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

[Schubie]

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.

View attachment 15990

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.

View attachment 15991

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.

View attachment 15992

That's close to the package I'm aiming for in the near term. But I'm inclined to keep the rig setup for overland use. As the extra clearance, tire plies/tread, etc lead to more reliability in the bush. Curious to hear how your changes affect range though.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

That's close to the package I'm aiming for in the near term. But I'm inclined to keep the rig setup for overland use. As the extra clearance, tire plies/tread, etc lead to more reliability in the bush. Curious to hear how your changes affect range though.

I may start a thread specific to efficiency changes with the trailer. I tend not to have the time to do full scientific analysis, so it will be imperfect.

I’ve done a lot of trailer pulling through the desert southwest trails and never needed AT tread. High sidewall strength? higher-ply count? Yes. But skinny low tread tires have always been my favorite trailer tire.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Back on the road.

Took a drive down from northern AZ to southern AZ. Tucson, to be specific.

I started the drive with 100%. Decided I wanted to just be at the hotel, so didn’t stop. I arrived in Tucson with 18% remaining.
After 15 minutes of gravel road and old, slow highway, I hit the freeway. Once the speed limit allowed, I set my cruising speed to 73 mph. There was traffic going through Phoenix. There’s always traffic going through Phoenix. Google estimated it would take 4.75 hours. I arrived 4.5 hours after leaving my home. Yeah, I’m too old to do that any more.

That’s 272 miles (from start to finish) using 82% of 131 kWh.
272 miles/ 107 kWh = 2.54 miles/kWh
272 miles / 4.5 hours = 60 mph average.

How was the range? Nearly exactly as the EPA estimate suggests. Maybe a little better. I was going down in elevation.

2.54 miles/kWh * 131 kWh = 333 miles.
272 miles / 0.82 = 332 miles.

I plugged into the charger here at the hotel and now have 100% charge to do the things I need to do this weekend.

There’s a used Silverado EV for sale here in town that I’ll go take for a test drive. See the other thread about later today.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

A word of caution:

Just because I can get EPA range while driving on the freeway doesn’t mean everyone can. I think I drive a little differently from a lot of people and have slightly different circumstances.

• I don’t often do hard acceleration. For example, I don’t rush to pass someone. I might even stay behind them in the right lane for a few minutes or more. If there is traffic in the left lane, I don’t feel it’s necessary to jump the line.
• I have my tire pressure set higher than the door jamb sticker suggests. I don’t need the cushy ride and I like my efficiency
• I live at 7000 feet (ish) elevation. This decreases air resistance by up to 20%, which an impact range by up to about 5%.
• When I go back up the mountain, I’ll probably only get around 2.1 miles/kWh. The average will be around 2.3 miles/kWh, just under the EPA range.
• I do use the HVAC whenever I need to, but I also don’t like it to be 65 degrees F in the vehicle. I set the temperature to 72-75 degrees F.
• We get sub-zero temperatures, but not for very long or very often.

That said, I’ve never experienced the ridiculous range claimed by some anti-EV trolls. Drive reasonably and you won’t waste energy. That’s true of both EVs and ICEVs.

 

[BeerParty]

There was traffic going through Phoenix. There’s always traffic going through Phoenix.

If there was ever any doubt that this trip actually happened, you have laid them to rest.

Thanks for the detailed info on your EV truck's performance. I am sure this has been helpful for everyone here.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

If there was ever any doubt that this trip actually happened, you have laid them to rest.

Thanks for the detailed info on your EV truck's performance. I am sure this has been helpful for everyone here.

One of these days I’ll need to get a good camera and camera mount for vehicle vlogging. And an editor…

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We'll be taking a road trip in the Silverado this weekend. It will cover total of about 1500 miles. I will reply here with impressions compared with the Lightning. I expect nearly the same stops we've made with the Lightning because our mealtimes and restroom needs don't change just because we have a longer-range truck.

 

[J Alynn]

We'll be taking a road trip in the Silverado this weekend. It will cover total of about 1500 miles. I will reply here with impressions compared with the Lightning. I expect nearly the same stops we've made with the Lightning because our mealtimes and restroom needs don't change just because we have a longer-range truck.

Good luck!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We've had the Silverado for less than two days and already added the desert pinstriping all trucks in AZ and UT deserve to sport.

We're on our way to Boulder, CO so I can teach a couple of workshops. Decided to take a short off-road / desert trail jaunt to test out the truck. It would be better if it had a locking rear (and front) differential. But the truck is decent. The tires are terrible for off-road.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We left home with 100% charge and stopped for lunch about 150 miles after leaving home. We arrived with 71% charge. We spent our normal amount of time at this lunch stop: 25 minutes. Using the brand T charger, we charged up to 95%. That's an average of 118 kW, mostly above the 80% soc mark.

We may need to stop for a charge tomorrow, and if we do, I'll try to remember to use the scanner to record a graph of the charge curve.

Our second leg was 180 miles, including the short off-road excursion. We left with 95% and arrived with 56%. The truck estimated we had 249 miles of range remaining.

On the first leg, we got about 2.52 miles/kWh. We did go downhill, but the wind was bad. On 2.52 mpk, we would expect to see 2.52*205 = 517 miles. I think that's optimistic for many trips that we do, but not all. The truck suggested we had another 314 miles after driving 149 miles; that's 462 miles that, which seems more realistic. the EPA estimated 440 miles for this truck.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We drove from Moab to Boulder today. Total distance is 375 miles.

We started with 100% state of charge from charging on the hotel Level 2 overnight.

