The Ford Ranger With A Boat Battery

My older son has always been deeply interested in trucks, cars, bulldozers, fire engines, airplanes and spaceships. The category is broad. Apparently wheels, tracks, sirens or thrust will do.

I remembered being little and badly wanting one of those electric cars children could drive around. My parents never bought me one. Years later, Switzerland had a very healthy used market and I had unfinished business.

I found a small electric Ford Ranger that was broken and priced accordingly. I went to collect it, brought it home and opened it up. The battery was finished and the electrical system was not working, but the motors were fine.

Back on the used market, I found a lithium battery intended for a boat. It was absurdly disproportionate to the little truck. The price was right, so I wired it in.

The proportions were ridiculous, but the motors were healthy. Once the new supply was connected, the electrical system came back to life.

Then came inspection and road testing by the actual owner. He cared much less about my wiring decisions than about whether his Ranger moved.

The Ranger worked beautifully. Its runtime is now probably long enough to make a Tesla slightly uncomfortable. Its driver still has to come home for dinner.

I already had the Ford Transit Connect, and later replaced it with the Ford Custom. Somehow, I had never noticed that my son's little truck was also a Ford. He had. 'Your van is like mine. It is the same brand,' he told me.

He was right. Mine carries tools. His carries children and a boat battery. The family fleet, junior division.