First Lightning camping trip: 400 miles round-trip...Unmitigated success!

[SpaceEVDriver]

We finally took the Lightning camping! It was fantastic!

I first installed a couple of 100 W solar panels on the rack so we could recharge our 1.4 kWh battery that would power the ICECO 60L fridge/freezer, which fits neatly under the tonneau cover.

Packed up everything we thought we would need and a few more things as well.

We headed north from the Flagstaff area toward southern Utah. We stopped in Page for a restroom break and to grab a couple of snacks. Then we continued on to Cottonwood Canyon Road, off of Highway 89 and then took the back roads about 45 miles to Kodachrome Basin State Park.

On the way up, our elevation started at about 6650 feet, went up to about 7300 feet, dropped to a low of 3500 feet, and then went back up to 6500 and finally down to about 5800 feet. We had lots of ups and downs along the way.

The truck freaked out at one point when it realized there were no chargers within its calculated range. We continued driving; it kept freaking out.

We left Flagstaff with 100% charge, 123 kWh on the CarScanner report. We drive the speed limit (65 mph, along with slowdowns, etc). The winds were pretty bad: steady crosswinds of 25-30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. We arrived in Page, 210 km later, with about 77 kWh (65% SoC) remaining. After a quick stop, we continued on--there's no fast charging in Page. We arrived at Kodachrome with about 53 kWh (37% SoC) left. A total of about 320 km driving using about 70 kWh, for an efficiency of 4.5-4.6 km/kwh (2.8-2.9 miles/kWh).

Now 53 kWh is obviously not enough to get back home, and we'd planned for that. The second night we had an RV site with 50 Amp service. We parked the truck there at around 3:30 PM and it was back up to 100% SoC when we retrieved the truck the following morning.

On our drive home, we encountered more winds, but they weren't as bad. However, we were climbing up in total elevation, so we expected to lose some efficiency. And we did. Overall we drove around 320 km and used 79 kWh of energy for an efficiency of 4.0-4.1 km/kWh (2.5 miles/kWh).

Overall, this was a fantastic camping trip. We'll probably reserve an RV site every night next time we stay here, which is usually twice a year. When we've gone before, we've always had to go into Bryce to fill up on gas, which usually takes at least half a day. Freeing ourselves from that necessity has been fantastic!

A few things on my to-do list:
1) Get an induction cooktop to replace the propane stove.
2) Figure out a propane/firewood replacement for the "fire" pit. I'm allergic to wood smoke, and I would love to be done with propane entirely.
3) Add a solar canopy that pulls over the side of the truck. While we had way more energy than we needed for running the fridge, on longer, hotter boondocking trips, we'll need a bit more power generation for the fridge and I'd like to plug in my L1 charger to add a few kWh to the truck. A 3-day summer camping trip like this one could give us around 12 hours of clean sun, so a 400-600 Watt PV canopy could generate around 6 kWh in a day, and even if only 3 of those go to the truck, the weekend total could be 9kWh to the truck, or almost 50 km (30 miles). For a weekend trip where there aren't any chargers, 50 km gives me a nice buffer to play with. The weight won't add up to a noticeable impact, and a flat surface 300 mm, 100 mm, or 0 mm above the tonneau cover really doesn't change the overall drag on the truck.

 

[Forkinroad]

Thanks for sharing

 

[CyclopsThere]

We finally took the Lightning camping! It was fantastic!

I first installed a couple of 100 W solar panels on the rack so we could recharge our 1.4 kWh battery that would power the ICECO 60L fridge/freezer, which fits neatly under the tonneau cover.

Packed up everything we thought we would need and a few more things as well.

We headed north from the Flagstaff area toward southern Utah. We stopped in Page for a restroom break and to grab a couple of snacks. Then we continued on to Cottonwood Canyon Road, off of Highway 89 and then took the back roads about 45 miles to Kodachrome Basin State Park.

On the way up, our elevation started at about 6650 feet, went up to about 7300 feet, dropped to a low of 3500 feet, and then went back up to 6500 and finally down to about 5800 feet. We had lots of ups and downs along the way.

The truck freaked out at one point when it realized there were no chargers within its calculated range. We continued driving; it kept freaking out.

We left Flagstaff with 100% charge, 123 kWh on the CarScanner report. We drive the speed limit (65 mph, along with slowdowns, etc). The winds were pretty bad: steady crosswinds of 25-30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. We arrived in Page, 210 km later, with about 77 kWh (65% SoC) remaining. After a quick stop, we continued on--there's no fast charging in Page. We arrived at Kodachrome with about 53 kWh (37% SoC) left. A total of about 320 km driving using about 70 kWh, for an efficiency of 4.5-4.6 km/kwh (2.8-2.9 miles/kWh).

Now 53 kWh is obviously not enough to get back home, and we'd planned for that. The second night we had an RV site with 50 Amp service. We parked the truck there at around 3:30 PM and it was back up to 100% SoC when we retrieved the truck the following morning.