We drove from the hotel in Moab 200 miles to Glenwood Springs, CO. We were going to charge on the 350 kW Electrify America chargers there so we could get a feel for the faster charging capability. but it was busy. We had enough range to make it all the way to Boulder, but we needed food and a restroom break and didn’t see the point in not charging while eating. So we drove another 31 miles to Gypsum, CO to grab lunch at the Costco and a slower charge at the Tesla Supercharger. It wasn’t busy. A total of 231 miles of driving brought us to 50% state of charge, giving an estimated range of 462 miles.

We walked to the Costco and grabbed a hot dog. We were on the charger for 28 minutes. The T app complained about the charger losing connection multiple times, but each time the truck kept on charging. We got 68.3 kWh (36% of the battery capacity), which brought us from 50% to 86%. The truck estimated that 36% added 162 miles of range, which would mean a 450 mile range on 100% battery. What it really meant was that my partner won’t have to charge while exploring Boulder and we’ll only have to charge just before we leave. But I might plug it into a L2 near the hotel just to get some cheaper electrons.

We left Gypsum with 86% state of charge with an estimated 382 miles of range (total of 444 estimated range at 100%). We arrived in Boulder with 60% state of charge and an estimated 262 miles remaining (total of 437 estimated range at 100%).

So far the range estimates and arrival states-of-charge have been spot-on. Whatever data they’re using to estimate the route, speed, weather, etc, is giving them a better overall data set for range estimates than I’ve seen in any of the other BEVs I’ve driven far enough to need to charge.

Total climb was from 3967 feet elevation to 12,502 feet and back down to 5255 feet.

 

[J Alynn]

We drove from Moab to Boulder today. Total distance is 375 miles.

We started with 100% state of charge from charging on the hotel Level 2 overnight.

We drove from the hotel in Moab 200 miles to Glenwood Springs, CO. We were going to charge on the 350 kW Electrify America chargers there so we could get a feel for the faster charging capability. but it was busy. We had enough range to make it all the way to Boulder, but we needed food and a restroom break and didn’t see the point in not charging while eating. So we drove another 31 miles to Gypsum, CO to grab lunch at the Costco and a slower charge at the Tesla Supercharger. It wasn’t busy. A total of 231 miles of driving brought us to 50% state of charge, giving an estimated range of 462 miles.

We walked to the Costco and grabbed a hot dog. We were on the charger for 28 minutes. The T app complained about the charger losing connection multiple times, but each time the truck kept on charging. We got 68.3 kWh (36% of the battery capacity), which brought us from 50% to 86%. The truck estimated that 36% added 162 miles of range, which would mean a 450 mile range on 100% battery. What it really meant was that my partner won’t have to charge while exploring Boulder and we’ll only have to charge just before we leave. But I might plug it into a L2 near the hotel just to get some cheaper electrons.

We left Gypsum with 86% state of charge with an estimated 382 miles of range (total of 444 estimated range at 100%). We arrived in Boulder with 60% state of charge and an estimated 262 miles remaining (total of 437 estimated range at 100%).

So far the range estimates and arrival states-of-charge have been spot-on. Whatever data they’re using to estimate the route, speed, weather, etc, is giving them a better overall data set for range estimates than I’ve seen in any of the other BEVs I’ve driven far enough to need to charge.

Total climb was from 3967 feet elevation to 12,502 feet and back down to 5255 feet.
View attachment 16306

Seems like you are learning quite a bit about the new truck in a very short amount of time. Thanks for the updates

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Seems like you are learning quite a bit about the new truck in a very short amount of time. Thanks for the updates

Quite a bit.

Some notes in general, more to come:

• A larger battery can be problematic while charging if the driver thinks about state of charge rather than range. A massive battery charging on a Supercharger or otherwise slower charge station can take a much longer time to increase in state of charge (%) than a smaller battery. Don't think in terms of state of charge while on DCFC--think about range. I generally don't advocate for discussion of "miles per minute" while charging, but I'm changing my opinion based on large battery coupled with slow(er) DCFC. This does require the driver to understand their future (next three hours) driving experience.
• A big battery is heavy. And trucks with heavy batteries behave differently. I would not advocate that Scout Motors use more than 180-190 kWh in their Terra. Assuming 2.2 miles per kWh, that would give ~400-420 miles range. I know Scout is planning 350 miles, which suggests 160 kWh maximum battery size. That's still bigger than the Lightning by almost 20%. If they can eke out 2.4 miles/kWh, they can get down to 146 kWh. Still a big battery.
• 4-wheel steering on the freeway is a terrible, terrible idea.
• 4-wheel steering at low speeds is fantastic.
• Air suspension on a large, heavy vehicle is also great and not-so-great.
• Very large wheels is a really dumb choice for a truck. The extra unsprung weight and low profile tires contribute to road fatigue that the air suspension cannot fully compensate for.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Drove around Boulder for work for the past several days. Never really needed to charge, but we did some opportunistic cheering in a couple of places. Parking + charging costs are pretty high, so we didn't put too much effort into charging. And we didn't need to with 63% battery. We had plenty of range.
Right before we left town, we stopped at Trader Joe's. There we charged on an EA DCFC from 62% to 85%. The charger is limited to a max state of charge of 85%, so we had to hurry back to the truck before they added an idle fee.

From Boulder, we took I70 up to Breckenridge. Google predicted we would use 29%. We arrived with 56%--used 29%. Using 29% to go about 100 miles is the worst efficiency we've seen in the Silverado so far (about 1.6 miles/kWh). But we did climb from about 5200 feet to over 12,000 feet before coming down to 10,000 feet. And we stayed with traffic at 65 mph.

The hotel isn't one we'll use again; it appears online as though it offers free L2 charging, but that's only available behind its valet parking, making its charging more expensive that most DCFC.