise con­trol (which actu­al­ly breaks the car own­er­ship for me), the exte­ri­or is kind of blah with­out the acces­sories. I des­per­ate­ly miss the push-but­ton start and key­less entry. The head-unit is very sim­ple. The man­u­al seat adjust­ments are fine, but I miss the pow­er ones. Oth­er lit­tle things, too. I guess I just enjoy nicer things now that I’ve had it? Like I said, it’s embar­rass­ing for some­one like me to even admit that. I hate think­ing I’m bet­ter than oth­ers or too good for things, but I want some­thing nicer. Should I have sprung for a bet­ter pack­age? I’m sure the Lar­i­at comes with nice things and even the XLT. I feel like if I had, then I would­n’t be spring­ing so quick­ly for an EV. It would be eas­i­er to wait out a bet­ter EV if I had gone more lux­u­ri­ous. How­ev­er, I had orig­i­nal­ly intend­ed the Mav­er­ick to be a 2nd car, a more MPG-mind­ed car, so that’s why I went cheapo. The lack of cruise con­trol is the biggest killer because try­ing to make a long trip out of state would be not the best with­out cruise con­trol (espe­cial­ly for some­one prone to leg cramps). …as if dri­ving out of state with an EV is much easier…no cruise con­trol is not the same as hav­ing to re-charge at weird, out-of-the-way places where the charg­er might not even work well. A 2‑hour charge could eas­i­ly turn into a 5‑hour charge.

23. After 8 months of own­er­ship and dri­ving it around, I have come to the con­clu­sion that I real­ly real­ly like the Mav­er­ick, but I’m not in love with it. I would be in love with it, had it been my first car or even if I’d nev­er got­ten a high­er trimmed Out­back. I’d also be quite enam­ored with it if it had been a plug-in hybrid and AWD. Then why would I get some­thing else? It’d be per­fect.

24. So far, I’ve had one major recall: Under hood fire risk. Took it to Ford and they just drilled out some holes under­neath of it.

25. Sad­ly, I’m very much ready for the Mach‑E I’ve ordered (and prob­a­bly won’t get for anoth­er half a year at this point). I’m so ready to get back into a car that is not as long, that does­n’t have a pick­up bed (I like it a lot, but I real­ly don’t need it any­more after the stor­age unit is done), can cor­ner well, and has nice seats. Like I men­tioned, I very much like the car and would love to keep it as a sec­ond vehi­cle if I could, but I can’t.

26. Took the Mav­er­ick on a 4 hour/200 mile total trip (so high­way dri­ving) and the stats came back 39.8mpg!! Also, I was ter­ri­fied that I’d get mus­cle cramps from the lack of cruise con­trol, but thanks to coconut water, noth­ing (this time…)! It felt good, it was fast, great pass­ing pow­er. Drove through lots of rain, no prob­lems. Nav­i­gat­ed back­woods grav­el, steep hills and curves, no issues, no strug­gling. And, wow, the MPG! The truck is rat­ed 30 high­way! It got 40! I’m super impressed. Tru­ly a won­der­ful truck that Ford could eas­i­ly charge more mon­ey for (it is more expen­sive than $20k now than before, for sure). The next trip is sup­posed to be a long one: 6 hours and 300 miles one-way.

Dyna-Glo Vertical Offset Smoker Notes

I’ve owned my unit since ear­ly 2020 as a new­bie smok­er get­ting the cheap­est (mean­ing thin met­al, bad joints and seams) smok­er I could find and also being the light­est smok­er for my ele­vat­ed deck. After some shoring up of said seams, etc, I’ve kept it around and quite enjoy smok­ing meats.

Unlike more auto­mat­ed smok­ers, this smok­er requires more atten­tion whilst cook­ing. Here are some notes for my future ref­er­ence and if it will help any­one.

