Nikos
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2019
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 594
- Reaction score
- 547
- Location
- Taylors SC
- Vehicles
- 17 Must GT, 21MME AWD, 22 F-150 Lightning
- Occupation
- Aircraft Mechanic
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello folks.
You might have read my post in the Lightning forum when I drove my Lightning to Louisiana on a 1400 miles trip on October of last year. This time was the MME turn, along the exact same route.
This trip was going to compare the MME to the Lightning by checking the BC upgrades, charging events, number of charging events and pricing, preconditioning of battery using the Ford navigation, averaging speeds, efficiency and length of time on the road to our destination.
My MME had already 30K+ on the odometer and it was obvious we were coming home with 32K or very close to it. The HVBJB recall was scheduled to take place the 28th of December, upon our return home.
With that in mind, I planned the trip, downloaded to my Trips and send it to the vehicle.
Charged the battery to 100%, preconditioned the battery and cabin for a departure on the 22nd of December at 6:45am.
Overnight temp was 34°. Started with 34°, a loaded MME, second row folded down, nav system loaded with Ford's instructions/recommendations of where to stop and charge.
We picked up I 85S ten minutes after we left our residence and proceeded towards Atlanta.
My first planned stop was going to be at East Point GA, just south of the Hartsfield/ATL airport. I was planning a straight thru transition of Atlanta. Onboard nav had slightly different plans. We noticed and we were ready to alter the nav systems plans.
As soon as we drove outside Greenville SC on the interstate, I engaged BC. BC came on line almost immediately. I was looking at a vehicle in a traffic lane, literally in the center of the lane. My wife noticed that we were in the center of the lane and not on the right of the lane. Couple miles on the interstate, I had to change lanes to pass a vehicle at 70mph. That is when I noticed that BC was doing it for me, which almost startled both of us. I 85S had light traffic 20 miles from the border of SC/GA, up to 25 miles outside Atlanta.
We watched as the BC will initiate lane changes at 70-75mph, center to center of the lanes, smoothly and with ease. We noticed also that the vehicle will move slightly to either side of the lane, when a large truck will approach from behind on either side or we overtook large trucks while passing them. We watched BC make those lane adjustments, recenter and maintain Cruise on a bit uneven road surfaces while maintaining 70mph.
I am not sure if this was BC 1.2 or 1.3 but we were interested to see what else the BC could do and how quick it responded to lane changes.
Atlanta traffic was the testing grounds. We were going to find out.
In the meantime, the nav system was making adjustments to our planned charging stop. We had our EA app running to check the stations ahead of our stop. Ford kept changing the locations. We deleted their suggestions and plugged in our stop but Ford's nav system kept changing the stop. We told the nav that East Point GA was our final destination. That stopped the persistent updates and was taking us to our planned stop.
It did not preconditioned the battery for a charge and I knew why as soon as I plugged the vehicle for a charge.
In the meantime, although the traffic picked up 20 miles from Atlanta, traffic was flowing at 60mph. 9am on Friday and we were transitioning thru with no problems and BC on with occasional hands on the wheel inputs.
BC will change lanes if the vehicles in the lane that you plan to go to were at least 5 vehicles lengths behind you or ahead and appeared stationary. What I mean by stationary, is that they maintained the same that we were traveling. If vehicles from behind were accelerating at a higher speed than our vehicle, BC will cancel the lane change. Only if the driver reacted faster with the lane change and acceleration, then the BC did yield control to the driver without any hesitation or resistance. You just got the warning that the driver had control of the vehicle.
Nice, BC stayed on 95% for the length of this trip to Louisiana.
First stop, East Point GA at 10am.
A 5min wait for a charging stall.
Remember, preconditioning of battery didn't take place and the max charge was at 131KW. Time for a restroom break. Took 42 min to 91% SOC. Uploaded 57KW at $13.47 inc tax.
Some of you would say: why 91% and not 80%. This was my plan: planned a stop to Greenville AL, and by charging for the distance from East Point GA to Greenville AL, plus 60 miles as a cushion, I was going to bypass Montgomery AL and eliminate a stop all the way to Louisiana. It worked but I had to find the sweet spot(speed wise). Going to the Gulf, there is a gradual 2°-3° down slope and at 74mph, the sweet spot, We arrived at Greenville AL with almost 40 miles range left.
This time the MME preconditioned the battery. At a 150KW station, our max charge reached 154KW, charged to 91% SOC, took 68KW for 50min, costing $14.54 inl tax.
The temps now had climbed to the upper 40s. Got to talk to another Lightning owner, a Rivian R1S owner and a not so friendly Merc EQS owner.
Same plan here also. Plan for a stop Gulfport Mississippi, bypass Saraland/Mobile AL.
