MD—>Niagara—>Canada—>Michigan and back! (Sleeping in Mach-E)

[jmcbrew]

Just got home from my summer road trip to visit my wife’s family in Michigan. Normally, we drive from Maryland, through PA and OH, and straight up into Michigan. This time, we went up through PA and NY to Niagara Falls. Then we crossed the border into Ontario and headed over to Michigan. After the big family campout, I headed back home alone while my wife and kids stayed to visit with family for another week. I came back through Ohio, WV, PA, and finally back to MD.

The total miles traveled was 1,587.9. I got an average of 3.1 miles per kWh during the trip. Just FYI, I do not have EV/LRR tires. Most of the trip was at 5-10 MPH o er the speed limit when possible. Speed limits were 65 to 75 MPH, but mostly 70. I was also pulling a cargo rack with a 20 cubic foot cargo bag on the back. We had four carry-on suitcases, air mattresses, pillows, blankets, cookware, a helmet, and lots of other stuff in there.

On the way back, I spent the night in the car on an air mattress in a WalMart parking lot. I had the AC cranking all night and lost about 1% per hour on the standard range battery. I also had a small fridge running in the car.

Charging went well everywhere except for both hotels. The first hotel had EV charging listed as an amenity online, but they did not actually have any, nor would they let me plug into any of the 120V outlets or the 240V outlets on the outside of the building. I drove 1/2 mile
To a grocery store with free charging and walked back to the hotel. The second hotel had one L2 charger (kiwEV brand) with an annoying app and it was ICEd when we got to the hotel. The girl at the front desk called the people down to move their car. I plugged in for a couple of hours, but when we came back from dinner it was ICEd again.

Almost all of our DC charging was done at Tesla superchargers. Ran into one that didn’t work, but the one next to it did. The only CCS1 was a GM/EVgo site.

Oh, and I turned off Plug&Charge so that I could use my Tesla membership, but now I can’t figure out how to turn it back on. There’s no button to turn it back on in the app for some reason. Anybody know what’s up with that?

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[YeOldeTraveller]

I just got back from a trip from SE MI to the Keweenaw and back in my Rally.

Plug and Charge is on the Energy tab of the FordPass app under Advanced > Access & Permissions

 

[dan_meh]

I was also pulling a cargo rack with a 20 cubic foot cargo bag on the back. We had four carry-on suitcases, air mattresses, pillows, blankets, cookware, a helmet, and lots of other stuff in there.

On the way back, I spent the night in the car on an air mattress in a WalMart parking lot. I had the AC cranking all night and lost about 1% per hour on the standard range battery. I also had a small fridge running in the car.

Would you mind sharing what you used for air mattress, fridge, and cargo rack?

 

[jmcbrew]

Plug and Charge is on the Energy tab of the FordPass app under Advanced > Access & Permissions

Yeah… it’s just that there’s no option to turn it back on any more. I e turned it off and on many times in the past. My account still says that my Blue Oval Charging is still active. I tried restarting both the app and my phone. No luck. Maybe I’ll delete and reinstall the app.

 

[jmcbrew]

Would you mind sharing what you used for air mattress, fridge, and cargo rack?

Sure thing.

I use this fridge from Euhomy, although mine is branded F40C4TMP. I e had it for a couple of years and it works great.

My air mattress is this one from D-Hive. I got the short length one and it fits the Mach-E just fine. It includes the inflatable fillers that go in the rear footwells.

And my cargo rack and bag are from Mockins. I did add LED tail lights to it, since the bag almost completely blocks the Mach-E’s lamps. I also move my license plate to the rack when I use the bag.

 

[YeOldeTraveller]

I had a similar issue last year, but a restart of the phone was the fix.

Good luck!

 

[jmcbrew]

I did a hard restart of the phone again and no luck. I deleted the Ford Pass app and reinstalled… still no luck. Just looks like this:

 

[KidGalahad]

I'm sorry. You went on a 1500 mile trip, averaged between 70-85 mph, you were towing something, and averaged 3.1 miles per kWh? I'm obviously doing something wrong...

