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[dreamweaver]

Spent the weekend in Tucson charging on an L1 charger. I used the Lightning to run a couple of errands while there, but most of the weekend was spent hanging out with friends at a rental house. Got recharged to 100% yesterday afternoon.

Drove home today. Google said the 17 was closed for construction at one point, so I took the back way home. I prefer the back way, so didn't need much convincing. I stopped in Payson for a restroom and nap break. Didn't need to charge, but plugged in anyway since I was there. Took a 15 minute nap, woke up to about 35% more charge than I needed to get home, but whatever.

Total distance back home was 280 miles at 2.2 miles/kWh. Despite the lower speed on the state highway vs the interstate, we also climbed about a mile in elevation.

Overall, I made at least one unnecessary fast charging stop for a 553 mile round trip. I could have skipped the stop on the way down but the L1 charge would likely not have put the truck all the way up to 100%, so I may have needed the stop in Payson. Or I could have skipped the charge in Payson. But I needed the shut-eye anyway.

Round trip efficiency was 2.4 miles/kWh, not counting the low speed errands in town over the weekend.

I like these real world driving logs. Thanks.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I like these real world driving logs. Thanks.

Good to know!

I suspect the Lightning and Terra will have similar efficiencies, so imagine that the experiences I have in the Lightning will be similar enough that these logs can be useful.

 

[dreamweaver]

Good to know!

I suspect the Lightning and Terra will have similar efficiencies, so imagine that the experiences I have in the Lightning will be similar enough that these logs can be useful.

Absolutely useful.

 

[Time2Roll]

Possibly a stupid question, but is it safe to recharge in a torrential downpour?

Do you get a message if your charging port is wet?

We get some pretty intense storms sometimes and was just wondering about this scenario on a roadtrip or using V2H charging to power your home in a power outage.

No issues what so ever. The connector is cold until the car reads and responds to the low voltage pilot signal. When all is good the vehicle starts charging. The connectors should remain free of ice although this would be a mechanical issue to actually insert the plug. You will know if something is wrong. There would be no electrical safety hazard. The wall connector also has GFCI protection so if there was a fault all would turn off.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Question posted here: https://community.scoutmotors.com/threads/scout-traveler-suv-green-off-road-concept.2472/post-35069

Okay another one of my pesky questions. When all your EV owners out there for your first EV did you ever go too far, not have enough range to get to a charger and have to be towed? I think that’s ones of my fears is being stranded with a dead car and no one can just bring me a can of electricity.

I’ve never run out. I had one truly “pucker” trip where I wondered if we would run out because we hit some really high winds while on our first road trip. Slowed down a bit and ended up at the charger with 20% remaining. On that drive, I looked up the instructions on how to be flat-bed towed so we could get to the next charger. I have forgotten that information in the intervening years.

The closest “run-out” experience I’ve had is with a friend running a little bit low in their Kia EV6 and asking for a quick charge from the Lightning. They ran low because of a collision of several factors: Their mother had just passed away a couple of days before. They were moving a bunch of stuff from her house to theirs, climbing a 5000 foot mountain in the process. They had been packing up and otherwise moving stuff all weekend. There were two people in the car and it was filled with stuff. They had been driving that same route a bunch by themselves and with no stuff, so were used to a particular efficiency. There was a cold snap that dropped the temperatures by 20 degrees that evening. And they were super, super tired, stressed, and just wanted to be home. So they called me about 30 minutes from home asking me if I would come out and give them a quick charge. So I gave them 20 minutes charge from the Lightning and they were able to get home.

View attachment PXL_20250404_015854985.RAW-01.COVER (1).jpg

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Well, shoot.
My long trip (~4000 miles round trip driving) has been canceled because of work.

 

[dreamweaver]

Well, shoot.
My long trip (~4000 miles round trip driving) has been canceled because of work.

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? 4000 miles of driving wow.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? 4000 miles of driving wow.

Both? I like road trips, but it’s a long trip and I really didn’t have the time to do it.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

<exaggerated whine>

I have to do maintenance on both the Lightning and the Mustang soon.
The Mustang is at 50k miles.
The Lightning is at 20k miles.

The maintenance schedules the two are very similar.
I guess I have to replace the cabin air filter on the Lightning this time.
And we’re at 3+ years on the Mustang, so we should at least test the brake fluid, but we live in such a dry place that the fluid is probably good for 5 years instead of 3.

The cost will be about $20 total if the air filter needs replacing.

 

[Chavannigans]

<exaggerated whine>

I have to do maintenance on both the Lightning and the Mustang soon.
The Mustang is at 50k miles.
The Lightning is at 20k miles.

