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

[04Ram2500Hemi]

Okay. Long day.

Lots of traffic leaving the LA Valley.
Fog, rain, wind, and traffic on-and-off along the entire central valley.
We did 590 miles, lots of traffic, some bad. Varying weather (rain, wind—lots of wind, fog, and other inclement weather and it was chilly but not cold).

For our second charge, we tried to go to a Brand-T, but I broke my rule of never going to a Brand-T station with fewer than 20 plugs. This one had 12 and every other plug was in use (6/12 available). Because of the very short cables. the Lightning doesn’t have access to a brand-T plug directly in front of the truck, so we couldn’t use the open ports. We waited a few minutes and decided it wasn’t worth waiting any longer. EVGo had a station a few miles away, so we went there. That’s where I ran into the expired credit card issue mentioned earlier.

It looks like we stopped four times before getting to our hotel, but the fourth stop was to visit family for a few hours, so I don’t think it really counts as a stop—we passed our hotel and had to backtrack 13 miles. We plugged in when we arrived and got a good charge before heading to the hotel.

Leg	Distance (miles)	Energy used (kWh)	Mean speed (mph)	Efficiency (miles/kWh)	Start SoC (%)	Arrival SoC (%)	Battery % used	Depart SoC %	Added Energy (kWh)	Time on Charger (minutes)	Average Charge Rate (kW)	Charge Network	Start Temp (F)	Stop Temp (F)	Weather/other notes
1	180	83.8	55	2.1	92	28	64	84	78	34	138	EA	40	60	Wet, windy, foggy
2	161	83.8	56	1.9	84	20	64	80	82	33	149	EVGo	60	50	High crosswinds, rain, fog
3	150	70.7	64	2.1	80	26	54	82	75	33	136	EA	50	42	Windy, traffic, light rain
4	86	47.2	62	1.8	82	46	36	58	17	2:45	6.2	L2 Home	42	38	Windy, traffic, heavy rain, Charged while visiting
5	13	5.2		2.5	58	54	4

At our first stop, Kettleman City, we crossed the small highway from the charging station to grab a coffee (tea) and snack. Then because we had a brief break in the clouds, we hiked up the hill overlooking Interstate 5.

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At our second stop, we grabbed lunch at a local sandwich shop.

At our third stop, we used the restroom at the nearby Walmart, bought a couple of things. While in line, I thought to ask my family if they needed anything. The responded just after we had checked out, so I went back in to get the items they requested.

None of those stops needed to be as long as they were from a charging standpoint. We had plenty of extra charge by the time we left. You can see that from the next charging stop’s “Arrival SoC.” To us, as mentioned earlier, 20% is too high a state of charge to need to stop for a charge.

There’s a lot of math here to digest (my wife just asked me why I had a calculator out while looking at the tablet). Also lots of good detail.

My wife and I make a yearly trip to San Juan Island in Washington from our home in Montana. It’s 550 miles to the ferry terminal in Anacortes, WA. We generally stop in Ritzville, WA (260 ish miles) to top off the gas tank and go pee, then move along (the goal is three pee stops or less). I use this trip as my barometer for would a pure EV be a good fit for me? Trying to travel 550 miles over three mountain passes, God knows what kind of traffic, and making the ferry reservation in time makes a person want to hustle along. Not counting the charge time at home, you have roughly 90 minutes of “down time” while charging. Even if I say our three stops get us close to 30 minutes, it still adds an extra hour of time to a 550 mile day. To some that’s not a big deal, to others it’s a deal breaker. This is where the Harvester is going to come into play. A gas and go option for those who want it can still have a daily EV lifestyle when wanted, and travel across country without range anxiety.

Thank you again for logging your trips and giving good info.

 

[RodorW]

There’s a lot of math here to digest (my wife just asked me why I had a calculator out while looking at the tablet). Also lots of good detail.

