Smoke, Solar, and Soul with Chris Ashley

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[00:00:50] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a Podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, barbecue and much, much more.

[00:01:22] My name is Bodie and I am your host and on today's episode I sat down with big Chris Ashley and we talked about his Ford F-150 Lightning, his Anker batteries, and I'm talking about the big Anker batteries, not the little ones, the big ones, and how he utilizes those on his food truck. Now Chris does have a gasoline generator, but I will let Chris explain how he uses that,

[00:01:46] but he would prefer to stay on just electricity. Now if the name Chris Ashley sounds familiar to you, Chris has been on the Daily Tech News Show. He's one of three hosts of the SMR Podcast. He hosts that with my co-host Rob Dunwood and Rod Simmons. It's a very good complimentary show to this show because they talk about tech, and then they also talk about electric cars, and it's one of my favorite podcasts.

[00:02:14] Chris also hosts the Barbecue and Tech Podcast, which, by the way, is the name of his food truck. And finally, Chris has been on this podcast, and I was lucky enough to get the first interview with Chris when he got his F-150 Lightning. Why is this important? This is important because Chris was literally in that first group of people who got the F-150 Lightning.

[00:02:39] He has been interviewed, again, by Tom Merritt from the Daily Tech News Show, but he was also interviewed multiple times on national news. So it was a really big deal during the time. So it was cool that Chris came out and chatted with Allison Sheridan and myself for this show. And the gentleman from the SMR Podcast actually let me borrow an episode when I was struggling to get content out.

[00:03:04] And the episode that they let me have was Chris's journey driving from Maryland, I think, to Tennessee to pick up Chris's food trailer and then back. It was quite an adventure. We talk a little bit about that in the show, but I'll put links to the episode where Chris gets his F-150 Lightning, and then I'll make sure to put a link to that episode where Chris is talking about his epic journey.

[00:03:30] And then, of course, I'll put links to all the things that Chris is up to in the show notes as well. And just a little behind-the-scenes thing here. Normally what happens is that I will say to the guest when it's just, you know, when we're recording, I'll say, Chris, welcome to the show. But I have a whole intro that I do before I say that. But so I say to Chris, are you ready? And I say, Chris, welcome to the show. And Chris says something very funny. So I'm going to leave all of that in. Normally I take it out.

[00:03:57] I'm going to leave all that in because I thought it was, it made me, it genuinely made me belly laugh. So hopefully it'll make you belly laugh as well. So for this man, I didn't even write any questions down because I kind of know your story a little bit through listening to SMR and talking to Rob and interacting with you. So I figured we would just have a conversation. Sounds good. However you, you know me, man. However you want to do it. All right.

[00:04:27] Are you ready? You want to take a sec? No, I'm good. Okay. All right. Chris, welcome to the show. That's the best intro I've ever had on any podcast ever. Normally I'll throw, I'll throw like an intro at the, I do a beginning and an ending. I'm going to leave this in so people know how this works, but I'll do an intro before that.

[00:04:56] But, but thank you. What's up, my man. How you doing? All right. So Chris, was it two years ago now that you decided that you were going to make a big change in your life? Uh, honestly, it's almost three. Almost three. This, well, the decision was four, right? And then the purchase was in 2022.

[00:05:24] Cause I'm, yeah, I'm rolling up on three years now since I've had this bad boy. Yeah. So just to kind of catch people up, you were working at a, as a, in a tech job. And then you decided to open up a food truck. But before you did all of that, you bought an F-150 lightning. You, you gained media attention. Oh, right. That's the initial change I was talking about. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. The food truck, I just hit a year, a week ago. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah. So we'll start with the, you got an F-150 lightning. You came on this show.

[00:05:55] You went on daily tech news show. You went on, you know, national television shows, little things here and there. CBS news wanted to chat. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. So, yeah, you, you were sought after for a while there. How, how far back do you want to go today? We can do, we can do whatever. I mean, I mean, I'm sure you've picked up, you know, you've been out doing your thing. So you've probably picked up a vast more users than the last time we spoke.

[00:06:22] So we can make sure folks get the background of it, you know, and essentially I was looking at trucks. I was really fed up with, with gas vehicles. Not to mention, um, I was, you know, but I, I knew I didn't want a car for myself because I just do too much stuff. Um, that requires a truck. And, uh, I had, uh, originally had considered putting my name in for a cyber truck.

[00:06:52] Uh, when I heard it was being announced and then a fan of the SMR podcast, um, good friend. And now, uh, Kevin Wheeler said, Hey, you might want to hold off. I heard Ford was about to announce an electric pickup truck. And I was like, Oh, I was like, okay.

[00:07:09] Um, and then, uh, sure enough, um, the, the announcement had came out and it was like one of those things where, um, the way I describe it is like when folks are waiting around for the new iPhone to launch or a new Android phone to launch. I was literally had two screens up, had one with the announcement and then one on their website, waiting for them to say pre-orders were open.

[00:07:32] And as soon as they said pre-orders were open, I immediately went through my a hundred dollars down and didn't know what to expect. But sure enough, I started moving through the process or throughout the year. Um, I got a second notification, uh, cause one of the things they did is said, you know, you kind of put the pre-order in through Ford, but then they said, choose your dealership that you want to take delivery at. That's going to finish all the paperwork and all that stuff. So I chose the same dealership where I had purchased my previous F-150.

[00:08:03] Um, that was, and then, uh, about eight months, nine months later, um, I'd gotten a notification saying, Hey, um, we're about to move into the build phase. You need to put down an additional $500. And I sure enough did. Um, and then from there, that was like in January, um, of 22. And then man, it was like a whirlwind from that point.

