First road trip - Manistee Mi

[mdwinther35]

Took our first (relatively short) road trip from SE Mi to Manistee, about 250 miles each way. 2023 select standard range AWD. Did lots of research and planning using plug share and ABRP, as well as following all the trip reports here (many thanks to everyone who shared their learnings), so felt fairly confident heading out. Ended up following the nav recommendations for the most part, but was familiar with the locations it suggested from my upfront research. Charged to 100% beforehand, made it to the Midland area at 41% and used a Red E charger to go to 80% in 20 min while we had lunch. Added 33% in Scottville at another Red E then on to Manistee, arrived at the hotel at 54%. Likely could have made it without the second charge but wanted to take the opportunity to charge at multiple locations and get some experience. Used the hotel L2 (expensive but convienient) to get to 80%. On the way home I wanted to use some EA credit so headed to the new location in Grand Rapids (23% to 80%), then topped off briefly at a Flying J near Lansing for our final charge.

A few observations:

• Used the Public Charging app to initiate each charge, that worked fine, but it seemed to lose connectivity and didn't work to stop charging so I just used to button near the charge port. The exception was at the flying J where using the app end to end worked fine.
• Plug and charge didn't work at the EA station. I do have it enabled in FordPass and did a P&C supercharger test with the adapter several weeks ago which worked fine. Neglected to note the error message. Ended up just initiating using Public Charging and that worked fine. It did use some of my free EA credit so that was good.
• The Flying J location was pretty close to the regular gas station experience, covered chargers/trash cans/squeegees, decent store and restrooms.
• Since we combined charge stops with lunch/bathroom/stretch breaks it really didn't feel like we took much extra time relative to ICE.
• Overall no range anxiety, was very comfortable with availability of chargers and getting them to work. Didn't run into any situations where I needed to try multiple plugs as others have experienced.

Overall high confidence for road tripping in the future.

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[Ford Motor Company]

Took our first (relatively short) road trip from SE Mi to Manistee, about 250 miles each way. 2023 select standard range AWD. Did lots of research and planning using plug share and ABRP, as well as following all the trip reports here (many thanks to everyone who shared their learnings), so felt fairly confident heading out. Ended up following the nav recommendations for the most part, but was familiar with the locations it suggested from my upfront research. Charged to 100% beforehand, made it to the Midland area at 41% and used a Red E charger to go to 80% in 20 min while we had lunch. Added 33% in Scottville at another Red E then on to Manistee, arrived at the hotel at 54%. Likely could have made it without the second charge but wanted to take the opportunity to charge at multiple locations and get some experience. Used the hotel L2 (expensive but convienient) to get to 80%. On the way home I wanted to use some EA credit so headed to the new location in Grand Rapids (23% to 80%), then topped off briefly at a Flying J near Lansing for our final charge.

A few observations:

• Used the Public Charging app to initiate each charge, that worked fine, but it seemed to lose connectivity and didn't work to stop charging so I just used to button near the charge port. The exception was at the flying J where using the app end to end worked fine.
• Plug and charge didn't work at the EA station. I do have it enabled in FordPass and did a P&C supercharger test with the adapter several weeks ago which worked fine. Neglected to note the error message. Ended up just initiating using Public Charging and that worked fine. It did use some of my free EA credit so that was good.
• The Flying J location was pretty close to the regular gas station experience, covered chargers/trash cans/squeegees, decent store and restrooms.
• Since we combined charge stops with lunch/bathroom/stretch breaks it really didn't feel like we took much extra time relative to ICE.
• Overall no range anxiety, was very comfortable with availability of chargers and getting them to work. Didn't run into any situations where I needed to try multiple plugs as others have experienced.

Overall high confidence for road tripping in the future.

That sounds like so much fun, Matt! We'd love to see some pics!

 

[YeOldeTraveller]

Congratulations on a good first trip.

You might need to cycle Plug and Charge to get that working. There are EA sites on the west side of Detroit (Livonia, Novi, and Ypsilanti) for testing.

The Pilot Flying J sites are a good package with the 24/7 services that I have come to expect from decades of road trips.

 

[Nathan R Jessep]

I’ve played golf a number of times in Manistee. I love that area. Thanks for the post. My wife and I are traveling to Baltimore from Northwest Ohio next month and I want to take the MME. I have the Tesla adapter from Ford and have used it once successfully. I may keep notes during the trip and post my experience for others. I love my MME for daily driving and am getting more comfortable with traveling, but this will be my longest road trip yet. Wish me luck!!

 

[noflipping]

Nice! I just made a loop from Detroit area to Pittsburgh - Nazareth, PA (to the Martin guitar factory) - Philly - Pittsburgh - home (about 900 miles). Never had a single issues with P&C. Used EA/Tesla/EVGO and 1 hotel charger overnight. Every one that I used started up and ran no issues via P&C. Tesla adapter has really opened up the options on long trips - essentially eliminating range anxiety.

BTW - I also have gone back and forth between Apple Maps, ABRP, and car nav. I've found overall, the car nav is most seamless. Feels most integrated on the road (though I still don't have update that allows Public Charging to work while driving, which would be nice). Great car to road trip in with a little planning.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I’ve played golf a number of times in Manistee. I love that area. Thanks for the post. My wife and I are traveling to Baltimore from Northwest Ohio next month and I want to take the MME. I have the Tesla adapter from Ford and have used it once successfully. I may keep notes during the trip and post my experience for others. I love my MME for daily driving and am getting more comfortable with traveling, but this will be my longest road trip yet. Wish me luck!!

Safe travels, Nathan! We can't wait to hear about your adventure with your Mach-E

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