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ooSHAZAMoo

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Very excited!

Posted last week about a deal I found on a 22 demo that is under $1500 MSRP for a Lariat ER. Will be driving 10 hrs to trade in and drive back.

As a first ever EV owner, any tips for charging/traveling that far? Is it really as easy as just plugging in the directions and the Sync system will give me places to charge and estimates?

Also, I am TDY so I will be staying on a military post with no chargers. What is a good method to keep it charged since I can not plug in daily like I will at home.

Lastly, I have hard that is not good to use DC fast charging a lot. WHile taking the long trip I would think this would be preffered as to not wanting to wait a while. What about while I am staying at a hotel for about a month and I need a charge.
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Get the sales staff to help you with Fordpass account set up and configured to the truck before your leave the dealership, this will make plug and charge easier, it may take a few days to see the free 250 KW charging credit with Electrify America.

Use the DCFC along the main trip back, unless needing a charge higher than 80% to reach the next station, limit your sessions to 80% (time and $$ efficient), don't worry about the battery you have a powertrain warranty.

While in temporary quarters at hotels, they may have level-2 plugs in the parking lot that you can use to top of the Lightning.

Congrat's and safe travels.

BTW, 22's should have the Ford Mobile Charger in the Frunk, sub-Frunk, make sure it's there before your drive away.
 

greenne

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Get the sales staff to help you with Fordpass account set up and configured to the truck before your leave the dealership, this will make plug and charge easier, it may take a few days to see the free 250 KW charging credit with Electrify America.

Use the DCFC along the main trip back, unless needing a charge higher than 80% to reach the next station, limit your sessions to 80% (time and $$ efficient), don't worry about the battery you have a powertrain warranty.

While in temporary quarters at hotels, they may have level-2 plugs in the parking lot that you can use to top of the Lightning.

Congrat's and safe travels.

BTW, 22's should have the Ford Mobile Charger in the Frunk, sub-Frunk, make sure it's there before your drive away.
I would recommend for your trip home you do not try to use plug and charge capability. It is flaky at best and you MAY end up in a situation with a charger fault as EA tries to look for(and activate) an acct that isn't set up yet. That's not something you want to be fumbling with at some random EA station where you're out of range and out of options. (A friend was temporarily stuck at a remote EA charger because his Fordpass acct was not set up properly and EA charger kept timing out This was on the way home from a dealer out of state where he had purchased his Lightning)

Keep it simple, download the EA app and create an acct before you pick up your truck.

On the way home, activate each EA charger via the EA app(not Fordpass) BEFORE you plug in to avoid any errors. Once back at home base, you can experiment with using Fordpass, P&C etc. and get them working smoothly.

Another alternative is to try Fordpass(and EA) in the dealer city before you hit the road to make sure it works smoothly. Again, trying to troubleshoot a new EA acct is not something you want to be doing in strange place out of juice. In an ideal world the dealer would have Fordpass running smoothly for you before you hit the road..but sometimes this does not occur.
 
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ooSHAZAMoo

ooSHAZAMoo

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Get the sales staff to help you with Fordpass account set up and configured to the truck before your leave the dealership, this will make plug and charge easier, it may take a few days to see the free 250 KW charging credit with Electrify America.

Use the DCFC along the main trip back, unless needing a charge higher than 80% to reach the next station, limit your sessions to 80% (time and $$ efficient), don't worry about the battery you have a powertrain warranty.

While in temporary quarters at hotels, they may have level-2 plugs in the parking lot that you can use to top of the Lightning.

Congrat's and safe travels.

BTW, 22's should have the Ford Mobile Charger in the Frunk, sub-Frunk, make sure it's there before your drive away.

So I am on post at a mil hotel, so they do not have charges (I did read somewhere that there are military base charging stations coming!). Would it be best to just go to the mall or something and use level 2 charging while I am here, or use level 2?
 

TaxmanHog

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Would it be best to just go to the mall or something and use level 2 charging while I am here, or use level 2?
Where ever they have L2 and is convenient to your daily activities, Malls, Shopping centers, restaurant chains.
 

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ooSHAZAMoo

ooSHAZAMoo

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Where ever they have L2 and is convenient to your daily activities, Malls, Shopping centers, restaurant chains.
So reserve the LVL 3 for longer road trips?
 

TaxmanHog

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So reserve the LVL 3 for longer road trips?
Definitely, unless it's the end of a travel day and a commercial (non-base) hotel [[thinking of your road trip]] has L2 and you have access to it while sleeping, otherwise L3 to shorten your charging sessions to 15-45 minutes depending on leg of journey.
 

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So reserve the LVL 3 for longer road trips?
You can hit up lvl 3..just charge to 80% and you'll be fine. Drive it down to 20% or so..rinse and repeat.

Once you get home from TDY you can get into a home charging rhythm.

If you happen to want to spend a few hours spending that per diem $$, you could plug it up to level 2 at the mall or something..but don't fret that too much.

