GT-PE Range & Charging Q: Newbie

[Mach-e-in-MI]

Hey Gang. Just took delivery of our Grabber Blue GT-PE on Thurs and charged it for the first time Friday night. Took me a few min to figure stuff out as it's our first EV and first time charging.


Ford Mobile Charger on 30AMP Circuit:

-Comes with the car runs 32amps regardless of power availability.
-I could not find anywhere in the car's settings to dial-it down to 24 amps.

Plugged into our dryer circuit until we get our permanent charger installed. Surprised Ford doesn't have the option to restrict amperage in the car settings like Tesla? Think it might be included at some point?

-Why wouldn't they add a Nema 14-30 adapter along with the 14-50 and 120v ones. Assume this could easily fix the problem? Think that's even a possibility?
-The 120v tells the charger to limit amperage so would assume a 14-30 could do the same.

Any workaround to restricting amp draw when on 240v? Dryer outlets are pretty common and if we are travelling and in a pinch somewhere, I'd like to safely charge on a 30amp circuit.


-Juicebox 40 plug-in is our permanent charger so when I noticed the Ford charger pulling 32 amps, I didn't feel safe leaving it running. (We have DTE Insights app which shows us a live view of consumption). Dialed this one down to 24 amps and let it charge to 80%.


RANGE & Overnight loss:

-Dealership charged car to 95% which showed 237 miles of range. With some reverse math, that yields 249.5 miles at 100%. About 10 miles short of claimed range?

-Charged to 80% -186 miles of range with Juicebox. Reverse math: 232.5 miles at 100% HUH??

-Car was parked in garage overnight, off the charger, not driven. It lost 8 miles of range and 2% in a 24 hour period. Ambient temp about 55-65 F in garage. Is this normal to lose that much range?

Does my range experience match everyone else's or is there something off on mine that is drawing more power when parked?

Car was initially set in unbridled mode but I've seen switched to whisper thinking this might de-tune the amp draw yielding better range.

Any advice or tips on how to maximize range and should I still abide by the general "don't go more than 80% charge" rule? Ford says 90% on a regular basis is OK.

Any thoughts?

Posting in GT forum since my range Q might very well be unique to the GT or even the PE edition.

Thanks!
Marc

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[snowy_91]

"Any advice or tips on how to maximize range and should I still abide by the general "don't go more than 80% charge" rule? Ford says 90% on a regular basis is OK. "

It has been my experience that the power of the GTPE is intoxicating. Trying to keep my foot out of it to maximize range is realllllly hard. I have mine set to charge to 95% and have it plugged in any time I am home.

 

[AKgrampy]

The 80% guide is no more. It is 90% as you mentioned. Charge to 100% when you are heading out on a trip. Not that much of an expert here on range but temp does effect range. One way to increase range would be to precondition your battery and precondition cab climate. You would probably get back that slight range you lost overnight. There are many posts and YouTube videos on this. Plus the range is just a guesstimate based on battery charge and mi/hWh history. So it will vary with outside temps and driving conditions such as highway versus city driving. As for the charger I do not see Ford ever making a change to make its output adjustable. Most of the posts I have read show people who want to get a charge when no public charger available go to a RV park.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

1. Always remember the range displayed on the dash is a guess generated by an algorithm. It has almost no bearing on how far you can actually go. You may be able to go much further. You may not be able to go nearly that far. If you want a real number, look at your current miles/kwh and multiply that times your remaining kwh in your battery.

2.Always remember that the “claimed range” was arrived at driving the EPA milage test. If you want to achieve that number of range, you’ll need to drive like you’re trying to repeat their test. Ie: in ideal conditions and average around 40MPH. Here’s the nuts and bolts on how to do that: EPA testing


3. the included ford charger isn’t scaleable. You were right to not leave it on your dryer outlet pulling 32 amps. If you want a scalable EVSE you can find them out there but you’ll have to purchase it yourself. Some companies aren’t including an EVSE at all. So I’m pretty happy we got one at all, let alone one with two options for plugging it in.

 

[Mach-e-in-MI]

"Any advice or tips on how to maximize range and should I still abide by the general "don't go more than 80% charge" rule? Ford says 90% on a regular basis is OK. "

It has been my experience that the power of the GTPE is intoxicating. Trying to keep my foot out of it to maximize range is realllllly hard. I have mine set to charge to 95% and have it plugged in any time I am home.

