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

[SpaceEVDriver]

Just passed 30,000 miles on the truck.

On the way to that, I was driving from central northern Arizona to the Los Angeles valley via Interstate 40. On the drive out, I was feeling good so didn’t feel the need to stop at the first charging stop in Yucca, AZ. Nor the backup for the first stop in Needles, CA, which was about 40 miles farther along the road. So I ended up going an “extra” 77 miles farther along I-40 to Essex, CA.

There, I encountered a situation that’s fairly common on I-40 in the middle of nowhere desert: Broken refueling pumps.

No, not the Electrify America charging posts. Those were in great condition with four usable of the four available.

Most of the fuel pumps were out of order.
One pump had been removed—it looked and smelled like it had been burned.
Two other pumps were wrapped in caution tape.
Of the eight gasoline nozzles usually available, only two were usable. And because of the price, people were only buying a few gallons just to make it to the next stop.

The cost for fuel?

$8.20 to $8.70 per gallon. Note that the price there is higher than usual, but not that much higher than usual. This is an emergency refueling station. This is the kind of place that charges $15 for a small bag of chips.

The cost for electricity? $0.42/kWh.

The cost per mile for the leg from home to this station, 256 miles away? The winds were up, so my efficiency was down to 2.2 miles/kWh. $0.42/kWh / 2.2 miles = $0.19/mile.

If I’d driven an F-150 gas truck and refueled here? $8.20/gallon / 16-19 mpg = $0.51/mile to $0.43/mile.
If I’d stopped at the Needles EA station? $0.32/kWh => $0.15/mile
If I’d stopped at a Needles gas station? $5.79/gal => $0.36/mile to $0.30/mile.

 

[Logan]

Just passed 30,000 miles on the truck.

On the way to that, I was driving from central northern Arizona to the Los Angeles valley via Interstate 40. On the drive out, I was feeling good so didn’t feel the need to stop at the first charging stop in Yucca, AZ. Nor the backup for the first stop in Needles, CA, which was about 40 miles farther along the road. So I ended up going an “extra” 77 miles farther along I-40 to Essex, CA.

There, I encountered a situation that’s fairly common on I-40 in the middle of nowhere desert: Broken refueling pumps.

No, not the Electrify America charging posts. Those were in great condition with four usable of the four available.

Most of the fuel pumps were out of order.
One pump had been removed—it looked and smelled like it had been burned.
Two other pumps were wrapped in caution tape.
Of the eight gasoline nozzles usually available, only two were usable. And because of the price, people were only buying a few gallons just to make it to the next stop.

View attachment 13947

The cost for fuel?

$8.20 to $8.70 per gallon. Note that the price there is higher than usual, but not that much higher than usual. This is an emergency refueling station. This is the kind of place that charges $15 for a small bag of chips.

The cost for electricity? $0.42/kWh.

The cost per mile for the leg from home to this station, 256 miles away? The winds were up, so my efficiency was down to 2.2 miles/kWh. $0.42/kWh / 2.2 miles = $0.19/mile.

If I’d driven an F-150 gas truck and refueled here? $8.20/gallon / 16-19 mpg = $0.51/mile to $0.43/mile.
If I’d stopped at the Needles EA station? $0.32/kWh => $0.15/mile
If I’d stopped at a Needles gas station? $5.79/gal => $0.36/mile to $0.30/mile.


View attachment 13948

The gas prices being volatile right now has me doing this same math for our road trip this summer.

Of course that’s way far out, but movement there could affect which vehicle we take (the ~30mpg PHEV, or the ioniq9). The math I did last month showed the PHEV would’ve about half the price.

Will have to see how things look this summer.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The gas prices being volatile right now has me doing this same math for our road trip this summer.

Of course that’s way far out, but movement there could affect which vehicle we take (the ~30mpg PHEV, or the ioniq9). The math I did last month showed the PHEV would’ve about half the price.

Will have to see how things look this summer.

When you do that math, don’t forget to include your first and last fill-up at your residential electricity prices for the EV. And if you plan your trip to get free or cheaper L2 charging during your overnight stays, you’ll push that per mile cost even lower.

For the full round trip that I just did:

131 kWh @ $0.035/kWh = $4.59
92 kWh @ $0.42/kWh = $38.64
73 kWh @ $0.43/kWh = $31.34
73 kWh @ $0.00/kWh = $0.00
24 kWh @ $0.42/kWh = $9.78
98 kWh @ $0.65/kWh = $63.53
12 kWh @ $0.56/kWh = $6.67
112 kWh @ $0.035/kWh = $3.94

$158.49 / 615 kWh = $0.26 / kWh average.

