Seattle to Dallas

[PapaMache]

I hear ya. Going east from Denver means lots of eastern Colorado, followed by a choice of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma or the Texas panhandle. Makes me wish we had Tesla FSD so I could nap.

Have a good trip!

You can nap! Wrap an ankle weight on your bluecruise steering wheel and put on some googly eyes glasses for the scanner to see.

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[RickMachE]

I don’t understand the post. You know how to plan a trip. What's the question?

For me, that is a 4 day drive.

 

[B177y]

I’m thinking of taking a short drive from Seattle WA to Dallas TX via Butte MT, Salt Lake City, Denver.

But I’m having second thoughts.
Change my mind.

I did a potion of that route (Sequim, WA to Moab, UT) round trip in Nov 2023 in my Cal Rt 1 trim MME with no problem, and that was pre Tesla charger access and using the built-in navigation exclusively. I did the more direct route for that trip, but your plan of Butte to SLC should work just fine too according to ABRP (used my current Lightning profile in ABRP).

I drove the 80 mph speed limit when available, hit cold, rain, and snow in both directions. There's more charging options now and more navigation and planning options, your trip plan should be plenty easy.

I love the desert SW this time of year, just prepare for the potential weather and be flexible. Carry chains or tire socks for any pass restrictions. Do it, and have fun!

 

[DesignMatters]

Be smart. Rent a gas powered vehicle, put all the wear, tear and mileage depreciation on it with the side benefit of a far quicker and easier to execute journey — focus on seeing sights and driving — not charging stops and range calculations. Enjoy your BEV doing what they do best, fast and fun vehicle for local trips. Good luck.

 

[Colorado MME GT]

For a 2013 Bolt, you're probably correct. It had a very small battery and an extremely slow charging speed. For an MME, my experience is 10-15%. Tesla or Elecertify America chargers are pretty quick.

 

[Colorado MME GT]

Be smart. Rent a gas powered vehicle, put all the wear, tear and mileage depreciation on it with the side benefit of a far quicker and easier to execute journey — focus on seeing sights and driving — not charging stops and range calculations. Enjoy your BEV doing what they do best, fast and fun vehicle for local trips. Good luck.

I didn't know that EVs were only for local trips. I treat mine as I would any ICE, without any range anxiety. I would pre-plan any trip I took, even when I drove my Subaru. Where is there good coffee, interesting food, and, most importantly for a male in his 60s, bathrooms. Adding charging stops is now just part of it, mostly to ensure that the chargers are modern and fast.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

None of these apps are capable of automatically planning overnight stops. Start each day at 100% and you can save significant time on stops. If your destinations of Butte, SLC, and Denver, are overnight stops, configure each one to include a L2 overnight charge when you input them on the “where do you want to go” screen. If I were to do this road trip, I’d probably add another overnight stop somewhere near Amarillo or deeper in TX—I’m not a fan of 14 hour days.

That will improve the automated planning from 22 to 16 charge stops, and several of the remaining stops in ABRP are nonsense stops for ~5-10 minutes of charging and 5 minutes of overhead. Slow down by a few mph for that section and you save much more time by skipping the stop than you lose by going a bit slower.

And with a bit slower speed than the default in ABRP, I can easily get the total number of stops down to 10-12, or half as many as ABRP plans. And given my experiences with road tripping in these states, that makes a lot more sense than ABRP’s default results.

Trips like these cost us no extra time compared with the way we road tripped back in the dark ages.

We would grab breakfast and hit the road. After 2-3 hours, we’d stop for a restroom break, snacks, and a quick stretch-our-legs walk. Back on the road for another 2-3 hours, stop for lunch, restroom break, and stretch our legs. Back on the road for another 2-3 hours, stop for a restroom break, maybe some snacks, and back on the road. Stop for dinner, go to the hotel. Next day, waste time going to the gas station, then find breakfast, and hit the road. Do it all over again.

 

[bwr1338]

I’m thinking of taking a short drive from Seattle WA to Dallas TX via Butte MT, Salt Lake City, Denver.

But I’m having second thoughts.
Change my mind.

I would not be worried about it. I looked at it on

I’m thinking of taking a short drive from Seattle WA to Dallas TX via Butte MT, Salt Lake City, Denver.

But I’m having second thoughts.
Change my mind.

I added Montana just to avoid too much boring desert driving. The Yakima and Boise route isn’t that much shorter. I have to look closer at the available chargers in ID and MT.

I would not be worried from what I see on the maps. Did you add any hotel chargers so you can eliminate a daytime stop? Saves a lot of time.

 

[AliRafiee]

Thanks for all the encouragements guys.
I wimped out and bought my plane tickets this morning. I might try the drive this summer.
Thinking with the cold weather it will be just too many charges for it to be enjoyable.
I do want to take it easy and unwind, but I think it will be too long on the road and not enough time to enjoy the destination.

 

[AliRafiee]

I would not be worried about it. I looked at it on


I would not be worried from what I see on the maps. Did you add any hotel chargers so you can eliminate a daytime stop? Saves a lot of time.

I didn’t count on charging at hotels since I wasn’t even sure where I would decide to crash for the night. I didn’t want to have to push to get to a preplanned stop.

 

[DonM]

What do you all think the trip would be like if you just let Ford do all the planning in-car and you just did what it said at all times? That is, let it add all the charging stops on the fly, and go to them. After all, Ford doesn't have route pre-planning software. I get the message that Ford doesn't want you to pre-plan, but instead just let the car plan it for you as you go. So, what do you think would happen? I honestly don't know.

 

[RickMachE]

What do you all think the trip would be like if you just let Ford do all the planning in-car and you just did what it said at all times? That is, let it add all the charging stops on the fly, and go to them. After all, Ford doesn't have route pre-planning software. I get the message that Ford doesn't want you to pre-plan, but instead just let the car plan it for you as you go. So, what do you think would happen? I honestly don't know.

Your conclusion is wrong. Ford removed planning software from app and didn’t put it back because new app required revised planning software. Using car would be a cluster.

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