[00:08:28] Uh, in, uh, March, I'd gotten an email saying your delivery date was going to be June. I think it was June 18th, something like that. Um, and you're built, we're, we're going to, the build date was going to start, um, and like the end of May. And sure enough on, uh, June, I think it was June 2nd, I was on a DTNS and I was just ready to start the show.

[00:08:55] And I, I got a phone call from the dealership. I was like, uh, your truck is here. When do you want to get it? I was like, what? I could, it was like a full two weeks early. And, you know, Tom was looking at me like, what's going on? You know? And I was like, Oh man, my electric truck just arrived. And he was like, do you want to go? And I was like, no, I gotta be cool. Sit back. Um, we'll do the show and whatever.

[00:09:23] And I'm glad I did that because, you know, I still had to sell my old F-150 and, uh, you know, I was able to go to CarMax, get a price there and then go to the dealership and make sure, you know, they were. And of course they lowballed me. And then I was like, I'll be back. I'm going to go to CarMax. And, you know, they never want to let you leave once you're at that point. Uh, so they bumped up their offer and, uh, took down another price to kind of even it out. And I was like, all right, we're good. And, uh, yeah, it was, uh, that was the second person in Maryland.

[00:09:52] I was told to take delivery of the F-150 lightning and that was it, man. It was off to the races from there. And, uh, it was just a crazy summer. And I was fortunate to be in, you know, frequent communication to you during, with you that during that time. Um, we, we should give props to the dealership because around that time when these F-150 lightnings were coming in, they were like jacking the prices up in some cases, nearly a hundred percent. Yes.

[00:10:23] Well, you know, big props to, uh, Apple Ford. Um, not only were, did they, uh, honor every aspect of the, of the deal and everything that was set up and never even thought about attempting to raise the prices. But then, you know, the final process was really cool. Even at the end, you know, you, you purchase, I don't know how many people go to dealerships or purchase cars, but, um, there's always that, you know, you got to go through the financing part. You sit down with them for a while, do all sign, all these paperwork.

[00:10:52] They sell you like 10 different things. And then you go to like the aftermarket folks, they sit down with you and they're like, here's a warranty. Here's this, here's that. And the lady just took a pen and she went from the one corner of the paper, almost down through the rest of it. And it was like, you don't need any of this stuff because your truck is electric, which I thought was super cool that she didn't even pretend to try to sell me stuff. That was just absolutely un, you know, unnecessary.

[00:11:18] Um, but so yeah, props to Apple Ford in Columbia, Maryland. They, uh, did a great job. And in fact they did, however, and they did it the right way too. You know, they, all the employees were like, this is the first truck here. You know, so a bunch of them came out to the parking lot to check it out. And then, um, you know, they took pictures and then they were like, um, the, the sales manager was like, if by any chance you don't want the truck, come back.

[00:11:44] We'll put a, you know, we'll, we'll give you a nice amount of money over what you paid, what you just paid for it. And I was like, you can pretty much guarantee that that's not going to happen, but I appreciate the offer. You know what I mean? Other as opposed to a lot of the nightmare you heard with both the Mach-E and the F-150, you know, like you said, a hundred percent markups and additional fees. And I'm glad at the time Ford had put their foot down. It's like, if we find out anybody's doing this, we're going to reduce your inventory and, uh, you know, to stop these guys from doing that stuff.

[00:12:13] But I didn't have to deal with any of that. It was really, really good. Yeah. Some of the, some of the early stories of you being like at the gym, grabbing your gym bag out of the frunk and somebody thinking you had car trouble. And then they just roll around the front of the truck and realize there's no motor in there. You got one of my favorite social experiments. You know, you open up the frunk and somebody inevitably walks over and is like, Hey, you having car trouble? I was like, yeah, man, I don't know what's going on with this engine. Can you take a look? And it was like, Oh, I don't know much, but wait a minute. You don't have an engine in there.

[00:12:42] And I just, I just started laughing and I was like, I appreciate you, uh, you know, showing out for your fellow man, but no good. So that was all that. Those things were a lot of fun. And just the general people, you know, the, the questions you got from a Tesla drivers, um, you know, quite a few Tesla drivers were saying, you know, they wanted to switch to the F-150 lightning. That happened to me multiple times, uh, and folks wanted to check it out.

[00:13:07] Other, uh, you know, pickup truck owners who were like, Oh, you know, I just love my gas. And it's like, okay. Cause it wasn't always, you know, most people were intrigued, but there was always the few that were like, you know, Hey, um, you know, I just, I just need gas. I was like, do you really like, well, you know, you can't tow anywhere. And I'm like, well, how far are you towing? Well, I don't tell anything. Then what do you carry if you can't tow?

[00:13:33] You know, so you have, you have those, the, you know, the pessimistic people, but fortunately that was few and far between, um, you know, and then just learning, learning electric EVs. Cause that was my first one. Fortunately, you know, Rod, um, who's been on here many times has, uh, was a good guide for me and, uh, you know, teach me different things, you know, especially like installing a charger at home.

[00:13:59] You know, all the nuances that you don't really pick up on, um, until you've already owned one. So, you know, I had enough room to install like a 80, uh, kilowatt, uh, charger at home. And he was like, um, don't do that. Um, you know, you don't need that much.

[00:14:18] If you, you know, the, the rare occasion where you need to charge up extra fast, you might as well just go to a supercharger in the area or something, you know, somewhere that has like a high power charger in the area versus spending the money to install it at your house. Cause especially at that time, the copper was so expensive.