This time, my total trip distance was about 1123 miles with several trips in the city.
$158.49 / 1123 miles = $0.14/mile

Note that while the chargers are generally between 40-160 miles apart, I do have choices for pricing. If I’m feeling like it, I’ll make the decision to go farther or stop earlier to save some money. This trip I could have stopped in Needles for a $0.32/kWh charge instead of $0.65/kWh charge, which would have saved me about $25. Similarly, I could have charged an additional 80 kWh for free while in Los Angeles, instead of just the 73 kWh. That would have saved me another $30-$40.

My efficiency wasn’t great (1.8 miles/kWh average) this trip because I had to leave at a time when I was very likely to encounter headwinds when crossing the desert, in both directions. If I had planned better, I would have been able to take advantage of those winds in both directions.

 

[LastDayScout]

Just passed 30,000 miles on the truck.

On the way to that, I was driving from central northern Arizona to the Los Angeles valley via Interstate 40. On the drive out, I was feeling good so didn’t feel the need to stop at the first charging stop in Yucca, AZ. Nor the backup for the first stop in Needles, CA, which was about 40 miles farther along the road. So I ended up going an “extra” 77 miles farther along I-40 to Essex, CA.

There, I encountered a situation that’s fairly common on I-40 in the middle of nowhere desert: Broken refueling pumps.

No, not the Electrify America charging posts. Those were in great condition with four usable of the four available.

Most of the fuel pumps were out of order.
One pump had been removed—it looked and smelled like it had been burned.
Two other pumps were wrapped in caution tape.
Of the eight gasoline nozzles usually available, only two were usable. And because of the price, people were only buying a few gallons just to make it to the next stop.

View attachment 13947

The cost for fuel?

$8.20 to $8.70 per gallon. Note that the price there is higher than usual, but not that much higher than usual. This is an emergency refueling station. This is the kind of place that charges $15 for a small bag of chips.

The cost for electricity? $0.42/kWh.

The cost per mile for the leg from home to this station, 256 miles away? The winds were up, so my efficiency was down to 2.2 miles/kWh. $0.42/kWh / 2.2 miles = $0.19/mile.

If I’d driven an F-150 gas truck and refueled here? $8.20/gallon / 16-19 mpg = $0.51/mile to $0.43/mile.
If I’d stopped at the Needles EA station? $0.32/kWh => $0.15/mile
If I’d stopped at a Needles gas station? $5.79/gal => $0.36/mile to $0.30/mile.


View attachment 13948

Excellent real world example.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Beginning tomorrow, we’ll be at two years of ownership of the Lightning.
tl;dr:
It’s been the best vehicle we’ve ever owned.

But we still have no plans to buy another Ford. This is because we’re all BEV and will stay all BEV and I don’t believe I can trust Ford’s C-Suite to lead their engineers in the right direction.

We have approximately 32,000 miles on the Lightning (31,458 to be exact, but I’ll be driving about 300 miles today).

Here’s my two-year review:

First, the problems with the Lightning:

• Every very hot day, we would get a powertrain error and DTC. This is because of the idiotic motorized shifter. I finally got around to replacing it with a dial shifter and a printed mount. I never did take it in to the dealer to replace the shifter.
• The local dealer is anti-EV, unreliable, and untrustworthy. They claimed to do some recall work on our Mustang Mach-E but never actually did. We had to take the Mustang to another dealer two hours away to get that recall work done.
• I wish the Lightning were the size of the Ranger instead.
• That’s it with problems with the Lightning.

The Lightning's lifetime average efficiency is just over 2.5 miles/kWh. It would be higher if we stayed home more often, but we do a LOT of road trips in the Lightning. We’ve done about 28,000 miles of road trips. That is, about 88% of the miles on the Lightning are road tripping. This map shows most of our road trips, including both the Mustang Mach-E and the Lightning. I do an ~monthly NAZ to LA trip that’s about 1100-1200 miles round trip. We also like to go camping in remote areas of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. If the trip is 12 hours or less of driving, it’s likely we’ll drive instead of fly.

Here are some photos from some of our adventures:

Playing with the drone and 4x4 performance of the Lightning.

Giving a friend’s EV6 some “roadside” charging in the cold winter.