The maintenance schedules the two are very similar.
I guess I have to replace the cabin air filter on the Lightning this time.
And we’re at 3+ years on the Mustang, so we should at least test the brake fluid, but we live in such a dry place that the fluid is probably good for 5 years instead of 3.

The cost will be about $20 total if the air filter needs replacing.

View attachment 7843

I envy this so much. My Lexus needs a timing belt every 80k miles and I had to change it recently. If I am lucky its the last one I ever have to do

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I envy this so much. My Lexus needs a timing belt every 80k miles and I had to change it recently. If I am lucky its the last one I ever have to do

I’m in LA for a family emergency so I may actually pay a local tire shop to fix a slow leak in one of the tires (free) and balance and rotate the tires on the Lightning. That might double my maintenance cost this cycle to $50.

 

[Chavannigans]

I’m in LA for a family emergency so I may actually pay a local tire shop to fix a slow leak in one of the tires (free) and balance and rotate the tires on the Lightning. That might double my maintenance cost this cycle to $50.

I hope all is well with the family. Sending good vibes

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

OK, for what it's worth:

Background: I live just outside of Denver, and learned to drive in my dad's '77 SSII, and very excited to have reservations for both a Traveler and a Terra - will decide truck or SUV when the time comes. Clicked the box for the Harvester Option on both - primarily due to two reasons: 1) very easy to get into long drives very quickly in Colorado, and not sure about charger infrastructure and 2) have never owned an EV or even a hybrid.

So both reasons really are one reason: range anxiety.

Currently driving a '13 Xterra Pro-4X, so my "comfort level" is 270-300 miles of range @ 15-16 mpg, a little bit higher on the highway, so used to dropping $50-$75 on fuel at a time.

On a whim, my wife and I leased a Hyundai Ioniq5 last week - there were some great year end incentives in Colorado, from Hyundai, the federal government and the state. We figured it would be a relatively low cost way to test our appetite for a full EV situation. Lease came with 2 years of free charging at Electrify America, which happen to be at our local Target, where we are 1-2 times per week anyway.

So, one week in, here's what I've learned, hopefully it's helpful to other people who have similar anxiety issues.

tldr: EV driving requires a bit of a mind-set change, but if things continue like the first week, I'll probably end up cancelling my Harvester option.

So: This is not a Hyundai review, but holy cow - after 250 miles of driving I kind of wish we'd spent a little more and got the limited package (we went with the SEL, because "this is only a test..."). I love this little car. On "eco" mode its faster (seat of the pants-o-meter) than my wife's Infiniti QX30, which was a seriously quick car. On Sport Mode? Almost terrifying. I am really going to love electric power.

As for the range? I'm only one charge in, and we are in the worst time of year for an EV, I don't think we've turned the seat or steering wheel heaters off since we took the car home, and because it's still a new toy I'm utilizing Sport mode quite a bit more than I will once it's just the "car" and not "the new car". But we got just over 200 miles, including a couple airport trips in the cold, so 75+mph, and went from 90% to 7%. I plugged it into the free-to-me charger (figuring that out the first time took a couple tries, but I got it) and went into Target, got a coffee and did the grocery shopping.

in 36 minutes, the car went from 7% to just over 80%, at what would have been $36 but was covered under our 2 year deal, and continued on with my weekend.

In normal life, thanks to working from home, we don't drive over 200 miles in a typical week anyway.

So here's my first mind-set change: Rather than look at the fuel gauge every time I get in the car, and find a station if its 1/4 or less, I'm just going to hit Target on Saturday mornings while I grocery shop and stop worrying about it. For us, that's very little change in practical terms, just learning a different way to think about fuel. I wake up early and tend to do the grocery shopping anyway, so in a lot of ways it's more convenient than making a stop at the pumps at random times.

Second mindset change: as I've seen in other threads on this board, rather than wait until the batteries are nearly empty, more of an "opportunity" mindset is needed. Hitting target because we're out of papertowels? 10 minutes on the charger will add about 30-45 seconds to my errand, and some power is better than none.

Third mindset change: I've watched a couple (OK, more than a few) videos on youtube about this - can't wait for the summer to do some weekend trips to the mountains, and rather than choose a destination and find fuel on the way, we'll choose a destination and utilize the charger finding options that are built into the car and charger apps. 200 miles between breaks is enough, hopefully my days of 900+ mile drives are behind me anyway.

I'm looking forward to seeing if this really changes our experience, or just adjusts part of it. Obviously Alpine Loop type trips will still be in the Xterra for now, but as chargers hopefully continue to multiply between now and 2-3 years from now, that could change.

That's it - hopefully this is helpful for some people in a similar situation.

Thanks for the write-up. I too grew up in Denver and learned to drive in my Dad’s ‘67/800 with 266 V8 and a 4-speed.

