Never thought it'd happen to me...

[ctuan13]

Well, I'll simply preface this by saying this was definitely my fault, but in my defense I was fatigued, sleep-deprived and running on fumes.

TL;DR After mistaking the trailer disconnected ranfe for the trailer connected range, I ran out of battery on the side of the highway right outside of Sioux Falls. I was less than five miles from the nearest charger while towing my teardrop trailer, and after getting flatbedded to the charger, the tow truck driver damaged my truck.

The Whole Story

I'm in South Dakota now, but the other day on my way in from Minnesota I'd been making okay time with decent progress until I came upon one of my charging stops. The charger was supposed to be outputting 60kW, but I was only getting 20. As it was, I was already going to be late to my campground, but with the delay of waiting several hours at this charger, it'd be even later.

So even though I always am very conservative and overcharge past what I need (usually up to 80-90%), I figured I'd just get what I needed plus a little margin. But here's where I made my fateful mistake. The parking lot where this charger was located was tight and I had to unhitch. No big deal, inconvenient sure, but I'd done it countless other times on this trip already. But it was at this point my fatigue-addled brain failed to account for something important; something I'd accounted for every other time: with the trailer disconnected, the guessometer range estimate was grossly overestimating the distance I could travel, by about 40%.

I saw I had 57 miles to travel and glanced down and saw that my range estimate was 110 miles, and unlike every other time, I didn't think to check SOC and simply concluded that I had the charge required. I unplugged, hitched up my trailer and then proceeded to start driving. It wasn't until I'd been driving for about 30 minutes that I glanced down and was horrified at what I saw: Google maps was saying I had 30 some miles left to travel and I only had 40 some miles of range left. This was not good, and I was headed to the only charger nearby.

If I was thinking clearly I would've gotten a bit closer, unhitched, left my trailer locked up on the side of the highway, charged up and gone back to pick it up, but at the time, I was simply too focused on trying to make it. I was going 55 the whole way, but it just wasn't enough. I began losing power with 15 miles remaining, I think the SOC was 5%. And then I ground to a halt just a minute later. I was just under five miles from the charger.

Stuck on the side of the highway I called AAA. It took them over an hour and when the tow truck driver arrived, I was forced to leave my trailer on the shoulder with no lights. I lit some flares, but they would only last about 15 minutes.

Then as if all this wasn't unfortunate enough, the driver damaged my truck after unloading it, by ramming his lift bed into the lower part of my front bumper. The weasel, immediately tried to claim that the damage was already there. It was a nightmare. Anyway, I'm gonna get that dealt with, but 'm gonna see if I can fix it myself for now, which is why I posted in a old post if anyone had replaced that piece before, I was able to source a replacement online.

I finally got to my campground in Mitchell at 5AM.

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[sstevetx]

Sorry to hear about the bumper. Looks like you should be able to fix that yourself if the towing company doesn't.

 

[JRT]

Sounds like a rough time for sure. At least you are safe and everything can be fixed.

 

[RickLightning]

Sorry to hear that. Why did you call AAA instead of Ford Roadside Assistance (not that it would have been a different outcome)?

In hindsight, slowing to 40 might have been the solution.

 

[VAF84]

Thanks for sharing your story. I rarely tow with my LER, but def something that wouldn’t have crossed my mind to consider if I had to unhitch.

 

[PreservedSwine]

Thanks for sharing the ups, and the downs, of your excursion. I think anyone reading that can relate what lack of sleep and distracted multi-tasking can do to a fatigued brain. Keep your chin up, it could’ve happened to anyone.
If you’re playing tow truck driver bingo, the phras, “that was already there, “ is at the top of every drivers responses.

 

[Zprime29]

It's a shame we can eliminate the range estimate (or at least make the SOC the prominent number) on the screen. What a bummer...hope the rest of your journey goes smoother.

 

[KickingGas]

And this is why we're taking my husband's ICE F-150 on vacation. Bummer.... Don't feel bad about misjudging the GOM. Even without towing, it's hard to say what you're going to get.

We're going from the middle of Indiana to Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI as we do every summer soon. I've been checking the route every few months the past few years ever since I signed up for an EV. Waaaaaay more charging options now, especially with Tesla stations (I'm still adaptorless), but I'm worried we'd run out of juice along the way. If even one station in northern MI is down, that'd be us on the flatbed...

You are braver than I am, and sorry that happened. Chalk it up as one you can tell future generations about: the early days of adventure driving when you might not make it!

Hope your truck gets fixed soon.

 

[snowy_91]

So, I would assume you were trying to charge in my home town of Brookings SD. If I would have known you were in trouble I could have helped you out. gotta love demand charges forcing the de-rating of small local charging stations.

 

[adoublee]

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. The thing that gets me is you saying it cut out a minute after being at 5% SOC. That could really throw off the "slow down enough to manage remaining SOC" strategy.

I wonder if you might have been able to start back up and get there (unhitched) if the truck sat for a bit and cells/BMS stabilized a bit.

 

[ctuan13]

A

So, I would assume you were trying to charge in my home town of Brookings SD. If I would have known you were in trouble I could have helped you out. gotta love demand charges forcing the de-rating of small local charging stations.

Actually I failed to charge enough in Brookings, I was trying to make it to Sioux Falls.

 

[snowy_91]

Yep, I got that. That charger is capable of 80Kw, I worked with the CFO of Red E when he turned it on. (we used my MachE to test it)

 

[ctuan13]

Yep, I got that. That charger is capable of 80Kw, I worked with the CFO of Red E when he turned it on. (we used my MachE to test it)

Ahh I see, so they just de-rate it?

 

[ctuan13]

Well guys, maybe things will balance out, but this doesn't look too good to me. I think the super deep discharge may have done some damage. Take a look at my module SOC variance and voltage variation from before and after the incident. Both screenshots were taken at similar SOC.

 

[JRT]

I'm not sure I'd go that far as these batteries, even dead are not really a total discharge because of the reserve Ford has put on them. Get some normal charge cycles back home and not living on fast chargers it might balance out the cells better.

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