RV Trailer Towing With F-150 Lightning - Considerations & Discussions

[techguydave]

Many of the larger dealerships could probably even add solar panels and storage to help power the chargers. Throw the panels over a portion of the lot to cover the cars.

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[jefro]

Many dealers locally and regionally have DC fast chargers. Not sure where only L2 are being installed.

" so they don't discharge while being serviced. "

No, they won't plug in while waiting to be serviced anymore than they'd put gas in.

Some states may have some PV credit but a dealer already uses a lot of power. Nothing to add in a few chargers.

 

[EaglesPDX]

I have a young child and I didn’t want to worry about what to do for 30 minutes while I recharge and adding another hour or more to what could be a 3 or 4 hour trip.

Kids seem to like getting out of the car as much as they like getting into it initially. They also need to go to the bathroom a bit more. Usually stopping to charge with kids goes way faster than when I’m by myself. Barely have time to go to bathroom and the car is charged. Good to get out of the car every couple hours.

Plus, it is the kid’s future the EV is saving.

 

[EaglesPDX]

Tesla is opening up its superchargers to CCS1 equipped vehicles. Also the new SC's (and some of the old) have one of the chargers placed so it is a pull into the spot. This would work for F150 towing as it could pull straight in.

Depending on which side of the charger bank the pull spot is located, it might not block other chargers.

In this pic, the charger in the distance over the top edge of the windshield is a pull into. Even with a trailer it would only block two out of 12 chargers.

Many of EA's chargers are all pull throughs.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

Long-haul towing with the lightning will only be fun if you have reasonable expectations about charging intervals. If you road tripped an EV in 2013, you probably have a high tolerance for pain

You are correct - and a tolerant wife. CA to ME and ME to FL meant many stops at marinas, RV parks, and even a welding shop, with six-hour charges in the rain. We did schedule overnights at KOAs with cabins, but the fact was that EV ownership at that time was its own adventure, a bit like gunkholing on our Island Packet sailboat - don't be too quick to get anywhere - the car was its own adventure.

Since then we have had three more EV's, all Teslas, and EV travel has become as routine as driving an ICE vehicle - it is just as fast to go between our farm in Virginia and our home in Boynton Beach in our Model X as in our Powerboost KR - three 20-minute charges in the 1,050 miles along the way, with pee and coffee/meal stops are the same timing in either vehicle. The Supercharger network and long range batteries were Tesla's game changer.

The issue for towing is fast charging availability and reliability of those fast charges. I KNOW there is a Tesla charger pretty much everywhere. That comfort does not exist for DC fast charging yet in the non-Tesla world. In fact, to the contrary - lots of horror stories about stranded Mustang Mach-Es and Taycans, with 50%+ failure-to-charge experiences where they arrived at high speed EA CCS chargers. So I'm skeptical, but hoping that Ford and VW group keep the pressure on EA to complete a better roll-out with higher reliability - and that they accommodate tow vehicles without decoupling - no way I'm gonna go through the uncouple/recouple routine every 150 miles for 1,500 miles each way every summer running from South Florida to upstate NY - so the Lightning is on reservation, but I must have a tow vehicle, so the jury remains out on whether it will be kept.

 

[EaglesPDX]

lots of horror stories about stranded Mustang Mach-Es and Taycans, with 50%+ failure-to-charge experiences where they arrived at high speed EA CCS chargers.

Emphasis on "stories".

Here's a couple well documented "stories" regarding Porsche and public charging. These would apply to F150EV also. The reason I'm charging next to the Porsche is testing the CCS1 charging network...which has passed with flying colors as I test its out my Tesla/CCS1 adapter.

Porsche Taycan Turbo Owner Completes Epic 11,000-Mile Road Trip

Here's another.

Porsche Taycan Beats Tesla’s EV Cannonball Record

And my neighbor driving to the coast, both of us charging before our 200 mile round trips.

This pic is the local PUD's fast DC charger which is right in the middle of my 100 tow if the EA chargers at the start (above) and end are not enough for 100 miles with full payload of 1,800# and the boat.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

Emphasis on "stories".

Here's a couple well documented "stories" regarding Porsche and public charging. These would apply to F150EV also. The reason I'm charging next to the Porsche is testing the CCS1 charging network...which has passed with flying colors as I test its out my Tesla/CCS1 adapter.

Porsche Taycan Turbo Owner Completes Epic 11,000-Mile Road Trip

Here's another.

Porsche Taycan Beats Tesla’s EV Cannonball Record

And my neighbor driving to the coast, both of us charging before our 200 mile round trips.

This pic is the local PUD's fast DC charger which is right in the middle of my 100 tow if the EA chargers at the start (above) and end are not enough for 100 miles with full payload of 1,800# and the boat.

You are a piece of work. So let's get this straight - literally EVERY professional long term review of the Mach-E with comparisons of charging experiences has found it difficult to impossible to do a long trip without experiencing charging fails that were fatal or almost fatal to the trip. They are not anecdotes and they are not "stories". They are not exceptions - they are the rule at this point in time. There are dozens of these out there done by professional organizations and publications - this just happens to be the last one I read - the Mach-E comes in 6.5 hours after the Tesla in a 1,000 mile trip - and it wasn't a hard route - watch the video. I can provide many more links but you can find them just as easily. The FACT is that the EA network is nowhere right now. https://insideevs.com/news/532073/road-trip-gas-vs-electric/

 

[EaglesPDX]

literally EVERY professional long term review of the Mach-E with comparisons of charging experiences has found it difficult to impossible to do a long trip without

Or none.

