Part II of the adventure begins

[jlferg0509]

Ok, Part I of the adventure was to purchase the Lightning spend the first year feeling it out, pros, and cons to get a good understand of how it impacts our travel plans, understanding that there are challenges with the charging infrastructure and others that are unknown.

The first year has gone better than expected, when you're a first adopter you know (or should know) that you're signing up (paying extra) to be a "test subject". I have to give a shout out to my dealer Beau Townsend Ford in Vandalia, Ohio. My salesman, Justin Rash, has been fantastic to work with prior to the purchase, through the purchase and delivery challenges to support (software updates, recalls, etc.) as I come up on my 30k mile check.

Part I:
No hesitation, as you can tell by my mileage in 15months in, we jumped in with both feet. We took multiple 2k mile trips to the Elkins/Philippi/Belington West Virginia, Shreveport Louisiana, Tuscaloosa Alabama, Aiken South Carolina, visit family and friends and moving adult kids back to Ohio from DC. The DC trip was our initial attempt at towing a 5k pound U-Haul trailer over 340 miles and charging. The most challenging trips were to West Virginia and Louisiana. You hear about charging deserts but these areas are barren luckily, family and friends of family helped to get through the difficulties.

My personal opinion after driving this vehicle over the last 15 months is that I think states should jump on the new federal infrastructure dollars, partner with some of the commercial providers (Tesla, EA, EVgo, etc.) and install six or more chargers at the far end of all their visitor centers and rest stops along the interstate.

Part II:
The next adventure begins next Wednesday. We pick up our RV trailer...GVWR is 8600 pounds and before it starts, no, I'm not delusional. The same could (and was) said when we purchased the Lightning. I've read the articles and watched the videos saying what the challenges are so we get that towing this load will come its cons like finding chargers, charging every 100 miles or so and the the unknown difficulties that will come with it. Our goal is to hit as many local state parks within a 50/60 mile radius as possible this summer with the goal of expanding on that mileage near the end to continue testing the waters as we go further out.

So here we go again, jumping in with both feet because difficult is not impossible.

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[BabyDoc1012]

Sounds awesome! Good write and good luck in the future. I’m just starting my time with the lightning and figuring it all out.

 

[Adventureboy]

If you get a site with 50amp 240v service and the camp sight allows you, you can plug in the Lightning and run the trailer from the OBPP.

 

[jlferg0509]

If you get a site with 50amp 240v service and the camp sight allows you, you can plug in the Lightning and run the trailer from the OBPP.

@Adventureboy great minds...that is my hope, especially when we're at the State Parks and any local campsites. It seems that KOA frowns on that at this time, just means they won't get my business.

 

[hturnerfamily]

we've towed our single-axle 3k lb camper for over 20,000 miles since August '22 with the LIGHTNING Pro 'standard range' machine... it works. Period.

some folks, though, will never try it because they just can't 'believe it'... but, I don't care. It works. Period.

we've been to full electric 50amp campgrounds and State Parks all over Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida... we've been to 'less than' full electrical campgrounds and State Parks, such as the highest state park campground in Georgia: Black Rock Mountain State park, where their 'upgrade' to more electrical options was to simply double the 30amp 120v outlets at each site. Interestingly, though, I simply used my 'Y' Adapter/splitter and drew 240v from both for the LIGHTNING to charge, while I used the ProPower for the camper. You could also simply plug in the camper to the 120v outlet at the pedestal, with an adapter, too.

we've also been 'off grid' plenty of times, whether a simple 'overnight' at the outer edges of a Walmart parking lot, or a day at the BEACH State Park, running the roof air conditioner, fridge, fans, and all needs with the ProPower... nice.

we've averaged more than 1.4 miles per kWh when towing in the Georgia/Florida region trips, as it is mostly 'flat' terrain... we've averaged slightly less when going north to far N Georgia/N Carolina/N Alabama Mountains... with CONSERVATIVE driving ...

The CHARGE infrastructure is growing fastly, and there are MANY more options from even when we first started... I don't even stress it anymore.

this 'tweet' is from BLACK ROCK MOUNTAIN State Park in far NE Georgia(Mountain City), and at a very high elevation of 3,219'

 

[jlferg0509]

@hturnerfamily, thank you for the feedback. This is exactly what our plan is...make use of what's available to do the things we want to do.

It helps to know we're not the only ones out taking this risks and pushing the outer limits.

 

[johnnyonetime]

We’ve been doing the same in Florida since February ‘23. Because difficult is not impossible describes it perfectly!

 

[johnnyonetime]

Towing 7000 lb trailer average 1mi/kWh.

 

[jlferg0509]

Towing 7000 lb trailer average 1mi/kWh.

@johnnyonetime what was your average speed?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We sold our travel trailer just before getting the Lightning. Mostly we got rid of it because we were tired of the resident rodents not paying rent and tired of having to clean up after them before every single trip we wanted to take.

The next part of our adventure is to start designing a small, very well-sealed teardrop with a battery pack to give us an extra "jerry can" of energy.

Many of our favorite campsites are about 200-300 miles, one way, from our home. There's no DCFC, only one (unreliable) L2 between, and no reliable RV electric, it's all boondocking. We haven't been to some of those campsites since the pandemic started, but we would love to start going back.

We have zero regrets about going all-electric.

 

[johnnyonetime]

@johnnyonetime what was your average speed?

65mph on the interstate, just did 2500 mile round trip to San Antonio for the eclipse. Used Tesla superchargers almost exclusively with A2Z adapter.

 

[jlferg0509]

Adventure Part II, first report:

So we've taken our first two trips with our new 8,600 lb Keystone Passport GT. There was a lot of learning done but I'll just touch on those items I think are relevant to this audience.

Trip 1:
Local State Park (Kiser Lake State Park, first pic) small gem in Ohio, only 40 minutes north of us. Total of 120 miles round trip, combination of highway and backroads, averaging 1.1 mi/kwh @ 65 miles per hour, ended up charging DCFC once due to additional road time outside of towing. Tested a number of things such as using the 50 amp source to charge during the evening for a couple of hours, using the truck as a power source using its 30 amp outlet and understanding our limitations (e.g. ability to use the AC). Great first outing, with the exception of clipping the top of the trailer with the building when returning to storage...uuugh!

Trip 2:
Planned larger family outing at a mid-Ohio Airbnb (Raylin Farmhouse, 2nd pic), beautiful place with a lot of activities, and Mohican State Park near by. 455 miles round trip, combination of highway and backroads, still averaging 1.1 mi/kwh @ 65 miles per hour. We sourced the trailer power a few hours with the truck during this trip (e.g. AC a few times, early morning to make coffee, watched a little TV in the evenings, etc.) these were activities using the batteries on the trailer would not support but the 30 amp outlet on the truck would. We were only 10 miles from an Electrify America DCFC station which we used once during the stay.

A big learning for me was that the truck will use cruise control while towing but without driver assist or Blue Cruise which is perfect. This may have been covered in another area but I might have missed it.