5000 Mile road trip - my random thoughts.

[tearitupsports]

I recently completed my second 5000+ mile road trip. For the record I went from Texas -> Maine -> Martha's Vineyard -> Connecticut -> New Hampshire -> Vermont -> Maine -> Connecticut -> Tennessee -> Texas.

My opinions and thoughts in no particular order of importance:

There are lots of chargers now, and the overall trip was no issue. I stop every couple of hours for about 10-25 minutes and always charge up to 80% before leaving to next stop. No worries, anxiety, or issues. All chargers I went to had open chargers and worked. Vast majority were Tesla.

Worst Tesla supercharger location: Lawrence MA and its not even close. In a construction zone where you can barely park level, and the chargers don't allow you to nose up. Also a busy full location. The starbucks next door was the worst we stopped at as well (due to the employees).

Best V3 superchargers: Hope AR. All stalls are turned sideways. You still take up 2 spaces, but it is super easy to get next to the cord.

Most surprising location to not have bad traffic: Hartford CT. We went right through at rush hour. (east to west for the record on I84).

Worst traffic in a location we wouldn't expect: Lebanon NH. For a small town, the traffic is terrible. The lights are not timed at all and leave people stuck in intersections with people honking and no where to go.

The truck has amazing efficiency in the rolling hills/mountains. In PA I averaged almost 2.3 mi/kWh driving at or over speed limit on I-81 and I-84.

Virginia construction zones (WTF!!). 55 mph on a highway with no construction and no workers, but monitored by speed cameras. I am not sure if any construction had ever been done.

A lot of hotels have chargers now, and some were extremely reasonable price. I found 2 of our hotels with rates at $0.25 or under per kWh. We only stayed at Tru or Home2Suite which are essentially the same thing (always co-located together). Unfortunately they can't have any sort of unified brand / app. Each place had a different type of charger. At the last place (Dickson TN) the charger was giving me 16 kW rate until the breaker tripped. Luckily there was Mercedes fast chargers next door.

Speaking of that, I only tried Mercedes once because I could. I had to try 3 different chargers, and they wouldn't work with charge point app or via the CC payment terminal. I think I got it to start via Ford pass app, but not entirely sure. They were so screwed up, I never actually got charged for the session.

Ionna worked great and had $0.20 / kWh promotion at one of my stops. I was disappointed that none of the locations had covered charging though. They seemed to have gone back on that promise. They did have trash and windshield cleaning equipment though.

Why the f does the truck have to turn off when unplugging the charge cable??? I have to re-start the truck and turn back on pro-power at every stop. So annoying.

The vast majority of EV trucks I saw were lightnings. I noted maybe 2 GMC and 3 silverado my whole trip. Small number of cybertrucks and maybe a couple Rivian R1T. Did see an R2 on the road in TN. I know I have a natural bias to notice lightnings, but it really was a big difference.

I think about 10% of all lightnings are on Marthas Vineyard. For a tiny place, they were everywhere.

I was amazed about how many people, including owners of other EV's had no idea that there was an electric Ford truck.

Overall I think there has been a decrease in total amount of EV's on the road as compared to my trip 2 years ago.

Sponsored

 

[Nikos]

I recently completed my second 5000+ mile road trip. For the record I went from Texas -> Maine -> Martha's Vineyard -> Connecticut -> New Hampshire -> Vermont -> Maine -> Connecticut -> Tennessee -> Texas.

My opinions and thoughts in no particular order of importance:

There are lots of chargers now, and the overall trip was no issue. I stop every couple of hours for about 10-25 minutes and always charge up to 80% before leaving to next stop. No worries, anxiety, or issues. All chargers I went to had open chargers and worked. Vast majority were Tesla.

Worst Tesla supercharger location: Lawrence MA and its not even close. In a construction zone where you can barely park level, and the chargers don't allow you to nose up. Also a busy full location. The starbucks next door was the worst we stopped at as well (due to the employees).

Best V3 superchargers: Hope AR. All stalls are turned sideways. You still take up 2 spaces, but it is super easy to get next to the cord.

Most surprising location to not have bad traffic: Hartford CT. We went right through at rush hour. (east to west for the record on I84).