Sneaking into Arches National Park via the “secret entrance.” We have a yearly pass to the National Parks, and we checked in when we left through the main entrance. They still got to count us as a visitor.

Camping at Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Playing with the installation of a 270 degree awning. I don’t like the placement, but to move it forward, I have to raise it a bit so it doesn’t hit the cab.

Visiting Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Yes, those are solar panels on the bed cap. Yes, they were useful for our 10-day trip. We were able to charge a little bit every day while going out to do photography. We were also able to keep the fridge and freezer running without using the Pro Power plugs.

The funk is a fantastic camera equipment secure storage space.

Practicing a little with the snow plow. If we ever get more snow, I’ll probably add a front-mounted hitch and use it in the front.

Towing a tractor out to the middle of nowhere:

 

[cyure]

Beginning tomorrow, we’ll be at two years of ownership of the Lightning.
tl;dr:
It’s been the best vehicle we’ve ever owned.

But we still have no plans to buy another Ford. This is because we’re all BEV and will stay all BEV and I don’t believe I can trust Ford’s C-Suite to lead their engineers in the right direction.

We have approximately 32,000 miles on the Lightning (31,458 to be exact, but I’ll be driving about 300 miles today).

Here’s my two-year review:

First, the problems with the Lightning:

• Every very hot day, we would get a powertrain error and DTC. This is because of the idiotic motorized shifter. I finally got around to replacing it with a dial shifter and a printed mount. I never did take it in to the dealer to replace the shifter.
• The local dealer is anti-EV, unreliable, and untrustworthy. They claimed to do some recall work on our Mustang Mach-E but never actually did. We had to take the Mustang to another dealer two hours away to get that recall work done.
• I wish the Lightning were the size of the Ranger instead.
• That’s it with problems with the Lightning.

The Lightning's lifetime average efficiency is just over 2.5 miles/kWh. It would be higher if we stayed home more often, but we do a LOT of road trips in the Lightning. We’ve done about 28,000 miles of road trips. That is, about 88% of the miles on the Lightning are road tripping. This map shows most of our road trips, including both the Mustang Mach-E and the Lightning. I do an ~monthly NAZ to LA trip that’s about 1100-1200 miles round trip. We also like to go camping in remote areas of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. If the trip is 12 hours or less of driving, it’s likely we’ll drive instead of fly.

View attachment 14792

Here are some photos from some of our adventures:

Playing with the drone and 4x4 performance of the Lightning.

View attachment 14800

Giving a friend’s EV6 some “roadside” charging in the cold winter.

View attachment 14799
Sneaking into Arches National Park via the “secret entrance.” We have a yearly pass to the National Parks, and we checked in when we left through the main entrance. They still got to count us as a visitor.

View attachment 14798

Camping at Kodachrome Basin State Park.


View attachment 14797

Playing with the installation of a 270 degree awning. I don’t like the placement, but to move it forward, I have to raise it a bit so it doesn’t hit the cab.

View attachment 14796

View attachment 14795

Visiting Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Yes, those are solar panels on the bed cap. Yes, they were useful for our 10-day trip. We were able to charge a little bit every day while going out to do photography. We were also able to keep the fridge and freezer running without using the Pro Power plugs.
View attachment 14794


The funk is a fantastic camera equipment secure storage space.

View attachment 14793


Practicing a little with the snow plow. If we ever get more snow, I’ll probably add a front-mounted hitch and use it in the front.
View attachment 14791


Towing a tractor out to the middle of nowhere:
View attachment 14801

Not having a BEV every so often the range anxiety creeps in when I think about getting a BEV Traveler. Then I see your posts and it floats away. Thanks Space!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Not having a BEV every so often the range anxiety creeps in when I think about getting a BEV Traveler. Then I see your posts and it floats away. Thanks Space!

The past month or so has been a wild ride.

I think we're up to about 15 round trips of 250+ miles, a half-dozen round trips of 125 miles each. Multiple times we had a single night to recharge two BEVs from 30% to 100%. Only stopped at a DCFC a couple of times. Just lots of Level 2 charging at home. Today I'm going about 250 miles. Tomorrow I'll do another 250 miles. Monday I may do another.

My partner has, a couple of times, admitted that she has imagined that a PHEV/EREV might be preferred to a BEV, but she also said that was just an irrational thought based on feeling rather than reality. There hasn't been a time when we were restricted from getting to where we needed to be in the time we need to get there. The grass always seems greener...

