Fluffy09
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- Thread starter
- #1
Longtime forum lurker, first time poster. I thought people might be interested to hear about the current state of wintertime road-tripping in our beloved electric conveyances, so here goes.
A while back my wife and I made the decision to move from Seattle to Milwaukee in search of fewer crowds, cheaper cost of living, more cheese, etc. After a grueling few weeks of packing boxes and house-cleaning, the day finally arrived at the end of January where I got to set forth on my long-fantasized winter road trip. I tried to convince my wife to come along, even if she just caravanned alongside in her RAV4, but she was having none of it. In my wife's defense, we have two lovely young children and one very useless cat that would have had to cram into that arrangement somehow, so she sensibly declined and will be flying. Instead, my dad graciously flew out to Seattle and served as my copilot.
Thanks to all of the amazing insight from this forum, I knew to plot out my route on ABRP and check ahead on Plugshare to validate and pre-plan all my charging stops. I'd taken the Mach E on a round trip from Seattle to Palm Springs several years ago without incident, but that was when exterior temps were a breezy 95 degrees and efficiency was above the EPA rating. Going through the Great Plains when Bismarck ND might put up a temp of -20 was quite a different proposition. As an intellectual exercise, I also plotted just the first leg of Seattle to Missoula MT on the in-car navigation. The car spit out a route that would have worked, but it also suggested that I do my initial charge at some ancient 50kw charger that had been erected during the Lewis and Clark expedition. I had cautioned my dad that EV road-trips require patience, but I don't think he wanted to be that patient.
As you've probably determined by the very fact of reading this, we made it to MKE safe and sound. I'll give you the highlights of the trip. At our first charging stop in Ellensburg WA, I was pleasantly surprised to find a 180kw charging station at a Circle K that I'd somehow glazed over during my (very extensive) Plug Share investigations. There was an EA and open Tesla supercharger all within walking distance, but I opted for Circle K just to try something new. We made it to Missoula without incident and the pony car happily slurped from the trough of a free hotel charger. Thanks again to the forum and the excellent advice of Mach-Lee (BIG shoutout to Mach-Lee, thank you so much for all your advice!), I'd set a destination time the next morning and the car was primed and ready to go.
I'd looked at the route many times leading up to departure and I knew that several stretches in Montana would present the biggest possible challenges, notably Bozeman to Billings and Billings to Miles City. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit that I'd failed to appreciate that our second morning's first stretch would be our most stress-inducing, due to its climb of 2000 feet over 120 miles as we rose up to Butte. Mother Nature was also not on our side here, as we saw exterior temps drop as low as -4. Despite all this, the car did admirably and maintained 2.1 mpk. We arrived in Butte with 30 miles on the GOM at 31% SOC. I would have washed the windows with the handily-provided washer at the EA station, but it was frozen solid! You all may wonder why I would consider this "stress-inducing". The reason is that if the car hadn't performed and we'd been left stranded on the side of the road, I would never stop hearing "I told you so" from my lovely wife.
The rest of Montana was long, lovely, and uneventful. In Bozeman we took advantage of a Rivian Charger over the nearby EA because the Rivian was close to better food options. This is the type of detail that would be utterly mundane on an ICE trip, but it was a true delight for those of us who need to wait a bit to refuel. My dad and I also pulled over one time in the bustling metropolis of Custer MT (maaaaybe a stop sign could be found here, but also maybe not). As we pulled into a gas station to use the bathroom I remarked to my dad "Wouldn't it be wild if this place had a charger?" I turned around and immediately had to eat my words when I saw a level 2 charging setup at the back of the lot. It came complete with a "Powered by Coal" sticker. Well I had to try this now didn't I? I drove the car over a sheen of ice and did the usual fiddling-with-bad-cell-service-to-get-a-charging-app-I'd-never-heard-of dance to plug in and get all of 2kwh while we used the bathroom. I also bought a Montana trucker's hat.
I had purchased a Lectron Tesla adaptor for this trip, but I didn't end up breaking out my shiny new toy until Dickinson ND. The only reason I even did this was that I didn't feel like sitting in the parking lot of a Ford dealership to charge. We charged at Superchargers on two other occasions (one was in Madison WI because I didn't feel like doing the obscure charging app dance again with Shell Recharge, and there was a Supercharger in the same lot). I'm absolutely positive that we could have done this entire trip on CCS charging alone.
The only negatives of note were that my ever-occurring Front Camera Fault became permanent in western Montana, necessitating that I keep my foot on the pedal the rest of the way like a plebe. We also lost one of my precious Route 1 aerocover hubcaps somewhere. I'd gotten the tires replaced just before leaving, and I'm thinking they didn't put the caps on all the way.
The trip totaled 2040 miles with an average mpk of 2.7. Electricity seems to have run us about $300, with two free hotel charges along the way. We definitely lucked out on weather and enjoyed blue skies nearly the entire way. Bismarck ND was also more in the 30's and 40's rather than -20. We got lucky here, and I'll absolutely take it.
