-23 F ….. Leave the Lightning at home 🥶!?

[lancersrock]

I drove 130 miles in -15 and was averaging right at 1.1 to 1.2 at 70 mph with heat at 68. So150 would be outside of my comfort range right now. As I get to know the truck better maybe I’d risk it but it’s likely going to be close. Preconditioning might make all the difference though

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[davidf01]

Seriously all you have to do is plan your trip so you can reach a couple of chargers in case one's not working and charge for 20 minutes.

 

[Joneii]

Seriously all you have to do is plan your trip so you can reach a couple of chargers in case one's not working and charge for 20 minutes.

Yeah, that’s how we do it. We charge not for the next charger, but for the one beyond. That means stopping more often, but the charges are short (15-25 min). We’ve done a fair amount of towing (some of it in temperatures below freezing) so I’m comfortable road-tripping at 0.9-1.2 m/kW. It would be nice to just know that the charger is going to work though (but if I wanted it to be easy I’d take the Tesla).

 

[nanohead]

Stay strong! I’ll be rolling an EV in northern Vermont this weekend. Unfortunately, it will be the Tesla because my Lightning is in pieces right now getting body repairs after someone hit it over Thanksgiving. The Tesla chargers are reliable, so you might have a bit more adventure than I this weekend.

I wish there were ANY DCFC in southern Vermont at all! Its so sparse, really frustrating. I'm about to give up honestly on the Lightning, much as I love it.

Honestly, public charging in the Northeast US seems to be absolutely terrible. 1 out of 4 working in most places, hung software, broken chargers, terrible apps that don't work, etc. Its just awful and profoundly unreliable. Nothing like being almost out of battery, heading to an EA or Shell Charging or EVgo charger location, and when you get there, nothing works.

I'm sure eventually charging will be widely available, but as it stands, boy its awful

 

[davidf01]

Do you use plug share? That's pretty accurate most of the time. Plenty of chargers along 91.

 

[Pjlightning]

Do you use plug share? That's pretty accurate most of the time. Plenty of chargers along 91.

Along 91 there’s scarce chargers if you screen out
below 50kw
( and Tesla),
And the only one with multiple slots is
EA in Lebanon NH - 150 miles away.

 

[RedLightning86]

Forecast this weekend calls for temps to hit -23 F with a high of -2 F ……

150 miles from home to the next EA charging station……

Extended range Lariat may have met its match ?

Leaning towards leaving it plugged in at home and taking the wife’s Mazda ICE to be safe.

my 10 year old son wants to “go for it “ of course….

I don’t think it’s worth the risk ?

Bad idea. If anything goes wrong, you are sunk. Especially if your 10yo son is with you. At -20 in Wisconsin, I never got more than 146 miles range, and that dropped fast with just normal driving. Same lack of charging, too. And on the way there, the charger didn’t work. So I limped to a s@@t charger the next am, barely made it. I love my Lightning, but the next time I have a long drive across Wisconsin when it’s really cold, it will be in one of our gas Subarus.

 

[RedLightning86]

Do you use plug share? That's pretty accurate most of the time. Plenty of chargers along 91.

Plug share shows lots of dog slow level 2 chargers. I appreciate the gesture of those, but unless at a hotel or RV park, they aren’t feasible for any kind of travel, just in-town driving, where you are parked for several hours.

 

[ChrisCon]

I vote do it. . I drove highway on sport at 100mph for 70 miles at 20 degrees with my 11 year old and can’t get below 1.5lwh per mile . If nothing else , do it for the forum . Also purchase an android mmb device so your child can watch you tube while you drive.

 

[Joneii]

I’m currently sitting at the West Lebanon EA after about 300 miles and only 80 more to go. Temps weren’t too bad today (right around freezing). The real test will be the return trip when it will be colder. We had the standard EA issues (one or two at each location out of service or working so slow that they should be put out of their misery). Really not a terrible trip although we do stop at almost every charger to ensure we can make it to the charger beyond the next. We only needed that once today when we were getting such a slow rate that we decided to bail.

 

[Pjlightning]

Bad idea. If anything goes wrong, you are sunk. Especially if your 10yo son is with you. At -20 in Wisconsin, I never got more than 146 miles range, and that dropped fast with just normal driving. Same lack of charging, too. And on the way there, the charger didn’t work. So I limped to a s@@t charger the next am, barely made it. I love my Lightning, but the next time I have a long drive across Wisconsin when it’s really cold, it will be in one of our gas Subarus.

it’s the fear of the unknown of the handful of chargers and their status that’s the big worry.

any hiccups, and As you say, I’d be sunk. And frozen solid too.

the wind may be the final nail in the coffin here too, expecting wind at 14-17 w/gusts up to 41 mph in a southeastern direction,
When I’m heading in a due north direction.

With the coefficient drag issue of the lightning being a brick on wheels,
That wind pushing against me could be as big a factor as the cold.

not a promising combination for range tomorrow night:

 

[Pjlightning]

I’m currently sitting at the West Lebanon EA after about 300 miles and only 80 more to go. Temps weren’t too bad today (right around freezing). The real test will be the return trip when it will be colder. We had the standard EA issues (one or two at each location out of service or working so slow that they should be put out of their misery). Really not a terrible trip although we do stop at almost every charger to ensure we can make it to the charger beyond the next. We only needed that once today when we were getting such a slow rate that we decided to bail.

how is the output Of the chargers right now at (guessing) 25F ?

Are they giving you over 100kw?

And are all 4 working?

Thanks for the scouting report

 

[Joneii]

how is the output Of the chargers right now at (guessing) 25F ?

Are they giving you over 100kw?

And are all 4 working?

Thanks for the scouting report

At the West Lebanon EA the 350 kW station I tried was putting out 32 kW/h. I switched to a 150 and got 140 kW/h. I stopped at a new EA installation in Albany and was only getting 60 kW/h. I didn’t bother trying a different station there as we had planned to eat at that stop and the slower speed would work. I did put all my stops in Plugshare with details.

 

[Joneii]

One additional note on cold weather road-tripping: check the rating on your mobile charger. I used my Ford mobile charger exclusively for over a month waiting for the FCSP to arrive and get hooked up and I never had a problem with it. That was in October. The AirBnB where we are staying this weekend in Vermont has a NEMA 14-50 outlet so I brought the mobile charger to plug in at night as there aren’t any real fast chargers near by. Well, last night it charged most of the night, but stopped around 5 am. I unplugged it and cleared the yellow fault light and plugged it back in. It worked for about 5 minutes and quit again. It was -18 F. I checked the back of the unit and it is rated to -22F. I tried several more times and after warming the unit back up it will charge for a while, but eventually it gets to cold and quits (or at least that is my hypothesis).

 

[mr.Magoo]

At sub-zero, also consider that DCFC will be considerably slower.

With 4.1.3 SW it'll pre-condition the battery if you use the onboard navigation to get to a charger to allow you to charge at faster rates.

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