What's it like to take a road trip in a truck like the Terra (F-150 Lightning)?

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it feels like it should have giant googly eyes on the top to me - I love it!
That would be so cool! Or one massive eye on top instead of 2 eyes to bring back that old gas station vibe similar to the Texaco Gas Pumps from the 50s with the rotation top.


Now i found my first Scout project in 2027. Im gonna find one of these near me and I'm gonna convert it into a NACS charger using my Scouts Home Charger. That way every time someone comes over my Scout will look like its being filled with gas. Lol
 
The only thing is, with making these is that gas stations have to be dormant until the soil is clear of any gas before they can start to build on them. Is what I remember, i could be wrong. @nolen whats the rough estimate of time the site has to be dormant? Obviously it varies between each gas station.
If tanks are pumped dry and they can remove tanks without damage or backfill them and cap it it usually isn’t that long.
 
The only thing is, with making these is that gas stations have to be dormant until the soil is clear of any gas before they can start to build on them. Is what I remember, i could be wrong. @nolen whats the rough estimate of time the site has to be dormant? Obviously it varies between each gas station.
unfortunately I'm in air testing, not soil so I don't know their regulations. Ask me questions about emissions from factory stacks or landfills and I'll be much more helpful (and boring...) :LOL:

(edit - I am not in mobile sources so I don't do the cars - it's not my fault!)
 
The only thing is, with making these is that gas stations have to be dormant until the soil is clear of any gas before they can start to build on them. Is what I remember, i could be wrong. @nolen whats the rough estimate of time the site has to be dormant? Obviously it varies between each gas station.
The reuse of such properties and the regulations around reuse is state specific. Generally speaking though if there are records that the tanks have been removed or abandoned in place, the property can be resold although it may have a restriction on the type of reuse, such as commercial/industrial use only. Most states have an underground storage tank (UST) program that tracks this information and conducts checks on active facilities.

It is up to the purchaser to conduct a phase 1 and potentially a phase 2 site investigation to ensure they understand the liability that may come with purchasing a property that may have historically operated as a gas station/auto shop.
 
We're going to be taking another long road trip in a few weeks.
I’m happy to gather reasonable data that people are interested in seeing.
We don’t do video logs—just not something I ever got into and I know I would forget to do this, so I’m going to nip that idea now. But I do take photos and I sometimes remember to record the vehicle data. I can include a similar log as I did above.

We’re most likely taking the Lightning because we’re camping most nights. We’re tent camping—sold our trailer a few years ago and don’t feel like getting another what with costs for everything skyrocketing and massive uncertainty in everything.

The general route will be:

From N. Arizona through Salt Lake City, Utah through the southwest corner of Idaho through the northeast corner of Oregon to Seattle, WA.
From Seattle, WA down along the WA and OR coasts to the NorCal coast. Across to Redding, down to Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevadas to Lake Tahoe, down to Death Valley, across to Las Vegas, and back to Northern Arizona.

Total distance will be around 3300 to 3500 miles, including small side trips, etc.

I haven’t done any more mapping than I always do, which is to decide on a general route, decide on overnight stops which will be mostly established campgrounds, a hotel every so often so I can take a shower and my partner doesn’t decide to fly home.

Established campgrounds will have electricity so we’ll recharge to 100% on those nights. Otherwise, we’ll find chargers while we’re on the road.

If you have suggestions of data or other information you’d like to know or see, let me know. I’ll do my best to track the things I’m able to track.

Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 5.46.08 PM.png
 
We're going to be taking another long road trip in a few weeks.
I’m happy to gather reasonable data that people are interested in seeing.
We don’t do video logs—just not something I ever got into and I know I would forget to do this, so I’m going to nip that idea now. But I do take photos and I sometimes remember to record the vehicle data. I can include a similar log as I did above.

We’re most likely taking the Lightning because we’re camping most nights. We’re tent camping—sold our trailer a few years ago and don’t feel like getting another what with costs for everything skyrocketing and massive uncertainty in everything.

The general route will be:

From N. Arizona through Salt Lake City, Utah through the southwest corner of Idaho through the northeast corner of Oregon to Seattle, WA.
From Seattle, WA down along the WA and OR coasts to the NorCal coast. Across to Redding, down to Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevadas to Lake Tahoe, down to Death Valley, across to Las Vegas, and back to Northern Arizona.

Total distance will be around 3300 to 3500 miles, including small side trips, etc.

