This will be my last attempt at a Lightning Road Trip

[tls]

After purchasing my first EV over 8 years ago, I came to realize that I won't use it for long trips. The thought of sitting for a couple of hours while charging is not for me. I use my EVs for round trips up to around 250 miles. I have not had to use a public charger so far. I have not used the new TESLA supercharger technology yet. That may make it more palatable to extend those trips to 500 miles. I have a hybrid, and an old fashioned ICE for really long road trips.

I don't understand, really. You decided not to use the charging technology (there's nothing new about it, public DC fast chargers have existed for 10+ years) that exists in the market specifically to enable long trips, and therefore long trips are not for you?

I mean, it's your car and you should use it as you like. But this seems like an unusual decision process.

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[tls]

Sorry, rough night. I had started out to get to a supercharger that was in range. Halfway there a warning came up saying I didn't have enough to get there, and it took me to a blink Level 1 charger.

Is the "it" here the ford nav software? All I can say really is just don't use it. Its tendency to suggest insane "corrections" when it decides its original (likely very poor) trip plan was wrong is only one of its many flaws.

Try a segment of your trip with ABRP and/or PlugShare. It might be a lot less frustrating for you.

 

[evowner]

I don't understand, really. You decided not to use the charging technology (there's nothing new about it, public DC fast chargers have existed for 10+ years) that exists in the market specifically to enable long trips, and therefore long trips are not for you?

I mean, it's your car and you should use it as you like. But this seems like an unusual decision process.

I don think my decision is 'unusual'. I prefer to recharge at $0.12/kwh as opposed to $0.30 - $0.50/kwh. In my book that is smart.

 

[Joe.....Montana]

Didn't feel picked on, all good.

ID, MT, and ND are pretty much worse case scenarios for EV road tripping. Just wanted to show that it's still possible in the Lightning... With proper planning.

Now I feel picked on ?...living in Montana and all...previous to Tesla access it was a 370 mile one way trip (essentially) dependent upon two EA chargers...with significant elevation changes and potential for 30+mph sustained headwinds...

 

[evowner]

Is my fear unreasonable?

No, it is real. In my case it was self inflicted though.

We made a trip to north west Indianapolis From Cincinnati, about 240 miles round trip. We had 310 on the car. We did a little driving around in Indy, and at the time to return, after the concert, we had about 140 miles left. It was very hot and humid so cooling was required for us. As we got close to the border of Ohio we had about 20 miles to go and roughly 35 miles on the car. It was dark and started raining. So more usage on the battery.

I made a decision to not stop at the last reasonable charging station and go for it. Long story short, I pulled up to my shop with 3 miles remaining on the car. Warnings galore. I can tell you the fear is real. The regrets about not stopping to recharge, what am I going to do if it shuts down on the expressway, how long will it take to get a tow truck, etc, etc.

 

[Rip]

Is the "it" here the ford nav software? All I can say really is just don't use it. Its tendency to suggest insane "corrections" when it decides its original (likely very poor) trip plan was wrong is only one of its many flaws.

Try a segment of your trip with ABRP and/or PlugShare. It might be a lot less frustrating for you.

So, an update. We made it to Captiva, pretty much without further incident.

The problem night came because we had a dinner reservation and meeting. Due to excessive traffic and one dud charging stop (that entailed backtracking 20 miles to get to a compatible charger), we were running late, so couldn't spend a half-hour charging before we got to the restaurant. I didn't think it would be a problem, because there was some charging available at the hotel. The problem came in when that charger was not available. Then I needed to make it to an EA charger. I sent the directions from the Fordpass app to the android auto google map. It let me get halfway there before a warning came up in the Lightning's display saying something like "You don't have enough charge to get to your destination." It offered a button to navigate to another stop. That was how I ended up with four miles left, waiting for a level 1 charger to add enough miles to get back to the EA charger.

I ended up getting an Uber back to my hotel. By the time I got a few hours' sleep and got up, the Lightning had accumulated 80 miles, and I took an Uber back to pick it up. We had to make a reservation in Charlotte and eat the first day at our hotel in Savannah, but the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.

My main gripe is probably due to the fact that I drove a Model Y for 5 years. For all its faults, Tesla had developed pretty good tech. The Tesla nav app wasn't Google Maps, but it was close, and you just had to hit a button to see all the chargers within 100 miles, and it was just a tap to add a stop to your route. It helped that in the Model Y I wasn't going to arrive and find out that the station was incompatible.

So it is disappointing that Ford engineers did not benchmark that tech and build something better. I have developed a process that works, but it's not flexible. Before getting underway, I let Google Maps tell me where the next charging stop should be. Then I look at the Fordpass app to see all the chargers in that area, and pick the best one that IS compatible. Then I enter that address into the Google Map. That has worked to get me here, but it's not flexible. You have to stick to the plan.

So, some folks have asked for more details about this Maine-to-Captiva road trip. A few highlights:

1. Did stop at a Buc-ee's for the first time. Quite an adventure. This one was in St. Augustine. Really fast Mercedes/Chargepoint chargers (expensive, too). What a zoo the store was, though! I can see why someone said you couldn't get in and out in the time it takes to get to 80 percent. They did have very clean restaurants. The brisket sandwiches were good; the beaver chips were not.
The stop I made after that, in Winter Home, Florida, was at a WaWa. I've always liked WaWa; now I like them more. They had garbage cans right next to the chargers, and a window-cleaning station. There was also a sign that said you could order food and they would bring it out to your vehicle while you charged.

