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Helium

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Wait a minute! You are still here? Don't you have something better to do than waste your time on those bulletin boards and forums! Damn slacker! I’m certain that headline caught your attention and you want to know all of details you nosy little brat. Or more likely you are thinking that this is some bs or something. No one, and I mean no one really wants to sit behind the wheel of a Lightning for 93,000 miles in 21 months. What can I say, it doesn’t seem like it has been that long or that far. But alas it has been. This time the thrills were cheap, the charging even cheaper, highs were mile high and salty while the lows were at sea level. Fasten your seat belt and hang on to your hat because we are about to get started.

Did you know mountains are your friend when you are in the Lightning? I actually registered 22 miles per kilowatt hour in Las Vegas (yep, drove out there for one of my trips). If I can find the picture, I’ll add it to the post.

For those that haven’t crossed the continental divide in your Lightning, do it during the day for no other reason than it is a beautiful experience you can’t get when flying over fly over country. At night, the massive torque of the dual motors makes the hills glide buy unnoticed because it is really easy to get use to the long shallow hill climbs that stretch over 10s of miles. (Also change the readout below the map to show your altitude (big screen)). It was late October when I went to Vegas and found the nights chilly and the tables even chillier. The Electrify America chargers West of the Mississippi were in far better shape than on the East, except for that one in Oklahoma.

Las Vegas:

The Vegas trip was what I consider my first serious trip at 1600 miles each way. Though before this I have taken several in the 500-600 miles range. Eastern Oklahoma charging is challenging because Francis Electricity has a semi-monopoly on the chargers and it just so happens I needed one in that area. They would start off really fast (>100kwh) but would drop down to 5kwh really quickly. Of course you are paying by the minute with Francis, dag nabbit! I tried several but they were all trash until I lucked out and found one on the way back from Salt Lake City. I’m actively avoiding Francis chargers now.

On the West side of Oklahoma Electrify America had derated all of the chargers at the Pilot so that was a time sink. Only stayed long enough to get to Amarillo for a full charge. This is the only time I cursed EA in the entire trip. Most of the EA charges are at Walmarts. Shouldn’t surprise anyone.

A note on charging cost. Where EA is charging by the kilowatt it was expensive at something like $0.44 per kilowatt. Where EA was charging by time, it was much cheaper. Anywhere from ~$0.22 or less. It did seem to me that EA West of the Mississippi has its act together.

For the nearly week I spent in Vegas, charging was free from the hotel. Even though it was “only” a 6kwh charger it was plenty.

Btw, on this trip and the Salt Lake City trip, I was carrying about 250lbs of convention product\equipment under a bed cover. Between the wind, terrain, weather, etc. I didn’t notice any penalty with the range. Let that argument continue to rage unabated by anything I did.

I drove straight through both ways and slept while charging but about 25% of the trip time was spent charging. Again, nothing unexpected.

Salt Lake City:

This trip was much like Las Vegas trip but on the return I dropped all of the way down to I-40 in New Mexico before heading East. There was a forecast of heavy snow for Denver and just didn’t want to deal with. The stretch from I-70 to I-40 was beautiful with each town having a charger which if I remember correctly was free. I was struck by how much free electricity I got on that trip.

I slept for a couple of hours in Amarillo which put me in time to hit a head wind that nearly drained my battery before I could get to a charger in Oklahoma. As I pulled off the expressway, I had to stop at a stop sign before I got on to the service road. I stopped and then went to go only to have the truck lurch forward and die with me across the opposing lane. I shut it off and restarted and it let me go the half a mile to the charger which of course was another derated EV charger. I got a few electrons in the battery and moved over to another charger when that user left.

How did the truck behave? Well, pretty flawlessly. Of course, by this time I knew what to expect and it performed as expected. I keep seeing people complain about these trucks but I’m not really having any problems with mine. I do need to get a couple of recalls taken care of though.

Tires:

I still hate the tires as I continue picking up nails and/or screws here and there. I’ve never had a vehicle that picked up so many. I will not be putting these back on the truck when they need replacing in the next 10-15k miles. They have about 47,000 predominately expressway and secondary highway miles on this second set. Very little city and almost no off-pavement miles.

Paint:

The paint is holding up better than I expected. No real signs of wear and tear as you might expect of a vehicle with this many miles on it.

Updates:

I’ve read complaints about the updates but I haven’t really had any problems with them. I also don’t allow it to happen automatically so I can control when the vehicle is inop.

FordPass:

I only really use it to check on the charge level or to start it to warm or cool the cabin. Everything else is just extra for me.