I haven’t done any more mapping than I always do, which is to decide on a general route, decide on overnight stops which will be mostly established campgrounds, a hotel every so often so I can take a shower and my partner doesn’t decide to fly home.

Established campgrounds will have electricity so we’ll recharge to 100% on those nights. Otherwise, we’ll find chargers while we’re on the road.

If you have suggestions of data or other information you’d like to know or see, let me know. I’ll do my best to track the things I’m able to track.

View attachment 6548
Thank you. This is very helpful!!
 
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We're going to be taking another long road trip in a few weeks.
I’m happy to gather reasonable data that people are interested in seeing.
We don’t do video logs—just not something I ever got into and I know I would forget to do this, so I’m going to nip that idea now. But I do take photos and I sometimes remember to record the vehicle data. I can include a similar log as I did above.

We’re most likely taking the Lightning because we’re camping most nights. We’re tent camping—sold our trailer a few years ago and don’t feel like getting another what with costs for everything skyrocketing and massive uncertainty in everything.

The general route will be:

From N. Arizona through Salt Lake City, Utah through the southwest corner of Idaho through the northeast corner of Oregon to Seattle, WA.
From Seattle, WA down along the WA and OR coasts to the NorCal coast. Across to Redding, down to Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevadas to Lake Tahoe, down to Death Valley, across to Las Vegas, and back to Northern Arizona.

Total distance will be around 3300 to 3500 miles, including small side trips, etc.

I haven’t done any more mapping than I always do, which is to decide on a general route, decide on overnight stops which will be mostly established campgrounds, a hotel every so often so I can take a shower and my partner doesn’t decide to fly home.

Established campgrounds will have electricity so we’ll recharge to 100% on those nights. Otherwise, we’ll find chargers while we’re on the road.

If you have suggestions of data or other information you’d like to know or see, let me know. I’ll do my best to track the things I’m able to track.

View attachment 6548
Would love a log of charging stops and what time of day, mealtime?, overall down time. I think more of this is helpful for everyone new to EV’s. Maybe what food choices you find and distance from charger. Wanting to learn whether it’s fast food, quick stops, etc…. Thanks
 
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Would love a log of charging stops and what time of day, mealtime?, overall down time. I think more of this is helpful for everyone new to EV’s. Maybe what food choices you find and distance from charger. Wanting to learn whether it’s fast food, quick stops, etc…. Thanks
Oh also does temperature make a difference? Is is ever too hot or too cold to charge? Does the charging have to go slower due to extreme temps? (I’m honestly not sure if that’s a thing).

Oh and also is you run into any discrepancies. Did you have to go father because a charger wasn’t working. Did your map want you to go somewhere and there was construction so you had to reroute. Those kind of things.

Thank you very much again and you have put yourself up to a real task with this group and all the potential questions.
 
Oh also does temperature make a difference? Is is ever too hot or too cold to charge? Does the charging have to go slower due to extreme temps? (I’m honestly not sure if that’s a thing).

Oh and also is you run into any discrepancies. Did you have to go father because a charger wasn’t working. Did your map want you to go somewhere and there was construction so you had to reroute. Those kind of things.

Thank you very much again and you have put yourself up to a real task with this group and all the potential questions.
Charging time can slow with extreme cold or heat. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but extreme cold affects the battery and extreme heat affects the charger/cable as it relates to charge speed.
 
We're going to be taking another long road trip in a few weeks.
I’m happy to gather reasonable data that people are interested in seeing.
We don’t do video logs—just not something I ever got into and I know I would forget to do this, so I’m going to nip that idea now. But I do take photos and I sometimes remember to record the vehicle data. I can include a similar log as I did above.

We’re most likely taking the Lightning because we’re camping most nights. We’re tent camping—sold our trailer a few years ago and don’t feel like getting another what with costs for everything skyrocketing and massive uncertainty in everything.

The general route will be:

From N. Arizona through Salt Lake City, Utah through the southwest corner of Idaho through the northeast corner of Oregon to Seattle, WA.
From Seattle, WA down along the WA and OR coasts to the NorCal coast. Across to Redding, down to Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevadas to Lake Tahoe, down to Death Valley, across to Las Vegas, and back to Northern Arizona.

Total distance will be around 3300 to 3500 miles, including small side trips, etc.

I haven’t done any more mapping than I always do, which is to decide on a general route, decide on overnight stops which will be mostly established campgrounds, a hotel every so often so I can take a shower and my partner doesn’t decide to fly home.