Worst traffic in a location we wouldn't expect: Lebanon NH. For a small town, the traffic is terrible. The lights are not timed at all and leave people stuck in intersections with people honking and no where to go.

The truck has amazing efficiency in the rolling hills/mountains. In PA I averaged almost 2.3 mi/kWh driving at or over speed limit on I-81 and I-84.

Virginia construction zones (WTF!!). 55 mph on a highway with no construction and no workers, but monitored by speed cameras. I am not sure if any construction had ever been done.

A lot of hotels have chargers now, and some were extremely reasonable price. I found 2 of our hotels with rates at $0.25 or under per kWh. We only stayed at Tru or Home2Suite which are essentially the same thing (always co-located together). Unfortunately they can't have any sort of unified brand / app. Each place had a different type of charger. At the last place (Dickson TN) the charger was giving me 16 kW rate until the breaker tripped. Luckily there was Mercedes fast chargers next door.

Speaking of that, I only tried Mercedes once because I could. I had to try 3 different chargers, and they wouldn't work with charge point app or via the CC payment terminal. I think I got it to start via Ford pass app, but not entirely sure. They were so screwed up, I never actually got charged for the session.

Ionna worked great and had $0.20 / kWh promotion at one of my stops. I was disappointed that none of the locations had covered charging though. They seemed to have gone back on that promise. They did have trash and windshield cleaning equipment though.

Why the f does the truck have to turn off when unplugging the charge cable??? I have to re-start the truck and turn back on pro-power at every stop. So annoying.

The vast majority of EV trucks I saw were lightnings. I noted maybe 2 GMC and 3 silverado my whole trip. Small number of cybertrucks and maybe a couple Rivian R1T. Did see an R2 on the road in TN. I know I have a natural bias to notice lightnings, but it really was a big difference.

I think about 10% of all lightnings are on Marthas Vineyard. For a tiny place, they were everywhere.

I was amazed about how many people, including owners of other EV's had no idea that there was an electric Ford truck.

Overall I think there has been a decrease in total amount of EV's on the road as compared to my trip 2 years ago.

Looks like you had a good trip and enjoyed it without any worries of where to charge. Range anxiety was not the issue. Thank for sharing this story with us. As long as the price of gas and diesel stays above $4, especially in New England which can be as high as $5, the smart and able will look into EVs.
One of the reasons I switched, no regrets and no remorse, was the fact that as long as oil comes out of the Middle East, hurricanes hit the Gulf region and supply chain disruptions of oil anywhere in the world do to wars or environmental disasters, the price of fossil fuels will always be high. Five years ago all this came to an end for me. Yes….the current administration’s short sightedness, stupidity and ignorance hasn’t tempered people’s desire to have an EV.
Unfortunately even smart and financially able people won’t give an EV a chance. The EV realm is a domain for the people who understand it better than most. Once you dip your toes in it , they won’t go back to ICE.
Personally, I see more EVs on the roads in the last couple years. I give my fuel points to my neighbors. They need them, I don’t.

 

[Jseis]

Thanks for the report! I’ve noticed that charge prices are getting near though staying under gas. Sure appreciate our local $.064 per kWh! a 5K drive…wow!

 

[TaxmanHog]

Lawrence, WORST city in Massachusetts

 

[DavidS]

I’m 1500 miles into my annual 2500 mile road trip an have experienced much the same. Salisbury MD Superchargers have been updated with many of them being pull through. Two of three Ionna stations I went to had covers. On a hot summer day they can greatly reduce AC load while charging as well as providing protection in a downpour. The cords also work great for the Lightning.
I’m nominating the Ionna at Lafayette IN as best EV charger in the country. Covered parking at one of the western most Wawa’s with a Panda Express and Raising Cane’s on either side.

 

[jamelski]

Why the f does the truck have to turn off when unplugging the charge cable??? I have to re-start the truck and turn back on pro-power at every stop. So annoying.

That’s strange that happens to you. I have a 2024 truck, and when I’m done charging it, I push the brake, put it in gear, and drive off. As long as I never turn off the truck, it stays “on” after charging.