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Just got home tonight with 58% charge. Will be at 100% well before tomorrow morning when we leave for another 250 mile day.

Thank the engineers for Level 2 charging.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Usually when we're charging an EV overnight, we use a little bit of our backup battery, but not all of it. We rarely draw from the grid.

Last night I had the truck on the 80A charge for 55kWh added. And the Mustang on the 48A charge for 50kWh added.

That brought our 64 kWh backup battery from 100% to 0% (and then drew from the grid). I'm happy that the cost of lithium batteries dropped to below the cost of AGM for our backups.

The backup should be fully recharged via solar by the time we're home this evening.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

On a trailering adventure.
So far, I've charged at EA, EVGo, RAN, and brand-T. They've all been fine charging. Glad my truck has the front port.

 

[maynard]

On a trailering adventure.
So far, I've charged at EA, EVGo, RAN, and brand-T. They've all been fine charging. Glad my truck has the front port.

View attachment 15453

View attachment 15452
View attachment 15451

View attachment 15450

And a great catch of the prices you're avoiding!!!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Just passed 30,000 miles on the truck.

On the way to that, I was driving from central northern Arizona to the Los Angeles valley via Interstate 40. On the drive out, I was feeling good so didn’t feel the need to stop at the first charging stop in Yucca, AZ. Nor the backup for the first stop in Needles, CA, which was about 40 miles farther along the road. So I ended up going an “extra” 77 miles farther along I-40 to Essex, CA.

There, I encountered a situation that’s fairly common on I-40 in the middle of nowhere desert: Broken refueling pumps.

No, not the Electrify America charging posts. Those were in great condition with four usable of the four available.

Most of the fuel pumps were out of order.
One pump had been removed—it looked and smelled like it had been burned.
Two other pumps were wrapped in caution tape.
Of the eight gasoline nozzles usually available, only two were usable. And because of the price, people were only buying a few gallons just to make it to the next stop.

View attachment 13947

The cost for fuel?

$8.20 to $8.70 per gallon. Note that the price there is higher than usual, but not that much higher than usual. This is an emergency refueling station. This is the kind of place that charges $15 for a small bag of chips.

The cost for electricity? $0.42/kWh.

The cost per mile for the leg from home to this station, 256 miles away? The winds were up, so my efficiency was down to 2.2 miles/kWh. $0.42/kWh / 2.2 miles = $0.19/mile.

If I’d driven an F-150 gas truck and refueled here? $8.20/gallon / 16-19 mpg = $0.51/mile to $0.43/mile.
If I’d stopped at the Needles EA station? $0.32/kWh => $0.15/mile
If I’d stopped at a Needles gas station? $5.79/gal => $0.36/mile to $0.30/mile.


View attachment 13948

The price at this station is now $10/gallon.

Same $0.42/kWh.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

This is the load on the way home. The trailer itself is about 5-6k pounds. The extra sails are now really wiping out my efficiency. Still no actual issues, just slower driving and lower efficiency.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Okay, some stats:

Just finished towing a 50 foot by 24 foot greenhouse (dismantled) and a couple of water cubes 840 miles round trip from the Victor Valley, CA to Northern AZ. Towing was fine. Took my time (65 mph) and never worried about being able to charge across the literal desert and figurative charging desert.

Elevation loss/gain: 28,130/28,130 feet (including valleys, climbs, etc).
Max elevation: 7332 feet
Min elevation: 486 feet
Average efficiency there and back (empty trailer down, loaded trailer up) was 1.6 miles/kWh.
Cost: $298.76
Cost per mile: $0.36/mile

I did not try to hold out for the lower priced chargers; I just charged at whatever was convenient and along the route. The hotel claimed to have a Level 2 charger for a significantly lower price than the DCFCs I used, but their chargers weren’t installed yet. I would have stayed at a nearby hotel if I’d known—I would have had to drop the trailer, but it would have saved me $50.

Gasbuddy estimates that a similar drive would have cost me $300.86. But it would have me going way out of the way to try to avoid expensive gas stations, adding two extra hours to the drive. Its choices of stops are poor. And it has me driving to near empty to avoid refueling more than twice in CA, which is just nonsense.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

On a road trip today, we got 31 miles/kWh over a distance of about 50 miles. If it were possible to get that over an entire battery charge (not likely), it would be 131 kWh * 31 miles/kWh = just over 4,000 miles. That is obviously not what I'm claiming the truck can get.