Smok­ing in the winter/cold weath­er

  • More fuel need­ed
  • Longer cook­ing time (almost dou­ble or triple depend­ing on the weath­er) because it’s a fight to increase temps
  • Help­ful to have some­thing to help retain heat (e.g. thermal/ weld­ing blan­ket, large sheets of met­al or the like set around the unit to reflect heat back)
  • Small­er char­coal pieces burns hot­ter and faster than larg­er pieces for quick­er temp increas­es

Smok­ing in summer/hot weath­er

  • Faster cook­ing time
  • Less fuel need­ed
  • Help­ful to have shade over the unit like a patio umbrel­la to help with sun-dri­ven tem­per­a­ture increas­es.
  • More large chunk char­coal (slow­er burn so won’t dri­ve temps high quick­ly) than small pieces (burn hot and fast)

Tem­per­a­ture con­trol

  • Clos­ing inlet and out­let will starve the oxy­gen and decrease tem­per­a­ture
  • Open­ing inlet and out­let will increase oxy­gen, increas­ing tem­per­a­ture
  • Clos­ing out­let and open­ing inlet can cause cre­osyte which makes food bit­ter
  • Open­ing the out­let and min­i­miz­ing the inlet caus­es a vac­u­um that draws more air through caus­ing temp increase
  • Ful­ly clos­ing all vents puts out char­coal (although that takes a long time)
  • Open­ing of door or fire­box decreas­es tem­per­a­ture
  • Though not rec­om­mend­ed, open­ing and leav­ing the door par­tial­ly closed will keep the tem­per­a­ture from going too high (had to do because I put way too much char­coal in for the sum­mer and I have noth­ing to store extra burn­ing char­coal in. How­ev­er, it changes the cook­ing and taste)
  • Try not to freak out when the tem­per­a­ture goes too high or too low because open­ing and clos­ing the doors will cause the tem­per­a­ture to be all over the place. Fid­dling with the vents will allow the temps to rise and fall more grad­u­al­ly

Gen­er­al Notes

  • Make sure to clean cook­ing grates often as left­over debris goes ran­cid, can mold, and affect not only safe­ty of food (smok­ers oper­ate at low tem­per­a­tures cre­at­ing ide­al con­di­tions for ther­mophilic bac­te­ria) but taste of the food too (Blech, sad­ly, from expe­ri­ence).
  • Lin­ing the bot­tom of the smok­er with foil helps catch drip­pings
  • The floor of my fire­box and under the soot tray are def­i­nite­ly rusty out from rain and mois­ture, despite use of Dyna-Glo’s cov­er
  • Built-in ther­mome­ter is only an indi­ca­tor and not accu­rate
  • Using a water bath can be help­ful to keep more mois­ture in the meat. I place a small foil loaf pan with water on the floor of the cook­ing side. You can add juice to it, just be care­ful because it can change the fla­vor of the meat. I used too much apple cider vine­gar once from a recipe and it gave every­thing a sour taste/smell
  • I also placed a fire brick on the floor of the cook­ing side because it sup­pos­ed­ly helps with more con­stant heat dis­si­pa­tion? I’ve been using it since the begin­ning, so I can’t say if it is use­ful or not.
  • Wood chips
    • I’ve found through time that my fam­i­ly and I don’t like heavy smoke on the food. In my opin­ion, less is more.
    • Some peo­ple ral­ly against it, but I like to soak my chips before use. Has a side bonus of slight­ly reduc­ing tem­per­a­ture when it’s wet
    • Apple and Pecan have a nice, light fla­vor
    • Cher­ry also has a nice fla­vor, but will give the meat a red col­or, too
    • Hick­o­ry is strong, so less used the bet­ter
    • Mesquite is very strong. Less is def­i­nite­ly bet­ter. I per­son­al­ly don’t like to use it.
    • My favorite wood chips fla­vors (the ones I keep going to every time) are apple and pecan.

Use­ful Items

  • Heat gloves
  • Wire­less ther­mome­ter with mul­ti­ple probes
  • Sunglasses/safety glass­es (smoke in your eyes is not par­tic­u­lar­ly fun)
  • Foil loaf pan for water bath
  • Weber lighter cubes
  • Chim­ney starter
  • Large chunk lump Kama­do char­coal
  • Nor­mal lump char­coal that con­tains small­er pieces
  • Met­al pail with secure lid to respon­si­bly place char­coal waste
  • Fire bricks
  • Grate scrub­ber and clean­er
  • Wood chips
  • My safe­ty fea­tures:
    • Pro­tec­tive mat under smok­er (like an Ember Mat) espe­cial­ly if using on wood deck
    • Heat shield on top of pro­tec­tive mat to pro­tect deck from heat and reflect it back at the smok­er
    • Old pans to help catch tiny pieces of burn­ing char­coal when pour­ing into fire­box
    • Mini, round, portable char­coal grill to hold chim­ney starter
    • Safe­ty glass­es
    • Heat gloves
    • Long tongs