[00:14:37] Um, and for me, I had to pay extra because I live in a townhouse and I had to run my, they had to trench from my house under my sidewalk up into my parking space. And then, um, the, you know, the, the, the charger sits there. So that was a lot of copper that was needed to run. So it added, almost doubled the price of the install. Um, so, you know, just learning like, Hey, get enough charge where you can charge overnight.

[00:15:07] Cause that is your 90% use case. You plug it in, you go to bed, you wake up, it's ready to go. And, uh, he was a hundred percent right on that. Um, and I'm, I'm glad I had that as a guy. And that's why we, I always make sure to mention it and talk about it so that people who are still considering or trying to understand can recognize that, you know, you don't need to install like crazy chargers at your house. Yeah. Instead of the 80 amp charger you went with, you decided to go with 48. Uh, it's yeah.

[00:15:37] Yeah. It's 50 and then it charges at 40. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is enough. It charges the, uh, it charges my truck in about 11 hours. Yeah. And you have a, you have a big battery on that truck. I think it's 135 kilowatt hours. Something like that. Yeah. So it's a little more pretty big. I, I did definitely got the extended battery. Glad I did that as well. Of, you know, just for the, you know, it gives it, that was kind of like when you got that battery, you got all the tow stuff that came with it as well.

[00:16:07] And at the time I didn't even really, you know, think that I was going to need it to that extent. But, you know, today it was like, Oh man, what a awesome decision that turned out to be. You, you mentioned, and I, I, I know this answer could be long, so we'll, we'll shorten it up a little bit, but you didn't mention you live in the townhouse.

[00:16:26] I know there was some initially some issues with, with the home, the homeowners association or the condo townhouse association on whether or not you could install the charger. And you had to kind of work through some. Yeah. So it just turned out that there was no other townhouse in the neighborhood that had a charger, um, in it.

[00:16:52] And so now Maryland is what they call a white or right to charge state, which means that the homeowners cannot stop you from installing a charger. They have to work with you. So, you know, you, they basically had to come up with guidelines, but there were no guidelines. So I, I had to go through the extra steps of kind of writing up everything that we wanted to do, drawing pictures and, you know, showing where we're going to install it, how we're going to run the cable.

[00:17:20] And then, um, through that, then they took what I wrote and made it the standard for anybody else that wanted to get a charger. Here's the information you needed to provide. So in the end, you know, they worked with me and they were pretty good about it. Um, it was just a lot more work. I think it ended up taking me about two months to get everything through.

[00:17:42] And, you know, there was like, I think the one, um, curve ball was when they was like, you need an umbrella insurance as well. So I actually had to get additional coverage, uh, to go with it. Now it turns out that umbrella policies are not that expensive.

[00:18:02] So they're only like, uh, you know, like another 30 bucks or so, um, a year, but it was a separate policy that I had to renew because, um, you needed that additional coverage. Um, you know, in case something happened and sure enough, um, no, you know, no one's ever gotten injured from my, uh, charger, but I should, I haven't even talked about this anywhere. But, uh, somebody did back into my charger. Oh no, believe it or not.

[00:18:31] So, um, they were nice enough to leave a note and I appreciate that. And they, but they did break, they did break the handle on the charger. It still works, but you know, definitely got to get that fixed. And it's not, you know, it's, I said, I appreciate you being extremely, uh, responsible and leaving a note and everything. But I have to tell you that this is going to be a very expensive mistake.

[00:18:59] Um, you know, uh, because, and sure enough, just the handle, just the cable alone with the handles $500. Yeah. And then I said, unfortunately I can't change it myself. I'm going to have to hire an electrician to come out, turn off the power, pull the thing apart, swap out the cable, put it back in. You know what I mean? So I was like, you know, it's good cost you anywhere between, you know, the cost of the cable all the, you know, you know, fortunately I didn't need to replace the whole charger.

[00:19:27] They do sell just the cable, but I said just the charger is $1,100. So, but, um, so that's just another thing, but you know, you can understand, makes it real easy how that could have been a catastrophe, right? She had backed in and split the cable and caused something else to happen. So, um, so yeah, having an umbrella policy definitely makes sense.

[00:19:48] So in the time that you've had your F-150 lightning, because we're going to get to the bulk of the story here after this, what are, what are, what are the kind of the things that you've, I guess, learned and adapted to versus your old F-150 lightning or your old F-150 that was ice powered? Yeah.

[00:20:34] I think that's helpful on a pickup truck more so than I would say on a regular vehicle, because, you know, anybody that's owned a pickup truck and has had to buy groceries and have had to pack bags in the tailgate, man, you know, that bag is tipped over. You know, a bottle of apple juice or an apple or something rolled all the way to the back of the tailgate and you're crawling in the tailgate to get it. And that's not a thing when you have a frunk, right?

[00:21:00] You just put everything in the frunk, you open up, you pop that thing open, grab all this stuff out of it. Um, and you, you move on with your day. And so I, I rely on the frunk very heavily, more so than I would have ever imagined before I bought the truck. Um, the other thing is the self-driving on it. The blue cruise on the F-150 works really, really well.

[00:21:25] And I don't think people realize how tiring, you know, I think we, we know if you take a long trip, you're tired, but it really is tiring. And when you can kind of relax a little bit more on a trip, it makes all the difference in the world, you know, cause you, you know, you're not constantly regulating the speed and, you know, maintaining the lane.

