First Road Trip in my new Pro SR!

[davehu]

Thanks, great advice. Trip down averaged 2.0mi/kw, trip back was better at around 2.4 with lower speed and more careful heat settings.

I attempted to charge to 100% but my departure scheduler failed me somehow--I see others have issues with this as well. I thought I had set it up to charge me to 100% right before departure. I'll play with it, I definitely want to do that next time. Possibly I could make it in one shot with a 100% SOC, 65MPH, and careful heat settings but I doubt it. It may be possible in the summer. Even so I think stopping at the mid-way DCFC is cheap insurance.

I'm running the Hot Rod Power Tour in June, I'm hoping the summer weather will extend the range a bunch.

I've only had my Lightning since mid-September so no results during HOT weather, but I was getting 2.3 to 2.5 in moderate temps. wish the Hor Rod Tour was coming our way. Would love to see it. Have Fun!

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[Fastnf]

I believe I can run this at 16A speed with my adjustable charger and be ok. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes this will work fine at 16 amps on a 20 amp breaker. This will give you 3.8 kw/hr. If you are getting 2.4 miles per kwh driving, it will add about 9 miles per every hour of charge.

 

[Ventorum94]

We planned a short road trip yesterday, from Akron OH down to Marietta, 130 Miles on a chilly 14F day. I figured with my GOM showing 190 miles that should be no problem to shoot down, charge up again L2 on a 220V at my in-laws place while we hang out and come back with lots to spare, right? But just in case, there is an Electrify America DC fast charger about 50 miles outside of Marietta. Money! No worries! It turns out we did not, and could not possibly have, made it to Marietta on my 190mi range/90% charge. I ran pretty quick, about 75 on cruise, and we did have the heat on. You know, like normal people do? We hit that DC charger with a 3% SOC after 85 miles of travel and I had to slow it down to get that. Oof! The 350KW EA did the job real nicely for us, 40 minutes at the Wal Mart was kind of pointless but we had fun.

We drove the truck around Marietta and burned up most of the juice down there. I went to the FIL's garage and unplugged his welder hoping to find a NEMA 14-50 plug, but nope! He has a Nema 6-50P three-prong plug. I've gotta look that up, we may be able to find an adapter but it has no neutral. Very slowly charged up to 55 miles range on 120V and then a freebie Level 2 at the library, see previous issues, and very hesitantly drove at 60MPH with no heat on the 45 miles back to the fast charger. Guys, it was that or sleep at my in-laws. Not gonna happen.

I'm new, this is the learning curve for me still, but I would say my experience was two out of five stars, do not recommend. I'm not very certain that my wife will agree to travel in this truck anymore. Other than running at 55MPH with no heat is there something I'm missing? What would you have done differently?

Keep track of your current consumption, by resetting Trip 1 every 10mi or so. Multiply that consumption number (miles/kWh) by your SOC (%, find it on the Calm Screen), and THAT’S your range-to-zero (SR makes the math easier). You’ll know in the first 10mi, whether you’re driving efficiently enough to reach your planned charge stop. Get in the habit of doing the mental math (mi/kWh x SOC% = range-to-zero) every 10mi or so, and you’ll never wonder where your range went.
Example: 1.8mi/kWh x 49%SOC = 88 miles-to-zero

 

[JRT]

Stop messing with timing a SOC at 100% before departure, plug it in and get it 100% as soon as possible before a road trip. Then set a departure time and try to hold the family to it. The battery will be warmed up, cab temperature warm and everyone will be happy. Do this with it plugged in too of course. Set cruise to 68mph, it is shocking this is a pretty sweet spot and with the truck comfortable heated seats and wheel is a pretty nice place to be.

I lived all this with my SR Mach-e, which is why I just out the ER. Still same problems and issues, but much more comfortable buffer

 

[TheWoo]

Thanks, great advice. Trip down averaged 2.0mi/kw, trip back was better at around 2.4 with lower speed and more careful heat settings.

I attempted to charge to 100% but my departure scheduler failed me somehow--I see others have issues with this as well. I thought I had set it up to charge me to 100% right before departure. I'll play with it, I definitely want to do that next time. Possibly I could make it in one shot with a 100% SOC, 65MPH, and careful heat settings but I doubt it. It may be possible in the summer. Even so I think stopping at the mid-way DCFC is cheap insurance.

I'm running the Hot Rod Power Tour in June, I'm hoping the summer weather will extend the range a bunch.

2.0 mi/kWh this time of year with some 75mph driving is actually amazingly good!

 

[djwildstar]

For a second there, I thought you meant Akron OH to Marietta GA (just outside of Atlanta). Having driven from Atlanta to Toledo to visit my sister-in-law and her family for Christmas, I can say that it is not an easy, short trip. ;-)

There are a few few take-aways, though. First, if you're planning on doing Level 2 charging at someone else's house, do a "site survey" first: check out the plug you plan to use and the distance to where you're likely to be able to park. Get any plug adapters you might need -- in your case, a 6-50P to 14-50R dogbone would have saved the day. I carry this one, and a couple of other useful adapters, in a small duffel bag tucked into the "cooler" part of the frunk.