Probably the best example was OutofSpec motoring doing a long run in the MachE. He couldn't get the EA chargers to work. Had he ended it there, but no, he got schooled and on the ride back no issues. He learned how to do it and the plug and play worked. And this in early days of Mache and EA launching the plug and play...which worked great with my Tesla when EA was offering free charging.



I charge at EA chargers (and others) all the time, my experience matches the experts (see above) which is EA and Ford work just fine. Same will be true for F150EV.

He gets near the 150kw rate at 20% battery.

 

[vandy1981]

You are a piece of work. So let's get this straight - literally EVERY professional long term review of the Mach-E with comparisons of charging experiences has found it difficult to impossible to do a long trip without experiencing charging fails that were fatal or almost fatal to the trip. They are not anecdotes and they are not "stories". They are not exceptions - they are the rule at this point in time. There are dozens of these out there done by professional organizations and publications - this just happens to be the last one I read - the Mach-E comes in 6.5 hours after the Tesla in a 1,000 mile trip - and it wasn't a hard route - watch the video. I can provide many more links but you can find them just as easily. The FACT is that the EA network is nowhere right now. https://insideevs.com/news/532073/road-trip-gas-vs-electric/

I don't know where you're getting the impression that so many people are experiencing "fatal" charging errors at EA stations that are ending their road trips. MKBHD's car review videos are usually pretty terrible and biased against non-Tesla EVs. I'd suggest watching some of the Out of Spec Mach-E road trip videos--the host is a professional EV reviewer who does a much better job of discussing the pros and cons of EVs and charging networks than MKBHD.

I wouldn't make any broad conclusions about Mach-E or Electrify America charging reliability with the video you cited. It does prove that it's still hard to road trip non-Tesla BEVs without advanced planning in some areas of the country.

The MKBHD route was very silly and they didn't really have a logical charging plan--if they had spent 5 minutes putting their waypoints into A Better Route Planner, they would have had a lot more success. Also, who stays at a hotel without a Lvl2 charger on an EV roadtrip?!?

I'm able to cover 750 miles in 15 hours in my I-Pace using EA chargers, and the I-Pace is slower charging and less efficient than the Mach-E, so clearly there's something wrong with the MKBHD crew if they can't cover 1000 miles in 22 hours with the Mach-E.

 

[EaglesPDX]

I'm able to cover 750 miles in 15 hours in my I-Pace using EA chargers

I think the issue is the facts and experience of people who use EA chargers and those who don't (Tesla owners) and their view of something with which they have no experience. Something as simple as plug prior to starting, people miss it and then a long video ensues on EA "problems" which were just them learning to use the charger.

I've researched EA (and EVgo, ChargePoint) using the adapters for CCS1 prior to deposits on MachE and now F150EV. Works as well as Tesla and locations (for me) are as convenient, more so at the shore where the EA charger is 2 miles from the boat while the Tesla is 10 miles and 10 traffic packed miles.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

I think the issue is the facts and experience of people who use EA chargers and those who don't (Tesla owners) and their view of something with which they have no experience. Something as simple as plug prior to starting, people miss it and then a long video ensues on EA "problems" which were just them learning to use the charger.

I've researched EA (and EVgo, ChargePoint) using the adapters for CCS1 prior to deposits on MachE and now F150EV. Works as well as Tesla and locations (for me) are as convenient, more so at the shore where the EA charger is 2 miles from the boat while the Tesla is 10 miles and 10 traffic packed miles.

Denial is hilarious. The repeated and continual failure of EA chargers to work reliably at high speeds is ALL OVER the iterwebz. Literally everywhere. But you and your buds are just smarter than everyone else. Consumer Reports, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Road & Track, Edmunds, Inside EVs, none of those guys are anywhere as smart as you, so they fail when they try to use EA chargers. Just user error. And when they use Tesla chargers, it works every time, because they are dummies and it is a dumb system. And when they call EA from a failed charger and EA can't diagnose the problem or make it work, it is also user error, except 2x. Yeah, that's it - no one is as smart as greene or EaglesPDX. Sheesh.

 

[TRP]

I've road tripped my Mach E close to 10000 miles and have NEVER had a total failure charging at an EA location, NEVER. I've had a few machines that didn't work, switch to another and good to go. Never left an EA charge station without a charge

 

[TRP]

Denial is hilarious. The repeated and continual failure of EA chargers to work reliably at high speeds is ALL OVER the iterwebz. Literally everywhere. But you and your buds are just smarter than everyone else. Consumer Reports, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Road & Track, Edmunds, Inside EVs, none of those guys are anywhere as smart as you, so they fail when they try to use EA chargers. Just user error. And when they use Tesla chargers, it works every time, because they are dummies and it is a dumb system. And when they call EA from a failed charger and EA can't diagnose the problem or make it work, it is also user error, except 2x. Yeah, that's it - no one is as smart as greene or EaglesPDX. Sheesh.

If you have such a problem with anything Non-Tesla, why are you even here.

Clearly you are a Tesla Fanboy, no judgment. Just stating the obvious.

I've used EA exclusively in my Mach E and have NEVER had to leave an EA station without getting a charge. When I used Plug and Charge it worked every time for me. I now use the EA Plus+ membership plan and it works great as well.

You are one annoying SOB, IMHO of course

 

[shutterbug]

You are one annoying SOB, IMHO of course

Really?1 This falls under the category of "shut up" he explained.

 

[shutterbug]

Incidentally, I think @ PungoteagueDave is both right and wrong on the issues of EA. Yes there are some issues with EA chargers, and no it's nowhere near 100%. Also, there are those rare occasions when Tesla superchargers fail. My one personal experience with EA went flawlessly, but that's not a significant sample, plus I was never in danger of running out of juice. At the end of the year I will make a trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles, and will get a better feel for EA reliability.

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