[00:21:49] You can just kind of just, let me just oversee what's going on while the car is literally taking me, uh, where I need to go. When I took that trip to Tennessee, um, to buy the trailer. I mean, normally I'm really, really tired, but because a, you stop more frequently because you got to charge and B, even on the road itself, you're not struggling.

[00:22:12] Um, you know, or you're not just constantly wired and, you know, twitching and doing everything you need to do to, you know, to drive. It is, it's a much, much better experience, uh, when you have self-driving in the vehicle.

[00:22:26] So that, those two couple of things were, um, I think were really cool, but you know, one thing on the negative side is, you know, if the charge network is not good, where you're going, it can be a way more nerve wracking than driving an ICE vehicle. Um, as we know, I, or some of you probably go back and listen to one of buddy's episodes.

[00:22:48] And, uh, you know, I, when I picked up my trailer for the food truck and ended up running out of power, um, you know, learning that the F-150 does not do a great job with elevation, um, and, and predicting its battery level. And so where I'm thinking, I'm going to be able to get, you know, another 20 miles, I'm only going to get another five miles, um, at the time. And so, you know, mapping it.

[00:23:17] So, and everything, when it maps out, where are you going to charge it based on those numbers? Yeah, it's a catastrophe. So, um, so going through that whole thing and, you know, having to get the vehicle towed and all that stuff, um, definitely learned a lesson. And, and, you know, you're not going to typically be like, all right, I'm going to go grab a 4,000 pound trailer and tow it, uh, for, you know, eight to 10 hours or whatever. That's not a typical thing. I think people would be doing with their electric truck anyway.

[00:23:48] Yeah. The, um, that story that, that you told, and I'll put a link to the SMR episode in the, in the show notes, but it was, uh, it was full. It was, it was like a Hollywood movie is not the right answer, but it was full of ups and downs. And then like the happy ending at the end, but you, you actually had to like, you're, you actually had to be like, can, at a hotel, you just like, Hey, can I, can I just plug into your power for a moment? Yeah.

[00:24:16] And then you had to leave your trailer there as soon as you had enough power to get to like an electrified America charger or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I had a buddy come. Thankfully he was close enough. I plugged in at a gas station, um, and they allowed me to charge. And I had a buddy who lived literally, I was like 30 minutes from his house and he was able to come pick up my trailer and take it to his house.

[00:24:41] And then the tow truck driver, which was one of the most amazing tow truck drivers I've ever seen, the way he was able to put my vehicle in the perfect spot in his front yard. So I could plug into his dryer port to, you know, get enough charge, uh, to get to a electrified America. Crazy. It was just a crazy sequence of events that, you know, worked out for the best. So in the end, but we're here and the trailer's here and yeah, we're doing our thing. Yeah.

[00:25:09] So, uh, you have a barbecue and tech food truck where you serve barbecue in the greater Maryland area. Uh, tell us a little bit about the business and why you decided to start it. Yeah. So, you know, I've been doing barbecue for a long time. We started the podcast a few years ago, uh, talking about technology we use to make barbecue. And, you know, my daughter and my wife had been on me for a while to try to compete or, you know, do something with the barbecue because they loved it.

[00:25:37] I made barbecue for friends and family all the time. Um, tailgates and stuff like that. And, you know, it's just one of those things. Can I stop you for just a second? When you say you made barbecue for people, you didn't make, like, I've heard the stories from you. You didn't make like one brisket. You'd be like eight briskets, 10 chickens. Like you made barbecue. You made, like, a food that could feed an army. It was not food for, like, a family. This was food for several families. I guess, yeah.

[00:26:06] I guess there is that distinction. I think the biggest one was where the, I did, uh, those, uh, 96 chicken quarters for my friend's, uh, party. That was pretty massive smoke there. And, uh, yeah. Briskets for everybody and, you know, all types of stuff. So it was, uh, yeah. You know, it was, it was on a larger scale for sure than what a typical, you know, home backyard guy would be doing. And, uh, yeah. In the summer, I got a notification.

[00:26:34] End of the summer, I got notification that I was going to get laid off from my job. I've been there almost 20 years. And, uh, I was just like, man, I don't, you know, what am I going to do next? I think the same thought that everybody has. You go through the same emotions. You're pissed off. You're annoyed. But, uh, you know, but at the same time, I'd be lying if I didn't know that at some point that was coming.

[00:26:57] You know, you see the writing on the wall, um, with a lot of, um, uh, businesses and especially in the tech area. And so, and, you know, I just decided to say, Hey, you know, let's, let's make a run at this food truck. But I, you know, had to sit down with the family and was like, Hey, do you know, do you guys, obviously you're going to have to be involved, but I need your help. You know, money's not going to be where, where it was, you know, when I was working in IT.

[00:27:26] So, you know, everybody's got to take a hit. And, uh, they were like, no, let's do it. Um, they were super backing and super fired up. And, uh, so I said, okay, I have no clue where to start, what to do, what I'm going to need. Um, but I ended up, uh, reaching out to my, some friends and family that had worked in restaurants or worked in restaurants. And fortunately, um, I had a guest on the show that had owned a food truck.

[00:27:51] So, uh, on the barbecue and text, I was able to pick his brain and, uh, you know, started researching and, you know, started finally, you know, coming up with a plan. And, um, eventually we bought the trailer, uh, went down to Tennessee to pick it up and brought it back. And then started, uh, putting out the menu to the health department and going through that. And, you know, before long, man, we were up and running.