Keep it simple...you'll be fine DCFC while you are TDY as long as we're talking a normal TDY say few months max. DCFC would be an issue if you plan to do it often and long term.

Where are you TDY..Bragg, shady J, Jacksonville?
 

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Maybe this will help.

A kilowatt of energy will get you around 1.7 - 1.8 miles.

Level 1, 120v charging will add about 1.1 kW per hour, or 0.008% of your battery. Near useless, unless you're there for a long time. If your cord can't reach, you will need a 12 gauge extension cord. If you charged at level 1 for 10 hours overnight, you could drive a whole 18 miles.

Level 2, 240v charging varies, depending on the charger. Some are as slow as 3 or 4kW, some as fast as 11kW. On the road, they'll likely be 3 - 7kW. Do the math, 131 / 3 = 44 hours, 131 / 7 = 19 hours. If you charged at level 2 for a few hours, you could drive less than an hour most likely.

DC fast charging (not called level 3), charges from 20kW to 350kW. Electrify America charges at 150kW or higher, WHEN they work properly, and for SOME of the charging curve. In about 30 - 40 minutes you can go from 20 to 80% battery charge. That's what people do on the highway, and then charge at a hotel overnight, if available (note that most hotels can't fill an empty Lightning overnight, see level 2 numbers). Wasting your time looking for level 2 charging on a trip, is silly - unless you're planning on shopping or eating where a charger is. No bang for the buck vs. the time wasted.

You MAY get your 250kW hours within a day. That will last you about 2 fills on the road. Before you go, download the EA app and create an account. The morning of the trip, upgrade to Pass+ for $4, and then downgrade right away, which will take effect in 30 days. That discount will pay off in a morning.

Open EA app, swipe charger, then plug in when charger tells you to.

Use A Better Route Planner to plan your trip, after saving the truck config, and preferring the EA network. Plan on using only EA chargers if possible.

If it's colder than 50, make sure to use the Ford Navigation also, so it navigates to the next charger, and preheats the battery. This will save you time. Turn off the heat 5 minutes before arriving at the charger. Turn off the heat for the first 10 minutes of the charging session at least.

Expect a 20% or more overhead to your trip. In other words, a 10 hour drive will become a 12 - 13 hour drive on the way home, assuming everything goes well.
 
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ooSHAZAMoo

ooSHAZAMoo

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You can hit up lvl 3..just charge to 80% and you'll be fine. Drive it down to 20% or so..rinse and repeat.

Once you get home from TDY you can get into a home charging rhythm.

If you happen to want to spend a few hours spending that per diem $$, you could plug it up to level 2 at the mall or something..but don't fret that too much.

Keep it simple...you'll be fine DCFC while you are TDY as long as we're talking a normal TDY say few months max. DCFC would be an issue if you plan to do it often and long term.
Thanks!

And for inst
Maybe this will help.

A kilowatt of energy will get you around 1.7 - 1.8 miles.

Level 1, 120v charging will add about 1.1 kW per hour, or 0.008% of your battery. Near useless, unless you're there for a long time. If your cord can't reach, you will need a 12 gauge extension cord. If you charged at level 1 for 10 hours overnight, you could drive a whole 18 miles.

Level 2, 240v charging varies, depending on the charger. Some are as slow as 3 or 4kW, some as fast as 11kW. On the road, they'll likely be 3 - 7kW. Do the math, 131 / 3 = 44 hours, 131 / 7 = 19 hours. If you charged at level 2 for a few hours, you could drive less than an hour most likely.

DC fast charging (not called level 3), charges from 20kW to 350kW. Electrify America charges at 150kW or higher, WHEN they work properly, and for SOME of the charging curve. In about 30 - 40 minutes you can go from 20 to 80% battery charge. That's what people do on the highway, and then charge at a hotel overnight, if available (note that most hotels can't fill an empty Lightning overnight, see level 2 numbers). Wasting your time looking for level 2 charging on a trip, is silly - unless you're planning on shopping or eating where a charger is. No bang for the buck vs. the time wasted.

You MAY get your 250kW hours within a day. That will last you about 2 fills on the road. Before you go, download the EA app and create an account. The morning of the trip, upgrade to Pass+ for $4, and then downgrade right away, which will take effect in 30 days. That discount will pay off in a morning.

Open EA app, swipe charger, then plug in when charger tells you to.

Use A Better Route Planner to plan your trip, after saving the truck config, and preferring the EA network. Plan on using only EA chargers if possible.

If it's colder than 50, make sure to use the Ford Navigation also, so it navigates to the next charger, and preheats the battery. This will save you time. Turn off the heat 5 minutes before arriving at the charger. Turn off the heat for the first 10 minutes of the charging session at least.

Expect a 20% or more overhead to your trip. In other words, a 10 hour drive will become a 12 - 13 hour drive on the way home, assuming everything goes well.


Good in thanks.....actually plan to stop about half way to pick up family and ride rest of the way. Definitely worth saving the $4K in transportation of the truck.
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