Mickey the T

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As a side note in case anyone wants to know... CalTrans has several free DC Fast chargers installed throughout central and southern California.

https://dot.ca.gov/news-releases/news-release-2021-001

I plan to try these out on my trip next month to save on my Ford Pass allowance.
I wasn't aware that CalTrans had free chargers set up. Nice, although I'm guessing that also makes the stations more likely to be full. The Tejon Pass station would be pretty key to me for trips up north from So Cal.
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Mandretti

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We took our first long road trip to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend and overall the trip went as planned.

We took off for Vegas at 5AM on Saturday and the plan was to stop in Barstow, CA for a 80% quick charge. I had planned on 3 people with luggage but our niece came with us so now we have 4 people with luggage. It is 240 miles from our home to Barstow, CA and I figured we would be able to make it on one charge but that didn't go as planned....

The 166 out of Santa Maria, CA to the I-5/R-99 near Bakersfield pretty much rises in elevation to a mountain pass heading in to Maricopa, CA. This is something I never really paid much attention to all the time I've driven it before. So with 4 people even at 65MPH we were getting about 2.5 kWh out to Bakersfield before going up the Tehachapi pass on Highway 58. By the time we reached Mojave, CA we had 71 miles to go to the EA chargers in Barstow with the GOM saying we had 68 miles of range.

The stretch from Mojave, CA to Barstow, CA on Highway 58 is usually very fast. Posted speed limit is 65MPH but everyone is easily doing 75MPH+ so I decided to not take a chance and stopped in Mojave for a 15 minute fast charge to 43%. Normally we would stop in Tehachapi for a quick bathroom break and maybe snack purchase so this 15 minutes in Mojave wasn't bad.

We rolled in to Barstow for the planned fast charge and ended up charging to 90% as we took our time eating breakfast.

We also filled the frunk with ice and drinks...

Frunk.jpg


The trip to Vegas was better than expected. With traffic on the I-15 from Barstow all the way to Baker along with the elevation going down we got to the Baker Grade with a 3.9 kWh! By the time we hit the top of Mt. Pass heading down to Primm it was 2.7 kWh. We got to our destination in Vegas with a 30% charge remaining.

I was able to get a 100% charge at a EA station on Sunday for our trip back on Monday and when we did leave for home we started out at a 95% charge.

No issues out of Vegas doing 70MPH and holding a steady 3.0 kWh up to the base of Mt. Pass and going up Mt. Pass was better than going up the Baker Grade. You climb so fast in elevation that we only dropped to 2.6 kWh by the time we were heading down to Baker, CA. We did 75MPH most of the way in to Barstow and arrived with a 35% charge remaining. We did a fast charge to 85% over breakfast and did a very fast run out west on Highway 58 to Bakersfield. At one point with zero traffic anywhere near us we did a fast jaunt up to 110MPH and spent most of the time at 75-80MPH in to Tehachapi???

A 20 minute stop in Bakersfield got us back to 80% and that was more than enough to get us back home.

We did 893 miles for the total trip and paid $107.93. Had we taken my Raptor it would have been $230 or more in gas. Had we taken our Fusion it would have been maybe $60... We took the Fusion once before and with a full tank we made it to Vegas and back to Barstow before having to fill up!

Which brings me to my only real complaint... I could not get off the FordPass Plug & Charge so I could charge via EA at a cheaper rate. The first time I disabled Plug & Charge EA failed no matter what. I re-enabled Plug & Charge and it was fine. It was not until I got home that I was successful in using EA to charge the car.... Plug & Charge was disable and I closed the FordPass app. That allowed me to pay via EA and get the discounted rate.

Is this the way you do it or is there another trick that I should be doing???

---

We now have a good idea what a long trip will be like with the Mach-E. Our son enters the Air Force in July which means we will go to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX sometime in September for his graduation. Our plan right now is to take the Mach-E. Having to stop every 200 miles or so for up to 40 minutes over a 3500 mile trip is a bit of concern time wise... It's not the end of the world but it will be different than what we are used to. We can easily do 400 miles without a stop when we want to. I guess we'll find out soon enough if it's a good idea or not!
Do you have the Premium with extended battery ?
 

VaderMachE

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A couple laughed as they watched us put ice in the frunk at the Wal*Mart in Barstow. Nobody noticed me grabbing a drink at a rest stop near Mt. Pass and since it was pretty hot 95% of the ice had melted by the time we got to Vegas. The ice may have lasted longer had I filled the entire frunk with ice but I just got 2 7lbs bags and as you can see that only filled the center storage.
Silly question...can you hear any ice rattling when driving with the frunk full? I know...but I had to ask. I'm hyper sensitive to noises...lol!?
 
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Trick.Mach-E

Trick.Mach-E

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Silly question...can you hear any ice rattling when driving with the frunk full? I know...but I had to ask. I'm hyper sensitive to noises...lol!?
No you don't hear anything and we didn't put any ice in the frunk until we got to Barstow... so we had plastic bottles of water, bottles of beer and a few cans of soda sitting in the front and there was no noise that I could hear.

And while the ice did melt pretty fast I never saw any water dripping from the bottom as well...
 
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Trick.Mach-E

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Do you have the Premium with extended battery ?
We have a First Edition (which is basically a Premium) with the extended range battery.
 


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Trick.Mach-E

Trick.Mach-E

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It's been a busy summer and not much time to update... sorry!

08/2021 - Mach-E mileage is now 5700 miles.

