Helium
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Wait a minute! You are still here? Don't you have something better to do than waste your time on those bulletin boards and forums! Damn slacker! I’m certain that headline caught your attention and you want to know all of details you nosy little brat. Or more likely you are thinking that this is some bs or something. No one, and I mean no one really wants to sit behind the wheel of a Lightning for 93,000 miles in 21 months. What can I say, it doesn’t seem like it has been that long or that far. But alas it has been. This time the thrills were cheap, the charging even cheaper, highs were mile high and salty while the lows were at sea level. Fasten your seat belt and hang on to your hat because we are about to get started.
Did you know mountains are your friend when you are in the Lightning? I actually registered 22 miles per kilowatt hour in Las Vegas (yep, drove out there for one of my trips). If I can find the picture, I’ll add it to the post.
For those that haven’t crossed the continental divide in your Lightning, do it during the day for no other reason than it is a beautiful experience you can’t get when flying over fly over country. At night, the massive torque of the dual motors makes the hills glide buy unnoticed because it is really easy to get use to the long shallow hill climbs that stretch over 10s of miles. (Also change the readout below the map to show your altitude (big screen)). It was late October when I went to Vegas and found the nights chilly and the tables even chillier. The Electrify America chargers West of the Mississippi were in far better shape than on the East, except for that one in Oklahoma.
Las Vegas:
The Vegas trip was what I consider my first serious trip at 1600 miles each way. Though before this I have taken several in the 500-600 miles range. Eastern Oklahoma charging is challenging because Francis Electricity has a semi-monopoly on the chargers and it just so happens I needed one in that area. They would start off really fast (>100kwh) but would drop down to 5kwh really quickly. Of course you are paying by the minute with Francis, dag nabbit! I tried several but they were all trash until I lucked out and found one on the way back from Salt Lake City. I’m actively avoiding Francis chargers now.
On the West side of Oklahoma Electrify America had derated all of the chargers at the Pilot so that was a time sink. Only stayed long enough to get to Amarillo for a full charge. This is the only time I cursed EA in the entire trip. Most of the EA charges are at Walmarts. Shouldn’t surprise anyone.
A note on charging cost. Where EA is charging by the kilowatt it was expensive at something like $0.44 per kilowatt. Where EA was charging by time, it was much cheaper. Anywhere from ~$0.22 or less. It did seem to me that EA West of the Mississippi has its act together.
For the nearly week I spent in Vegas, charging was free from the hotel. Even though it was “only” a 6kwh charger it was plenty.
Btw, on this trip and the Salt Lake City trip, I was carrying about 250lbs of convention product\equipment under a bed cover. Between the wind, terrain, weather, etc. I didn’t notice any penalty with the range. Let that argument continue to rage unabated by anything I did.
I drove straight through both ways and slept while charging but about 25% of the trip time was spent charging. Again, nothing unexpected.
Salt Lake City:
This trip was much like Las Vegas trip but on the return I dropped all of the way down to I-40 in New Mexico before heading East. There was a forecast of heavy snow for Denver and just didn’t want to deal with. The stretch from I-70 to I-40 was beautiful with each town having a charger which if I remember correctly was free. I was struck by how much free electricity I got on that trip.
I slept for a couple of hours in Amarillo which put me in time to hit a head wind that nearly drained my battery before I could get to a charger in Oklahoma. As I pulled off the expressway, I had to stop at a stop sign before I got on to the service road. I stopped and then went to go only to have the truck lurch forward and die with me across the opposing lane. I shut it off and restarted and it let me go the half a mile to the charger which of course was another derated EV charger. I got a few electrons in the battery and moved over to another charger when that user left.
How did the truck behave? Well, pretty flawlessly. Of course, by this time I knew what to expect and it performed as expected. I keep seeing people complain about these trucks but I’m not really having any problems with mine. I do need to get a couple of recalls taken care of though.
Tires:
I still hate the tires as I continue picking up nails and/or screws here and there. I’ve never had a vehicle that picked up so many. I will not be putting these back on the truck when they need replacing in the next 10-15k miles. They have about 47,000 predominately expressway and secondary highway miles on this second set. Very little city and almost no off-pavement miles.
Paint:
The paint is holding up better than I expected. No real signs of wear and tear as you might expect of a vehicle with this many miles on it.
Updates:
I’ve read complaints about the updates but I haven’t really had any problems with them. I also don’t allow it to happen automatically so I can control when the vehicle is inop.
FordPass:
I only really use it to check on the charge level or to start it to warm or cool the cabin. Everything else is just extra for me.
