New F-150 Electric P/U

[Redcatcher70]

OK, saw the ad on television for the Electric F-150, not really impressed. 300 mile average distance traveled on a charge, then charge overnight and ready for another 300 miles. I live in Central Arkansas, my son lives in Rockwall, Texas, I calculated my mileage and come up with total distance of 327 miles. Not counting off and ons for potty breaks and he lives a few miles off I-30, I rounded it up to 350 miles.
Now if I drove the elec. truck, I would have to find a place between Greenville and Rowlett to charge and spend the night. Why would I want one of these trucks?

[wanderingaimles]

I dont/will not own one, but even Tesla fans admit the range suffers horribly. Teslarati article and this was a less than 5000 lb boat. A travel trailer, due to the frontal wind resistance will be considerably worse.
As an urban, maybe even suburban, grocery getter, enjoy your tesla or other EV, but to work for what folks do for RV'ing they have a long way to go.

[Reisender]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Reisender wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Reisender wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Going back to the OP's comment.
He would not have enough range to go to son's house. When there, he would be stuck with trying to charge using a standard 15 amp outlet, which will take DAYS to charge for MOST of the return trip.

Or, just stop in at a public charger for 15 or 20 minutes and spend 8 or 10 bucks. It depends on ones schedule I suppose.

IF one is close by and available.

Yes that’s true. That depends on infrastructure. In our province DC fast chargers are pretty much ubiquitous and more everyday. But every region is different of course. Always best to analyze your personal situation.

And on top of this, normally people dont calculate the use of heat or AC into a vehicle trip, BUT with these electric vehicles, the use of either further reduces your useful range by 30-50%, so on a summer day, that 350 mile trip will now requires 2 stops to recharge due to the AC reducing the already limited range.
And since this thread was started as a "Tow vehicles" thread. lets further reduce the range again, to where that F-150 with a claimed 300 mile range will likely have only 90 to 120 miles available when pulling your trailer on a summer day.
Welcome to the 1930's.

I can’t speak for other vehicles but certainly our present EV uses no where near those suggested numbers. Typically AC draws around an additional KW plus or minus. Think of a small 5000 btu Home Depot air conditioner mounted in a small space like a car. It doesn’t take long to turn it into a meat locker. If you are stuck in traffic for 8 hours and wanting to keep cool an EV is a great place to be. You might use 10 percent of an 80 KWh battery. Really, running AC is not a big deal. The car figures it out and calculates your required charging stop and location accordingly.

Cold? It depends. If your EV has a heat pump it’s not too bad down to a certain point before resistance heat kicks in. If you have an older EV that only had resistance heat you can lose a third or more of your range. Either way, the car figures it out and calculates your charging stop and location accordingly.

Of course, as always, analyze your own needs and see if it’s right for you. For our needs and performance expectation gas vehicles have lots of disadvantages and no advantages so it’s an easy decision. But others with different needs and expectations may be better suited to gas vehicles.

Can’t speak to towing as we have no experience towing with an EV.
I’m not sure if the OP was planning on towing to his sons house, although I didn’t get that impression.

Cheers.

[wanderingaimles]

Reisender wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Reisender wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Going back to the OP's comment.
He would not have enough range to go to son's house. When there, he would be stuck with trying to charge using a standard 15 amp outlet, which will take DAYS to charge for MOST of the return trip.

Or, just stop in at a public charger for 15 or 20 minutes and spend 8 or 10 bucks. It depends on ones schedule I suppose.

IF one is close by and available.

Yes that’s true. That depends on infrastructure. In our province DC fast chargers are pretty much ubiquitous and more everyday. But every region is different of course. Always best to analyze your personal situation.

And on top of this, normally people dont calculate the use of heat or AC into a vehicle trip, BUT with these electric vehicles, the use of either further reduces your useful range by 30-50%, so on a summer day, that 350 mile trip will now requires 2 stops to recharge due to the AC reducing the already limited range.
And since this thread was started as a "Tow vehicles" thread. lets further reduce the range again, to where that F-150 with a claimed 300 mile range will likely have only 90 to 120 miles available when pulling your trailer on a summer day.
Welcome to the 1930's.

[Reisender]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Reisender wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Going back to the OP's comment.
He would not have enough range to go to son's house. When there, he would be stuck with trying to charge using a standard 15 amp outlet, which will take DAYS to charge for MOST of the return trip.

Or, just stop in at a public charger for 15 or 20 minutes and spend 8 or 10 bucks. It depends on ones schedule I suppose.

IF one is close by and available.

Yes that’s true. That depends on infrastructure. In our province DC fast chargers are pretty much ubiquitous and more everyday. But every region is different of course. Always best to analyze your personal situation.

