Snow to Sand and back…. 4,759 miles

[Ragman]

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!

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[Ragman]

and pictures...

 

[broncoaz]

I love Buc-ee’s. A never-ending selection of food, snacks, drinks, and crap paired with huge clean bathrooms with about 40 urinals and stalls. The brisket tacos are amazing.

 

[Chillguy]

Buc-ee's is definitely way to go... When we're road-tripping I try to stop only at Tesla SCs there... Truck is always at 80% charged before we're done "roaming" Buc-ee's so it's a breeze.... And I never push juice past 80%... Waste of time IMO waiting for that little extra. I never drive more than 3 hours at a time anyways... My legs are absolutely killing me and I have to stretch..

 

[MM in SouthTX]

We could have safely pushed as low as 5% the entire way with no risk - proved this out on way back.

I would not recommend this. I sold the truck after a bad experience. The battery went from 22% to dead in less than 40 miles while it said I was getting close to 2 mi/kWh. Further, it died when it said the battery had 3%. Trusting the software like you would trust a gas gauge is not a good plan.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Awesome trip report!!

 

[Brons2]

I would not recommend this. I sold the truck after a bad experience. The battery went from 22% to dead in less than 40 miles while it said I was getting close to 2 mi/kWh. Further, it died when it said the battery had 3%. Trusting the software like you would trust a gas gauge is not a good plan.

Not to discount your experience, but 22% at 2 mi/kwh in a standard battery like mine is only 44 miles. That's cutting it a little close, and I like to cut it somewhat close.

On our road trips, I run it below 10% every stop in our Mach-E. It charges better the lower you get it. The only time you will see anywhere near the charging limit is below 20%. I'll pull it off below 50% if I can already get to the next charger with more than 7%.

On the way back from Dallas in November going south on I-35, was supposed to stop at EA Waco per the car and ABRP, but, I aimed for Buc-ees in Temple despite a depicted 0% arrival. I slowed down to 65MPH and made it with 7% remaining, 21 miles range. Perfect. By the time we got done going to the bathroom, eating and looking around, the car was above 80%.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

I had an ER so 22% is more like 58 miles. I should have arrived home with about 7% but I the truck went dead with 3% on the dash, and 4 miles from home. Feel free to take your risks though.

 

[Scorpio3d]

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!

Buc-ee’s is from Texas… they say everything is bigger in Texas!
I have also found them to be one of the better charging locations. They have tons of stalls and usually have Tesla plus at least one other brand DCFC.
I stopped at the one in Melissa Texas the other night and they have added V4 units. They have V3 units that have been there a while plus some other brand over on one side. I didn’t look at those very closely.

 

[RaspPiDude]

Similarly, we just did Ontario down to Florida and back up, also uneventful like your trip! We counted EV trucks as well, and our counts were similar. I think the low Lightning count is because it's just harder to spot them on the road during the daytime since they blend in so well with all the other f-150s. At night it was a lot easier to see them.

 

[MichaelCA]

in my city alone i see like 2-3 near daily.

 

[Jamchampnate]

in my city alone i see like 2-3 near daily.

same. Sometimes 4-5 a day.

 

[PJnc284]

I had an ER so 22% is more like 58 miles. I should have arrived home with about 7% but I the truck went dead with 3% on the dash, and 4 miles from home. Feel free to take your risks though.

Can't always trust the bms. Think OutOfSpec had one crap out twice before reaching 0 on two separate trips even though CarScanner showed they should still have a few kWh remaining.

 

[Brons2]

I had an ER so 22% is more like 58 miles. I should have arrived home with about 7% but I the truck went dead with 3% on the dash, and 4 miles from home. Feel free to take your risks though.

The Mach-E is a lot more efficient than the Lightning on the highway, I probably would be more conservative with the Lightning just based on that alone. At 65MPH and calm winds I can get 3.1-3.3 kwh/mi. It's also unlikely I would choose the Lightning over the Mach-E on a road trip unless I needed the cargo space, becaue the Mach-E has BlueCruise and my XLT Lightning does not.

I calculate with an ER battery that 22% is roughly 28.6 kwh and if it was depleted in 36 miles indicates consumption in the 1.25 mi/kwh range. That's assuming the dash display is accurate, which with the Lightning is more of a stretch, I notice that the times I've charged it up to 100% percent, it can stay there for as long as 15 miles which is obviously not correct. I have seen consumption on mine as low as 1.3 mi/kwh in cold weather with the heater running.

The Mach-E owner's manual recommends charging to 100% at least once a month to keep battery calibration accurate. I don't see that this recommendation exists in the Lightning manual. Because I have the standard range battery, I'm sure I will charge my Lightning to 100% more often than I would if I had the extended range battery. I'm also hoping the software updates will improve the battery calibration.

But anyway, I will keep your experience in mind before trying to push it too far, might give myself a few more percentage points with your incident in mind.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

I notice that the times I've charged it up to 100% percent, it can stay there for as long as 15 miles which is obviously not correct.
.

There are a couple of posts related to this. Using an OBD scanner it has been found that the truck is charging beyond what it calls 100%. It is not charging beyond 131. The numbers are inexact and you’ll have to read through to understand more, but a lot of people have reported the “hidden” energy above what the truck calls 100%.

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