Charging:

Keeping all of the apps (EV Connect, Charge Point, EA, Tesla, Plugshare, etc.) on my phone and perusing them every so often looking for free chargers has really paid off. I’ve got a circuit that is about 195 miles long where I only pay for about 7kwh ($0.53). I giggle like an evil villain every time I think about that. There is another trip I take where I only pay for half the required juice. If I’m planning ahead, I actually make a “profit” on the trip. Leave the house with less charge and arrive there as low as I dare. Recently some free chargers have opened at a couple of other towns I go to on occasion. I’ll be trying to get as much free juice as I can.

Neighbor was talking trash about my electric truck until I pointed out how cheap it was to run and how when I’m watching a movie, my truck is being charged up for free. He just gives me dirty looks now.

Looking forward to getting access to the Tesla network. Having that as a backup will put pressure on EA to get their chargers to a state that I can depend upon them.

Battery:

I probably need to remind you, gentle reader, that I predominantly charge at home using a slightly derated Ford Charger (60 amps) 15.9kwh to the battery. I’m pretty confident that I have charged it around 600-700 times in the past 21 months. Normally capped at 90% but over the past few months I’ve reduced that further to 70% though I’ve come home twice now below 10% which rarely happened before the change.

I can hear your distance screams echoing through the ether, “What about the High Voltage Battery Health?”

How much is it worth to you for me to tell you? $10 or possibly $20? Well I do have PayPal. And you know, I did spend a lot of hours holding that steering wheel. All alone, on the dark highways, late at night, missing my squirrel…I mean girl. (Ready to stab me yet?)

97% after 93,000 miles.

I noticed in my Car Scan report that my HVB SOC is 3.83 percent below my HVB SOC Display (95.17 vs 99). I found this odd considering when Out Of Spec did their 70mph range test HVB SOC displayed higher if I remember correctly. The truck is currently at 99% state of charge with a DVB Voltage of 392.5 and only 125.63kwh available. I thought I was supposed to have a max of 131kwh. 99% is not 125.63kwh but it is a lot closer to 95.17%. Maybe one of you fine readers can point out where I’m mistaken.
FordPass App says I have 99% charge with 323 mile range. Something is a little off with that. In the past when it displayed such numbers, I would lose several miles before I got out of my fifty foot drive way. Go figure.

It has been at 99% for over an hour so it may be balancing the battery.

Well, its been fun and its been surreal, talk to you again around 150k miles. (feel free to ask questions, I'll check in after I enjoy a fine meal at my favorite Waffle House, need to go put on my Sunday best real quick. Wouldn't want the neighbors to think I'm trashy)

Ford F-150 Lightning Even Longer Strange Trip: Nearly 100,000 Mile Report (and still 97% Battery State of Health SoH) 26641
Ford F-150 Lightning Even Longer Strange Trip: Nearly 100,000 Mile Report (and still 97% Battery State of Health SoH) 886


Ford F-150 Lightning Even Longer Strange Trip: Nearly 100,000 Mile Report (and still 97% Battery State of Health SoH) IMG_0459
Ford F-150 Lightning Even Longer Strange Trip: Nearly 100,000 Mile Report (and still 97% Battery State of Health SoH) IMG_0490

Ford F-150 Lightning Even Longer Strange Trip: Nearly 100,000 Mile Report (and still 97% Battery State of Health SoH) IMG_0427
 
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Helium

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93,000 miles in less than 2 years. Amazing.
I'm a bit surprised myself. I wouldn't be shocked if someone said that the odometer is configured wrong. But the energy usage is close to what it should be so...
 
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Helium

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The 97% State of Battery Health is pretty amazing, too! Any tips on how you achieved that? Some folks with only 20K or 30K miles on their truck have already arrived at that SOH.
I miss read the above quote, so ignore the below comment:

<ignore>
They should be taking their truck in to service. I feel confident there is something wrong with their battery. I believe the warranty covers anything below 70% below 100,000 miles.
</ignore>

My understanding the degradation rate is the most during the first year and then the rate slows for the rest of the battery life.

Tips:
  1. Charging to 100% should make you feel as guilty as spanking your toddler daughter.
    1. The first time in over a year was last night and that was only to get the stats from the pics above.
  2. Never ever ever ever let it sit at 100%. Last night after I got my pics I drove to Waffle House in the next town 38 miles away.
  3. Letting it run down below 10% should make you feel as guilty as when your wife catches you looking at that new hot neighbor.
  4. Slow charge whenever possible.
  5. Temperature, temperature, temperature. Heat kills lithium ion batteries
  6. I used to charge 90% daily at home but have now lowered that to 80%
  7. Also note the vast majority of my miles are highway so there are not ten million little charges like in the city
 
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22 miles per kilowatt hour or 2.2? Or was that because you were going downhill :)
 
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Helium

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22 miles per kilowatt hour or 2.2? Or was that because you were going downhill :)
22 miles per kilowatt hour. I was going down one of those long shallow slopes into Vegas on the West side of the expressway. I think the speed limit was 45mph. In other words, it was the exactly perfect scenario for this to actually happen.
 
