Ragman
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #1
Some would say I’m stubborn, but decided to prove a point over holidays. My son and I took upon us a task of road tripping it from the Great White North to the land of the Mouse.
Bad news for all the click baiters, it went off without a hitch.
The start: We did get off to a bit of a rough start…. Completely my fault, truck wasn’t plugged in and we headed out with a cold battery (-25 woot!). ND isnt exactly the land of excess chargers however stops at Tesla at Fargo then Grand Forks and off we went.
Mileage/Charging: Picked up the ABRP subscription and Tesla Membership, one thing wish I knew was to get a Bluetooth OBD so ABRP can talk to the truck. Start of drive we were running 1.0 miles/KW by Florida we were 2.5 miles/KW. Manually updating ABRP with actuals was a pain and resulted in most stops us arriving at 25+% but it predicting <10%.
This resulted in likely 2-4 extra charging stops and 2-3 hours longer drive. The truck charges at 170+kw at the low end of battery - ie 10 to 20% at 170 kw vs 80-90 at 50 kw. We could have safely pushed as low as 5% the entire way with no risk - proved this out on way back.
We charged at Tesla SC's except for twice at the Mercedes/Chargepoint's at Buc-ee's - all I can say is WOW - stop there if you get a chance! 80 gas pumps... just wow. To credit 18 charging stalls as well.
The truck: 2023 Lariat ER, truck was pretty much flawless. At border we kicked on BlueCruise and it drove to Florida - for an adrenaline rush I do recommend letting BC drive through Chicago/Atlanta downtown traffic. ABRP sending us off the Interstate into Chicago rail yards at 2 am to avoid a toll - also an adrenaline rush.
Unfortunately did not get the 1.4 update so just 1.1 - it did have a habit of dropping going under most interstate overpasses and it doesn't overly like rain.
As the mission was to prove a point we started with a "let's count the EVs" we see on route - might get to see a Cybertruck!
The count:
Cybertrucks - 11
Rivians - 6
Kia/Hyundais - 4
Mach-E's - 2
Tesla Model 3/Y/X - stopped after 300
and.... Lightning's? 1... in South Dakota
4750 miles... and only one other Lightning. Ouch. And in irony if you look at last picture of us back home in Snow, yes that's another Lightning also at Tesla charger as I write this!
The star of the trip is the Ford Tesla Adaptor - it performed flawlessly - no overheating or connection issues. I did use the A2Z once, when I disconnected it was hotter then I could touch not sure why... so back in the case it goes.
My only Ford gripe - still no Tesla stations showing in the Nav - so no pre-conditioning. Florida no big deal but at -30 outside at the moment it would be nice.
Best Charger - Tesla wins, every single one worked. The only issue was operator based - ABRP routed us to two sites that had Gen 1 stations and also the Gen 3's - rookie move I tried using the Gen 1's...
The Mercedes/Chargepoints we used to avoid hassling the Tesla folks - the whole take two spots makes the Lightning not so popular at busy stations. Only once did it become a real issue - we were charging on the end not actually in a spot but it left the "Tesla" spot beside us appear empty.
At a full charger site that doesn't make you popular with cars full of tired kids and parents road tripping to the Mouse. We locked the truck and bolted to hide in the Wendy's until charged.
Overall a complete success - I strongly recommend hitting the road (Tesla adaptor in hand). Happy travels!
Bad news for all the click baiters, it went off without a hitch.
The start: We did get off to a bit of a rough start…. Completely my fault, truck wasn’t plugged in and we headed out with a cold battery (-25 woot!). ND isnt exactly the land of excess chargers however stops at Tesla at Fargo then Grand Forks and off we went.
Mileage/Charging: Picked up the ABRP subscription and Tesla Membership, one thing wish I knew was to get a Bluetooth OBD so ABRP can talk to the truck. Start of drive we were running 1.0 miles/KW by Florida we were 2.5 miles/KW. Manually updating ABRP with actuals was a pain and resulted in most stops us arriving at 25+% but it predicting <10%.
This resulted in likely 2-4 extra charging stops and 2-3 hours longer drive. The truck charges at 170+kw at the low end of battery - ie 10 to 20% at 170 kw vs 80-90 at 50 kw. We could have safely pushed as low as 5% the entire way with no risk - proved this out on way back.
We charged at Tesla SC's except for twice at the Mercedes/Chargepoint's at Buc-ee's - all I can say is WOW - stop there if you get a chance! 80 gas pumps... just wow. To credit 18 charging stalls as well.
The truck: 2023 Lariat ER, truck was pretty much flawless. At border we kicked on BlueCruise and it drove to Florida - for an adrenaline rush I do recommend letting BC drive through Chicago/Atlanta downtown traffic. ABRP sending us off the Interstate into Chicago rail yards at 2 am to avoid a toll - also an adrenaline rush.
Unfortunately did not get the 1.4 update so just 1.1 - it did have a habit of dropping going under most interstate overpasses and it doesn't overly like rain.
As the mission was to prove a point we started with a "let's count the EVs" we see on route - might get to see a Cybertruck!
The count:
Cybertrucks - 11
Rivians - 6
Kia/Hyundais - 4
Mach-E's - 2
Tesla Model 3/Y/X - stopped after 300
and.... Lightning's? 1... in South Dakota
4750 miles... and only one other Lightning. Ouch. And in irony if you look at last picture of us back home in Snow, yes that's another Lightning also at Tesla charger as I write this!
The star of the trip is the Ford Tesla Adaptor - it performed flawlessly - no overheating or connection issues. I did use the A2Z once, when I disconnected it was hotter then I could touch not sure why... so back in the case it goes.
My only Ford gripe - still no Tesla stations showing in the Nav - so no pre-conditioning. Florida no big deal but at -30 outside at the moment it would be nice.
Best Charger - Tesla wins, every single one worked. The only issue was operator based - ABRP routed us to two sites that had Gen 1 stations and also the Gen 3's - rookie move I tried using the Gen 1's...
The Mercedes/Chargepoints we used to avoid hassling the Tesla folks - the whole take two spots makes the Lightning not so popular at busy stations. Only once did it become a real issue - we were charging on the end not actually in a spot but it left the "Tesla" spot beside us appear empty.
At a full charger site that doesn't make you popular with cars full of tired kids and parents road tripping to the Mouse. We locked the truck and bolted to hide in the Wendy's until charged.
Overall a complete success - I strongly recommend hitting the road (Tesla adaptor in hand). Happy travels!
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