On the road again down I 65 for I 10W. Ford's nav had different suggestions. BC on with us changing the nav suggestions and proceed to Gulfport by deleting intermediate waypoints. Couple tries and we were successful. What we figured out, we don't know if we were correct, that Ford tries to send you to a charger before you get the " low battery" warning.
Arrived at Gulfport Mississippi at 4:30pm to an empty EA station.
Picked a 350KW stall. Max charge at 163KW to 93% SOC, uploaded 68KW for 50min at $15.54 inc tax.
Enough charge to travel to Slidell, do any errands locally and come back to Gulfport for a charge on our way home. Gulfport is only 44 miles from Slidell. Although the stall were empty, the outlets were busy with last minute shoppers. A convenient restroom stop, stretch our legs and to see my first Subaru Soltera EV pull next to us. No conversation though. My wife tells me that I am a big scary guy, people try to keep their distance at an empty parking lot off I 10. On the same conversation, she told me that the BC drives smoother than I do.
Big scary guy from New England married to a southern girl.
BC-1, Scary guy-0.
The total for this leg, 595 miles, costing $43.55 inl taxes.
Off to enjoy Christmas with my daughter. Put on my Santa hat and drove west on I 10.
A note of caution, BC doesn't work with the sun 3°-5° above the horizon. The sun at those angles, glare off the roadway, sun in your eyes, is kryptonite for the BC system. 40 min later the Mach E sled arrived. Smiles on everyone's faces. St Nick is here.
Dec 27th, at 7am and 51° outside, we started our return trip home.
Back to Gulfport Mississippi for a top off to 90% SOC. Max charge at 75KW. Understood why. Bypassed the nav suggestions to stop in Saraland/Mobile AL. The charge this time was complimentary. It seems every (4)fourth charge is free at EA.
Again, we created a 60 miles cushion in our charge to reach Greenville AL. The sweet spot speed this time was 72mph on BC. Now we were working on 2°-3° incline all the way home, Greenville SC.
At 11am, pulled in to an empty stall next to a Rivian R1S.
Max charge at 154KW, to 92% SOC for 53 min. Uploaded 72KW at $15.62 inc tax. Restroom break was imperative. Time flew by talking to other EV owners. Couple of them were renting EVs to get accustomed. The experience though wasn't going to well. Didn't have the time to explain well their concerns. Something like....my friends drive Teslas and I am giving it a try by renting an EV.
Tried not to complicate the issue as another R1S pulled in. The Rivian folks were not investing any time to talking. Sometimes can't explain EVs at a charging station.
Back on the road to East Point GA.
A short stop ????? at Bucee's at Auburn, another interesting stop to use the restroom, pick up lunch and jerky meats to snack on the road.
Arrived at East Point GA at 4:30pm. Max charge at 165KW to 85% SOC. Uploaded 63KW for 41min at $13.15 inc tax. Luckily, we arrived just in time to a complete full station, minus one stall. We took it. Again tried to talk to anyone who wanted to converse with the big scary guy.
A lady was trying to charge her Polestar. Interesting, asking me for some help. Come to think of it, she had rented it from the Atlanta airport, and trying to return it with some charge in it. Trying to avoid the 59¢ per minute or per kw the rental company was charging.
Needless to say, it was not going well for the lady.
Time to get on the road again and face the evening traffic in Atlanta.
Not bad. Traffic moved at 55mph until 15 miles outside Atlanta and on I 85N. Arrived home at 8pm.
The leg of our trip home cost us $28.77 inc tax. The entire 1200 miles cost us $72.32 inc tax.
Unloaded the car and joined the neighbors for a beer and to catch up with the news.
No issues with the HV BJB module and I couldn't tell if the patch software by Ford reduced the max charge rates to protect the module. I do know though that anything above 72-75% SOC the charge rate was at 45-48KW.
BC was great. It made the trip a lot more comfortable. My wife agreed with my observation. She is happy, I am happy.
The next day it was HVBJB change at the dealer. I didn't see the curve ball coming at me when I showed up at the dealer. Our service rep, which we deal all the time, had me down for the moon roof reseal and windshield reseal. I was more interested with the HVBJB module.
The curve ball swung low and I missed it. Strike Out. Took the fob and told me to check with them in couple days. Couple days later, the moon roof reseal was done. The windshield had to be replaced. Ordering another took couple days and at the end, the recall specialist realized when the technician showed up to accomplish the module replacement, the module was not in stock.
I was not in the best of spirits listening to this f@&# up and the explanations. When you take things apart, especially a lot of paneling, not all goes back exactly the same way. One of the panels at the right aft pillar is not completely flush.
They ordered a panel. Replacing it with the HVBJB module on backorder until Feb 2nd.
Today it has been raining all night.
Time to go check for any leaks.
Better not find anything.