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Helium

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Amazing!! This should be on. Social media post to get Fords attention and possibly some perks for being a pioneer!
I'm a little offended that Out of Spec hasn't reach out to me for an interview. They interviewed a couple of amateurs who had accumulated a couple of tens of thousands of miles after I had posted my 50,000 mile trip report. Maybe they'll see this post and want to ask a few questions.
 

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@Ford Motor Company is waiting until your truck is officially out of warranty before they contact you.🤣

Good write-up, thanks!
I think I'd have fun being a Brand\Product Ambassador for the Lightning. When giving a tour of the truck, I've been asked if I was a salesman for Ford. Of course I'm not. My experience has been really good and I don't mind telling people about it. My favorite activity is to listen into an EV truck bashing conversation, tally up all of the myths and complaints that are just out right wrong. Then pull out the facts from real world use. Everything from the cost to purchase, the cost to run\charge, performance, reliability, etc. When it only cost you about 3.5 cents to drive a mile it starts getting people's attention. When you throw in the free chargers in my area, it really starts getting ridiculously cheap to run. Besides, I've never even heard of a gas station giving away free gas outside of radio station promotion of very limited duration.

My original plan was to get 300,000 miles out of this truck in order to make it worth the initial risk of buying a first year model of a newish technology vehicle. I'm starting to believe I made the right choice.
 

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They should be taking their truck in to service. I feel confident there is something wrong with their battery. I believe the warranty covers anything below 70% below 100,000 miles.

Tips:
  1. Charging to 100% should make you feel as guilty as spanking your toddler daughter.
    1. The first time in over a year was last night and that was only to get the stats from the pics above.
  2. Never ever ever ever let it sit at 100%. Last night after I got my pics I drove to Waffle House in the next town 38 miles away.
  3. Letting it run down below 10% should make you feel as guilty as when your wife catches you looking at that new hot neighbor.
  4. Slow charge whenever possible.
  5. Temperature, temperature, temperature. Heat kills lithium ion batteries
  6. I used to charge 90% daily at home but have now lowered that to 80%
  7. Also note the vast majority of my miles are highway so there are not ten million little charges like in the city
Hey just reading your post, I found it very informative ! Just one question .. when you talk about temperature , what is the best way to combat that? ( besides parking in a climate controlled garage)? Keeping it plugged in on a hot day?
Thanks !
 
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Helium

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When parked I keep it out of the Sun whenever possible. I've read where other people will wait an hour or so after they drive a vehicle to let the battery cool down before they start to charge it. I do not worry about the temperature when I'm driving it since it does not overwork the battery at all at anytime.

On the cold side, I always have my truck plugged in when it is cold outside. I "warm it up" before I go anywhere but the main thing is to have it plugged in cold temps overnight. When Hoovie did his shitshow of a hit piece on the truck he literally cold soaked the truck the night before, didn't warm it up before he hit the road and then whined that the performance was lacking. Don't pull a Hoovie. Yes it is truck but just like any other expensive piece of equipment read the owner's manual to understand how to best operate it. <\rant>
 
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My SOH at 8K has already dropped to 98.5%. I have had it in hot sun for a few hours. The rest has been mostly slow charging 40%-60% in the shades with very few hard accelerations. Do you remember at what mileage your SOH dropped from 100% to 98.5% and at what mileage it dropped to 97%?
 
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Helium

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My SOH at 8K has already dropped to 98.5%. I have had it in hot sun for a few hours. The rest has been mostly slow charging 40%-60% in the shades with very few hard accelerations. Do you remember at what mileage your SOH dropped from 100% to 98.5% and at what mileage it dropped to 97%?
Lets break this down a bit.

My SOH at 8K has already dropped to 98.5%.
Relax, the first year of usage NMC batteries make the biggest drop in SOH. Since you didn't post your mileage I'm going to assume you are typical at 10-15k miles a year. From everything I've read and seen (as far as degradation charts) you are well within normal. The rate of drop should slow down from this point. It'll probably take you a long time (years) to get to my level.

btw, there was a recall on the early Lightning's battery where they replaced a module, make certain that gets taken care of.

I have had it in hot sun for a few hours.
Shouldn't be a problem when you are measuring it in hours. These batteries can handle a little abuse. It is the habitual bad actions that ruin equipment.

The rest has been mostly slow charging 40%-60% in the shades with very few hard accelerations.
One of the charts I saw a while back had this type of charging range as allowing 6-8000 charge cycles before the battery degrades below industry lower limit of 70%

Do you remember at what mileage your SOH dropped from 100% to 98.5% and at what mileage it dropped to 97%?
No, I wasn't monitoring the battery. But think about it. I have 93,499 miles (as of this morning) on it and it is still at 97%. If you are at stereotypical usage it will be years to get to this level.
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