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

I think my range anxiety is more about will the charger I’m going to be working. I’ve consumed a lot of info on YouTube this last 6 weeks and it’s been an eye opener. A lot of good, but a significant amount of bad as well. A common problem seems to be malfunctioning chargers. If one isn’t working, move over and try another. If this happens at an entire site, you may or may not be able to make it to another charger. This drove a lot of my thinking in pre-ordering the Harvester.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I think my range anxiety is more about will the charger I’m going to be working. I’ve consumed a lot of info on YouTube this last 6 weeks and it’s been an eye opener. A lot of good, but a significant amount of bad as well. A common problem seems to be malfunctioning chargers. If one isn’t working, move over and try another. If this happens at an entire site, you may or may not be able to make it to another charger. This drove a lot of my thinking in pre-ordering the Harvester.

It’s really not a common problem.
It’s just a highly-discussed problem.
People don’t often come to the forums or to YT to discuss the fact that everything went smoothly.

I’ve been all-electric for around 18 months, but functionally all-electric for just over 3.5 years (we stopped driving the Tacoma when we bought our Mustang). We’ve driven 70k miles in our own EVs and another large number of miles in other EVs. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but somewhere around 50-75% of those miles were road trips. A road trip to me means far enough away that I had to stay at least one night away from home; that’s at least 300 miles one-way. I’m not usually going to drive 600 miles in a day while also doing something on one end of that drive. We’ve done hundreds of DCFC sessions on our road trips.

• At this time, I can only think of one time when an entire charging station was down and we didn’t know about it before we arrived.
  • We have looked up a charging station on our next-stop list and decided to skip it because we couldn’t confirm that it was fully functional.
• We have twice decided to move on instead of wait in line.
  • We can look up the status of the charger before we arrive and move on instead of stop if it looks too busy.
• We have maybe five times been annoyed by the low speeds of the chargers, usually because of thermal overload.
  • However, we also know which ones to avoid on our usual routes. And one of my monthly routes just got a new charging station that is properly cooled so we can get fast charging for the normal profile.
• We have a few times decided to charge to a lower % than we’d planned because the station was busy and we didn’t want to make others wait longer than necessary.

All of the major problems occurred early on, either because there were only a few charging stations available or because we weren’t experienced EV road trippers. I don’t even think about our road trips any more than I used to when road tripping with a gas vehicle. I look up the route I probably want to take based on interesting places to visit, we pack, and we go. If we’re staying at a hotel, we’ll book a hotel that claims to have Level 2 charging.

There are so many more potential charging stations than gas stations (every outlet is a potential charging station). And in some states, there are now more official charging stations than there are gas stations.

I understand the anxiety, but don’t let the loud people determine the status. Ask where are the people who aren’t having trouble? They’re on the road actually road tripping.

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

It’s really not a common problem.
It’s just a highly-discussed problem.
People don’t often come to the forums or to YT to discuss the fact that everything went smoothly.

…

Fair point. And this situation does seem to be improving (Bueller? EA?). Two+ years can bring huge gains in technology,

 

[LastDayScout]

It’s really not a common problem.
It’s just a highly-discussed problem.
People don’t often come to the forums or to YT to discuss the fact that everything went smoothly.

I’ve been all-electric for around 18 months, but functionally all-electric for just over 3.5 years (we stopped driving the Tacoma when we bought our Mustang). We’ve driven 70k miles in our own EVs and another large number of miles in other EVs. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but somewhere around 50-75% of those miles were road trips. A road trip to me means far enough away that I had to stay at least one night away from home; that’s at least 300 miles one-way. I’m not usually going to drive 600 miles in a day while also doing something on one end of that drive. We’ve done hundreds of DCFC sessions on our road trips.

• At this time, I can only think of one time when an entire charging station was down and we didn’t know about it before we arrived.
  • We have looked up a charging station on our next-stop list and decided to skip it because we couldn’t confirm that it was fully functional.
• We have twice decided to move on instead of wait in line.
  • We can look up the status of the charger before we arrive and move on instead of stop if it looks too busy.
• We have maybe five times been annoyed by the low speeds of the chargers, usually because of thermal overload.
  • However, we also know which ones to avoid on our usual routes. And one of my monthly routes just got a new charging station that is properly cooled so we can get fast charging for the normal profile.
• We have a few times decided to charge to a lower % than we’d planned because the station was busy and we didn’t want to make others wait longer than necessary.

All of the major problems occurred early on, either because there were only a few charging stations available or because we weren’t experienced EV road trippers. I don’t even think about our road trips any more than I used to when road tripping with a gas vehicle. I look up the route I probably want to take based on interesting places to visit, we pack, and we go. If we’re staying at a hotel, we’ll book a hotel that claims to have Level 2 charging.