My wife and I make a yearly trip to San Juan Island in Washington from our home in Montana. It’s 550 miles to the ferry terminal in Anacortes, WA. We generally stop in Ritzville, WA (260 ish miles) to top off the gas tank and go pee, then move along (the goal is three pee stops or less). I use this trip as my barometer for would a pure EV be a good fit for me? Trying to travel 550 miles over three mountain passes, God knows what kind of traffic, and making the ferry reservation in time makes a person want to hustle along. Not counting the charge time at home, you have roughly 90 minutes of “down time” while charging. Even if I say our three stops get us close to 30 minutes, it still adds an extra hour of time to a 550 mile day. To some that’s not a big deal, to others it’s a deal breaker. This is where the Harvester is going to come into play. A gas and go option for those who want it can still have a daily EV lifestyle when wanted, and travel across country without range anxiety.

Thank you again for logging your trips and giving good info.

I can agree the harvester has a place for some people, But with such a low battery only range it doesn’t make sense for others, like me. I drive 100-200 miles a day meaning most if not everyday the harvester would most likely be ran daily at that point, and that starts to add cost, I do understand it’s overall appeal though, I make 500~mile trips for friends and family and being able to just go would be nice, but that’s maybe 3 times a year. The daily factor eliminates the harvester for me, personally. However range anxiety seems a bit overblown, most EV owners don’t experience it after figuring out their vehicle and if they can trust the range estimator on the “gauge” of them. As an example:

I left home on the 24th with an estimated 250 miles

round trip was 160 + 30 for picking up a turkey, and bank visit. so 190 total from leaving the garage until returning that night.

Obviously I wasn’t worried about range or needing to charge I even offer to do some of the driving once there knowing I’d be able to comfortably make it home. 250-190=60 however with a mix of up and down hill, highway speeds, and winding backroads I returned home at 30% with and median estimate of 96 miles.

I trust my range estimator, and have never actually felt range anxiety, the only anxiety I’ve felt is the 2 times I’ve fallen low enough for it to change from a mileage estimate to “low” while being a few miles from the house, but both times I chose to pass my house and go somewhere else for 1 reason or another (bank or food usually)

 

[J Alynn]

I can agree the harvester has a place for some people, But with such a low battery only range it doesn’t make sense for others, like me. I drive 100-200 miles a day meaning most if not everyday the harvester would most likely be ran daily at that point, and that starts to add cost, I do understand it’s overall appeal though, I make 500~mile trips for friends and family and being able to just go would be nice, but that’s maybe 3 times a year. The daily factor eliminates the harvester for me, personally. However range anxiety seems a bit overblown, most EV owners don’t experience it after figuring out their vehicle and if they can trust the range estimator on the “gauge” of them. As an example:

I left home on the 24th with an estimated 250 miles

round trip was 160 + 30 for picking up a turkey, and bank visit. so 190 total from leaving the garage until returning that night.

Obviously I wasn’t worried about range or needing to charge I even offer to do some of the driving once there knowing I’d be able to comfortably make it home. 250-190=60 however with a mix of up and down hill, highway speeds, and winding backroads I returned home at 30% with and median estimate of 96 miles.

I trust my range estimator, and have never actually felt range anxiety, the only anxiety I’ve felt is the 2 times I’ve fallen low enough for it to change from a mileage estimate to “low” while being a few miles from the house, but both times I chose to pass my house and go somewhere else for 1 reason or another (bank or food usually)

That will always be the biggest fear for those new to it. I’m not challenging others use but I agree here. If only doing a couple super long trips a year, adjust for the EV. It’s an hour at most, but the other 300+ days a year BEV just makes better sense. I have been wondering lately whether when people buy a harvester And still have to go get gas, will they really charge at home if they don’t actually have too. I think a lot will end up just using gas for majority of their use, this negating all the benefits of the EV portion. I still respect the notion that some areas of mid/mountain west don’t have infrastructure but living in southeastern PA I can basically go any direction for easily up to 8 hours of driving and never have to worry about chargers or range anxiety. And anyone in central PA believing otherwise is just using range anxiety as an excuse not to adapt. But hey-to each their own

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

For me the “small” range on the Harvester battery is probably not an issue. I doubt I drive 10 miles per day, so the “pavement princess” moniker is on target (retirement has its perks). At 2 miles/kWh that’s 10 days or more to use 80% of my charge on a “70-ish” kWh battery. With the Scout I’m sure I will be motivated to travel more, and the places I will want to go fit neatly into those “charging desert” areas devoid of pips on the charging maps.