I was already thinking about the Christmas trip when we visited my wife's sister last summer, and checked out their charging situation. It turns out that none of their exterior or garage outlets work. So from the get-go, I knew I had to plan a trip without being able to charge at my destination.

The other is to run your planned route through ABRP (A Better Route Planner, the app or the website) to sanity-check it. ABRP suggests that an SR truck can't comfortably make that trip without a charging stop at the EA in Cambridge. The stop doesn't have to be particularly long if you have charging at your destination. Alternatively, the trip is do-able without charging in Marietta, if you charge to 80%+ on the way down and charge again at Cambridge on the way back.

 

[CRAIGC540]

I love my Ford lightning, but I keep it within its home radius

Do you think being able to charge on Tesla supercharger network would have been a better experience?

 

[mb0220]

Rain, headwind and gaining elevation can have significant impact on your range as well. Make sure you adjust your tire pressure for winter.

I agree with this, in my experience. The rain was a surprising factor. Not sure why, but for some reason the rain seems to have a noticeable impact.

 

[PreservedSwine]

On my singular road trip- it may

Do you think being able to charge on Tesla supercharger network would have been a better experience?
[

probably not.
The spacing of the chargers wasn’t absolutely perfect, but it was close. Unlike many others, the chargers weren’t really the issue. It was truck versus interstate. 75 mph is not kind to the lightning.

 

[mefly2]

2.0 mi/kWh this time of year with some 75mph driving is actually amazingly good!

Phenomenal ... wish I could hit that mark during this cold season.

 

[Maxx]

Not sure why, but for some reason the rain seems to have a noticeable impact.

Tesla Model 3 coefficient of drag is 0.23 and it's efficiency is almost twice as good as Lightning. Aerodynamics of a car is all about how much energy it spends moving air molecules. The bigger the cross section, the less slippery and the faster it goes, the more air molecules it has to move.

Water is heavier than air. Imagine how much energy it takes to drive your F150 in the bottom of the lake at 70 mph instead of on a highway. Driving in the rain is somewhere in between.

 

[VTbuckeye]

Tesla Model 3 coefficient of drag is 0.23 and it's efficiency is almost twice as good as Lightning. Aerodynamics of a car is all about how much energy it spends moving air molecules. The bigger the cross section, the less slippery and the faster it goes, the more air molecules it has to move.

Water is heavier than air. Imagine how much energy it takes to drive your F150 in the bottom of the lake at 70 mph instead of on a highway. Driving in the rain is somewhere in between.

Years ago .... actually 14.5 years ago (son was born the following spring) my wife and I were driving to a tandem bicycle event. Driving my wife saab 93 on the highway we were averaging 31mpg. It started raining steadily and I reset the mpg monitor. Same speed new average was 28mpg. Steady rain, not even super heavy rain, cut efficiency by 10 percent (more rolling resistance from the water on the road and accelerating water drops from 0 to 70mph).

Not only does the model 3 have a much smaller drag coefficient, but also much less surface area. Fd=1/2*(density of fluid)*(velocity^2)*(drag coefficient )*(surface area). The truck probably has almost twice the surface area and twice the drag coefficient, ergo it takes a lot more energy to move at higher speeds than an efficient car.

 

[mb0220]

Tesla Model 3 coefficient of drag is 0.23 and it's efficiency is almost twice as good as Lightning. Aerodynamics of a car is all about how much energy it spends moving air molecules. The bigger the cross section, the less slippery and the faster it goes, the more air molecules it has to move.

Water is heavier than air. Imagine how much energy it takes to drive your F150 in the bottom of the lake at 70 mph instead of on a highway. Driving in the rain is somewhere in between.

Makes sense!
And just because I can't resist... I'll point out that you're not necessarily moving MORE air molecules when you go faster, just moving them at a higher rate (more per second), which requires more energy - yes?

 

[On the Road with Ralph]

<sigh> I have a 2023 Pro SR and have put 23,000 miles on it in a single year. That includes six trips of more than 1500 miles. My most common long distance route takes me through the cold, high altitude stretch of Interstate 40 in northern Arizona and New Mexico.

I’ve never experienced any of problems that the OP describes here. But then, I used to be a pilot, and I make sure that I understand the capabilities and behavior of my vehicle like my life depended on it. I know that driving at 75 miles an hour, without preconditioning the vehicle before departure, with the heater making my cabin toasty, is going to severely affect my range. Duh.

The outcome described by the OP is NOT the vehicle’s fault. If this were a crash investigation, it would be written up as “pilot error.”

 

[Txxthie]

I would use Apple Maps with EV routing. It will continually track the SOC to your destination. I ignore the GOM. I track my efficiency with the current trip meter (miles per kWh). The SR has a 98kWH usable battery so it makes calculations easy. I start all trips with a preconditioned battery and cabin. I drive 67mph and try to use only heated seats.

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