OP
OP
SpaceEVDriver
Well-known member
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- #31
I had meetings at CalTech's Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. There's a parking garage behind the Center. Parking was $27 for the week, and they have around 90 chargers (several DCFC but mostly L2). For whatever reason, the chargers were free during the week I was visiting, so I got to charge to full while in my meetings.
This little beauty was charging on one of the days. Back when I had no money, I searched and searched for a Porsche 914 to convert into an EV, but they were too expensive (plus the cost of the conversion kit). So I bought the Gen-1 Prius instead. One of these days I'll have both time and money to convert an FJ40 or MGB or something similar.
After my week of meetings, I picked up a U-Haul trailer and loaded up some furniture I had been given by a relative. I headed home starting with 99% charge.
I arrived at the Barstow Supercharger with 69% remaining. Plugged in and went to find a snack. All of the food purchases are a bit of a walk from the charging station, so by the time I was back, the truck had stopped charging at 90%. If I'd thought about it before leaving the truck, I would have asked it to charge to 100% (it wouldn't have reached 100%, but I wanted as much charge as possible).
Nearly half of the chargers at this station were taped off with caution tape, but it wasn't busy, so there were still many chargers available. With the pullthrough spaces here, I was able to only block the charger I was using, which was nice.
From the LA basin to Barstow I got about 1.9 miles/kWh, which was pretty good considering I was climbing from about 700 feet to about 4200 feet and then back down to 2300 feet. Towing and climbing is energy-expensive.
After Barstow, I headed to Needles. I considered the stop on Goff's road, but it really wasn't necessary so I continued to the EA charging station in Needles. I strongly dislike the locations of both brand-T charging stations in Needles, so only go to those if the EA app indicates it makes more sense to suck it up. The EA chargers have never given me too much trouble. The are often slow in the summer because while the parking space is covered, the main electrical components are in direct sunlight. Needles is one of the hottest places on Earth, so those poor components get especially hot. I do hope EA will put shades over them some day.
I arrived in Needles with 34% remaining on the battery, 1.9 miles/kWh. There were a couple of Mustangs charging, but two chargers were free. I hooked up, started charging, and went to the nearby McD's to use the restroom and grab a snack. This I also needed to walk a bit--the sciatica had been acting up and I needed to loosen that. I walked around a bit, grabbed a second snack from McD's and ate a light lunch.
When I got back, there was this Lightning with a cab-over pop-up camper. I'm too introverted to approach people sitting in their vehicles, but I wanted to ask about efficiency and range hit since we're considering this as one of several camping options.
After charging to 90% again (glad I did!), I moved on.
Shortly before crossing the border from CA to AZ, traffic suddenly came to a standstill. Apparently there was a vehicle fire up ahead. It took more than an hour to go a few miles. It was 120 ºF outside, so I had to turn on the AC. This slurped up my battery while going nowhere, similar to how running a gas guzzler guzzles fuel when stuck in traffic. I had been hoping to skip the Kingman stop and stop in Williams, but that idea was shot, so after finally getting off the bridge crossing the Colorado River, I didn't bother with keeping my speed low and headed to the brand-T supercharger.
The Route 66 museum closes at 15:30 on Saturday, but the operators were kind enough to let me in to use the restroom just before they closed. I set the charge limit to 100%, used the restroom, took a short walk, and went back to the truck to take a nap. I hadn't intended to let the charge go above 90%, but I woke up with it at 92%.
I wasn't happy with my parking job. I kind of blocked three chargers. But when I had arrived, there was another Lightning parked horizontally blocking four chargers and I had to go around them and try to turn around in a very tight space. I ended up with the trailer a bit jackknifed and someone else was waiting for me so I just kind of rushed the end to get out of their way. The station wasn't so busy that anyone ended up waiting for me, but I will do it better next time.
After Kingman, I had enough charge to get home, with a possible stop in Williams if necessary. That stop wasn't necessary. I arrived home with 9% charge after a 1.4 miles/kWh final leg.
Towing a low-profile trailer like what I had really didn't add a lot to the inefficiency of the truck. Climbing from about 700 feet to 7,000 feet with several extra climbs in between is what really kills efficiency on the way back. The extra weight did impact efficiency when driving in traffic that had a lot of slow-and-go behaviors. It's a fair amount of extra mass to have to repeatedly accelerate.
Total length of the trip was about 10 hours for a normally 7.5 hour drive. One of the extra hours was due to the vehicle fire and subsequent stopped traffic. An extra 30 minutes was due to having to charge an extra time because of the extra AC use during the stopped traffic and then my unconcerned speed after the stopped traffic. In normal traffic and driving, I think the towing would only have added an extra hour to the drive. That's about the same added time I have experienced with a gas truck. And I don't mind stopping extra to work out the kinks in my back and legs during a drive like this.
