[rogerasay]

Bought our Lariat in Muscle Shoals in December (Standard battery). We live in Keno, OR, so planned trip across country with Christmas Party stop in Chicago. Thought I could map out charging and routes, no problem, NOT!
It rely turned out to be the adventure of adventures for us. Great start in Alabama, easily got the about 200 mile range when in nice warm and sunny weather. Big learning curve for all those electronics, and quickly learned the computer is smarter than me, as had limp to our second charge station in Kentucky. I did ignore the computer “suggestions”!
Once we left Chicago, temps really dropped and the range as well. Down to -4° in Iowa and Nebraska with range about 115 to 130 miles. We were indeed using a lot of energy for climate control. Had an incident with battery not charging until the battery heated up.
The charging infrastructure is not very good yet, in fact pretty disappointing in western Neb, Wy, Utah And Nevada. Frustrated with Charge Point and diverted to Denver and back up to Salt Lake City as Electrify America chargers were common. From SLC, then none until near Reno. From there up I 5 to Oregon without too much incident.
It really was a challenging adventure for sure, learning all about the truck and charging station infrastructure. A lot more needs to be done to have conveniences, etc at charging stations. EA prevalent at Walmarts, but need more convenient food, even fast food, conveniences. I thought the truck stops would embrace chargers as it would bring people in with time (and money) to spend.
Met a lot of Porsche, Audi, Ionic, Rivian, Hyundai. and, even several Teslas. Was surprised did not see another Lightning.

 

[jefrank]

Deals with 2 of the major truck stop operators are coming (Pilot/Flying J with EV Go and TA with EA), but who knows how long before we'll actually see chargers and how many of them at each location.

TravelCenters of America to deploy 1,000 EV charging ports by 2028

The stations will appear at more than 200 locations and will be run by manufacturer Electrify America.

www.utilitydive.com

GM/EVgo to build fast-chargers at Pilot Flying J gas stations

The partnership between GM and Pilot will help accelerate EV sales by filling in gaps along the electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

techcrunch.com

 

[trav19gt]

Bought our Lariat in Muscle Shoals in December (Standard battery). We live in Keno, OR, so planned trip across country with Christmas Party stop in Chicago. Thought I could map out charging and routes, no problem, NOT!
It rely turned out to be the adventure of adventures for us. Great start in Alabama, easily got the about 200 mile range when in nice warm and sunny weather. Big learning curve for all those electronics, and quickly learned the computer is smarter than me, as had limp to our second charge station in Kentucky. I did ignore the computer “suggestions”!
Once we left Chicago, temps really dropped and the range as well. Down to -4° in Iowa and Nebraska with range about 115 to 130 miles. We were indeed using a lot of energy for climate control. Had an incident with battery not charging until the battery heated up.
The charging infrastructure is not very good yet, in fact pretty disappointing in western Neb, Wy, Utah And Nevada. Frustrated with Charge Point and diverted to Denver and back up to Salt Lake City as Electrify America chargers were common. From SLC, then none until near Reno. From there up I 5 to Oregon without too much incident.
It really was a challenging adventure for sure, learning all about the truck and charging station infrastructure. A lot more needs to be done to have conveniences, etc at charging stations. EA prevalent at Walmarts, but need more convenient food, even fast food, conveniences. I thought the truck stops would embrace chargers as it would bring people in with time (and money) to spend.
Met a lot of Porsche, Audi, Ionic, Rivian, Hyundai. and, even several Teslas. Was surprised did not see another Lightning.

Thanks for sharing, I also have a SR Lariat, and I was curious how well or not well it does on road trips. I've not taken mine out yet on anything outside of town. I live in the Denver area. Cold weather is definitely a drag on it, especially if you want your cabin warm! Any advice you'd give to someone planning a trip?

 

[rogerasay]

I had good experiences following Ford’s Electrify America connection charge station routes. You can plan trips pretty well with EA, but when it got to other charging companies, I had issues getting them started up. Rocky Mountain units were easy easy, Charge Point not so much. Each time had to call them and still only twice out of 7 tries was I successful. I think the startup protocol may be the issues, but not going to find one just to try again. Unless staying overnight at hotel/motel that has charge stations, stay away from the L1 and 2 types - and terribly slow in cold weather. BTW, found the “EV Hotels” app useless, never able to successfully find hotel with chargers using it. “PlugShare” better. Oh, and the “Shell Recharge“ app great too, I think they bought out GreenLots.

Hope this helps and, with a little pretrip homework, pretty easy traveling longer distances. You’ll have to be more patient though and if you pre-plan charging at places that have other amenities, you’ll be fine (note that most EA stations are at least at Walmarts).

 

[btreece]

I had good experiences following Ford’s Electrify America connection charge station routes. You can plan trips pretty well with EA, but when it got to other charging companies, I had issues getting them started up. Rocky Mountain units were easy easy, Charge Point not so much. Each time had to call them and still only twice out of 7 tries was I successful. I think the startup protocol may be the issues, but not going to find one just to try again. Unless staying overnight at hotel/motel that has charge stations, stay away from the L1 and 2 types - and terribly slow in cold weather. BTW, found the “EV Hotels” app useless, never able to successfully find hotel with chargers using it. “PlugShare” better. Oh, and the “Shell Recharge“ app great too, I think they bought out GreenLots.

Hope this helps and, with a little pretrip homework, pretty easy traveling longer distances. You’ll have to be more patient though and if you pre-plan charging at places that have other amenities, you’ll be fine (note that most EA stations are at least at Walmarts).

Yes, Greenlots is now Shell Recharge. I even found a 65kWh one at a Casey's in Iowa that was free.