[00:28:16] It was a crazy thing too, because earlier that summer, I had a friend of mine that had asked me if I could, uh, he saw a picture I posted to some barbecue. And he asked if I would be willing to cater his wife's party. He knew was coming in, um, October. And this was back in June and I got laid off in September. And so I hadn't thought much about it, but he literally called me like the next day after I got laid off and said, Hey, you know, that date's coming up.

[00:28:43] Are you still able to do, um, the, the party? And I said, man, you, your timing could not have been better. And it was kind of like that, you know, the writing on the wall was like, you're going the right direction. Let's go get it. Um, and, uh, yeah, we catered his party and then catered, ended up catering a few more parties along the way. And then we finally launched, um, last February officially in 2024.

[00:29:10] Um, and we had, like, like I said, we just hit our year, uh, last Sunday, um, which was, which is amazing because I had no clue how I was going to go. Um, you know, and what type of gadgets and tech I was going to need. And man, we just kind of worked it out throughout the year.

[00:29:29] And the F one 50 lightning has been so amazing for me and running barbecue on tech that it's just like, you know, it's crazy that I bought that truck without even thinking about running a food truck. And yet it's such an integral part of running my food truck.

[00:29:55] And, and you talked about some of the technology and, you know, you, you've kind of famously gone through a couple of, of tablets and things like that, that have fallen off the wall into the fryer or wherever they go. So, yeah, I had, um, you know, I knew I was going to, I wanted to use batteries for a lot of things. I use a lot of controllers, um, to power my, or to control the temperature on my smoker.

[00:30:21] And with that, I knew I wanted to have a backup battery to keep that thing running. So it had its own battery, but I wanted to make sure it had an additional battery to run. And sure enough, you're driving around and, you know, I have the smoker running while I'm driving. And I, I think a total of four of them fell. Cause what I would do is I would scrape out the oil, um, from the, you know, from the smoker and I'd put it in a bucket and I would always keep that bucket close to the smoker. And then I would, you know, empty the ashes into her.

[00:30:50] So it would just be just oily bucket of ash and four, three, I'm sorry. Three of them fell into the bucket directly, like fell off the smoker into the bucket and was buried in oil, um, and grease. And then one of them fell off the truck completely. And I've still to this date have no clue where that thing is. And that was it. That was the last one. And I, you know, that's a lot of money to batteries. Um, but the, I mean, they worked great too.

[00:31:19] The anchor batteries, um, were really, really good, um, uh, for, for running to controllers. But, you know, I have those, I had solar panels installed on the trailer, um, a couple of months ago because I do have the anchor, um, Solix, which is been one of the top purchases of, um, that thing is super expensive. Um, so I don't want to make light of it.

[00:31:43] You know, it costs a couple thousand dollars, but I use that thing to keep my refrigerator running constantly out when I'm not using a truck. So when I don't run the generator and I'm not powering the trailer off the, off the truck or off the generator, that Solix is what keeps my food, you know, healthy and keeps my refrigerator running. And, you know, the fact that it uses wifi so I can connect to it remotely and make sure that, you know, temperature is good.

[00:32:10] And I can connect to my refrigerator and make sure the refrigerator temp is good, all of those things. And, you know, make sure everything's where it needs to be. And now when I install the solar panels, instead of, you know, a day and a half, I can get almost three days out of the Solix. So that thing has been really, really cool. And then, you know, when I'm picking up the trailer, like tomorrow, I'll pick up the trailer and go out for a set, a pop-up. And I'll plug the Solix into the F-150.

[00:32:38] And then the F-150 recharges the Solix back to 100%. So it's just, you know, there's so many things that the F-150 does for me, aside from just being able to pull the trailer, you know, without any issue whatsoever. But the fact that it, you know, in the morning when it's super early and I don't want to disturb anybody, I plug the trailer into the F-150 and I don't run the generator.

[00:33:03] And, you know, before I used to park the trailer sometimes overnight on the side of the road by my house. And then I could just, I'd leave my truck with it. So they would just keep everything running. And that thing is, you know, it's got a 7,000 amp outlet back there. So it's got a 240 and it has 120s.

[00:33:29] And so I can run it, connect the trailer to the 240, power most of the equipment on the trailer, keep that thing running overnight and not disturb a single neighbor while I'm there. They've recently added bike lanes, so that's not a thing anymore. But, you know, for the first six, seven months of the business where I was smoking food overnight, you know, you just can't have generators running everywhere all day, all night. You know what I mean?

[00:33:58] A, it's costing me gas and B, it's just noisy, you know, and it wears on you while you're sitting there. So there's been times I've gone out on jobs and like, you know what? I don't need all my equipment. So I'm just going to run off the generator. I mean, off the F-150 and I don't turn the generator on. And other times, like last summer, there was about a two, three week span where the temperatures were absolutely, I think.

[00:34:26] In Maryland, it was hitting like 109, 110, which is crazy for Maryland. And so, you know, you needed the AC running and you needed fans to kind of keep that air moving. And it was just unbelievably hot. And the only way, even on the generator, that's way too much power for the generator that I have.

[00:34:45] So being able to run heavier equipment off the truck, like my warmer, which uses like 2000 watts, and then being able to run everything else off the generator. That alone is such an awesome aspect of the F-150, you know, because I've seen a lot of food trucks out there that are running multiple generators and I don't have to do that. I can just use my truck.