Charging:
Keeping all of the apps (EV Connect, Charge Point, EA, Tesla, Plugshare, etc.) on my phone and perusing them every so often looking for free chargers has really paid off. I’ve got a circuit that is about 195 miles long where I only pay for about 7kwh ($0.53). I giggle like an evil villain every time I think about that. There is another trip I take where I only pay for half the required juice. If I’m planning ahead, I actually make a “profit” on the trip. Leave the house with less charge and arrive there as low as I dare. Recently some free chargers have opened at a couple of other towns I go to on occasion. I’ll be trying to get as much free juice as I can.
Neighbor was talking trash about my electric truck until I pointed out how cheap it was to run and how when I’m watching a movie, my truck is being charged up for free. He just gives me dirty looks now.
Looking forward to getting access to the Tesla network. Having that as a backup will put pressure on EA to get their chargers to a state that I can depend upon them.
Battery:
I probably need to remind you, gentle reader, that I predominantly charge at home using a slightly derated Ford Charger (60 amps) 15.9kwh to the battery. I’m pretty confident that I have charged it around 600-700 times in the past 21 months. Normally capped at 90% but over the past few months I’ve reduced that further to 70% though I’ve come home twice now below 10% which rarely happened before the change.
I can hear your distance screams echoing through the ether, “What about the High Voltage Battery Health?”
How much is it worth to you for me to tell you? $10 or possibly $20? Well I do have PayPal. And you know, I did spend a lot of hours holding that steering wheel. All alone, on the dark highways, late at night, missing my squirrel…I mean girl. (Ready to stab me yet?)
97% after 93,000 miles.
I noticed in my Car Scan report that my HVB SOC is 3.83 percent below my HVB SOC Display (95.17 vs 99). I found this odd considering when Out Of Spec did their 70mph range test HVB SOC displayed higher if I remember correctly. The truck is currently at 99% state of charge with a DVB Voltage of 392.5 and only 125.63kwh available. I thought I was supposed to have a max of 131kwh. 99% is not 125.63kwh but it is a lot closer to 95.17%. Maybe one of you fine readers can point out where I’m mistaken.
FordPass App says I have 99% charge with 323 mile range. Something is a little off with that. In the past when it displayed such numbers, I would lose several miles before I got out of my fifty foot drive way. Go figure.
It has been at 99% for over an hour so it may be balancing the battery.
Well, its been fun and its been surreal, talk to you again around 150k miles. (feel free to ask questions, I'll check in after I enjoy a fine meal at my favorite Waffle House, need to go put on my Sunday best real quick. Wouldn't want the neighbors to think I'm trashy)
Did you know mountains are your friend when you are in the Lightning? I actually registered 22 miles per kilowatt hour in Las Vegas (yep, drove out there for one of my trips). If I can find the picture, I’ll add it to the post.
For those that haven’t crossed the continental divide in your Lightning, do it during the day for no other reason than it is a beautiful experience you can’t get when flying over fly over country. At night, the massive torque of the dual motors makes the hills glide buy unnoticed because it is really easy to get use to the long shallow hill climbs that stretch over 10s of miles. (Also change the readout below the map to show your altitude (big screen)). It was late October when I went to Vegas and found the nights chilly and the tables even chillier. The Electrify America chargers West of the Mississippi were in far better shape than on the East, except for that one in Oklahoma.
Las Vegas:
The Vegas trip was what I consider my first serious trip at 1600 miles each way. Though before this I have taken several in the 500-600 miles range. Eastern Oklahoma charging is challenging because Francis Electricity has a semi-monopoly on the chargers and it just so happens I needed one in that area. They would start off really fast (>100kwh) but would drop down to 5kwh really quickly. Of course you are paying by the minute with Francis, dag nabbit! I tried several but they were all trash until I lucked out and found one on the way back from Salt Lake City. I’m actively avoiding Francis chargers now.
On the West side of Oklahoma Electrify America had derated all of the chargers at the Pilot so that was a time sink. Only stayed long enough to get to Amarillo for a full charge. This is the only time I cursed EA in the entire trip. Most of the EA charges are at Walmarts. Shouldn’t surprise anyone.
A note on charging cost. Where EA is charging by the kilowatt it was expensive at something like $0.44 per kilowatt. Where EA was charging by time, it was much cheaper. Anywhere from ~$0.22 or less. It did seem to me that EA West of the Mississippi has its act together.
For the nearly week I spent in Vegas, charging was free from the hotel. Even though it was “only” a 6kwh charger it was plenty.