A while back my wife and I made the decision to move from Seattle to Milwaukee in search of fewer crowds, cheaper cost of living, more cheese, etc. After a grueling few weeks of packing boxes and house-cleaning, the day finally arrived at the end of January where I got to set forth on my long-fantasized winter road trip. I tried to convince my wife to come along, even if she just caravanned alongside in her RAV4, but she was having none of it. In my wife's defense, we have two lovely young children and one very useless cat that would have had to cram into that arrangement somehow, so she sensibly declined and will be flying. Instead, my dad graciously flew out to Seattle and served as my copilot.
Thanks to all of the amazing insight from this forum, I knew to plot out my route on ABRP and check ahead on Plugshare to validate and pre-plan all my charging stops. I'd taken the Mach E on a round trip from Seattle to Palm Springs several years ago without incident, but that was when exterior temps were a breezy 95 degrees and efficiency was above the EPA rating. Going through the Great Plains when Bismarck ND might put up a temp of -20 was quite a different proposition. As an intellectual exercise, I also plotted just the first leg of Seattle to Missoula MT on the in-car navigation. The car spit out a route that would have worked, but it also suggested that I do my initial charge at some ancient 50kw charger that had been erected during the Lewis and Clark expedition. I had cautioned my dad that EV road-trips require patience, but I don't think he wanted to be that patient.
As you've probably determined by the very fact of reading this, we made it to MKE safe and sound. I'll give you the highlights of the trip. At our first charging stop in Ellensburg WA, I was pleasantly surprised to find a 180kw charging station at a Circle K that I'd somehow glazed over during my (very extensive) Plug Share investigations. There was an EA and open Tesla supercharger all within walking distance, but I opted for Circle K just to try something new. We made it to Missoula without incident and the pony car happily slurped from the trough of a free hotel charger. Thanks again to the forum and the excellent advice of Mach-Lee (BIG shoutout to Mach-Lee, thank you so much for all your advice!), I'd set a destination time the next morning and the car was primed and ready to go.
I'd looked at the route many times leading up to departure and I knew that several stretches in Montana would present the biggest possible challenges, notably Bozeman to Billings and Billings to Miles City. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit that I'd failed to appreciate that our second morning's first stretch would be our most stress-inducing, due to its climb of 2000 feet over 120 miles as we rose up to Butte. Mother Nature was also not on our side here, as we saw exterior temps drop as low as -4. Despite all this, the car did admirably and maintained 2.1 mpk. We arrived in Butte with 30 miles on the GOM at 31% SOC. I would have washed the windows with the handily-provided washer at the EA station, but it was frozen solid! You all may wonder why I would consider this "stress-inducing". The reason is that if the car hadn't performed and we'd been left stranded on the side of the road, I would never stop hearing "I told you so" from my lovely wife.
The rest of Montana was long, lovely, and uneventful. In Bozeman we took advantage of a Rivian Charger over the nearby EA because the Rivian was close to better food options. This is the type of detail that would be utterly mundane on an ICE trip, but it was a true delight for those of us who need to wait a bit to refuel. My dad and I also pulled over one time in the bustling metropolis of Custer MT (maaaaybe a stop sign could be found here, but also maybe not). As we pulled into a gas station to use the bathroom I remarked to my dad "Wouldn't it be wild if this place had a charger?" I turned around and immediately had to eat my words when I saw a level 2 charging setup at the back of the lot. It came complete with a "Powered by Coal" sticker. Well I had to try this now didn't I? I drove the car over a sheen of ice and did the usual fiddling-with-bad-cell-service-to-get-a-charging-app-I'd-never-heard-of dance to plug in and get all of 2kwh while we used the bathroom. I also bought a Montana trucker's hat.
I had purchased a Lectron Tesla adaptor for this trip, but I didn't end up breaking out my shiny new toy until Dickinson ND. The only reason I even did this was that I didn't feel like sitting in the parking lot of a Ford dealership to charge. We charged at Superchargers on two other occasions (one was in Madison WI because I didn't feel like doing the obscure charging app dance again with Shell Recharge, and there was a Supercharger in the same lot). I'm absolutely positive that we could have done this entire trip on CCS charging alone.
The only negatives of note were that my ever-occurring Front Camera Fault became permanent in western Montana, necessitating that I keep my foot on the pedal the rest of the way like a plebe. We also lost one of my precious Route 1 aerocover hubcaps somewhere. I'd gotten the tires replaced just before leaving, and I'm thinking they didn't put the caps on all the way.
The trip totaled 2040 miles with an average mpk of 2.7. Electricity seems to have run us about $300, with two free hotel charges along the way. We definitely lucked out on weather and enjoyed blue skies nearly the entire way. Bismarck ND was also more in the 30's and 40's rather than -20. We got lucky here, and I'll absolutely take it.
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