 

[dkrueger]

Sounds like a great trip. What app did you use to plan your charging?

 

[Poolboy1637]

Sounds like fun.
I agree, take a pass on Lawrence Mass.
My fiancée's brother lives in Lebanon NH. I agree the lights can be terrible. I've charged there at both the Walmart and the Rivian Adventure Network charger. Good experience with both, the Rivian was expensive though, around $0.64/kWh.

 

[tearitupsports]

That’s strange that happens to you. I have a 2024 truck, and when I’m done charging it, I push the brake, put it in gear, and drive off. As long as I never turn off the truck, it stays “on” after charging.

In my 2023 when you unplug it goes to accessory mode. You have to hold the brake and press the on button again. This also shuts off the AC and Pro-power.

 

[tearitupsports]

Sounds like a great trip. What app did you use to plan your charging?

I use ABRP for the planning part, and then share each location to google maps for navigation. Other than trying to route me over the GW bridge by NYC, it does a great job at picking and estimating stops. We usually beat the plan by about 30 minutes on the long days.
I do wish it had a way to plan the way I like to. It only allows you to set a minimum SOC to arrive at for each stop. Some stops it only suggests to charge to like 40-50% just to get to the next stop at 25% again. I still use the same stops it plans, but I always charge to 80%, so I arrive at the next stop much higher than the plan usually.

 

[tearitupsports]

Sounds like fun.
I agree, take a pass on Lawrence Mass.
My fiancée's brother lives in Lebanon NH. I agree the lights can be terrible. I've charged there at both the Walmart and the Rivian Adventure Network charger. Good experience with both, the Rivian was expensive though, around $0.64/kWh.

I was in Lebanon NH twice where I used the EA at Walmart. They were still like $0.59 / kWh and I think the most expensive on the whole trip.
We did go to Wendy's nearby and the staff was extremely friendly.

 

[Piquette]

I made a 1700 mile round trip from New Hampshire to Dearborn, MI two weeks ago. I joined the Tesla charging network for the trip, and will cancel before the next monthly fee comes due because I rarely make long road trips or use a fast charger. In general I have found the Tesla charging network to be reliable and a good value.

I did make one charging mistake on the trip. We stopped for the night at a Rochester, NY motel that had 10 ChargeSmart level 2 chargers in the lot. I thought an overnight charge would be convenient. It was convenient, but horribly expensive. Even using the ChargeSmart app I was charged $0.69/Kwh plus a $.049 connection fee Plus sales tax!!! By my departure time the next morning the total bill for charging was $78.

On future trips I will make it a point to avoid ChargeSmart chargers. I suggest you do too.

 

[tony alaniz]

Awesome post. I’d be curious to see how this would be in a 2024 XLT SR…. Asking for a friend.

I’m tempted to do a trip like this but with my kids and wife I don’t think we’re ready for something like this just yet.

 

[K6CCC]

Even using the ChargeSmart app I was charged $0.69/Kwh plus a $.049 connection fee Plus sales tax!!! By my departure time the next morning the total bill for charging was $78.

Damn! That is insane for L2 charging at a hotel where you were a guest.

 

[RickLightning]

I made a 1700 mile round trip from New Hampshire to Dearborn, MI two weeks ago. I joined the Tesla charging network for the trip, and will cancel before the next monthly fee comes due because I rarely make long road trips or use a fast charger. In general I have found the Tesla charging network to be reliable and a good value.

I did make one charging mistake on the trip. We stopped for the night at a Rochester, NY motel that had 10 ChargeSmart level 2 chargers in the lot. I thought an overnight charge would be convenient. It was convenient, but horribly expensive. Even using the ChargeSmart app I was charged $0.69/Kwh plus a $.049 connection fee Plus sales tax!!! By my departure time the next morning the total bill for charging was $78.

On future trips I will make it a point to avoid ChargeSmart chargers. I suggest you do too.

Cancel Tesla right after you signup. It takes effect in 30 days. No forgetting.

The rate for the chargers is not a surprise before you charge... There are SuperChargers east and west of Rochester on 90. 25 or 39 cents, not part of Tesla network.

Sponsored