Btw, on this trip and the Salt Lake City trip, I was carrying about 250lbs of convention product\equipment under a bed cover. Between the wind, terrain, weather, etc. I didn’t notice any penalty with the range. Let that argument continue to rage unabated by anything I did.
I drove straight through both ways and slept while charging but about 25% of the trip time was spent charging. Again, nothing unexpected.
Salt Lake City:
This trip was much like Las Vegas trip but on the return I dropped all of the way down to I-40 in New Mexico before heading East. There was a forecast of heavy snow for Denver and just didn’t want to deal with. The stretch from I-70 to I-40 was beautiful with each town having a charger which if I remember correctly was free. I was struck by how much free electricity I got on that trip.
I slept for a couple of hours in Amarillo which put me in time to hit a head wind that nearly drained my battery before I could get to a charger in Oklahoma. As I pulled off the expressway, I had to stop at a stop sign before I got on to the service road. I stopped and then went to go only to have the truck lurch forward and die with me across the opposing lane. I shut it off and restarted and it let me go the half a mile to the charger which of course was another derated EV charger. I got a few electrons in the battery and moved over to another charger when that user left.
How did the truck behave? Well, pretty flawlessly. Of course, by this time I knew what to expect and it performed as expected. I keep seeing people complain about these trucks but I’m not really having any problems with mine. I do need to get a couple of recalls taken care of though.
Tires:
I still hate the tires as I continue picking up nails and/or screws here and there. I’ve never had a vehicle that picked up so many. I will not be putting these back on the truck when they need replacing in the next 10-15k miles. They have about 47,000 predominately expressway and secondary highway miles on this second set. Very little city and almost no off-pavement miles.
Paint:
The paint is holding up better than I expected. No real signs of wear and tear as you might expect of a vehicle with this many miles on it.
Updates:
I’ve read complaints about the updates but I haven’t really had any problems with them. I also don’t allow it to happen automatically so I can control when the vehicle is inop.
FordPass:
I only really use it to check on the charge level or to start it to warm or cool the cabin. Everything else is just extra for me.
Charging:
Keeping all of the apps (EV Connect, Charge Point, EA, Tesla, Plugshare, etc.) on my phone and perusing them every so often looking for free chargers has really paid off. I’ve got a circuit that is about 195 miles long where I only pay for about 7kwh ($0.53). I giggle like an evil villain every time I think about that. There is another trip I take where I only pay for half the required juice. If I’m planning ahead, I actually make a “profit” on the trip. Leave the house with less charge and arrive there as low as I dare. Recently some free chargers have opened at a couple of other towns I go to on occasion. I’ll be trying to get as much free juice as I can.
Neighbor was talking trash about my electric truck until I pointed out how cheap it was to run and how when I’m watching a movie, my truck is being charged up for free. He just gives me dirty looks now.
Looking forward to getting access to the Tesla network. Having that as a backup will put pressure on EA to get their chargers to a state that I can depend upon them.
Battery:
I probably need to remind you, gentle reader, that I predominantly charge at home using a slightly derated Ford Charger (60 amps) 15.9kwh to the battery. I’m pretty confident that I have charged it around 600-700 times in the past 21 months. Normally capped at 90% but over the past few months I’ve reduced that further to 70% though I’ve come home twice now below 10% which rarely happened before the change.
I can hear your distance screams echoing through the ether, “What about the High Voltage Battery Health?”
How much is it worth to you for me to tell you? $10 or possibly $20? Well I do have PayPal. And you know, I did spend a lot of hours holding that steering wheel. All alone, on the dark highways, late at night, missing my squirrel…I mean girl. (Ready to stab me yet?)
97% after 93,000 miles.
I noticed in my Car Scan report that my HVB SOC is 3.83 percent below my HVB SOC Display (95.17 vs 99). I found this odd considering when Out Of Spec did their 70mph range test HVB SOC displayed higher if I remember correctly. The truck is currently at 99% state of charge with a DVB Voltage of 392.5 and only 125.63kwh available. I thought I was supposed to have a max of 131kwh. 99% is not 125.63kwh but it is a lot closer to 95.17%. Maybe one of you fine readers can point out where I’m mistaken.
FordPass App says I have 99% charge with 323 mile range. Something is a little off with that. In the past when it displayed such numbers, I would lose several miles before I got out of my fifty foot drive way. Go figure.
It has been at 99% for over an hour so it may be balancing the battery.
Well, its been fun and its been surreal, talk to you again around 150k miles. (feel free to ask questions, I'll check in after I enjoy a fine meal at my favorite Waffle House, need to go put on my Sunday best real quick. Wouldn't want the neighbors to think I'm trashy)
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