On our drive home, we encountered more winds, but they weren't as bad. However, we were climbing up in total elevation, so we expected to lose some efficiency. And we did. Overall we drove around 320 km and used 79 kWh of energy for an efficiency of 4.0-4.1 km/kWh (2.5 miles/kWh).

Overall, this was a fantastic camping trip. We'll probably reserve an RV site every night next time we stay here, which is usually twice a year. When we've gone before, we've always had to go into Bryce to fill up on gas, which usually takes at least half a day. Freeing ourselves from that necessity has been fantastic!

A few things on my to-do list:
1) Get an induction cooktop to replace the propane stove.
2) Figure out a propane/firewood replacement for the "fire" pit. I'm allergic to wood smoke, and I would love to be done with propane entirely.
3) Add a solar canopy that pulls over the side of the truck. While we had way more energy than we needed for running the fridge, on longer, hotter boondocking trips, we'll need a bit more power generation for the fridge and I'd like to plug in my L1 charger to add a few kWh to the truck. A 3-day summer camping trip like this one could give us around 12 hours of clean sun, so a 400-600 Watt PV canopy could generate around 6 kWh in a day, and even if only 3 of those go to the truck, the weekend total could be 9kWh to the truck, or almost 50 km (30 miles). For a weekend trip where there aren't any chargers, 50 km gives me a nice buffer to play with. The weight won't add up to a noticeable impact, and a flat surface 300 mm, 100 mm, or 0 mm above the tonneau cover really doesn't change the overall drag on the truck.

Great report out. Amazing efficiency!!

 

[VAF84]

Great report!

Having said that, when I read of these efficiency numbers I really question that all the trucks can provide the same efficiencies from factory. There has to be some outliers, that’s crazy good efficiency for a fully loaded trucks on a trip going 65mph.

 

[Rocket808]

When I went to Death Valley NP, and rented a RV site for the power, the ranger told me to absolutely not use it for EV charging.
something about not being design for the constant high current pull of the campsite electrical.
Seeing (on the site) that the cheap connectors melt with home EV charger use, I stressed out and waited to charge at the charge stations near the restaurant. Slow and long waits, but patience prevailed.
My question - did you see any signs restricting EV charging (or not)
Thanks

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Great report!

Having said that, when I read of these efficiency numbers I really question that all the trucks can provide the same efficiencies from factory. There has to be some outliers, that’s crazy good efficiency for a fully loaded trucks on a trip going 65mph.

Note that I am calculating efficiency from the OBD2 reports of distance traveled (320 km; 200 miles) and energy used (energy to empty at start minus energy to empty at end), not from the vehicle display.

There are two reasons for this: first, when we stop for breaks, I shut off the truck and we lose the efficiency numbers on the display. I don't use the Trip 1 or Trip 2 meters because of unreliable behavior in the Mustang Mach-E early in our ownership.

And the second reason is that the efficiency numbers reported by the vehicle are very heavily quantized, I think because they're using a tiny memory register to temporarily store the result of division of small numbers. I don't trust their numbers for anything other than an estimate (1, 2, 3, etc with miles/kWh).

However, using the energy to empty does come with a caveat: The energy stored in the battery is temperature dependent and the battery temperature stays around ambient temperature. In winter, the energy to empty might decrease faster than the energy used to move or heat the vehicle. In summer, the energy available might actually increase for short drives and it might not decrease as fast because the battery temperature might increase as you drive.

I am okay with these caveats because the energy to empty is still a measure of how far I can drive the truck and the km/kWh derived from that is still a measure of how far I drove and how much I depleted the energy store.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

When I went to Death Valley NP, and rented a RV site for the power, the ranger told me to absolutely not use it for EV charging.
something about not being design for the constant high current pull of the campsite electrical.
Seeing (on the site) that the cheap connectors melt with home EV charger use, I stressed out and waited to charge at the charge stations near the restaurant. Slow and long waits, but patience prevailed.
My question - did you see any signs restricting EV charging (or not)
Thanks

We got the same attitude at Death Valley earlier this year. It's bogus, but we weren't going to argue with the Civil Servants whose jobs are already miserable enough. We also charged at the Blink chargers near the hotel.

We got no such argument from the park rangers at Kodachrome. In fact, a Rivian was charging at the RV site right next to the visitor center, perfectly within view of the rangers. And I asked if that site was reserved or usable at any time for charging an EV. Their response was that all the sites are reserved or first-come-first-serve and have to be paid for for at least one full day. They have no problem with EVs using their plugs.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Great report!

Having said that, when I read of these efficiency numbers I really question that all the trucks can provide the same efficiencies from factory. There has to be some outliers, that’s crazy good efficiency for a fully loaded trucks on a trip going 65mph.

Oh, also, I'm an obsessive mileage gamer...

