DC-Chicago Road Trip - Worth The Risk?

MadManMoon

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Hello, all. Looking for second opinions.

I want to take a road trip from the DC area to Chicago to visit some friends, and of our three vehicles, I most want to take my GTPE. Per ABRP, it's 750-800 miles door-to-door, with 8-9 charging stops each way.

As you may recall, I had the dreaded HVBJB failure early in 2022...sadly, early enough that it was replaced with the original "A" variant of the part. So, in my mind, I'm driving a ticking time bomb. If I make this trip in spring/summer, while the route is mostly flat, we're talking a lot of back-to-back DCFC events, and I'm afraid of being stranded at a non-local Ford dealer for a month-plus repair timeline, along with the added stress of having to get home and then back to pick up my car.

So, if you were in my shoes, would you do it? Or would you just fly and rent a car?
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RickMachE

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I would go. Can't live life in fear.
 

SpaceEVDriver

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I would do it.

I've driven several ~1200 mile round-trips from AZ to CA and ~800 mile round-trips to NV in all kinds of weather (snow, rain, wind, very hot, very cold, etc), with several DCFC stops along each of the drives.

But then I grew up taking cross-country road trips in junkers that most people would have been afraid of using to drive across town.
 

connoisseurr

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Why buy the Mach-E if you’re not going to use it. Don’t let it be your grocery getter.
 

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First of all, I would not have bought the car when I did if I knew about the bad part.

I can understand his concern. We all know it’s a potential time bomb and who wants to get stuck in the middle of nowhere while taking a trip. What happens if it’s 1 am in the morning. I know people are going to comment on a flat tire or other mechanical issues all cars can have but we know the HVBJB is a bad part subject to failure.

it’s a shame, blame it on Ford not the driver. They put an inferior part in the car and probably haven’t issued a full recall on the part and replace 50k of them because they aren’t 100% sure what they have is a fix. They don’t want to do it over and over.

while I might take a stab at a long drive, I stress might , no way would I let my wife take a long trip in the car, nor would she want to

just my 2 cents
 
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dmastro

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You should go, very simple trip. Just download ABRP, Plugshare, Fordpass, subscribe to AAA, pack thermal blankets, rations, water, a 200' extension cord. I'd budget about 17 hours to research every DCFC along the way and highlight the route in your Thomas Guide just in case the apps don't work. Probably a good idea to have someone drive about 6 hours ahead of you to make sure the chargers are operational along your planned route.

You got this!
 

SpaceEVDriver

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Every vehicle and every trip has some potential catastrophic failure, not least of which is other drivers on the road (for every 1,000 miles driven, the chances of being in a car accident are 1 in 366. And the chances of dying in a car accident in our lives is around 1 in 107).

My wife is in charge of her own driving and she knows the risks; she's done several of the above road trips by herself.
 

Chicago-E

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Take a flight. It's a super quick flight. Not worth it at all to drive that as just too much can go wrong. Especially in the dead of winter. Range will be less. Charging potentially slow. There is also the possibility of running into bad weather. Just not worth it at all. Bet you can fin some really cheap flights on southwest right now too lol
 

21st Century Pony

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Hello, all. Looking for second opinions.

I want to take a road trip from the DC area to Chicago to visit some friends, and of our three vehicles, I most want to take my GTPE. Per ABRP, it's 750-800 miles door-to-door, with 8-9 charging stops each way.

As you may recall, I had the dreaded HVBJB failure early in 2022...sadly, early enough that it was replaced with the original "A" variant of the part. So, in my mind, I'm driving a ticking time bomb. If I make this trip in spring/summer, while the route is mostly flat, we're talking a lot of back-to-back DCFC events, and I'm afraid of being stranded at a non-local Ford dealer for a month-plus repair timeline, along with the added stress of having to get home and then back to pick up my car.

