Philly Area to Fort Collins Colorado Roundtrip

[GDN]

Some interesting stickers on the rear window

I was going to say a very interesting mix for sure. All I can really say though is BOOMER !

Sponsored

 

[detansinn]

I was going to say a very interesting mix for sure. All I can really say though is BOOMER !

Boomer Sooner!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Great stickers!

 

[jetfixr1]

Which tires are you running, and if not the original, how long did your original last?

 

[detansinn]

Which tires are you running, and if not the original, how long did your original last?

I am still on the original All Season grabber tires. With the tread that is left, I won’t be surprised to see them go over 50k miles.

 

[pirate4x4lance]

So was your average speed on the Interstates 70mph the whole time? What nav did you use to plan your trip(s)? Did you use the truck's nav to pre condition before arriving at a charger each time, or nah? In Utah the speed limit is typically 80mph, so you'll get run over by semis doing 70.

 

[Electric Messiah]

Our recent college graduate landed a job in Fort Collins Colorado. So, we loaded up her stuff into the truck and hit the road. I've regularly done long trips (1000 miles or so) in the Lightning since taking delivery in 2023. The truck currently has over 45k miles. It's a rapid red metallic Lariat ER -- no tonneau cover, ie open bed.

Top Line Trip Info

• Westbound - 2.0 mi/kWh, 29h21m, 1795 miles (loaded up with cargo)
• Eastbound - 2.2 mi/kWh, 28h04m, 1761 miles
• Total Trip Miles 3,556 + 800 miles or so between Denver and Fort Collins
• PA Turnpike to I-70 was the route -- highway miles

Westbound Notes (three legs: Columbus, Kansas City stops)

• Several hundred pounds of moving bins were loaded and strapped into the bed. Truck was closer to level than normal on the springs.
• Load was covered with a Harbor Freight tarp, net, straps and numerous bungies to keep things dry.
• Strong Kansas headwinds and the ascent pulled us down to 1.5mi/kWh for stretches through Kansas.
• Thankfully, charging is plentiful through the Kansas I-70 corridor, so we didn't sweat the efficiency hit.
• Heat dome temps for much of the journey along with those winds

Colorado Notes

• We saw much higher mi/kWh than normal traveling up/down I-25 at 70+ MPH (posted 75MPH)
• It would not be unusual for us to finish a day averaging 2.8mi/kWh, whereas in Pennsylvania, I am happy to see 2.3mi/kWh hitting the turnpike.
• Thinner air? It was weird to get so much efficiency with that thin Denver air.
• Triple digit temperatures when we were in Colorado.
• I set a new personal best for efficiency 20.7mi/kWh over 31.5 miles. This was descending the mountain in Golden, CO.

Eastbound Notes (Two Legs, stopped east of Kansas City)

• Truck bed was empty for the ride home and we were substantially lighter.
• Efficiency was substantially better on the drive home -- I credit this to the descent from Rockies and flat run through the midwest.
• 2.3 mi/kWh with the average brought down from its peaks climbing the Appalachians.
• We had considered returning via I-80, but charging is just so plentiful in the I-70 corridor and we were completely spoiled by the IONNA charging experience.

