Road Trip Advice Needed

[3Wliners]

We’d like to hear from the community about road trip experiences.


If you were planning a road trip and could choose two U.S. states, which would you recommend and why?
We’re especially interested in routes that stand out for driving experience, scenery, or overall practicality.


We’d also appreciate any vehicle preparation or maintenance advice for longer trips, such as:

• Items you always check or service before departure
• Small details that are often overlooked but matter on the road
• Lessons learned from past trips that you’d recommend others keep in mind

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

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[Ridge_Racer]

I’m gearing up to do a 5 day road trip later this year. So, will be keeping a close eye on this thread.

As for now, I’m use ABRP for trips longer than 2 hours and have a supercharger adapter.

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

Veteran of 16 road trips of more than 1500 miles each in my Lightning Pro SR. Last year I charged in 18 different states from Florida to California.

The two most challenging states (from a charging perspective) but-oh-so-worth-it were New Mexico and Utah.

In New Mexico it took a stop to charge at an RV park to support a dawn photo shoot at the VLA; later I was at the Albuquerque balloon festival. The trip also included some great meals and sightseeing in Santa Fe.

I crossed Utah through three National Parks - Capitol Reef, Bryce, and Zion - all just stunning landscapes. The keys were staying at lodging with L2 chargers and a new Tesla Supercharger at Bryce Canyon. I want to go back.

 

[K6CCC]

Ralph, as a radio geek, your VLA photo was stunning. And yes, Bryce is amazing.

 

[Joe Dablock]

Firstly, as long as you are traveling on the interstate corridor between big cities there really isn’t much problem. But when you are traveling the interior of the United States, you have to do more planning.

Secondly, when I’m about to go on a 1k or 2k mile trip, I get a road map and mark all the Tesla and EA chargers ( color coded) before leaving.

Thirdly, use, but do not blindly use/follow the Lightning NAV. You can often make better charging decisions. NAV often says charge to xx percentage. I know that more charge is always better than less charge so I never use NAV recommendation. Also, NAV does not take into account terrain. Often the trend for a 100 miles might be down hill as opposed to up hill, which will greatly affect range. So you can override the NAV charger selection for your own selection.

Fourthly, make sure you have ABRP, Tesla, EA, and Plug Share Aps loaded on your phone.

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

Ralph, as a radio geek, your VLA photo was stunning. And yes, Bryce is amazing.

I am an amateur astronomer (I have an observatory near Landers, CA) and the VLA has long been a bucket list item. I spent a few hours napping and charging at an RV park in Pie Town, NM, and arrived at the VLA at 3 AM for the first of a series of exhaustively planned shots. Here is the first: It is a 30 second time exposure of the north leg of the array illuminated by the full moon; see if you can make out the Big and Little Dippers.

 

[K6CCC]

Beautiful photo Ralph - and yes, both dippers clearly visible. From here in light polluted LA, we don't often see all the stars of the little dipper.

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

Thirdly, use, but do not blindly use/follow the Lightning NAV. You can often make better charging decisions. NAV often says charge to xx percentage. I know that more charge is always better than less charge so I never use NAV recommendation. Also, NAV does not take into account terrain. Often the trend for a 100 miles might be down hill as opposed to up hill, which will greatly affect range. So you can override the NAV charger selection for your own selection.

The Ford NAV sucks - its interface was apparently designed by a nine year old, it usually doesn't have an up-to-date database of chargers, and I'm not all that excited about its routing recommendations. I use Apple Maps through CarPlay, which tends to be initially conservative and then slowly converges on an accurate determination of the destination SOC. It seems to do a good job of factoring variables such as terrain, weather, speed, etc. I do wish Apple let you set a low threshold for the destination SOC; Maps really wants to insert unnecessary charging stops. That said, when it finally realizes that there is sufficient charge to get you to the destination, it asks you if you want to remove the unneeded stop.

 

[Sam_oceans]

We’d like to hear from the community about road trip experiences.


If you were planning a road trip and could choose two U.S. states, which would you recommend and why?
We’re especially interested in routes that stand out for driving experience, scenery, or overall practicality.


We’d also appreciate any vehicle preparation or maintenance advice for longer trips, such as:

• Items you always check or service before departure
• Small details that are often overlooked but matter on the road
• Lessons learned from past trips that you’d recommend others keep in mind

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

I have a 2023 LER/511A. I travel to Florida from Eastern Ontario back and forth each year. I also do many 1k kilometre trips with my 5000lb camper each year. The two main things I'd tell you to pay attention to.
1. I only use Google Maps through Apple Car Play. I research the Tesla Superchargers online and choose the V3 and V4 stations if they are available. These are better suited to charging non-Tesla vehicles. Most have longer charger cables and many have side parking that the lightnning can fit-in nicely. I also have a Tesla MYER, so I can purchase the Tesla non-Tesla charging membership which give me the rate of regular Teslas.
2. Although the most important user of battery capacity/range is speed. The second most is Battery Outdoor Temperature and the third is HILLS. So I always adjust my routes to have the warmest outdoor temperature available and the flattest route possible. Stay away from the mountains if possible.

For example the fastest route for me to Florida is through the PA and WV mountains. But I take the slightly longer route via Toronto/Windsor/Detroit to connect me with the flatter Interstate 75 which improves my range significantly.

Also, Do your own Range Calculations. The Lightning range calculator is generally poor.

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