[00:35:16] And then that makes it a more pleasant experience for your customers, for sure. For sure. I've seen some of the places that you'll post online, you'll have, I don't know if you carry the tables with you or if you're just pulling up where there's some tables or places for people to sit. But, you know, you don't want to be enjoying your barbecue and then have to deal with, you know, the noise of the generator, the exhaust from the generator. It just, yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:43] So most of the places that really take into account the experience of the food truck being there, they'll actually have their own power. And then some of them, you know, most of them won't necessarily care, but it's, you know, definitely have had people notice. Like they'll walk up and they're like, you know, they're kind of looking around. It's like, why don't I hear anything? And they're like, are you running off the truck? I'm like, yeah, yes, I am. It was really, really, really cool aspect of it.

[00:36:12] But, you know, the good thing is, A, you know, when you get an electric vehicle and people talk about towing, you definitely know, or if you don't know yet, you lose about half your range. As soon as you hook up the trailer, the truck is like, all right, there goes half your range. But, you know, I've towed the trailer locally in the area.

[00:36:38] I've only been once where I was, I did two jobs in the same day. And so that was the closest I got to being like super low. Like I was pulling into the house at 5% charge. And then, or, you know, other times I'll be like running overnight. So I have the trailer with me. And this was early on in the process where I couldn't charge at home.

[00:37:08] I was cooking all night. So I didn't charge overnight. And then now I'm like, all right, I got to charge somewhere. So about six months ago, there was a park in our area that added chargers. And so I was able to pull my truck and my trailer up to the charge station and then just charge. And I can go on the back and, you know, make some ribs and, you know, season brisket or do whatever while the truck was charging.

[00:37:38] And then that was really, really cool. But the problem is there's only two chargers there. So, you know, if I was out of luck, then, you know, worst case, I would just have to drop the trailer, charge, and then get ready for the job for the day or whatever. But for the most part, charging while pulling the trailer or charging because of the trailer have not been an issue.

[00:38:01] I'm able to do my jobs for the day, park the trailer, go home, plug in overnight, charges enough overnight. Back up to 90%, get up, do it all over again the next day. And those things have been super, super cool, at least for me. And, you know, when you get a license for a food truck, you're licensed by the county. So I've definitely done additional counties. I'm licensed for other counties that are, you know, some further away than others.

[00:38:31] But in the end, you know, it's just I haven't had a job yet where I'm like, not sure I want to take that job because I have to, you know, I'm not going to have enough range. So that makes, you know, all the range anxiety stuff go away pretty much immediately when you learn that stuff about it.

[00:38:50] And then all the tow capabilities that F-150 has, it has all the same, you know, trailer assistance, trailer hitch assistance, which essentially, you know, cool things like it has a zoom function on the camera. So you can kind of really zoom in on the hitch to make sure you're getting it right on there. It has an auto parking brake. So I don't know how it detects that I'm about to hook up to the trailer.

[00:39:19] That I haven't figured out yet. But because I've backed up into places and it's never turned on the parking brake. But when I back up towards my trailer, once I get that thing right where I want it, it immediately throws the parking brake on. And so that your truck doesn't move. Because I've, you know, if I, when I've used like a regular truck and, you know, sometimes you get where you want to go. But, you know, inevitably you put it in park and then the truck kind of tilts forward, you know, back onto the gear.

[00:39:46] And you're out of position by that little tilt. And the F1, the Lightning just throws that parking brake on, which I think is a really, really cool feature that it does. Yeah. And that was my next question. So you already answered my question about like the towing technology that they are, that the Lightning has.

[00:40:08] You mentioned on the latest episode of SMR, or maybe not the latest one, the one before that, that your, your anchor battery, the big one, not the one that was dropped into oil, but the big one, you had some issues with it. And it wasn't staying charged for as long as it should. Yeah. So that was kind of weird. And, you know, it's like as a person that owns an electric vehicle, you know, you pay attention to your batteries and how they're charging.

[00:40:31] And I started seeing where it would charge, it would, it would charge basically the way it's supposed to work. It charges at a hundred percent. It just stops charging itself. And it kind of sits there at a hundred percent. And then it started charging to like 96% and it just stopped charging at 96%. And then it went for 96 to 86 to 76. It just kept going down and down and down until it got to zero and it wouldn't charge.

[00:41:01] And, you know, which was a bummer, but it was only the main battery. Cause I have the anchor solex and then I have a, one of the additional battery packs. So the additional battery was charging just fine, but the main one, the main anchor was not. Um, and so I call finally had a chance to call support and was like, Hey, this is what's going on. And I use this thing extremely heavily every day.

[00:41:26] Um, and I, I, you know, so they had me go through kind of like the reset process and all of those things. And I said, Hey, listen, and that stuff's working. They're like, um, okay. They looked up my account and they were like, Oh yeah, that thing's on the warranty. We'll, uh, send you a new one. Um, just go ahead and send it back. We'll send you a return label and, uh, we'll send you a new one. And first off, I was super excited that they were willing to replace it without even no fuss, no muss. So props to anchor for that.

[00:41:55] But where they get extra bonus credit from me is the fact that I explained to them. It's like, Hey, listen, you know, even though the main battery is not charging, the secondary battery is charging. And even that allows me to go at least overnight without having to find a place to charge. Cause what happens is when you own a food truck, part of your process is you got to find a place to park that thing where you can maintain power if you need it.