For example: on the way up, I noticed that we were not getting the efficiency I thought we should get going slowly on the dirt road. On the way home, I sped up on that road and got much better efficiency. This dirt road has a lot of hills. Going too slowly means you're constantly losing momentum to those hills and have to constantly accelerate all that mass back up from 10 mph to 20 mph. At the low speeds necessary on the dirt road, aerodynamic drag doesn't play a role. So it's better (efficiency wise) to maintain a slightly higher speed. Maintaining (low) speed is cheaper than gaining that speed.

 

[IdeaOfTheDayCom]

I love it!

People often overlook the fact that RV sites are a great way to charge while camping, especially in remote areas that don't have many traditional EV Charging locations.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I love it!

People often overlook the fact that RV sites are a great way to charge while camping, especially in remote areas that don't have many traditional EV Charging locations.

I find that too. And many RV sites aren't listed on PlugShare, so people don't even think to consider them.

It's interesting how limiting some enabling technologies become once they're relied on sort of "too much."

 

[Henry Ford]

2) Figure out a propane/firewood replacement for the "fire" pit. I'm allergic to wood smoke, and I would love to be done with propane entirely.

A SoloStove or other "smokeless" fire pit might work for you. They aren't truly smokeless but combustion is far more complete and they are much easier to be around than wood burning on the ground. After using a SoloStove for the past three years I absolutely can't stand to be around a regular fire pit. That said, I'm not allergic.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

A SoloStove or other "smokeless" fire pit might work for you. They aren't truly smokeless but combustion is far more complete and they are much easier to be around than wood burning on the ground. After using a SoloStove for the past three years I absolutely can't stand to be around a regular fire pit. That said, I'm not allergic.

A friend with whom we often camp has a "smokeless" fire pit. It's not all that much better. We have considered the Solo. Still have a lot of things to consider.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

We finally took the Lightning camping! It was fantastic!

I first installed a couple of 100 W solar panels on the rack so we could recharge our 1.4 kWh battery that would power the ICECO 60L fridge/freezer, which fits neatly under the tonneau cover.

Packed up everything we thought we would need and a few more things as well.

We headed north from the Flagstaff area toward southern Utah. We stopped in Page for a restroom break and to grab a couple of snacks. Then we continued on to Cottonwood Canyon Road, off of Highway 89 and then took the back roads about 45 miles to Kodachrome Basin State Park.

On the way up, our elevation started at about 6650 feet, went up to about 7300 feet, dropped to a low of 3500 feet, and then went back up to 6500 and finally down to about 5800 feet. We had lots of ups and downs along the way.

The truck freaked out at one point when it realized there were no chargers within its calculated range. We continued driving; it kept freaking out.

We left Flagstaff with 100% charge, 123 kWh on the CarScanner report. We drive the speed limit (65 mph, along with slowdowns, etc). The winds were pretty bad: steady crosswinds of 25-30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. We arrived in Page, 210 km later, with about 77 kWh (65% SoC) remaining. After a quick stop, we continued on--there's no fast charging in Page. We arrived at Kodachrome with about 53 kWh (37% SoC) left. A total of about 320 km driving using about 70 kWh, for an efficiency of 4.5-4.6 km/kwh (2.8-2.9 miles/kWh).

Now 53 kWh is obviously not enough to get back home, and we'd planned for that. The second night we had an RV site with 50 Amp service. We parked the truck there at around 3:30 PM and it was back up to 100% SoC when we retrieved the truck the following morning.

On our drive home, we encountered more winds, but they weren't as bad. However, we were climbing up in total elevation, so we expected to lose some efficiency. And we did. Overall we drove around 320 km and used 79 kWh of energy for an efficiency of 4.0-4.1 km/kWh (2.5 miles/kWh).

Overall, this was a fantastic camping trip. We'll probably reserve an RV site every night next time we stay here, which is usually twice a year. When we've gone before, we've always had to go into Bryce to fill up on gas, which usually takes at least half a day. Freeing ourselves from that necessity has been fantastic!

A few things on my to-do list:
1) Get an induction cooktop to replace the propane stove.
2) Figure out a propane/firewood replacement for the "fire" pit. I'm allergic to wood smoke, and I would love to be done with propane entirely.
3) Add a solar canopy that pulls over the side of the truck. While we had way more energy than we needed for running the fridge, on longer, hotter boondocking trips, we'll need a bit more power generation for the fridge and I'd like to plug in my L1 charger to add a few kWh to the truck. A 3-day summer camping trip like this one could give us around 12 hours of clean sun, so a 400-600 Watt PV canopy could generate around 6 kWh in a day, and even if only 3 of those go to the truck, the weekend total could be 9kWh to the truck, or almost 50 km (30 miles). For a weekend trip where there aren't any chargers, 50 km gives me a nice buffer to play with. The weight won't add up to a noticeable impact, and a flat surface 300 mm, 100 mm, or 0 mm above the tonneau cover really doesn't change the overall drag on the truck.

Looks like a wonderful trip! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!