I'm sure some troll is going to get their beard in a twist and come running to complain about this photo... Just know it's real and all in good fun. It's not a long-distance efficiency, just dropping off the back side of the Grand Canyon...

It's also a minimum, because of the very small memory space Ford reserved for its efficiency values. The real efficiency would have to go up to 62 miles/kWh to change on the screen.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Actual trip report:
We will be at a memorial for a colleague and mentor this evening. So we left home to come down off the mountain, climb back up the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then back down into St. George, UT. Total distance of 269 miles. We stopped for lunch at Jacob Lake. They don't have chargers, which makes me sad.

To Jacob Lake, we got 2.3 miles per kWh. Because gravity+friction doesn't give back as much as it takes.
From Jacob Lake to St. George, we got 3.1 miles/kWh.

Our average efficiency was 2.6 miles/kWh. Average speed was about 60 mph.

We didn't run the battery to 0% because we aren't rich influencers who can afford to do that sort of thing. But we know how far we can go on a full charge. At 60 mph, even with lots of elevation gain and loss, we can get better than the EPA estimate of 2.4 miles/kWh.

Elevation profile:

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We sold our previous camping trailer a couple of years before we got the Lightning. We've been tent camping since. But we're going on a long summer vacation trip this late summer, so wanted to get another camper.

We found one that's nearly perfect 600 miles (round trip) from home and my partner sent me on a quest to check it out.

A teaser photo. Will update when I'm home.

Front charge ports are better than rear charge ports on tow vehicles. Period.

 

[cyure]

We sold our previous camping trailer a couple of years before we got the Lightning. We've been tent camping since. But we're going on a long summer vacation trip this late summer, so wanted to get another camper.

We found one that's nearly perfect 600 miles (round trip) from home and my partner sent me on a quest to check it out.

A teaser photo. Will update when I'm home.

Front charge ports are better than rear charge ports on tow vehicles. Period.

View attachment 15988

That’s a nice looking pop up.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Quick review of this pop-up camper trailer.

This is a used 2021 Rockwood 1910 ESP (“Extreme Sports Package”) camper. It has “upgraded, off-road” suspension, which really just means the spring/axle mounts are on top of the axle instead of below, and it has silly-looking, 15-in “AT” tires on it. The frame is a good frame, though.

The trailer has a GVWR if about 2900 pounds, so 290 pounds tongue weight when loaded properly. The

Having “AT” tires on a trailer of this size is silly. They’re just there for looks and to reduce efficiency. I’ll be replacing these with skinnier, proper trailer tires that have decently low rolling resistance before our next trip. The tires that are on there are 3-peaks winter tires and are stud-ready. What a nonsense tire to have on a trailer.

I’ll probably flip the axle so the trailer doesn’t stand up so high. There’s no need for such high clearance with a truck like the Lightning. And dropping it lower reduces the wind resistance a bit.

I’ll probably add a set of shocks to the trailer; these trailers are generally built as cheaply as possible and the lack of shock absorbers means the trailer likes to bounce on our heat-stressed highways in the US Southwest.

Because of the flipped axle and tall tires, the hitch ball I brought with me to pick up the trailer is low, so there’s more like 300-320 pounds on the tongue. Still not enough to be of concern. I do want the trailer to be better balanced, though, so if better tires and a flipped axle doesn’t fix it, I’ll use a hitch with a higher ball.

I’ll be removing all of the propane appliances (cook top, griddle, water heater, furnace) and replacing them with electric (induction cook top, no griddle, water heater, heat pump).

I will add 7-15 kWh of battery to the trailer. I will add an updated, 24-volt-capable inverter, and a 240 volt outlet. I will also cover the roof with solar. Overall I think I can fit 1.2-2.0 kW of solar, including some portable solar that can hang off the awning / side of the trailer while parked.

How did it tow?

Handling: The Lightning didn’t know there was anything behind it. It’s only 2900 pounds GVWR, so it’s not exactly a tough tow for the Lightning.

Effeciency?

TL;DR:
Drive out: 2.44 miles/kWh, almost exactly the EPA estimated range.
First leg home, towing the trailer: 1.4 miles/kWh up a 4500 feet climb, driving into mild winds (15 mph winds).
Second leg home, towing the trailer: 2.0 miles/kWh, descending from 7911 feet to a low of 3490 feet back up to 7149 feet and then down again a little bit.


