Splendid Isolation - F-150 Lightning Road Trip from Detroit to Big Bend National Park

[RickLightning]

How much extra did you spend by not signing up for Tesla or EA membership?

You didn't use ABRP or PlugShare? Why not?

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[Karlos]

It was less than 18 hours of DC charging, but virtually all well-timed with meal, restroom, or sightseeing breaks. The truck was often ready to go long before we were, and the number of stops where we had to sit around waiting for the truck were few and far between, only the "big" charge stops. Overall it was no inconvenience at all, and we could have optimized it even further if we had relied on hotel charging - we had hotel charging one night and I didn't even use it because the next DCFC stop was somewhere we wanted to stop anyway (a Buc-ee's), for example. If I had chosen hotels based on charging, there'd have been fewer DC stops. I also chose chargers I personally preferred, even if they weren't the fastest speed. I could have shaved at least an hour just by choosing faster chargers, but I didn't want to.

Curious where you charged in the Big Bend area. Nearest DCFC is Alpine - 90 miles from BB. I've contemplated a trip there, but suspect I'd have to L1 extension cord charge from a cabin inside the park.

 

[Charge_Rob]

Looks like a rad trip.

That said, I'm a bit skeptical here (sorry to say). This reads like a paid piece. Your entire post history comes across as a Ford paid mouthpiece. Your in Dearborn. And more of the same over on the Mach E forums...

Are you a Ford employee or affiliated with them in some way?

If this is all true, I really hope more people can start posting their positive stories as well. It's gonna take years of good press to drown out the negative experiences others have had in their first years of ownership.

This was my personal vacation in my personal Lightning. When I'm not out road tripping for fun, I work for Ford. Between this F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach-E and other EVs I owned before it, I've done about 100,000 miles of EV trips across the US and Canada, so this is not a "first time" road trip - including lots of EV road trips to national parks, for fun, because I love electric road trips.

 

[Charge_Rob]

How much extra did you spend by not signing up for Tesla or EA membership?

You didn't use ABRP or PlugShare? Why not?

I prefer Connected Navigation, not only because with 2 phones in the car, it is a constant when switching between Android Auto on my phone for media and Apple CarPlay on my passenger's phone for media, rather than having to have ABRP running twice, or re-entering nav between Google and Apple Maps each time we switched. I just have 100k+ miles of driving with Connected Navigation under my belt, I've definitely learned its quirks by now.

 

[Charge_Rob]

Curious where you charged in the Big Bend area. Nearest DCFC is Alpine - 90 miles from BB. I've contemplated a trip there, but suspect I'd have to L1 extension cord charge from a cabin inside the park.

We rented a place in Terlingua with a NEMA 14-50 outlet, and used the Mobile Power Cord. It was nice to get 149 kWh for "free" for all of our park driving.

 

[MountainAlive]

I prefer Connected Navigation, not only because with 2 phones in the car, it is a constant when switching between Android Auto on my phone for media and Apple CarPlay on my passenger's phone for media, rather than having to have ABRP running twice, or re-entering nav between Google and Apple Maps each time we switched. I just have 100k+ miles of driving with Connected Navigation under my belt, I've definitely learned its quirks by now.

I’ll have to try the built in nav more often then. Does that also now route to Tesla super chargers or just Apple Maps for now? And awesome trip!

 

[21st Century Truck]

I’ll have to try the built in nav more often then. Does that also now route to Tesla super chargers or just Apple Maps for now? And awesome trip!

It (still) depends.

I use Ford NAV pretty exclusively, across two Ford EVs and on over 130,000 miles.

Some (!!) Tesla Superchargers do show up, but unfortunately far fewer than 50% of the authorized Superchargers out there.

This has been a very long waiting game for us Ford NAV users... because of this, I tend to use Telsa app map and, when cold-weather appropriate, target a nearest (loose meaning) available CCS Fast Charger to precondition the traction battery as I approach.

 

[21st Century Truck]

If this is all true, I really hope more people can start posting their positive stories as well. It's gonna take years of good press to drown out the negative experiences others have had in their first years of ownership.

Oh, there are more of us out here with really successful long road trips across North America... and btw I am not and likely never will be a Ford (or any other auto manufacturer) employee .

To wit, from January 2024:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...0-miles-through-snow-in-january-2024-d.33476/

 

[Jojomontag]

We rented a place in Terlingua with a NEMA 14-50 outlet, and used the Mobile Power Cord. It was nice to get 149 kWh for "free" for all of our park driving.

We did the same. No issues with range while touring the park!

 

[21st Century Truck]

I love the Big Bend National Park... especially the amazing Santa Elena Canyon in the far back corner of the park.

 

[woodsman]

Looking forward to my National Parks road trip, thanks for sharing.

 

[Jim Lewis]

Thanks for posting this. We are in KC and need to get to Big Bend at some point. How many rattlers did you encounter? I'd rather come across a grizzly than a rattler. Haven't been bit yet but our lab got bit. Luckily a dry strike.

I'd be more concerned about mountain lions (cougars) than rattlers if visiting Big Bend. I've never been there myself, but I've heard there's a trail descending to the Rio Grande with warning signs to carry small children lest a cougar dash out of the brush and snatch one up.

Mountain Lions - Big Bend National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

If this is all true, I really hope more people can start posting their positive stories as well. It's gonna take years of good press to drown out the negative experiences others have had in their first years of ownership.

We have >60k miles on our Mustang and Lightning, with around 45k road trip miles.

It's easy to long-distance road trip in both the Lightning and the Mustang. I no longer own a gassy vehicle because there's nowhere I can imagine wanting to drive that I wouldn't rather drive to in an EV.

But putting in the effort to post a thorough road trip report in a forum is often rewarded with negative responses. Why do all that unpaid work just to have to defend against people accusing you of being a shill, telling you your experience is impossible, that you did it wrong, or whatever? I got fed up with all that and don't bother with reporting most road trips now.

 

[Charge_Rob]

We have >60k miles on our Mustang and Lightning, with around 45k road trip miles.

It's easy to long-distance road trip in both the Lightning and the Mustang. I no longer own a gassy vehicle because there's nowhere I can imagine wanting to drive that I wouldn't rather drive to in an EV.

But putting in the effort to post a thorough road trip report in a forum is often rewarded with negative responses. Why do all that unpaid work just to have to defend against people accusing you of being a shill, telling you your experience is impossible, that you did it wrong, or whatever? I got fed up with all that and don't bother with reporting most road trips now.

Honestly this ^

I know I'd love to see more trip reports.

 

[Zprime29]

My wife is not a road trip fan, a few bad experiences with the EA chargers we are stuck with in our corner of the country have not helped matters. I'm glad your trip went off without a hitch. I really want to do something like this but between taking the time off and convincing the family it'll be fun, it ain't gonna happen any time soon. I'll have to live vicariously through these trip reports. Keep 'em coming!

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