EV experience so far

When my parents had their RV (I don't remember the length) with the V10, they got about 6 mpg. Of course, they had everything, including the kitchen sink stowed in it and towed an automobile as well. Filling it up was an experience as it would only accept gasoline at a trickle due to the way the fill pipe was run. It could take more than one pump activation as well because the pump would cut off at a set dollar amount which was $100 if I remember correctly.

I now think of the Chinook as my anti-EV. 46O V8 vs variable speed ac motor. Lots of stinky bladder inflating exhaust vs none. Plenty of rumble and vibration vs zero, unless GMs pedestrian warning turns on, then the Bolt does sound kinda like my 12V electric tire inflator.

The Chinook weighs 2.5 times the Bolt and consumes more than 11x the energy per mile, but that big V8 only makes about 25% more power than the Bolts tiny variable frequency ac motor. Gotta love the tech advances.

OTOH the Chinook can carry 18x the energy the Bolt can so it has about 60% longer range. Wouldn't want to try a long road trip yet in an electrified Chinook...

So a quick trip to a salvage yard solved by spare-less Bolt issue. Picked up a donut spare and and jack/lug wrench kit off a 2014 Cruze furv$80. Fits in the hoke just fine.

Re the Chinook, it's an E350 van chassis with a 460. Everthing is so jammed in there under that tiny hood that I can imagine Ford hiding a jack there. I looked anyway, no joy. I'll keep looking but I'm pretty sure at this point there isn't one.


Anyone have experience with those exhaust inflated air bag jacks? Looks like they would be more stable than a regular jack on an incline. Lighter too.

Been in there a bunch Furpod, changing fluids and finding the a/c leak. Never saw a jack, but I might have missed it. Where would it be if it was in there?

Yes the Bolt has self sealing tires. But my understand of them is that they won't seal sidewall punctures. I could be wrong, don't know much about the sealing technology.

One of the two flats we've had in the past year was a drywall screw through the sidewall and couldn't be plugged. For all I know it could have been one of my drywall screws. Or not. It was in my Prius, which has a spare, and I was driving, so no big deal.

I might never get another one of those but once bitten, twice shy. I want a spare of some kind in the thing. I don't want my wife not to have a spare available in the car and no cell service.

Lots of Bolt owners apparently feel as I do and there are several solutions on the Bolt forums, a donut spare from a salvage mid teens Cruze being the least expensive. So being a cheap kind of guy, I'm going to try the local wrecking yards for that first.

BTW my Chinook came with a spare but no jack. What good is that? So I have two jacks to buy now...