 

[ChrisO]

I'm sorry. You went on a 1500 mile trip, averaged between 70-85 mph, you were towing something, and averaged 3.1 miles per kWh? I'm obviously doing something wrong...

Me too. 3.1 is about what I get from San Jose, CA to LA on I-5 which we tend to do at about 70 to 75 mph and most of the trip is as flat as you can get, and we are going during perfect weather not even really needing air conditioning. Nothing towed, almost no luggage, two adults.

 

[Vernal]

I just got back from a trip from SE MI to the Keweenaw and back in my Rally.

Plug and Charge is on the Energy tab of the FordPass app under Advanced > Access & Permissions

Not to hijack the thread, I have a Mach E GT on order first EV for me. I'm from the Keweenaw, live in SE Michigan for work and plan on doing this run quite a bit.

How is that trip? I've looked on some route planning apps and it seems pretty doable but I'd be very interested in your real life experience.

 

[YeOldeTraveller]

Not to hijack the thread, I have a Mach E GT on order first EV for me. I'm from the Keweenaw, live in SE Michigan for work and plan on doing this run quite a bit.

How is that trip? I've looked on some route planning apps and it seems pretty doable but I'd be very interested in your real life experience.

Created my own report.

 

[jmcbrew]

I'm sorry. You went on a 1500 mile trip, averaged between 70-85 mph, you were towing something, and averaged 3.1 miles per kWh? I'm obviously doing something wrong...

Me too. 3.1 is about what I get from San Jose, CA to LA on I-5 which we tend to do at about 70 to 75 mph and most of the trip is as flat as you can get, and we are going during perfect weather not even really needing air conditioning. Nothing towed, almost no luggage, two adults.

Keep in mind that I have a base model RWD Mach-E… no AWD or performance upgrades. And as far as “average” speed goes…. I don’t know what that was. I just know that I never went above 80 MPH, and most of the time the speed limit was 70 and I had cruise set at 75. However, there was also a decent amount of time below those speeds.

And I wasn’t technically “towing” anything. No extra wheels on the ground. I had a hitch-mounted cargo rack. You cannot see the rack or cargo bag from inside the car. It doesn’t add much drag.

I did have about 800 pounds of humans inside the car, plus luggage and camping gear.

 

[ChrisO]

Keep in mind that I have a base model RWD Mach-E… no AWD or performance upgrades. And as far as “average” speed goes…. I don’t know what that was. I just know that I never went above 80 MPH, and most of the time the speed limit was 70 and I had cruise set at 75. However, there was also a decent amount of time below those speeds.

And I wasn’t technically “towing” anything. No extra wheels on the ground. I had a hitch-mounted cargo rack. You cannot see the rack or cargo bag from inside the car. It doesn’t add much drag.

I did have about 800 pounds of humans inside the car, plus luggage and camping gear.

Oh, I thought it was "extra wheels".

I too, have the base RWD Mach-E, and at least to me, I can see how the extra 800 pounds wouldn't make that much difference. So, now it does make sense.

Thanks!

 

[jmcbrew]

Would you mind sharing what you used for air mattress, fridge, and cargo rack?

By the way, here’s a pic of that air mattress in the back of the Mach-E:

And another thing I will mention for anyone who wants to travel with a 12v fridge — Like most modern cars, the 12v outlets in the Mach-E turn off when (or shortly after) you turn the car off. I plug a small portable power station into the 12v outlet in the back, and then plug the fridge into that. While the car is running, the fridge is essentially running off of the car’s 12v system, but when you shut the car off, the power station continues to power it. Then when you start the car again, it will bring the power station back up to 100% charge. The power station I use is a Pion Power E600LFP, which is identical to the Pecron E600LFP (other than the color). It’ll run the fridge by itself for more than 2 days. It also has enough power (1,200 watts continuous/2,400 surge) to run small cooking appliances — great for cooking up an inexpensive meal on the road!

 

[col127]

How did the air mattress fit over the wheel arches? I just bought one that was about 41” because that seemed to be the width between it… the one you got is 43.7” so it would go over the wheel arches part? Did it make it kind of “lumpy” since that part would be elevated?

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