So, if you were in my shoes, would you do it? Or would you just fly and rent a car?
Take the trip. The more you use the car, in varying conditions including time, distance and new unfamiliar roads, the more you will learn and the more confident you will become with your very nice purchase. Learning is life... we start dying when we begin to avoid learning.

I took my AWD Premium Ex Batt from Louisville Kentucky to Burlington Vermont (old friend visit), down to southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts (family visits), then thru NYC to Northern Virginia (personal business) and back to Louisville... right immediately before and, some of it, during the Big Freeze this past December. Total mileage = about 2,500+ miles in just under two weeks. I am glad I did. Car was flawless and I learned a slew of stuff.

Besides, you'll spare yourself the TSA line and stealth-fighting over the economy class armrest.
 

heisnuts

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I would go by how many miles are on the car when you want to go vs the miles on the car when the first one failed. I have found that if the driving stays the same the next failure comes about the same mileage the first one did (my first was at 6k, the second was at 12K and the third was just over 17K). Now that you have the recall software installed it will give you an advanced warning so if it were me, and I wasn't dead on with failure mileage, I would take it in a heartbeat (assuming you have good access to DCFC along your route).
 
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Stimulant

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I'm in the "do it" camp.

Coming through Ohio, if you go more central Ohio into Northern Ohio, look into some of the free 62 kw chargers in some of the smaller Ohio towns if you have some time to spare and want to break up the trip (Nelsonville in the central South Eastern, Dublin in Central, and Fostoria in the north western aspects of Ohio).
 

21st Century Pony

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I'm in the "do it" camp.

Coming through Ohio, if you go more central Ohio into Northern Ohio, look into some of the free 62 kw chargers in some of the smaller Ohio towns if you have some time to spare and want to break up the trip (Nelsonville in the central South Eastern, Dublin in Central, and Fostoria in the north western aspects of Ohio).
Exactly. I use the 62kW ChargePoint EVSE in Gallipolis on the Ohio River in the Southeast on my way through. Nice town to amble and to stop at a coffee shop.
 

21st Century Pony

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Exactly. I use the 62kW ChargePoint EVSE in Gallipolis on the Ohio River in the Southeast on my way through. Nice town to amble and to stop at a coffee shop.
And the Chargepoint 62kW chargers (2 stations) on Interstate 68 in extreme western Maryland are also nice - you can just make Friendsville from Wash DC area and avoid the Penn Turnpike with its idiotic truck traffic and its tolls.
 

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I wonder if all the people commenting "do it" have gone through the headache and anxiety related to the hvbjb failure. I have a job 1 2021 and I was driving 2 hours home this summer with a car full of friends when I got the dreaded "service vehicle soon" message while going 80 mph on the freeway.

I knew that my car was at risk (based on the countless posts in this forum) but I took the car anyway. Would I be able to get home? What happens if we get stranded? Will I cause an accident?

Luckily I did make it home and into the dealer...for almost a month. Now ask yourself if you want to deal with this but hundreds of miles away?

I think you already know the answer but you really want people to change your mind and say "just drive it". But until you get the part properly fixed then it's extremely imprudent to take it on such a long trip.
 

kkriskal

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Hello, all. Looking for second opinions.

I want to take a road trip from the DC area to Chicago to visit some friends, and of our three vehicles, I most want to take my GTPE. Per ABRP, it's 750-800 miles door-to-door, with 8-9 charging stops each way.

As you may recall, I had the dreaded HVBJB failure early in 2022...sadly, early enough that it was replaced with the original "A" variant of the part. So, in my mind, I'm driving a ticking time bomb. If I make this trip in spring/summer, while the route is mostly flat, we're talking a lot of back-to-back DCFC events, and I'm afraid of being stranded at a non-local Ford dealer for a month-plus repair timeline, along with the added stress of having to get home and then back to pick up my car.

So, if you were in my shoes, would you do it? Or would you just fly and rent a car?
When was your part fixed? Just asking to find out how you know it was was the old part. Because if it was fixed after the recall, then the old part should not even be available to ship.
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