Charging Notes

• I have over 75k miles of EV road tripping experience.
• I subscribe to a charging strategy of more frequent stops to reduce the amount of charging necessary at each stop.
• I'd rather do stops every 120-130 miles than longer legs where you run the battery way down, wait longer for the recharge and need a higher SoC to reach the next destination. Our longest segment was 170 miles.
• With our frequent stop strategy, we typically were out of there at 75-80% SoC -- and got there quickly. No stop is wasted. We use the restrooms or eat.
• Kansas has robust charging infrastructure in the I-70 corridor well-suited to this strategy, which is helpful, because Kansas is a big state to cross.
• We prioritized charging stops with a large number of chargers and as a result, didn't get stuck waiting once on this trip.
• Charging Networks Used (In Ranked Order, favorite first)
  • #1 IONNA
    • Easily our favorite charging stops.
    • They look amazing, well-maintained, everything just works
    • You'll find these stations all across Kansas and in Missouri outside of Kansas City
    • "Fallout" "Wall-E" design aesthetic
    • Awesome 400kw Alpitronic Chargers that are also being used by Applegreen (rest stop conglomerate) for their new installs.
    • "Membership" charging rates without the membership nonsense -- cheap.
  • #2 GM
    • Yes, it's weird that there are GM charging locations that are separate thing from EVGo, but every stop at one of these chargers was amazing.
    • The Limon Colorado Pilot stop looks and feels like how all EV charging should work -- with wind turbines in the background.
    • The Pilot locations are expensive, but I will pay a little more for charging when everything just works.
  • #3 Electrify America
    • We only hit a few EA charging sites on our route, but I am in awe as to how much the experience has improved since I started using them in 2022.
    • I used to hate EA chargers and have enough PTSD from units unable to meet rate or broken that I largely avoid them.
    • As I have been saying for a while now, you no longer have to avoid EA chargers.
  • #4 Tesla Superchargers
    • Tesla Supercharger access has been transformative to the EV road tripping experience, because you're getting so many additional charging options.
    • Reliability and uptime are nowhere near Teslas claims, but there's a big difference with 1 out of 8 chargers being down vs 1 out 2 being down. It's an important numbers advantage.
    • That being said, the only charging issues we encountered on our journey were at Supercharger locations. At the Spiceland Indiana location, the superchargers weren't meeting rate. The St Louis Moto Mart station had charging heads that would drop during a session without explanation.
    • I am a Tesla member, meaning that I had to the use app to activate the charger to get my discounted rate. At one Supercharger, I didn't have sufficient cell signal, but was able to just plug in and get the plug-n-charge FordPass rate.
    • To Tesla's credit, they are quick to respond to reported issues. Truth be told, they're the only game in town in some parts of the country. So, it's not like you have much of a choice. Take advantage of the access regardless of any feelings you have about Elon.
  • The Rest
    • Chargepoint location reliability is directly a function of the property owner's interest in maintaining the units. Some are great. Check Plugshare.
    • Applegreen is stepping up with the 400kw Alpitronic units at rest stops -- game changer.
    • Gas station/truck stop EV charging stations were surprisingly good.
• IMHO, IONNA is the experience leader in this space and looking forward to them expanding their network.
• No white knuckle factor on the whole trip. Multiple charging options. There's not enough infrastructure to support every person owning EV, but there's enough to truly travel anywhere in the United States now.

Expect the prevailing westerlies at your back contributed to the better mileage on the return trip.

 

[kstype]

First - congrats to your graduate and their new job! Fantastic news!

Second - excellent trip overview, love the details and hearing about your trip!

I am also in the Philly area - hopefully we will sync up one of these days! Keep an eye on the FordEVClubs.org website for events that I plan for PA:

https://fordevclubs.org/events/

I will be sharing your iONNA feedback with my contacts there - they will be very happy to hear your report!

 

[detansinn]

So was your average speed on the Interstates 70mph the whole time? What nav did you use to plan your trip(s)? Did you use the truck's nav to pre condition before arriving at a charger each time, or nah? In Utah the speed limit is typically 80mph, so you'll get run over by semis doing 70.

• Most of it was 70-75MPH
  • Lots of Blue Cruise. Typically, I locked Blue Cruise in at 70MPH, because that fit the flow of traffic and the truck is significantly more efficient at 70 vs 75.
  • That being said, Kansas was Blue Cruise at 75MPH.
  • We passed a lot of trucks not able to maintain 70MPH up grade through Kansas.
• Navigation
  • I use Plugshare to map my overall route and identify charging individual charging stations.
  • Using the addresses of the charging stations, I navigate to each of them, manually and individually.
  • I ended up using Google Maps for almost the entire trip, because Ford's navigation gets overly pessimistic when it comes to range -- I know how far my truck will go regardless what the guess-o-meter has to say.
  • When I use Ford's navigation, I never bother with its trip planning. I like to know where I am charging in advance. The "best charger" by Ford's reckoning may not have any nearby restrooms or food options.
  • I always check the status of the chargers in advance using Plugshare and/or the charging stations app.
  • From my early days of EV roadtripping, I always have a plan B in the event I run into issues at a charging station. Thankfully, there are so many options now, that nearly every charging station off I-70 in Kansas had other options at the same highway exit. My plan B's for this trip, were often just across the street.
  • I occasionally use ABRP in addition to PlugShare, but stuck in my ways when it comes to doing the trip planning manually.
• At highway speeds, the battery gets plenty warm to render pre-conditioning unnecessary.
  • This has proven true for us through many Maine road trips over the winter. If you plugged it in a high speed charger after leaving it overnight in Maine, sure, pre-conditioning is helpful, but if you just pulled off the highway -- no difference whether that charger waypoint was in the charger nav.
  • With outside temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, pre-conditioning was a non-factor on this trip.