Doing the drive without the trailer:
On the trip out, I drove around 265 miles over 4.5 hours (average of 60 mph). I got 2.44 miles/kWh average efficiency.
The EPA estimate for the Lightning Extended Range is 48 kWh/100 miles, with a 320 mile range.
Ford derated their actual estimates. If you do the math: 131 kWh / 3.2 (100 mile units) = 41 kWh/100 miles.
In the more common units, the EPA estimate is 48 kWh/100 miles = 2.1 miles/kWh.
But the mileage estimate gives a different story: 320 miles / 131 kWh = 2.44 miles/kWh.

Regardless, I got 2.44 miles/kWh with a mix of hill descents, hill climbs, 65 mph driving, a couple of higher-speed passes, and slower driving. I did some around town driving because I got lost. The elevation profile below shows just from my home to the charger. After I’d picked up the trailer, I drove 11 miles to the charger. My efficiency of 2.44 miles/kWh includes towing the trailer to the charger.

I left home with 98% state of charge and arrived at the pickup location with 21% state of charge.

At the SC, I charged from 13% to 86%. That took 47 minutes. I was using the restroom, grabbing snacks and breakfast for the next morning, correcting the trailer's tire pressure, draining the trailer’s water, and other chores, so I didn’t notice the time. Average charge rate was 125 kW.

Then I headed off to my campground, climbing back up from the low elevation (3369 feet elevation) on the right side of the elevation profile to the peak indicated (7911 feet elevation). The campground is 95 miles from the charging station, and as you can see it’s almost entirely climbing up in elevation. I arrived at the campground with 34% charge. That’s 68 kWh used to go 95 miles, or an efficiency of 1.4 miles/kWh. That’s climbing 4542 feet start to stop (more elevation climb overall—remember that going downhill doesn’t recover as much as it costs to climb that hill). The winds weren’t too bad, just 15 mph. The average speed over those 95 miles was 48 mph. The twisty, windy roads up this climb have speed limits as low as 30 mph, and if you understand averages, you know just 20 minutes at 30 mph crashes the average speed even if you can go to 65 mph for longer sections.

I charged on the 50 Amp RV outlet at the campground. The power was pretty noisy so the EVSE only gave me an average of 6.3 kW. Not terrible, but not as good as 7.2 kW the EVSE is capable of, nor as good as 9.6 kW a healthy 50 Amp RV post would be capable of.

I left the campground at 11:00 with 95% state of charge and began the rest of my journey, another 165 miles. This involved going down off the plateau to the bridge crossing the Colorado River and then climbing back up the mountain. I arrived home at about 14:00, a total of 3 hours later (55 mph average), with 32% state of charge. I used 63% of the battery, or about 2.0 miles/kWh (262 miles range). This was climbing two mountains, towing a trailer, and heading into the wind.

As a comparison: We did almost exactly the same trip a few days prior, but with no trailer. We traveled 211 miles on 80% charge (2.0 miles/kWh), no trailer, into the wind. See the elevation profile below. The 211 mile marker shows the trip we did (from the 211 mile mark to the 0 mile mark).

In other words, the trailer didn’t do a whole lot to decrease our overall efficiency on this particular drive, though it did reduce it.

 

[J Alynn]

Quick review of this pop-up camper trailer.

This is a used 2021 Rockwood 1910 ESP (“Extreme Sports Package”) camper. It has “upgraded, off-road” suspension, which really just means the spring/axle mounts are on top of the axle instead of below, and it has silly-looking, 15-in “AT” tires on it. The frame is a good frame, though.

The trailer has a GVWR if about 2900 pounds, so 290 pounds tongue weight when loaded properly. The

Having “AT” tires on a trailer of this size is silly. They’re just there for looks and to reduce efficiency. I’ll be replacing these with skinnier, proper trailer tires that have decently low rolling resistance before our next trip. The tires that are on there are 3-peaks winter tires and are stud-ready. What a nonsense tire to have on a trailer.

I’ll probably flip the axle so the trailer doesn’t stand up so high. There’s no need for such high clearance with a truck like the Lightning. And dropping it lower reduces the wind resistance a bit.

I’ll probably add a set of shocks to the trailer; these trailers are generally built as cheaply as possible and the lack of shock absorbers means the trailer likes to bounce on our heat-stressed highways in the US Southwest.

