The Ocean had spent several episodes undermining my attempts to create drama by being an ordinary, useful car. I decided to escalate matters: replace its 12-volt battery, make it tow a giant water tank, and pressure wash it afterward. This would surely expose some hidden weakness.
It did not.
First time under the hood
The original 12-volt battery hadn't failed. I just wanted a different AGM battery for the Fisker and could put the old one to use in another project. The replacement was a Uplus AGM-L50-UP, and the job took around 45 minutes. It was also the first time I had actually opened this car's hood.
Access involved grille fasteners, brackets, clips, and one 300-amp mega fuse close enough to the tools to demand a very respectful attitude. I used the method MTN Ranger had documented for keeping the vehicle awake during the swap, and afterwards I didn't have to reprogram the key or windows. These are notes about how my job went, not instructions for anyone to improvise electrical work around that fuse.
About 3,500 pounds of actual towing
My Ocean has the factory towing package. I rented one of U-Haul's big trailers, put an enormous water tank on it, and hauled roughly 3,500 pounds of trailer and cargo into the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Ocean automatically recognized the trailer, indicated towing, selected Fun mode, and disabled some driver-assistance features including blind-spot monitoring and lane-keeping.
It pulled strongly and smoothly. Physics, however, cannot be negotiated with. The tall tank was an aerodynamic brick. I recorded around 0.77 kWh/mile loaded, 0.55 with the empty trailer, and roughly 0.33 without it. The takeaway wasn't that electric towing is magically efficient. It was that this particular Ocean could do a real towing job without theatrics.
And then I washed it
After road-trip bugs, dust, and trailer grime, I pressure washed the car with normal care around seals and electrical areas. It emerged cleaner and otherwise unchanged. I know this is an underwhelming climax, but that's the point: I wanted to use the Ocean as a vehicle, not preserve it under glass. So far, it kept letting me.