Established campgrounds will have electricity so we’ll recharge to 100% on those nights. Otherwise, we’ll find chargers while we’re on the road.

If you have suggestions of data or other information you’d like to know or see, let me know. I’ll do my best to track the things I’m able to track.

View attachment 6548
Some indication of whether you ever have to go out of your way to charge would be interesting. And when camping without available electricity, how much of the battery you use while camping (Electric cooktop? Lights? 85” oled tv? :) )
 
Total driving time according to Google is about 52 hours.
A Better Route Planner (ABRP) estimates ~54 hours total, with an additional 2 hours of charging over 6 charging stops. The overnight stops are not included in that estimate since we should be at 100% by the time we leave in the morning.

Edited to add: At least one of our stops is mis-planned by ABRP. We’re taking a dirt road that ABRP’s underlying mapping algorithms don’t know exists. We’ll be saving 100 miles and about 60 minutes and will be going significantly slower for those 100 miles, so we’ll save quite a bit more energy as well.


Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 6.22.19 PM.png
 
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Total driving time according to Google is about 52 hours.
A Better Route Planner (ABRP) estimates ~54 hours total, with an additional 2 hours of charging over 6 charging stops. The overnight stops are not included in that estimate since we should be at 100% by the time we leave in the morning.

View attachment 6549
That looks like an awesome trip! Can’t wait to hear all about it.
 
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Oh also does temperature make a difference? Is is ever too hot or too cold to charge? Does the charging have to go slower due to extreme temps? (I’m honestly not sure if that’s a thing).

It certainly won’t be too cold or too hot to charge on this trip. Sometimes the chargers derate themselves (provide less power) if they’re too cold or too hot. We plan to pass through Death Valley and may decide to charge there if it feels necessary. There is no fast charger in DV National Park, though, so we probably won’t charge unless we decide to stay the night. We’re still pretty loose on the return trip plans. I think we have two nights figured out, one because we’re staying with family and another because we want a night on the beach.
 
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Would love a log of charging stops and what time of day, mealtime?, overall down time. I think more of this is helpful for everyone new to EV’s. Maybe what food choices you find and distance from charger. Wanting to learn whether it’s fast food, quick stops, etc…. Thanks
Oh and also is you run into any discrepancies. Did you have to go father because a charger wasn’t working. Did your map want you to go somewhere and there was construction so you had to reroute. Those kind of things.

Thank you very much again and you have put yourself up to a real task with this group and all the potential questions.
Some indication of whether you ever have to go out of your way to charge would be interesting. And when camping without available electricity, how much of the battery you use while camping (Electric cooktop? Lights? 85” oled tv? :) )

I typically do log charging stops, sometimes even remember to grab a plot of the charge curve.
We always charge while eating, so the “extra” time that ABRP estimates is inaccurate because we would be stopping anyway. In fact, we often end up taking more time than the charge apps recommend because we take our time eating and often go for a bit of a walk.

We will run into discrepancies. The ABRP map I showed above will not be accurate once we hit the road. Not necessarily because chargers will be broken, but because we’ll make different decisions than the app expects. We sometimes run into construction, but it has very rarely caused us to have to reroute our charging plans. But of course, it could happen this time.

As far as I can tell, there won’t be any chargers that will be difficult to get to or of our way, but we’ll see—I haven’t looked at any of the chargers in detail because I just don’t plan to that level of precision. We often make a last-minute change simply because the charger that’s been suggested is busy or because it’s not time for us to pee or we have to pee sooner than we expected or whatever. So, again, there will be differences between what ABRP above suggests as the chargers and what we actually use. But I only use ABRP for estimated number of stops and estimated locations of stops, and never use that app for rigid planning.

I’m not a rigid plan road tripper at all. We did make campground and hotel reservations for the trip up, so that’s somewhat rigid.
 
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As for camping vs the truck battery:
We carry a 5 kWh power station and 600-1000 Watts of solar that I use to run our fridge, induction cooktop, kettle, etc. It won’t take any extra truck power. But if we decided to stay for a long, long time at a campsite without electricity, I’d bring along solar panels and we’d charge up the auxiliary battery each morning and discharge it into the truck in the evening. So if we decide to boondock for any of our trip, we’ll actually gain a little bit of charge rather than lose it. It wouldn’t be as much as we’d gain on a 30A or 50A RV pedestal, but that’s fine.
 
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