Yes, it's a feature of the Mach-E's frunk. You can hose it out if it gets dirty, even. The drain works well by all accounts.
Thank you, that is cool!
Yes, an EA at Broadway at the Beach would be good. And a site up at North Myrtle Beach too.
Thanks to your son for his service! I went thru Lackland BMT in 2010. Still in the Air Guard!We took our first long road trip to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend and overall the trip went as planned.
We took off for Vegas at 5AM on Saturday and the plan was to stop in Barstow, CA for a 80% quick charge. I had planned on 3 people with luggage but our niece came with us so now we have 4 people with luggage. It is 240 miles from our home to Barstow, CA and I figured we would be able to make it on one charge but that didn't go as planned....
The 166 out of Santa Maria, CA to the I-5/R-99 near Bakersfield pretty much rises in elevation to a mountain pass heading in to Maricopa, CA. This is something I never really paid much attention to all the time I've driven it before. So with 4 people even at 65MPH we were getting about 2.5 kWh out to Bakersfield before going up the Tehachapi pass on Highway 58. By the time we reached Mojave, CA we had 71 miles to go to the EA chargers in Barstow with the GOM saying we had 68 miles of range.
The stretch from Mojave, CA to Barstow, CA on Highway 58 is usually very fast. Posted speed limit is 65MPH but everyone is easily doing 75MPH+ so I decided to not take a chance and stopped in Mojave for a 15 minute fast charge to 43%. Normally we would stop in Tehachapi for a quick bathroom break and maybe snack purchase so this 15 minutes in Mojave wasn't bad.
We rolled in to Barstow for the planned fast charge and ended up charging to 90% as we took our time eating breakfast.
We also filled the frunk with ice and drinks...
The trip to Vegas was better than expected. With traffic on the I-15 from Barstow all the way to Baker along with the elevation going down we got to the Baker Grade with a 3.9 kWh! By the time we hit the top of Mt. Pass heading down to Primm it was 2.7 kWh. We got to our destination in Vegas with a 30% charge remaining.
I was able to get a 100% charge at a EA station on Sunday for our trip back on Monday and when we did leave for home we started out at a 95% charge.
No issues out of Vegas doing 70MPH and holding a steady 3.0 kWh up to the base of Mt. Pass and going up Mt. Pass was better than going up the Baker Grade. You climb so fast in elevation that we only dropped to 2.6 kWh by the time we were heading down to Baker, CA. We did 75MPH most of the way in to Barstow and arrived with a 35% charge remaining. We did a fast charge to 85% over breakfast and did a very fast run out west on Highway 58 to Bakersfield. At one point with zero traffic anywhere near us we did a fast jaunt up to 110MPH and spent most of the time at 75-80MPH in to Tehachapi???
A 20 minute stop in Bakersfield got us back to 80% and that was more than enough to get us back home.
We did 893 miles for the total trip and paid $107.93. Had we taken my Raptor it would have been $230 or more in gas. Had we taken our Fusion it would have been maybe $60... We took the Fusion once before and with a full tank we made it to Vegas and back to Barstow before having to fill up!
Which brings me to my only real complaint... I could not get off the FordPass Plug & Charge so I could charge via EA at a cheaper rate. The first time I disabled Plug & Charge EA failed no matter what. I re-enabled Plug & Charge and it was fine. It was not until I got home that I was successful in using EA to charge the car.... Plug & Charge was disable and I closed the FordPass app. That allowed me to pay via EA and get the discounted rate.
Is this the way you do it or is there another trick that I should be doing???
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We now have a good idea what a long trip will be like with the Mach-E. Our son enters the Air Force in July which means we will go to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX sometime in September for his graduation. Our plan right now is to take the Mach-E. Having to stop every 200 miles or so for up to 40 minutes over a 3500 mile trip is a bit of concern time wise... It's not the end of the world but it will be different than what we are used to. We can easily do 400 miles without a stop when we want to. I guess we'll find out soon enough if it's a good idea or not!
Although some EA fast chargers would be nice, I'd settle for anything 50kW and up really. Both Myrtle and the Outer Banks really need some DC chargers. Any of the numerous shopping centers at both would be an excellent spot. They both have level 2 charge points, but that's just a tad slow.
That's great! Our oldest son is stationed right now at Misawa AFB right now and he plans to leave next June for the Air Guard so he can finish college and go back in to the AF as an officer!
If she won't let it go, change your wife. Who needs tunnel-vision?
Yes. The front motor is just behind and under the small rear section. The drain plug actually drains almost right on the motor. I'd assume it'd spray the motor with water if the fan was running at the same time. One of the big reasons you don't see it dripping is it's wetting the under felt areo cover. Which does a good job absorbing water. I had pulled my divider out thinking it was silly but 2 months later and I'm about to put it back in because when it's out it opens up 4 or 6 more holes in the frunk. And If I wanted it to keep cool I'd have to remedy that a bit more. It didn't make sense to me that the drain couldn't be plugged. Ice cold water does a great job keeping cold things cold. I think i need to build a retro kit with a plugable drain and a line to run somewhere to allow it to pee it all out.We filled the entire frunk with ice (took between 40-50 lbs) and the ice in the center always melted first. Not sure if there is something behind it that generates extra heat or if it is due to the water flowing though the drain plug (in the center storage).