The MME did its job. I am still very happy with the vehicle. It has taking us in many places, long and short trips, in comfort, safely and very cost effective.
I really missed those gas bills...Not.!!!
You might have read my post in the Lightning forum when I drove my Lightning to Louisiana on a 1400 miles trip on October of last year. This time was the MME turn, along the exact same route.
This trip was going to compare the MME to the Lightning by checking the BC upgrades, charging events, number of charging events and pricing, preconditioning of battery using the Ford navigation, averaging speeds, efficiency and length of time on the road to our destination.
My MME had already 30K+ on the odometer and it was obvious we were coming home with 32K or very close to it. The HVBJB recall was scheduled to take place the 28th of December, upon our return home.
With that in mind, I planned the trip, downloaded to my Trips and send it to the vehicle.
Charged the battery to 100%, preconditioned the battery and cabin for a departure on the 22nd of December at 6:45am.
Overnight temp was 34°. Started with 34°, a loaded MME, second row folded down, nav system loaded with Ford's instructions/recommendations of where to stop and charge.
We picked up I 85S ten minutes after we left our residence and proceeded towards Atlanta.
My first planned stop was going to be at East Point GA, just south of the Hartsfield/ATL airport. I was planning a straight thru transition of Atlanta. Onboard nav had slightly different plans. We noticed and we were ready to alter the nav systems plans.
As soon as we drove outside Greenville SC on the interstate, I engaged BC. BC came on line almost immediately. I was looking at a vehicle in a traffic lane, literally in the center of the lane. My wife noticed that we were in the center of the lane and not on the right of the lane. Couple miles on the interstate, I had to change lanes to pass a vehicle at 70mph. That is when I noticed that BC was doing it for me, which almost startled both of us. I 85S had light traffic 20 miles from the border of SC/GA, up to 25 miles outside Atlanta.
We watched as the BC will initiate lane changes at 70-75mph, center to center of the lanes, smoothly and with ease. We noticed also that the vehicle will move slightly to either side of the lane, when a large truck will approach from behind on either side or we overtook large trucks while passing them. We watched BC make those lane adjustments, recenter and maintain Cruise on a bit uneven road surfaces while maintaining 70mph.
I am not sure if this was BC 1.2 or 1.3 but we were interested to see what else the BC could do and how quick it responded to lane changes.
Atlanta traffic was the testing grounds. We were going to find out.
In the meantime, the nav system was making adjustments to our planned charging stop. We had our EA app running to check the stations ahead of our stop. Ford kept changing the locations. We deleted their suggestions and plugged in our stop but Ford's nav system kept changing the stop. We told the nav that East Point GA was our final destination. That stopped the persistent updates and was taking us to our planned stop.
It did not preconditioned the battery for a charge and I knew why as soon as I plugged the vehicle for a charge.
In the meantime, although the traffic picked up 20 miles from Atlanta, traffic was flowing at 60mph. 9am on Friday and we were transitioning thru with no problems and BC on with occasional hands on the wheel inputs.
BC will change lanes if the vehicles in the lane that you plan to go to were at least 5 vehicles lengths behind you or ahead and appeared stationary. What I mean by stationary, is that they maintained the same that we were traveling. If vehicles from behind were accelerating at a higher speed than our vehicle, BC will cancel the lane change. Only if the driver reacted faster with the lane change and acceleration, then the BC did yield control to the driver without any hesitation or resistance. You just got the warning that the driver had control of the vehicle.
Nice, BC stayed on 95% for the length of this trip to Louisiana.
First stop, East Point GA at 10am.
A 5min wait for a charging stall.
Remember, preconditioning of battery didn't take place and the max charge was at 131KW. Time for a restroom break. Took 42 min to 91% SOC. Uploaded 57KW at $13.47 inc tax.
Some of you would say: why 91% and not 80%. This was my plan: planned a stop to Greenville AL, and by charging for the distance from East Point GA to Greenville AL, plus 60 miles as a cushion, I was going to bypass Montgomery AL and eliminate a stop all the way to Louisiana. It worked but I had to find the sweet spot(speed wise). Going to the Gulf, there is a gradual 2°-3° down slope and at 74mph, the sweet spot, We arrived at Greenville AL with almost 40 miles range left.
This time the MME preconditioned the battery. At a 150KW station, our max charge reached 154KW, charged to 91% SOC, took 68KW for 50min, costing $14.54 inl tax.
The temps now had climbed to the upper 40s. Got to talk to another Lightning owner, a Rivian R1S owner and a not so friendly Merc EQS owner.
Same plan here also. Plan for a stop Gulfport Mississippi, bypass Saraland/Mobile AL.
On the road again down I 65 for I 10W. Ford's nav had different suggestions. BC on with us changing the nav suggestions and proceed to Gulfport by deleting intermediate waypoints. Couple tries and we were successful. What we figured out, we don't know if we were correct, that Ford tries to send you to a charger before you get the " low battery" warning.