[00:42:24] And so even where I'm at now, the storage place, maintaining power is more than double the price of what I'm paying just to store the trailer. So I'm saving a ton of money just by maintaining power on my own. Um, and so I had talked to the management there at the, at the storage unit and they said they could work with me. Um, you know, if I needed to return it, uh, my battery, but I just said, is there any way

[00:42:54] possible you guys could send me the battery first? And when I get it, I can swap it out and then I can send you the one that doesn't work. They're like, Oh, we're not sure we got to check. And you know, but we'll, we'll take a look and let you know. And then meantime, we'll send you all the paperwork and all that stuff. But sure enough, I got an email later on that evening where I said, Hey, I explained to my manager what's going on. They said, no problem. It's on the way. And within like a couple of days, the new battery was in, I was able to take that behemoth

[00:43:23] and, uh, cause that thing is heavy. Um, swap it out, add it to my account and immediately charge it up. And right then and there we were good to go. And I was back in business and I, you know, returning the old one was a nightmare. Uh, but, uh, at least we got that thing rolling and yeah, props to anchor for, for doing that. That was really, really cool. Yeah. It turns out if you have a really heavy battery, uh, some UPS stores or whatever, uh, shipping locations won't take it. Yeah.

[00:43:54] The trouble, double, triple check, um, before you to find out and, uh, or just right out of the gate, just have them come pick it up from your house because yeah, that was, uh, that was a nightmare for me. I was really annoyed by that. And that wasn't on anchor. That was on FedEx. Yeah. Can you talk a little, cause you said that you added the anchor to your account. Can you talk about what kinds of things you can do from the app and, and what the connected battery for the, was it called the Solix? Solix. Yeah. F3800.

[00:44:23] What kind of features do you use that aren't just the battery, but like the monitoring or? Yeah. So, um, the app is a very, very helpful for me, uh, because a, I can see how much power is remaining on the battery, but beyond that, I can see what the draw is on the battery and why that's important is because, um, I, you know, obviously I have multiple pieces of equipment and I'm tired at the end of these jobs.

[00:44:53] And there's been times where like, Oh, I forgot to turn off the water heater. I forgot to turn off the warmer. And so when I'm looking at the, uh, the app and it's saying, Hey, you're drawing, you know, 28, uh, 2,300 kilowatts. Uh, I know something's on that shouldn't be on. Right. Because I know if my refrigerator is, you know, if I put a bunch of warmer food in the

[00:45:17] refrigerator, it's usually, you know, spins up and starts running at about 250 kilowatts until, you know, it gets the temperature back down or maintains the temperature. And then it settles in around 35 kilowatts, you know, may spin up for a second, but jump back down to 35. So being able to see that, that, uh, see those type of numbers. Um, also, you know, you can connect to it via Bluetooth and then connect it to wifi.

[00:45:46] So you can always know you can get an alert. I get an alert when the battery is approaching 10% and then 5%. Um, and, but the cool thing about that is I've seen where it's kind of timed it, you know, where it works itself out, where it's like, all right, you're at 10%, you're at 5%, you're at 1%. We're about to shut down. And then the solar panels kick in because it's right as the sun starts to come up.

[00:46:09] And then the solar panels, usually I got enough to provide enough power to maintain the refrigerator as well as start to bring the battery back up. You know what I mean? So I don't have to, even in those instances where it's low, I don't have to rush to the trailer to go, okay, let me swap it out or get the generator on or whatever the gas generator on, you know, I know it's going to, it'll be okay because I have the solar panels there.

[00:46:38] So just being able to remotely monitor that and get the notifications. Um, the, it's not all perfect with the anchor. There is an aspect of it that I think that they shouldn't have done. And, you know, I'm not the best with this stuff, but, um, essentially the amount of amperage that the Solex can take is on the lower side for what I understand.

[00:47:04] And so, um, but the, most of the aftermarket or other solar panels that you buy, like the ones you would get and install on your roof have tend to have a bit higher of an amperage than what, um, anchor uses for their portable, uh, panels. So what does that mean?

[00:47:24] Essentially, you know, they tout that you can do up to 2,400, uh, kilowatts into, uh, into the battery to charge it, which would recharge that thing in like two hours. Uh, I think, uh, something like that. But the fact that the solar panels that because they have a higher amperage, you can never

[00:47:48] hit that full 2,400, uh, because it's just too, too much amperage. It won't take it. Um, so that I think is a, was a mistake that they shouldn't have done, or I wish they wouldn't have done because, you know, especially for my use case where I'm using this thing on my food truck, I'm never, you know, there's no reason for, I'm not camping. So having a portable solar panel that I'm going to, or even an array of them that I'm

[00:48:14] going to fold out and set up and, you know, this wonderful angle to get the sun in, uh, it's just not going to work for me, you know? So I really wish they hadn't done that aspect of it. Um, but that's probably my biggest and only complaint. And it's not that big a deal. I think I can do from what my installer told me, I think I can do up to 1,200, which is not bad.

[00:48:39] You know, when I plug it in, it charges up upwards of, uh, 1,800. So it's still, you know, it can charge the whole thing in about, you know, four hours, um, at that rate, which I think is, you know, just, just fine because normally most of my gigs are running at three to four hour mark. So literally I'll pull up to the trailer, I'll hook up the generator, plug the anchor

[00:49:03] into the, uh, lightning and then, you know, off we go, you know, and then by the time I'm finished, you know, my jobs for the day or whatever, that thing is a hundred percent ready to go. And yeah, off to the next day we, we, we head. Nice. Nice. And Chris, I know today's kind of your day off, but not really a day off. Yeah. I know you got lots of stuff to do today, but thank you very much for taking the time to come on and discuss this.

[00:49:30] And I think this provides a little bit better, uh, of an understanding of what you can do with an electric vehicle and, and electric batteries and, and still run a business. You know, this, this can easily translate to somebody who's in a trade or somebody who's out there creating content or, or whatever the same lessons apply. Yeah. I think, uh, I don't regret at all having the truck.