Latest Trip update...

My wife and I did a quick 400 mile drive in her Mach-E to the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA last Saturday. Our drive down was smooth with usual traffic in LA. I achieved 3.5 kWh and arrived at the OC Fair with the GOM saying we still had 83 miles to empty. So that put the range at a possible 286 miles!

On the way home we drove a lot faster to get home quicker since it was midnight but the Mach-E still gave us a decent 3.0 kWh. It was 1:30AM when we got home with a remaining 30% charge. My wife did errands on Sunday and dropped the remaining charge to 14%. I did a full charge last night at home and this morning the Mach-E shows a 274 DTE.

Ford Mustang Mach-E (Updated!) Our 1st long road trip with 4 passengers/luggage (440 miles each way) Mach


I figure I will just continue to use this thread for our trips... next month will be a big trip we will be driving from the CA Central Coast to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX when our son finishes BMT. That will be 1500 miles each way!
 
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mdolan92869

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It's been a busy summer and not much time to update... sorry!

08/2021 - Mach-E mileage is now 5700 miles.

Latest Trip update...

My wife and I did a quick 400 mile drive in her Mach-E to the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA last Saturday. Our drive down was smooth with usual traffic in LA. I achieved 3.5 kWh and arrived at the OC Fair with the GOM saying we still had 83 miles to empty. So that put the range at a possible 286 miles!

On the way home we drove a lot faster to get home quicker since it was midnight but the Mach-E still gave us a decent 3.0 kWh. It was 1:30AM when we got home with a remaining 30% charge. My wife did errands on Sunday and dropped the remaining charge to 14%. I did a full charge last night at home and this morning the Mach-E shows a 274.

Ford Mustang Mach-E (Updated!) Our 1st long road trip with 4 passengers/luggage (440 miles each way) Mach


I figure I will just continue to use this thread for our trips... next month will be a big trip we will be driving from the CA Central Coast to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX when our son finishes BMT. That will be 1500 miles each way!
Maybe we'll be drafting each other part of the way. I'm driving from OC to DFW area, then back home via San Antonio (stopping in Austin to visit a friend).
 

ChasingCoral

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As a side note in case anyone wants to know... CalTrans has several free DC Fast chargers installed throughout central and southern California.

https://dot.ca.gov/news-releases/news-release-2021-001

I plan to try these out on my trip next month to save on my Ford Pass allowance.
Awesome! How fast are the CalTrans chargers?

As someone who has driven their car from the middle of the country to the east coast (1500+ miles) take my advice that it is straight forward and fun, and don't let any of the one off horror stories or fear ruin the experience for you!
Agreed. Right after delivery we drove MD to FL and back. That was in March when many items like P&C were still going through teething pains. It was a smooth trip, especially when when we got P&C working.

You can check out our trip starting at
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/my-travels-with-marlin-gb-fe.3298/post-120087

Silly question...can you hear any ice rattling when driving with the frunk full? I know...but I had to ask. I'm hyper sensitive to noises...lol!?
Nope. As discussed in this thread, I first did the ice and bottled beer in the frunk trick back in May and didn't hear any sloshing, rattling, clanging or banging.
 
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Trick.Mach-E

Trick.Mach-E

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Maybe we'll be drafting each other part of the way. I'm driving from OC to DFW area, then back home via San Antonio (stopping in Austin to visit a friend).
We'll take I-10 East on 09/07 - 09/08 and then back to CA on 09/11 - 09/12!
 

DanCoon

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Awesome! How fast are the CalTrans chargers?


Agreed. Right after delivery we drove MD to FL and back. That was in March when many items like P&C were still going through teething pains. It was a smooth trip, especially when when we got P&C working.

You can check out our trip starting at
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/my-travels-with-marlin-gb-fe.3298/post-120087


Nope. As discussed in this thread, I first did the ice and bottled beer in the frunk trick back in May and didn't hear any sloshing, rattling, clanging or banging.
I'm not sure, I didn't end up stopping at one but they look exactly like the Green Lots chargers I see around town, which go up to 50kwh.
 

mdolan92869

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We'll take I-10 East on 09/07 - 09/08 and then back to CA on 09/11 - 09/12!
I'm heading out on the 11th, so we'll probably pass each other on the 10, somewhere in NM. Grabber blue should be easy enough to see going the other way!
 

medicnj

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The trick is when you pull up to an EA station, Open the EA app, and slide to activate the charger, THEN plug in after the charger says its ready. That completely bypasses the step where it asks the car who you are and greatly reduces the time to start charging.
I've not been able to get the EA app working so I've had to insert a card into a reader. glad it worked for you. My fordpass auto connect is also not working, also with our small bladders , we'd be stopping every 200 ish miles in an ICE anyways.
 

ChrisSJR

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As someone who has driven their car from the middle of the country to the east coast (1500+ miles) take my advice that it is straight forward and fun, and don't let any of the one off horror stories or fear ruin the experience for you!
Do you know if Myrtle Beach is doing anything to improve DC fast charging in that area of SC?
 

SOLIDAge

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Do you know if Myrtle Beach is doing anything to improve DC fast charging in that area of SC?
Not that I’m aware of to be honest. I have a level 2 at home so it has never been an issue for me. If I want to do long trips south I have to pass Charleston that has it, and if I go north I pass Florence that also has one so it’s never been an issue. I did submit a site idea to Electrify America for Broadway at the Beach as it seems perfect.
 
 




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