SpaceEVDriver
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We finally took the Lightning camping! It was fantastic!
I first installed a couple of 100 W solar panels on the rack so we could recharge our 1.4 kWh battery that would power the ICECO 60L fridge/freezer, which fits neatly under the tonneau cover.
Packed up everything we thought we would need and a few more things as well.
We headed north from the Flagstaff area toward southern Utah. We stopped in Page for a restroom break and to grab a couple of snacks. Then we continued on to Cottonwood Canyon Road, off of Highway 89 and then took the back roads about 45 miles to Kodachrome Basin State Park.
On the way up, our elevation started at about 6650 feet, went up to about 7300 feet, dropped to a low of 3500 feet, and then went back up to 6500 and finally down to about 5800 feet. We had lots of ups and downs along the way.
The truck freaked out at one point when it realized there were no chargers within its calculated range. We continued driving; it kept freaking out.
We left Flagstaff with 100% charge, 123 kWh on the CarScanner report. We drive the speed limit (65 mph, along with slowdowns, etc). The winds were pretty bad: steady crosswinds of 25-30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. We arrived in Page, 210 km later, with about 77 kWh (65% SoC) remaining. After a quick stop, we continued on--there's no fast charging in Page. We arrived at Kodachrome with about 53 kWh (37% SoC) left. A total of about 320 km driving using about 70 kWh, for an efficiency of 4.5-4.6 km/kwh (2.8-2.9 miles/kWh).
Now 53 kWh is obviously not enough to get back home, and we'd planned for that. The second night we had an RV site with 50 Amp service. We parked the truck there at around 3:30 PM and it was back up to 100% SoC when we retrieved the truck the following morning.
On our drive home, we encountered more winds, but they weren't as bad. However, we were climbing up in total elevation, so we expected to lose some efficiency. And we did. Overall we drove around 320 km and used 79 kWh of energy for an efficiency of 4.0-4.1 km/kWh (2.5 miles/kWh).
Overall, this was a fantastic camping trip. We'll probably reserve an RV site every night next time we stay here, which is usually twice a year. When we've gone before, we've always had to go into Bryce to fill up on gas, which usually takes at least half a day. Freeing ourselves from that necessity has been fantastic!
A few things on my to-do list:
1) Get an induction cooktop to replace the propane stove.
2) Figure out a propane/firewood replacement for the "fire" pit. I'm allergic to wood smoke, and I would love to be done with propane entirely.
3) Add a solar canopy that pulls over the side of the truck. While we had way more energy than we needed for running the fridge, on longer, hotter boondocking trips, we'll need a bit more power generation for the fridge and I'd like to plug in my L1 charger to add a few kWh to the truck. A 3-day summer camping trip like this one could give us around 12 hours of clean sun, so a 400-600 Watt PV canopy could generate around 6 kWh in a day, and even if only 3 of those go to the truck, the weekend total could be 9kWh to the truck, or almost 50 km (30 miles). For a weekend trip where there aren't any chargers, 50 km gives me a nice buffer to play with. The weight won't add up to a noticeable impact, and a flat surface 300 mm, 100 mm, or 0 mm above the tonneau cover really doesn't change the overall drag on the truck.
I first installed a couple of 100 W solar panels on the rack so we could recharge our 1.4 kWh battery that would power the ICECO 60L fridge/freezer, which fits neatly under the tonneau cover.
Packed up everything we thought we would need and a few more things as well.
We headed north from the Flagstaff area toward southern Utah. We stopped in Page for a restroom break and to grab a couple of snacks. Then we continued on to Cottonwood Canyon Road, off of Highway 89 and then took the back roads about 45 miles to Kodachrome Basin State Park.
On the way up, our elevation started at about 6650 feet, went up to about 7300 feet, dropped to a low of 3500 feet, and then went back up to 6500 and finally down to about 5800 feet. We had lots of ups and downs along the way.
The truck freaked out at one point when it realized there were no chargers within its calculated range. We continued driving; it kept freaking out.
We left Flagstaff with 100% charge, 123 kWh on the CarScanner report. We drive the speed limit (65 mph, along with slowdowns, etc). The winds were pretty bad: steady crosswinds of 25-30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. We arrived in Page, 210 km later, with about 77 kWh (65% SoC) remaining. After a quick stop, we continued on--there's no fast charging in Page. We arrived at Kodachrome with about 53 kWh (37% SoC) left. A total of about 320 km driving using about 70 kWh, for an efficiency of 4.5-4.6 km/kwh (2.8-2.9 miles/kWh).
Now 53 kWh is obviously not enough to get back home, and we'd planned for that. The second night we had an RV site with 50 Amp service. We parked the truck there at around 3:30 PM and it was back up to 100% SoC when we retrieved the truck the following morning.
On our drive home, we encountered more winds, but they weren't as bad. However, we were climbing up in total elevation, so we expected to lose some efficiency. And we did. Overall we drove around 320 km and used 79 kWh of energy for an efficiency of 4.0-4.1 km/kWh (2.5 miles/kWh).
Overall, this was a fantastic camping trip. We'll probably reserve an RV site every night next time we stay here, which is usually twice a year. When we've gone before, we've always had to go into Bryce to fill up on gas, which usually takes at least half a day. Freeing ourselves from that necessity has been fantastic!
A few things on my to-do list:
1) Get an induction cooktop to replace the propane stove.
2) Figure out a propane/firewood replacement for the "fire" pit. I'm allergic to wood smoke, and I would love to be done with propane entirely.
3) Add a solar canopy that pulls over the side of the truck. While we had way more energy than we needed for running the fridge, on longer, hotter boondocking trips, we'll need a bit more power generation for the fridge and I'd like to plug in my L1 charger to add a few kWh to the truck. A 3-day summer camping trip like this one could give us around 12 hours of clean sun, so a 400-600 Watt PV canopy could generate around 6 kWh in a day, and even if only 3 of those go to the truck, the weekend total could be 9kWh to the truck, or almost 50 km (30 miles). For a weekend trip where there aren't any chargers, 50 km gives me a nice buffer to play with. The weight won't add up to a noticeable impact, and a flat surface 300 mm, 100 mm, or 0 mm above the tonneau cover really doesn't change the overall drag on the truck.
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