Because of the flipped axle and tall tires, the hitch ball I brought with me to pick up the trailer is low, so there’s more like 300-320 pounds on the tongue. Still not enough to be of concern. I do want the trailer to be better balanced, though, so if better tires and a flipped axle doesn’t fix it, I’ll use a hitch with a higher ball.

I’ll be removing all of the propane appliances (cook top, griddle, water heater, furnace) and replacing them with electric (induction cook top, no griddle, water heater, heat pump).

I will add 7-15 kWh of battery to the trailer. I will add an updated, 24-volt-capable inverter, and a 240 volt outlet. I will also cover the roof with solar. Overall I think I can fit 1.2-2.0 kW of solar, including some portable solar that can hang off the awning / side of the trailer while parked.

How did it tow?

Handling: The Lightning didn’t know there was anything behind it. It’s only 2900 pounds GVWR, so it’s not exactly a tough tow for the Lightning.

Effeciency?

TL;DR:
Drive out: 2.44 miles/kWh, almost exactly the EPA estimated range.
First leg home, towing the trailer: 1.4 miles/kWh up a 4500 feet climb, driving into mild winds (15 mph winds).
Second leg home, towing the trailer: 2.0 miles/kWh, descending from 7911 feet to a low of 3490 feet back up to 7149 feet and then down again a little bit.


Doing the drive without the trailer:
On the trip out, I drove around 265 miles over 4.5 hours (average of 60 mph). I got 2.44 miles/kWh average efficiency.
The EPA estimate for the Lightning Extended Range is 48 kWh/100 miles, with a 320 mile range.
Ford derated their actual estimates. If you do the math: 131 kWh / 3.2 (100 mile units) = 41 kWh/100 miles.
In the more common units, the EPA estimate is 48 kWh/100 miles = 2.1 miles/kWh.
But the mileage estimate gives a different story: 320 miles / 131 kWh = 2.44 miles/kWh.

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Regardless, I got 2.44 miles/kWh with a mix of hill descents, hill climbs, 65 mph driving, a couple of higher-speed passes, and slower driving. I did some around town driving because I got lost. The elevation profile below shows just from my home to the charger. After I’d picked up the trailer, I drove 11 miles to the charger. My efficiency of 2.44 miles/kWh includes towing the trailer to the charger.

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I left home with 98% state of charge and arrived at the pickup location with 21% state of charge.

At the SC, I charged from 13% to 86%. That took 47 minutes. I was using the restroom, grabbing snacks and breakfast for the next morning, correcting the trailer's tire pressure, draining the trailer’s water, and other chores, so I didn’t notice the time. Average charge rate was 125 kW.

Then I headed off to my campground, climbing back up from the low elevation (3369 feet elevation) on the right side of the elevation profile to the peak indicated (7911 feet elevation). The campground is 95 miles from the charging station, and as you can see it’s almost entirely climbing up in elevation. I arrived at the campground with 34% charge. That’s 68 kWh used to go 95 miles, or an efficiency of 1.4 miles/kWh. That’s climbing 4542 feet start to stop (more elevation climb overall—remember that going downhill doesn’t recover as much as it costs to climb that hill). The winds weren’t too bad, just 15 mph. The average speed over those 95 miles was 48 mph. The twisty, windy roads up this climb have speed limits as low as 30 mph, and if you understand averages, you know just 20 minutes at 30 mph crashes the average speed even if you can go to 65 mph for longer sections.

I charged on the 50 Amp RV outlet at the campground. The power was pretty noisy so the EVSE only gave me an average of 6.3 kW. Not terrible, but not as good as 7.2 kW the EVSE is capable of, nor as good as 9.6 kW a healthy 50 Amp RV post would be capable of.

I left the campground at 11:00 with 95% state of charge and began the rest of my journey, another 165 miles. This involved going down off the plateau to the bridge crossing the Colorado River and then climbing back up the mountain. I arrived home at about 14:00, a total of 3 hours later (55 mph average), with 32% state of charge. I used 63% of the battery, or about 2.0 miles/kWh (262 miles range). This was climbing two mountains, towing a trailer, and heading into the wind.

As a comparison: We did almost exactly the same trip a few days prior, but with no trailer. We traveled 211 miles on 80% charge (2.0 miles/kWh), no trailer, into the wind. See the elevation profile below. The 211 mile marker shows the trip we did (from the 211 mile mark to the 0 mile mark).

In other words, the trailer didn’t do a whole lot to decrease our overall efficiency on this particular drive, though it did reduce it.

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As usual your educational approach is fantastic