Arrived at Gulfport Mississippi at 4:30pm to an empty EA station.
Picked a 350KW stall. Max charge at 163KW to 93% SOC, uploaded 68KW for 50min at $15.54 inc tax.
Enough charge to travel to Slidell, do any errands locally and come back to Gulfport for a charge on our way home. Gulfport is only 44 miles from Slidell. Although the stall were empty, the outlets were busy with last minute shoppers. A convenient restroom stop, stretch our legs and to see my first Subaru Soltera EV pull next to us. No conversation though. My wife tells me that I am a big scary guy, people try to keep their distance at an empty parking lot off I 10. On the same conversation, she told me that the BC drives smoother than I do.
Big scary guy from New England married to a southern girl.
BC-1, Scary guy-0.
The total for this leg, 595 miles, costing $43.55 inl taxes.
Off to enjoy Christmas with my daughter. Put on my Santa hat and drove west on I 10.
A note of caution, BC doesn't work with the sun 3°-5° above the horizon. The sun at those angles, glare off the roadway, sun in your eyes, is kryptonite for the BC system. 40 min later the Mach E sled arrived. Smiles on everyone's faces. St Nick is here.
Dec 27th, at 7am and 51° outside, we started our return trip home.
Back to Gulfport Mississippi for a top off to 90% SOC. Max charge at 75KW. Understood why. Bypassed the nav suggestions to stop in Saraland/Mobile AL. The charge this time was complimentary. It seems every (4)fourth charge is free at EA.
Again, we created a 60 miles cushion in our charge to reach Greenville AL. The sweet spot speed this time was 72mph on BC. Now we were working on 2°-3° incline all the way home, Greenville SC.
At 11am, pulled in to an empty stall next to a Rivian R1S.
Max charge at 154KW, to 92% SOC for 53 min. Uploaded 72KW at $15.62 inc tax. Restroom break was imperative. Time flew by talking to other EV owners. Couple of them were renting EVs to get accustomed. The experience though wasn't going to well. Didn't have the time to explain well their concerns. Something like....my friends drive Teslas and I am giving it a try by renting an EV.
Tried not to complicate the issue as another R1S pulled in. The Rivian folks were not investing any time to talking. Sometimes can't explain EVs at a charging station.
Back on the road to East Point GA.
A short stop ????? at Bucee's at Auburn, another interesting stop to use the restroom, pick up lunch and jerky meats to snack on the road.
Arrived at East Point GA at 4:30pm. Max charge at 165KW to 85% SOC. Uploaded 63KW for 41min at $13.15 inc tax. Luckily, we arrived just in time to a complete full station, minus one stall. We took it. Again tried to talk to anyone who wanted to converse with the big scary guy.
A lady was trying to charge her Polestar. Interesting, asking me for some help. Come to think of it, she had rented it from the Atlanta airport, and trying to return it with some charge in it. Trying to avoid the 59¢ per minute or per kw the rental company was charging.
Needless to say, it was not going well for the lady.
Time to get on the road again and face the evening traffic in Atlanta.
Not bad. Traffic moved at 55mph until 15 miles outside Atlanta and on I 85N. Arrived home at 8pm.
The leg of our trip home cost us $28.77 inc tax. The entire 1200 miles cost us $72.32 inc tax.
Unloaded the car and joined the neighbors for a beer and to catch up with the news.
No issues with the HV BJB module and I couldn't tell if the patch software by Ford reduced the max charge rates to protect the module. I do know though that anything above 72-75% SOC the charge rate was at 45-48KW.
BC was great. It made the trip a lot more comfortable. My wife agreed with my observation. She is happy, I am happy.
The next day it was HVBJB change at the dealer. I didn't see the curve ball coming at me when I showed up at the dealer. Our service rep, which we deal all the time, had me down for the moon roof reseal and windshield reseal. I was more interested with the HVBJB module.
The curve ball swung low and I missed it. Strike Out. Took the fob and told me to check with them in couple days. Couple days later, the moon roof reseal was done. The windshield had to be replaced. Ordering another took couple days and at the end, the recall specialist realized when the technician showed up to accomplish the module replacement, the module was not in stock.
I was not in the best of spirits listening to this f@&# up and the explanations. When you take things apart, especially a lot of paneling, not all goes back exactly the same way. One of the panels at the right aft pillar is not completely flush.
They ordered a panel. Replacing it with the HVBJB module on backorder until Feb 2nd.
Today it has been raining all night.
Time to go check for any leaks.
Better not find anything.
The MME did its job. I am still very happy with the vehicle. It has taking us in many places, long and short trips, in comfort, safely and very cost effective.
I really missed those gas bills...Not.!!!
Sponsored
