Finished My First Cross Country Trip, San Diego to Boston and Back

[gapsd]

Hello,

So over the Thanksgiving holiday I chose to drive from San Diego CA to Boston MA to surprise my Mom for Thanksgiving. After I arrived se was so excited and surprised she decided to drive back to CA with me. Over 6300 total miles round trip. Averaging 1.8KWh

I used the EA charging Network, learned a lot about there chargers and network communication from that. Biggest help was if it showed the wrong time chose another charger or call and have it reset.

I left on Friday Nov. 18th and drove to Las Vegas for a conference. Left Saturday morning for Boston around 7am. I arrived Tuesday in Boston around 9am. I stopped twice for sleep in Amarillo, TX and Terre Haute, IN.

On the way back traveling from Nov 25th thru Nov 28th, stopping in Staunton VA, Arkadelphia, AR, Monahans TX.

No real trouble with the truck, one warning about the auto air dam in TX. But that went away after a night of sleep.

Biggest problem was the high speed highways and hills of the continental divide during a cold snap on the way to Amarillo TX. the range dropped dramatically, same on the way back into San Diego from El Centro. I was seeing 1.0kwh range on the way back into San Diego. went back up to 1.5 on the way down the other side.

But that was to be expected as I was warned about that from multiple YouTube videos.

All in all a good couple of trips, and can't wait for my next one.

Let me know if you hae any questions or want more details on anything.

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[Lime Green]

So what happens if you attempt to charge at an EA charger showing incorrect time? I have zero experience with EA's charge network.

 

[Maxx]

Thanks for the tip on EA. I assume this is extended range battery. Would you attempt the same trip with SR? How was the comfort and noise? I assume you had some hotel charging. Any advice on charging while you sleep and hunting down the right place to do that?

 

[gapsd]

Thanks for the tip on EA. I assume this is extended range battery. Would you attempt the same trip with SR? How was the comfort and noise? I assume you had some hotel charging. Any advice on charging while you sleep and hunting down the right place to do that?

Yes! Totally forgot about the hotel charging.

I am a Marriott person and I had a bunch of points. Their App lets you filter hotels with chargers, some just had Tesla Destination chargers.
I used this adapter for the Tesla Chargers it worked well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BCF4JQB4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I still did mostly DC fast charging, I saw highs of 179KWh with average on a 350 or 150 about 139kwh up to 80 percent then down to 58 -60kwh

I could see doing it with standard range but I used about 28 stops, one way. I would imagine it would add half a day at least to the trip.

I always loved road trips so I don't mind the stops and talking and meeting people is part of the fun. In a hurry you couldn't do it much faster, than the 4 days it took me so there is that. More chargers would help, and a better openness to the charging networks,

 

[gapsd]

So what happens if you attempt to charge at an EA charger showing incorrect time? I have zero experience with EA's charge network.

From my experience a few things can happen. One, it can't bill you so it won't charge or two, it will start to charge for free then error out or three you get a free charge. But as you are messing with that one someone else pulls up in the last working slot. The customer support line was pretty quick late at night but during the day getting a hold of support to power cycle the station can take a while.
Was only a real problem when wanting to connect after a long drive with the need of using the restroom looming overhead.

 

[skattch]

Great info, thanks for sharing.

Do you have an estimate on what your average range was for non-stop freeway driving? I am planning a trip from the San Francisco area to San Diego. Half-way chargers are at about 260 miles. With extended range battery, do you think this is a safe plan or is this a two-stopper trip?

 

[RickLightning]

Great info, thanks for sharing.

Do you have an estimate on what your average range was for non-stop freeway driving? I am planning a trip from the San Francisco area to San Diego. Half-way chargers are at about 260 miles. With extended range battery, do you think this is a safe plan or is this a two-stopper trip?

You can't drive 260 miles with extended range between DC stops, period. Why? Because you normally charge to 80%, and drive to 10%, using 70% of the battery. 70% of 91 131 is 63.7 91.7 x 3.1 2.1 if you're lucky is 197 193 miles between stops.

Even if you left home with 100%, getting 90% on that leg, you'd only get 81 118 x 3.1 2.1 = 248.

In the winter, knock 30% off those numbers.

Edit - I apologize, I posted Mach-E numbers, but given the efficiency of the F-150L, the numbers are a basically the same.

 

[Pioneer74]

Great info, thanks for sharing.

Do you have an estimate on what your average range was for non-stop freeway driving? I am planning a trip from the San Francisco area to San Diego. Half-way chargers are at about 260 miles. With extended range battery, do you think this is a safe plan or is this a two-stopper trip?

I'm my experience, you'll be pushing it. Leave at 100% and you'll be pulling in around 0 driving at 70 on flat ground.

 

[skattch]

You can't drive 260 miles with extended range between DC stops, period. Why? Because you normally charge to 80%, and drive to 10%, using 70% of the battery. 70% of 91 is 63.7 x 3.1 if you're lucky is 197 miles between stops.

Even if you left home with 100%, getting 90% on that leg, you'd only get 81 x 3,1 = 251.

In the winter, knock 30% off those numbers.

Thanks for the advice

 

[skattch]

I'm my experience, you'll be pushing it. Leave at 100% and you'll be pulling in around 0 driving at 70 on flat ground.

Thanks

 

[RickLightning]

Thanks for the advice

Note my corrections, I quoted Mach-E not Lightning, but the answer is the same, you can't do 260 miles without charging.

 

[srvhurricane]

Yes! Totally forgot about the hotel charging.

I am a Marriott person and I had a bunch of points. Their App lets you filter hotels with chargers, some just had Tesla Destination chargers.
I used this adapter for the Tesla Chargers it worked well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BCF4JQB4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I still did mostly DC fast charging, I saw highs of 179KWh with average on a 350 or 150 about 139kwh up to 80 percent then down to 58 -60kwh

I could see doing it with standard range but I used about 28 stops, one way. I would imagine it would add half a day at least to the trip.

I always loved road trips so I don't mind the stops and talking and meeting people is part of the fun. In a hurry you couldn't do it much faster, than the 4 days it took me so there is that. More chargers would help, and a better openness to the charging networks,

Thanks for great info and posting your experience. In using the adaptor to charge at the Tesla Superchargers, do you need to download the Tesla app to get the charger to work? doing first trip from Boston to Montreal coming up and want to see if its worth investing in the adapter to increase charger access. thanks!

 

[gapsd]

Thanks for great info and posting your experience. In using the adaptor to charge at the Tesla Superchargers, do you need to download the Tesla app to get the charger to work? doing first trip from Boston to Montreal coming up and want to see if its worth investing in the adapter to increase charger access. thanks!

You cannot charge at Tesla superchargers unless they have the special dock. You can use the Tesla ap to see which ones they have updated to that dock. Not many on the west coast. The adapter only works on Telsa Destination chargers mainly at hotels and the like.

 

[srvhurricane]

good to know. will check the app out first then.

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