 

[tls]

I think part of the reason I'm less bothered by the awful Ford nav experience than others is that our first few years with a Tesla in 2015 heavily conditioned me to use PlugShare and ABRP whenever travelling somewhere I don't have full comfort that I know where the chargers are. Back then the Tesla in-car nav was maybe not as bad as the Ford software is now, but it sure wasn't good. When ABRP came on the scene it was a huge change and using it at least to rough out a plan before departure quickly became a habit. I honestly don't love the in-car experience with ABRP - I use it to find my series of stops and then load them into Waze, which I greatly prefer while driving; if something goes wrong I use PlugShare to find an alternative.

This is of course only possible because Ford allows my phone to display on the car's screen while Tesla ties themselves in knots to prevent that. Ford's own apps are so bad I wish they would just drop them, but without tighter integration with CarPlay or Android Auto then there'd be no way to precondition.. which honestly I seldom bother to do.

There's no question it's a very different experience than a modern Tesla. But it doesn't cause major problems on road trips for me.

 

[TaxmanHog]

So, an update. We made it to Captiva, pretty much without further incident.

Glad to hear the rest of the story.

 

[evowner]

I don't think anyone is questioning the use of home charging instead of a public DCFC, its more that you don't/won't drive anywhere that could require using a charger, severely limiting the utility of the truck. Saving $0.17 per KWH is smart, but thats a hard sell if you need two vehicles to accomplish one job.

Maybe my travel is different than some, It's not 'unusual' for me. The way I use the EVs covers 99% of my travel by auto. Actually, for the last several years it has covered 100%. The only reason I use the Hybrid is when the weather is really bad, like 0 or below outside. I will use the Lightning when the conditions are a little more reasonable. I use the Tesla or EV6 when the weather is nice. Maybe that is unusual.

 

[Lolat]

I shared you frustration when first bought the Lightning. We purchased in Muscle Shoals, AL and drove to Southern Oregon, via Chicago, in late December, 2022. I quickly learned (1st day) to follow the Ford Pass info for charge stations. Actuallythe dealer tech had programmed the route and as it turned out to be very good program until got to IA/NE portions of I80. It was -4°, so another frustrating bit was sitting at an EA or ChargePoint station waiting to warm battery so it could be charged! Working stations were quite far between out there, so it did add to frustration. Note that this was long before getting my Tesla adaptor, so was rather limited for charging options. However, and as others have said, preplanning makes a huge difference. With ability to access Tesla stations it should really be a big added plus.

All in all our first “adventure” was both a huge learning experience for long trips and really showed the overall performance of the Lightning for travel in cold, icy and snowy weather. Was always pretty comfortable though out the trip, learned a lot about the truck and charging options, even finding hotel/motels that at that time had level 2 charging. Hang in there a bit, might find it a much better experience in the long run. We live in the “sticks”and have several vehicles (2020 to 2024 models), but truly use the Lightning as our daily driver.

 

[BobKenyon]

I am in one hotel, and my lightning is languishing at another hotel, hooked up to a slow-ass Blink L1 charger because it was all I could find. I had to take an Uber back to my hotel, and will have to take an uber back to the other one tomorrow morning, and hope that it picked up enough miles to get me to a real charger.
Until Ford decides to get serious and actually build a freaking network I will confine my Lightning driving to local only. The Ford Pass "network" is just a list. It doesn't work. What i have now are two nav systems (Google and Ford). Google is flawed and unreliable when it comes to charging, but at least I can get somewhere with it. Ford can't find many locations, has all the functionality of Garmin 2004, and looks awful. The FordPass app can find chargers and sometimes feed them to Google Maps, but it's as likely to take me to the wrong place or to a charger that is not available or compatible. After two long days of driving 2 hours to charge for an hour (when I can actually find a charger close to the route), collecting charging apps so I can sit in an isolated spot with no rest rooms and no amenities, I have had it. My wife is ready to leave the Lightning at an airport and rent an ICE so we can finish driving to our vacation destination.
Ford, if you're listening, quit making us beta test your tech. Get it together.

See https://hutchpost.com/posts/babd9a2b-58cc-49ad-b60c-0b1a9267c84b

 

[jdmackes]

When I did my trip from MD to FL I went over everything in plugshare multiple times and plotted out my stops, with backups in case there were any issues. Only problems I ran into were around Virginia Beach, as that was the only charging stop before my house and there aren't a lot of chargers there. The situation has completely changed now that there are Tesla chargers available, so I'd be even less concerned but it really helps to plan it all out. Whenever we would stop I'd calculate where the next charger was and make sure I had more than enough charge to get to it as well.

 

[JackieDemarais]

To be fair, your Lightning doesn't have to be a road trip vehicle.

It’s no fun being tethered to your home like a dog tied up in the yard. I didn’t buy a $100,000.00 truck to simply drive around a 100 Mile radius.

 

[JackieDemarais]

To be fair, your Lightning doesn't have to be a road trip vehicle.

The sales person emphasized how easy it was to charge my truck anywhere. What a lie!

 

[Lightning Bronson]

The sales person emphasized how easy it was to charge my truck anywhere. What a lie!

Then you didn't do research, unfortunately, especially on availability of chargers and how it's still a growing market. We're not even close to the stage where there's a charger at every street corner. Of course it's going to take a bit more planning ahead of time.

And on top of that, the dealerer lied to you, as they usually do for sales.

Look, you don't HAVE to make it a local-only vehicle. But the experience on driving long distances given the first generation Lightning's specs compared to T3, let alone current new competitors like the SilveradoEV, is going to be a lot different and a lot longer. Meaning patience.

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