Yep - OMG -so true... I guess my Q was around -once I plugged it in or even on the "maiden" PDI charge, the range was lower than the specification.

 

[Thor2j]

Our daily GOM post.

 

[alangant]

I bought a Grizzl-E basic charger, and can set the current to 16, 24, 32, or 40 A for use with 20, 30, 40, or 50 A service/breakers. I'll also need an adapter to plug into a typical dryer outlet.

I plan to leave the Ford charger in my car for travel, assuming my MME ever arrives!

 

[RickMachE]

Check the range Thursday when it's 80 degrees.

Never use a dryer outlet with a 30amp breaker with the included charger.

Read the many range threads. Nothing unique about a GT-PE except less power for 5 seconds and more money spent....

 

[Mach-e-in-MI]

Our daily GOM post.

OK - took me a bit to figure out what GOM stands for ?- never heard that acronym - "Guess-O-Meter"... AKA -Range indicator on the driver's instrument panel.

If anyone has similar Q, I found this excellent post that really explains the range calculation well.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...ulate-how-far-your-mach-e-can-really-go.6104/

 

[HuntingPudel]

I just returned from a long trip with my GT-PE. Charging was a non-issue. Range was a non-issue since there is good spacing between EA stations on I-5. I did charge to 95% on one leg because ABRP was having me skip a couple of EA stations at one point (arrived with >15% charge, so a non-issue). Got nailed with a snow storm on the way back. That was a non-issue other than me freaking out about my Summer tires in sub-30 degree temperature (and driving super slow because of that). ?‍??

GOM? I ignore it and just go by the same information I have in my 72 Blazer: Fuel level. ??

 

[machdady]

noob question - the mobile charger can't scale down from 32 amps? it has to in no? when you plug into a 110v outlet, its probably only on a 15 or 20 amp circuit?

 

[Mach-e-in-MI]

noob question - the mobile charger can't scale down from 32 amps? it has to in no? when you plug into a 110v outlet, its probably only on a 15 or 20 amp circuit?

2 different plugs come w it. The 120v assumes a 15amp circuit so it will only draw 12 amps at 120v even if you plugged it into a 20 amp circuit.

The 240v will draw 32 amps regardless of what you plug it into. In my case, I used an adapter to go from the nema 14-50 plug that comes w the charger to a nema 14-30 to plug into my dryer receptacle but that's a recipe for disaster as it will pull 32amp on a 30amp breaker where max draw should only be 24 amps. You could overheat the wire and/or trip the breaker.

For constant load applications like charging you should only draw up to 80% of a breaker's rated load.

Ford doesn't provide any means in the mobile charger or the vehicle settings to limit or adjust amp draw.

 

[machdady]

2 different plugs come w it. The 120v assumes a 15amp circuit so it will only draw 12 amps at 120v even if you plugged it into a 20 amp circuit.

The 240v will draw 32 amps regardless of what you plug it into. In my case, I used an adapter to go from the nema 14-50 plug that comes w the charger to a nema 14-30 to plug into my dryer receptacle but that's a recipe for disaster as it will pull 32amp on a 30amp breaker where max draw should only be 24 amps. You could overheat the wire and/or trip the breaker.

For constant load applications like charging you should only draw up to 80% of a breaker's rated load.

Ford doesn't provide any means in the mobile charger or the vehicle settings to limit or adjust amp draw.

ok gotcha. that makes sense - the 110 v adapter will adjust the amps. that does suck that the mobile charge will only pull 32 amps. i'll make sure that the outlets i plug into are the right amps - most probably aren't 40 amps unless there specifically for a car i would imagine.

 

[HuntingPudel]

ok gotcha. that makes sense - the 110 v adapter will adjust the amps. that does suck that the mobile charge will only pull 32 amps. i'll make sure that the outlets i plug into are the right amps - most probably aren't 40 amps unless there specifically for a car i would imagine.

If the circuit is correct for the outlet (14-50), the circuit should be capable of handling 50A. Of course, there is no way of knowing that unless you take stuff apart to ensure wire gauge and insulation type. ??

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