There are so many more potential charging stations than gas stations (every plug is a potential charging station). And in some states, there are now more official charging stations than there are gas stations.

I understand the anxiety, but don’t let the loud people determine the status. Ask where are the people who aren’t having trouble? They’re on the road actually road tripping.

I will follow this up with a few brief comments. Most of the time it goes smoothly. I have encountered a few that do not work. I have had some show up on an app that are no longer there or in service. I have had to choose a slower charger because someone with a Chevy Bolt, that can only accept 50kW, has selected the 350kW charger. The whole thing is just a little different than filling up gasoline or diesel. But, I will add that each time the experience seems to get a little better.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

On the subject of tires and the myth about “faster wear because EVs":
I ran over a nail just before leaving Northern Arizona for the Los Angeles Valley for a family emergency. It wasn’t so bad that the tire went flat immediately; in fact it wasn’t clear the nail had punctured the inner tire rather than just getting stuck in the tread. I decided to make an appointment at a place on the highway so I could get it fixed on my way to LA. The pressure definitely dropped while I was on the road, but only be a PSI, so I was glad I’d made the appointment.

I pulled into the shop, but nobody was working and the lights were off. Turned out the whole block was out of power. I offered to power up their shop if they would fix my tire, but they didn’t take me up on the offer. Too bad.

So I continued on my way. The tire pressure was still holding fairly well. By the time I made it to LA, the pressure was another PSI down.

I couldn’t get into the shop until today.

As part of their SOP, they measure the tread depth all around.

The tires started with 10.5/32 of tread.
The tires now have 7-8/32 of tread.
Replacement is required at 2/32, but I like to replace at 3/32 or 4/32.
Of the 7/32 of useable tread, I’ve used 2-3/32 in 20,000 miles, or about 1/3 of the useable tread.
That’s right on target for the 60,000 mile warranty. I live on a gravel road, so the tread wears faster than it would if I lived on pavement.

 

[Cranky Canuck]

On the subject of tires and the myth about “faster wear because EVs":
I ran over a nail just before leaving Northern Arizona for the Los Angeles Valley for a family emergency. It wasn’t so bad that the tire went flat immediately; in fact it wasn’t clear the nail had punctured the inner tire rather than just getting stuck in the tread. I decided to make an appointment at a place on the highway so I could get it fixed on my way to LA. The pressure definitely dropped while I was on the road, but only be a PSI, so I was glad I’d made the appointment.

I pulled into the shop, but nobody was working and the lights were off. Turned out the whole block was out of power. I offered to power up their shop if they would fix my tire, but they didn’t take me up on the offer. Too bad.

So I continued on my way. The tire pressure was still holding fairly well. By the time I made it to LA, the pressure was another PSI down.

I couldn’t get into the shop until today.

As part of their SOP, they measure the tread depth all around.

The tires started with 10.5/32 of tread.
The tires now have 7-8/32 of tread.
Replacement is required at 2/32, but I like to replace at 3/32 or 4/32.
Of the 7/32 of useable tread, I’ve used 2-3/32 in 20,000 miles, or about 1/3 of the useable tread.
That’s right on target for the 60,000 mile warranty. I live on a gravel road, so the tread wears faster than it would if I lived on pavement.

Glad you were able to make the trip despite the nail!

This has been my experience as well. I think a lot of this myth is based on people buying performance Teslas and driving them like they stole them. I get it. Going 0-60 in under 4 seconds is super fun! But driving a car like you stole it will prematurely wear out tires. EVs, like every other car, if driven normally will see tires last the usual amount of time. I think the main thing giving the myth a hit of truth is that it's a lot easier to do hard acceleration and stuff that tends to wear out tires.

But generally speaking tires last just as long in and EV as the do in a combustion car. A driver's habits matter way more than the powertrain.

 

[Chaz26]

Glad you were able to make the trip despite the nail!

This has been my experience as well. I think a lot of this myth is based on people buying performance Teslas and driving them like they stole them. I get it. Going 0-60 in under 4 seconds is super fun! But driving a car like you stole it will prematurely wear out tires. EVs, like every other car, if driven normally will see tires last the usual amount of time. I think the main thing giving the myth a hit of truth is that it's a lot easier to do hard acceleration and stuff that tends to wear out tires.

But generally speaking tires last just as long in and EV as the do in a combustion car. A driver's habits matter way more than the powertrain.

I agree, even the original tires on my Tesla lasted 42,000 miles and I definitely enjoyed the quick acceleration when I first got it (and still do). I always have it in sport mode as well. I'm sure if I'd driven a little more 'normally' I could have got 50-60,000 out of the first set.