[00:49:57] Honestly, I wish they would make a, now that I think about a bigger version of the lightning, you know, like you have the F one fifties and the F two fifties, it would be interesting to have a bigger version with a bigger, much bigger battery, uh, on there. Um, that, that would be, uh, you know, a really kind of cool option, uh, you know, for Ford to take it for, for these bigger jobs.

[00:50:21] But, you know, the, the funny thing is I'm not even the only guy in the area anymore that uses my F one 50 with my food truck. There's actually another guy that I've actually become friends with that has an F one 50 lightning. He has a drink truck and he pulls his with his, uh, lightning. Um, so I thought that was really, really cool. Um, that, uh, you know, he had never met me before. It's not like he saw me and was like, Hey, that's a great idea. You know, he just said, you know what? I think it could work.

[00:50:51] You know, his trailer is much smaller than mine, but nonetheless, it's still, it still works out. But from powering the trailer to being able to recharge my battery that I use every single day, uh, to keep, you know, um, just, you know, the comfortability of riding in that thing, the power to pull the trailer without issue, all of those things. Um, you know, I think Ford has done a phenomenal job with the F one 50 lightning.

[00:51:21] You know, I've had, you know, I've had this thing for coming up on three years. I've had very minor issues. Um, I've had the front right sensor replaced, uh, twice. It went out on me. Um, the first time, uh, the first time that they just replaced the whole sensor and a second time, um, it was actually a software update. The software updates have been really good over the air.

[00:51:46] Um, you know, they've updated the UI on the, on the, on the main screen, uh, very well. I, you know, there's still, and I think this happens in every vehicle I've ever owned. Um, Bluetooth connectivity with CarPlay still stinks and I love CarPlay, but the Bluetooth is just trash. Um, and just a little tip, if you hit down on the volume and seek up at the same time,

[00:52:14] you hold it for like three seconds, it, uh, resets, uh, the stereo. And then that usually fixes any connectivity issues that you have. Uh, so just a little tip for folks there. Um, but, uh, overall the truck has been great. The out, the outlets on the back have been phenomenal. Um, the, the power, the, the comfortability of the truck, everything I've had to, I just replaced the tires, you know, but that was no different than any other truck.

[00:52:44] Um, yeah, just, this thing has been amazing and, you know, and I'm, I use it consistently, you know, probably much harder than most, you know, lightning users are using theirs. For sure. For sure. Now let's get to the plugs. One, where can people find your food truck? Two, where can people find your podcast? And three, anything else you want to promote? Yeah. So if you're in the, uh, Maryland area, um, and you want to check out that good barbecue

[00:53:13] with the Jamaican flair, the barbecue of the barbecue and tech, um, you know, you can check us out on Facebook, Instagram. We always post where we're going to be at for the week. Um, you know, we've got, uh, ribs. We've got brisket. We've got pulled pork. We've got smoked chicken, smoked chicken and waffles, which is crazy. Um, you know, I periodically run some side, uh, some specials with, uh, brisket sliders.

[00:53:38] Uh, last week we did a smoked brisket chili with brisket burn ends, which was nuts. Um, people were buying the heck out of that. So we, you know, we partner with blondies and do their sweet rolls. And then we have our own banana pudding. And we sell it's all types of things that you would, but all my, all my barbecue is done, uh, essentially by the region that I like. So, you know, for that particular barbecue. So brisket, I do with a Texas kind of style brisket.

[00:54:06] Um, my pulled pork, I kind of do more Carolina style. My ribs, I kind of do more Memphis dry rub style, but then everything gets hit with my Jamaican dry rub. Um, that I put on top, which makes it just different than any other barbecue you've ever had. And we've developed a lot of fans over the last year that are, that really enjoy what we're doing on this truck. So if you live in the area, you want to check it out by all means, come on through.

[00:54:31] We're usually out somewhere between Wednesday and Sunday, um, during the week. Um, you want to hear me talk about that stuff and more about barbecue. Check me out on barbecue and tech. Um, yes, barbecue and tech.com. We have the podcast there talking about that. Um, and then of course me and the homies, we all, we try to get together and just talk about tech in general and our lives and how it affects us as African-Americans in this world.

[00:54:57] Um, you can check us out at SMR podcast and you can go to SMR podcast.com and check that out as well. Excellent. Chris, thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure, Bodie. It's good to see you, my brother. Good to see you, buddy. All right, everybody. I would like to thank Chris Ashley for coming on the show and being such a good guest. Um, I always enjoy sitting down and getting a chance to talk with Chris, which honestly hasn't happened all that often.

[00:55:24] We interact sometimes through messaging, but being able to sit down and chat is, is always way better than, than text messaging. Again, I'm going to put all these links in the show notes, but go check out barbecue and tech, the SMR podcast. And then if you live in the Maryland area, follow Chris's food truck, barbecue and tech on social media. I follow it and I don't even live in the area. So I would encourage you to go follow it and see what Chris is up to.

[00:55:50] I have not ever tasted his food, but I know people who have, and I've never heard a negative review. It's always glowing. Chris puts a lot of love into his cooking. He put a lot of time into developing that craft. So if you live in that area, go check him out. And if you, if you do tell him, I said, hi, Chris has had a few people that know him from podcasting come to his food truck and he loves it. So please go give Chris some love if you live in that area. And if you're just visiting that area, go give Chris some love as well.

[00:56:20] All right, everybody, that is it for me today. I've got something cool planned for our next three episodes. They're all going to be surrounding the Chinese EV market. I think it's really interesting. I think you're going to enjoy it. So stay tuned.