Overall, I think towing with the Lightning is much more relaxing and easier than towing with the Tacoma or Tundra was.
This little beauty was charging on one of the days. Back when I had no money, I searched and searched for a Porsche 914 to convert into an EV, but they were too expensive (plus the cost of the conversion kit). So I bought the Gen-1 Prius instead. One of these days I'll have both time and money to convert an FJ40 or MGB or something similar.
After my week of meetings, I picked up a U-Haul trailer and loaded up some furniture I had been given by a relative. I headed home starting with 99% charge.
I arrived at the Barstow Supercharger with 69% remaining. Plugged in and went to find a snack. All of the food purchases are a bit of a walk from the charging station, so by the time I was back, the truck had stopped charging at 90%. If I'd thought about it before leaving the truck, I would have asked it to charge to 100% (it wouldn't have reached 100%, but I wanted as much charge as possible).
Nearly half of the chargers at this station were taped off with caution tape, but it wasn't busy, so there were still many chargers available. With the pullthrough spaces here, I was able to only block the charger I was using, which was nice.
From the LA basin to Barstow I got about 1.9 miles/kWh, which was pretty good considering I was climbing from about 700 feet to about 4200 feet and then back down to 2300 feet. Towing and climbing is energy-expensive.
After Barstow, I headed to Needles. I considered the stop on Goff's road, but it really wasn't necessary so I continued to the EA charging station in Needles. I strongly dislike the locations of both brand-T charging stations in Needles, so only go to those if the EA app indicates it makes more sense to suck it up. The EA chargers have never given me too much trouble. The are often slow in the summer because while the parking space is covered, the main electrical components are in direct sunlight. Needles is one of the hottest places on Earth, so those poor components get especially hot. I do hope EA will put shades over them some day.
I arrived in Needles with 34% remaining on the battery, 1.9 miles/kWh. There were a couple of Mustangs charging, but two chargers were free. I hooked up, started charging, and went to the nearby McD's to use the restroom and grab a snack. This I also needed to walk a bit--the sciatica had been acting up and I needed to loosen that. I walked around a bit, grabbed a second snack from McD's and ate a light lunch.
When I got back, there was this Lightning with a cab-over pop-up camper. I'm too introverted to approach people sitting in their vehicles, but I wanted to ask about efficiency and range hit since we're considering this as one of several camping options.
After charging to 90% again (glad I did!), I moved on.
Shortly before crossing the border from CA to AZ, traffic suddenly came to a standstill. Apparently there was a vehicle fire up ahead. It took more than an hour to go a few miles. It was 120 ºF outside, so I had to turn on the AC. This slurped up my battery while going nowhere, similar to how running a gas guzzler guzzles fuel when stuck in traffic. I had been hoping to skip the Kingman stop and stop in Williams, but that idea was shot, so after finally getting off the bridge crossing the Colorado River, I didn't bother with keeping my speed low and headed to the brand-T supercharger.
The Route 66 museum closes at 15:30 on Saturday, but the operators were kind enough to let me in to use the restroom just before they closed. I set the charge limit to 100%, used the restroom, took a short walk, and went back to the truck to take a nap. I hadn't intended to let the charge go above 90%, but I woke up with it at 92%.
I wasn't happy with my parking job. I kind of blocked three chargers. But when I had arrived, there was another Lightning parked horizontally blocking four chargers and I had to go around them and try to turn around in a very tight space. I ended up with the trailer a bit jackknifed and someone else was waiting for me so I just kind of rushed the end to get out of their way. The station wasn't so busy that anyone ended up waiting for me, but I will do it better next time.
After Kingman, I had enough charge to get home, with a possible stop in Williams if necessary. That stop wasn't necessary. I arrived home with 9% charge after a 1.4 miles/kWh final leg.
Towing a low-profile trailer like what I had really didn't add a lot to the inefficiency of the truck. Climbing from about 700 feet to 7,000 feet with several extra climbs in between is what really kills efficiency on the way back. The extra weight did impact efficiency when driving in traffic that had a lot of slow-and-go behaviors. It's a fair amount of extra mass to have to repeatedly accelerate.
Total length of the trip was about 10 hours for a normally 7.5 hour drive. One of the extra hours was due to the vehicle fire and subsequent stopped traffic. An extra 30 minutes was due to having to charge an extra time because of the extra AC use during the stopped traffic and then my unconcerned speed after the stopped traffic. In normal traffic and driving, I think the towing would only have added an extra hour to the drive. That's about the same added time I have experienced with a gas truck. And I don't mind stopping extra to work out the kinks in my back and legs during a drive like this.
Overall, I think towing with the Lightning is much more relaxing and easier than towing with the Tacoma or Tundra was.
