Cleaning up after a Maritime hurricane with the Ford Maverick | Daily News Byte

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The province of Nova Scotia does not usually bear the full brunt of hurricane season. Sure, the spit of land that serves as Canada’s Wharf gets its share of winter storms and thunder boomers, but once-in-a-generation wailers cut through centuries-old trees like toothpicks and permanently transform in the shape of the shores? Not so much.

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Enter Hurricane Fiona, in all her fury. Approaching the region after breaking up in the tropics and passing through what we used to call the Boston States, this destructive storm was upgraded to a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane and proved to be one of the most intense tropical/post-tropical storms to hit Canada . Based on atmospheric pressure, Fiona is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in our country — and also one of the wettest.

This author and his family were without power for nearly 13 days, a span of 294 hours during which we filled five-gallon buckets with river water every day (no power in our artesian well pump means no running water) and listening to the hum of the gas-powered generator every night until dark. Some families will be without for much longer, not to mention the impact – literally, in some cases – of fallen trees and the devastating storm surge.

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Of course, since so little happened in the hugely self-aggrandizing capital city of Halifax, Fiona’s devastation was largely ignored and dismissed. You can bet your last donair that if Barrington Street or Spring Garden Road were littered with downed trees and downed power poles, the province’s elite would be screaming for help. As of this writing, 48 days after landfall, cleanup continues in this author’s town and many other rural areas. Hats off to personnel from the likes of NS Power and other power companies, tree removal workers, first responders, and anyone else on the front lines.

When it comes to property damage, we are luckier than many who have lost their homes or seen their possessions swept out to sea by the raging ocean. Six trees on our land, about 20 meters high, decided they would rather lie horizontally on terra firma instead of standing upright, falling in a direction that didn’t hit our two-story house but took out every live that electrical wire that leads. at home. It was funny, in retrospect; Knowing that Fiona would produce a northwesterly flow to our town meant that this damage was expected and at the moment it happened around 2:00am — with blue lightning and an ungodly strong downdraft -following bangs — your writer relaxed a bit and fell asleep. Teenagers at home, it must be remembered, are not roused from their sleep.

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Friends loaned us one of their surplus fuel powered generators, a sentence that would surely only be uttered in rural Canada. Shoutout to them and King Canada for building a 4,200-watt engine that reliably burns through about 15 liters of regular per day, keeping our fridge and freezer stocked and preventing food spoilage. Wattage is supplemented by a pair of Jackery Explorer lithium-ion electric power stations capable of belting 1,800W each, rechargeable by the King generator or solar panels (of which there was no shortage after Fiona left).

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Or, as we discovered, the Ford Maverick’s 400-watt household-style outlet during testing that week. These types of electrical connections have been around on pickup trucks for a while, but Blue Oval engineers take the products and make them more useful than most. With one of the Maverick’s cabins and a weather-sealed bed, it’s easy to recharge devices or run small electric items. It’s fair to say that the truck provided more juice for our family during its stay than Nova Scotia Power.

However, as we discovered, 400 watts is not enough to run some items. The handy 1,000W Instant Pot shown in these photos trips quickly on the truck’s built-in breaker; an electric kettle is about 1,200W; and a household-sized fridge typically consumes about 200W while running (and often more than triple that to start its motor), but it does so continuously rather than for a few minutes like a kettle.

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This explains why Ford is on the right track with its development of Pro Power Onboard systems, which offer up to 7,200W of power to the F-150 Hybrid and can be hove into ‘generator mode’ capable of keeping the truck in a clean environment, continuously providing electricity until its fuel tank and reserve battery are depleted. The 400W circuits in this Maverick are only a fraction of that output, but are nevertheless easy to use and clearly used some of the lessons Ford learned while developing larger units.

For the next few days, the Maverick ran like a real truck, easily hauling debris and serving as transportation for the aforementioned five-gallon bucket of river water, a task first explored with grace by falling down the stairs on a set of leg irons. Mav’s cargo tiedowns are well considered, adjustable for distance and large enough to accept the jumbo-sized hooks of a ratchet strap. Memo to truck builders: providing adequate anchoring points in a cargo bed is one of the most effective ways to gain fans and endear yourself to truck owners.

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The Maverick’s payload is 1,500 pounds, which, if you’re wondering, is comparable to trucks a size (or two) larger. The cargo bed is almost square, at 54.4 inches long and 53.3 inches wide, which required a few extra passes to cut through the brush with the cutter bar of our 42cc chainsaw. For comparison, the Ranger’s bed is 61- by 61.4-inch space at its maximum, while the F-150 SuperCrew with its popular short bed is 67- by 60.3-inch floor area.

There are a few additional Maverick features that put it in the ‘real truck’ column, including the surprise appearance of an honest-to-Henry trailer-brake controller. This alone helps to avoid the scorn heaped on dishwater rigs like the minivan-esque Honda Ridgeline.

Do I want to endure another storm like Fiona? Definitely not. Are we luckier in terms of damage and destruction than many others in the region? Absolutely. Did the little Maverick help by providing some electricity and a way to transport debris? You bet on it. Nova Scotia may not always experience storms, but the Maverick has a handy list of truck-like features to help when it does.