 

[detansinn]

First - congrats to your graduate and their new job! Fantastic news!

Second - excellent trip overview, love the details and hearing about your trip!

I am also in the Philly area - hopefully we will sync up one of these days! Keep an eye on the FordEVClubs.org website for events that I plan for PA:

https://fordevclubs.org/events/

I will be sharing your iONNA feedback with my contacts there - they will be very happy to hear your report!

Thanks! I will keep an eye out for the events.

I was jumping up and down like a kid with excitement over the IONNA chargers. We used them in Goodland (KS), WaKeeney (KS), Abilene (KS), Blue Springs (MO), Reynoldsburg (OH) -- all of them are along I-70. These sites all just recently opened up (within the past couple of months).

If anyone finds themselves driving through that part of the country, use those IONNA chargers! They're awesome.

When I got home, I discovered that Out of Spec Reviews actually previewed four of these charging stations a few months ago. Specifically, the Kansas and Missouri stations we used on this trip. Ohio wasn't even open yet when he posted the video.



(PS. The QDOBA at the Goodland IONNA site was quite good. Sounds like Kyle had a bad GI experience, but it was great for us)

 

[kstype]

Yes - I was with Kyle and OOS team at the Apex soft opening back in December with members from our Carolinas and MidAtlantic clubs and was just at the Scranton Ribbon cutting with them.

Love what iONNA is bringing to the market!

 

[detansinn]

Yes - I was with Kyle and OOS team at the Apex soft opening back in December with members from our Carolinas and MidAtlantic clubs and was just at the Scranton Ribbon cutting with them.

Love what iONNA is bringing to the market!

With your IONNA contacts, please let them know that the 7AM-7PM hours for lounge access at Reynoldsburg, OH is not awesome. It was frustrating for us to not be able to access the lounge at 7:30PM. It was broad daylight outside. We had to walk over to the Waffle House to use a restroom. It should be accessible 24hrs for IONNA customers -- which seems to be the case elsewhere.

I am looking forward to the New England sites given our regular drives up to Maine.

 

[halfbakedenchilada]

Thanks for the write-up, OP. Your experience with preconditioning is the same as mine: it doesn't matter if you are road tripping. And the Ford nav is way too pessimistic. I really like ABRP with the OBD dongle, in my experience it's really accurate with predicted ending SoC and picking good charging stops, and the map is pretty good (but not as good as google, I think). Thanks again.

 

[kstype]

With your IONNA contacts, please let them know that the 7AM-7PM hours for lounge access at Reynoldsburg, OH is not awesome. It was frustrating for us to not be able to access the lounge at 7:30PM. It was broad daylight outside. We had to walk over to the Waffle House to use a restroom. It should be accessible 24hrs for IONNA customers -- which seems to be the case elsewhere.

I am looking forward to the New England sites given our regular drives up to Maine.

Passed along that message!

 

[twodogsdennis]

Living outside of Boulder and mostly traveling throughout CO and to the west coast I'm happy to hear that the I-70 corridor has greatly improved. I'm excited to see the Ionna open soon in Limon as the $.65/kw at the Flying J in your picture is a bit steep compared to other stations. When that station first went online, ICE cars could been found parked at the stalls blocking access. I've talked about the increased mi/kw rate on my YT channel that I see on I-25 and have almost convinced myself that it's the volume of traffic racing along at 75+m/hr that essentially carries me along for the ride. Thanks for a great report.

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