This will be my last attempt at a Lightning Road Trip

[evowner]

I do not recommend this. Level 3 chargers require a large amount of power and if you do not have 480V/3-phase at your shop you'll likely need one with an integral battery and it will be VERY pricey. Level 2 is great for home charging, level 3 is great for charging on a trip.

It sounds like you have some deeply ingrained ideas about EVs that a lot of the forum disagrees with. I am not going to tell you what to do, but I do know based on your posts that at least a handful of your assumptions are incorrect and you may decide something else is better for you if you researched some more.

Thanks for your concern. I do have the power required. I am looking for a charger at auction. It may not happen. I would not use it for daily charging, only if I needed a quick charge. I have 48 amp L2 chargers in all of my shops.

I'm not sure what "the forum disagrees with" means, but I have had an Ev for almost 10 years. The battery in that vehicle still charges to 100% and still provides almost the same output as when I bought it. I have 3 Ev's now. I have never run out of power, I have never had one single problem with any of them, so far. So whether anyone agrees or not it worked for me.

My first experience with charging at a public charger did not go well, and I admit I held that prejudice for longer than I should have. Most of my travels are done without using public chargers and I like it that way.

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[Henry Ford]

If you wanted to change a software-selected charger, you just pushed a button and all the chargers within 100 miles or so would come up, and you could select a different one. I don't know whether Ford engineers are working on it or not...I do see updates occasionally, but they seem to be minor.

Google Maps has this functionality. When you set a destination it gives you what it thinks are the best charger options. If you want to change a selected charger you click on the charger and choose to replace it. It shows chargers in the area which you can select to see how many are available and how fast they are. After you select a new charger or delete a charger it recalculates the estimated SOC at each stop. I don't recall the exact steps to do this but it's pretty intuitive.

 

[Firn]

Thanks for your concern. I do have the power required. I am looking for a charger at auction. It may not happen. I would not use it for daily charging, only if I needed a quick charge. I have 48 amp L2 chargers in all of my shops.

I'm not sure what "the forum disagrees with" means, but I have had an Ev for almost 10 years. The battery in that vehicle still charges to 100% and still provides almost the same output as when I bought it. I have 3 Ev's now. I have never run out of power, I have never had one single problem with any of them, so far. So whether anyone agrees or not it worked for me.

My first experience with charging at a public charger did not go well, and I admit I held that prejudice for longer than I should have. Most of my travels are done without using public chargers and I like it that way.

I mean, every EV will charge to "100%". That isn't in any way a measure of if what you are doing is working. Even Leaf's with huge degredation charged to 100%. That's kind of what folks mean with "the forum disagrees with you"...

 

[evowner]

I mean, every EV will charge to "100%". That isn't in any way a measure of if what you are doing is working. Even Leaf's with huge degredation charged to 100%. That's kind of what folks mean with "the forum disagrees with you"...

As I said I still get the same amount of capacity and range out of that battery as did many years ago.

 

[RustleT]

I want to share a few thoughts for those unfamiliar with ABRP or using it without exploring all its settings. ABRP is excellent for customizing based:

• On your driving habits (I drive like a bat out of hell and don't care about efficiency ),
• How much off-route detour you’re okay with to get to the charger (they call it charging overhead)
• Real-time weather conditions
• Your desired state of charge (%) upon arriving home and at charging stations. (I push mine down to 10%)
• Your preferred charging networks
• and much more

What I discovered about ABRP is that it's best not to resist its guidance to extend your range unnecessarily. Once set up correctly, it calculates the quickest route by factoring in numerous variables. You can test this by adjusting your settings and observing how the charging plan updates.

For example, during long trips, I often pushed to use more battery with only two stops, but following its guidance and stopping earlier—sometimes significantly earlier—and following its recommendation for three optimal shorter stops proved to be faster. It becomes clear once you appreciate all the factors involved.

By the way, for current users, please upload photos of charging stations to ABRP. This is incredibly helpful when selecting a Tesla station, especially since some older Supercharger locations with shorter cables and the charger placed at the back pose challenges for us Lightning drivers. And no, ABRP didn’t compensate me for sharing this. Anybody got a contact?

 

[John Becker]

I want to share a few thoughts for those unfamiliar with ABRP or using it without exploring all its settings. ABRP is excellent for customizing based:

• On your driving habits (I drive like a bat out of hell and don't care about efficiency ),
• How much off-route detour you’re okay with to get to the charger (they call it charging overhead)
• Real-time weather conditions
• Your desired state of charge (%) upon arriving home and at charging stations. (I push mine down to 10%)
• Your preferred charging networks
• and much more

What I discovered about ABRP is that it's best not to resist its guidance to extend your range unnecessarily. Once set up correctly, it calculates the quickest route by factoring in numerous variables. You can test this by adjusting your settings and observing how the charging plan updates.

For example, during long trips, I often pushed to use more battery with only two stops, but following its guidance and stopping earlier—sometimes significantly earlier—and following its recommendation for three optimal shorter stops proved to be faster. It becomes clear once you appreciate all the factors involved.

How much of this applies to the free version?

 

[RustleT]

How much of this applies to the free version?

Good question. I had to log out since I pay $50/yr for the premium version. A lot of it is available for the free planner. The premium integrates real-time data as you drive through a combination of weather reports, traffic reports, current charger availability, and a live feed from your truck via an OBDlink.

So:

• Free: Plan with it and manually adjust as needed while on the road.
• Premium ($5/mo or $50/yr): It will automatically adjust while you're driving.

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