[wanderingaimles]

Reisender wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Going back to the OP's comment.
He would not have enough range to go to son's house. When there, he would be stuck with trying to charge using a standard 15 amp outlet, which will take DAYS to charge for MOST of the return trip.

Or, just stop in at a public charger for 15 or 20 minutes and spend 8 or 10 bucks. It depends on ones schedule I suppose.

IF one is close by and available.

[Reisender]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Going back to the OP's comment.
He would not have enough range to go to son's house. When there, he would be stuck with trying to charge using a standard 15 amp outlet, which will take DAYS to charge for MOST of the return trip.

Or, just stop in at a public charger for 15 or 20 minutes and spend 8 or 10 bucks. It depends on ones schedule I suppose.

[Reisender]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Oh thats right, thats with the extra charging system installed. Assuming who you are visiting has installed one.
If you simply plug it into a standard wall outlet, nobody had to spend hundreds to add, then it"s how long?

You are correct. Although it’s not an extra charging system. It is a stove plug. If you are plugging into a friends 15 amp garage plug you should expect a long and slow charge. Depending on your battery size it could be days...literally. My recommendation in that case is to spend 15 or 20 minutes at a public charger before pulling into your friends driveway and then just topping up on his 15 amp garage circuit. Its probably the polite thing to do anyway.

When our commute was consistently only about 50 km we actually used our soffit Christmas light plug for daily charging. Worked great until my commute became irregular and sometimes longer. That's when we put in the 240 volt plug. Here's a pic of the old car. I wouldn't recommend this as a regular way to charge unless your daily commute is consistently 80 kilometers or shorter. Of course there is zero cost for this approach as the car (or truck) comes with everything you need.





Cheers.

[wanderingaimles]

Going back to the OP's comment.
He would not have enough range to go to son's house. When there, he would be stuck with trying to charge using a standard 15 amp outlet, which will take DAYS to charge for MOST of the return trip.

[Reisender]

Figured I would include a picture as it helps with context. Although this is a Tesla EVSE any manufacturers EVSE is pretty much the same and all interchangeable as they all use the same format. The EVSE connects the house power to the Electric Vehicles built in charger in a safe and monitored way. It is essentially an extension cord with certain safety protocols and relays. The lower part with the lights is the EVSE, the upper part is just a place to coil the cord neatly. Its a piece of plastic. Notice it is plugged into a short 50 amp RV extension cord as the stove plug was in an opportune spot for this car.



If one doesn't want to use the unit that came with the car (truck) then one can order an aftermarket unit for a few hundred bucks and hard wire it. This is our outside unit. This one is slower as out house only has 100 amp service and the electrician had to set it to a lower current. Still handy as we often use our garage for projects and can't always charge in there.



Hope that helps.

[wanderingaimles]

Oh thats right, thats with the extra charging system installed. Assuming who you are visiting has installed one.
If you simply plug it into a standard wall outlet, nobody had to spend hundreds to add, then it"s how long?

[Sjm9911]

noteven wrote:
Tesla Model 3 towing 26ft Airstream

Follow up video during a 500 mile in a day trip

Weve seen them tow stuff. Its the recharging part thats the limiting factor. Canada has a lot of charging stations. And if you watch the video, he charges at one that empty. If it wasnt, he would not even be able to charge without unhooking. Look for the vid of the guy that atually took it camping. He made it but it was a pain for him to find charging stations, and he had to unhook a few times to do it. Plus the range wasnt that great. Even in your vid , you state that if it wasnt an airstream i wouldnt get the millage. So, there is that also. Right now towing with ellectric isnt there for me. Imagine getting stuck at a campground and the power goes out? Now your stuck. This may happen more and more untill they improve the electric grid.

[Reisender]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Reisender wrote:

Redcatcher70 wrote:
Well, I didn't fill in all the info. We don't own any type of unit currently, maybe in the future. My daily driver is a F250 Super Duty, CC, V-10, 2WD. I am planning on downsizing in the near future. DW daily is a Buick Encore. We like to make trips in the truck, car is a little small. We make the Texas trip every two or three months, to see the grands. First question, when are all these charging stations going to be installed, who is paying for the stations, how much will a charge cost. We all know the power grids in Texas are about maxed out, how much is a home charger installed cost? I don't see a electric truck in my future.... Son does not have a charger at his home either, you think he might install one for me.

Howdy. I can only help with the last two questions re chargers at your home or your sons.

All EV’s come with built in level 2 chargers as well as the EVSE that connects to the homes power source. The expense comes in adding the stove plug (14-50 receptacle same as found in RV parks) in your sons or your garage. In our case it was 350 bucks. But every house is different. Depends a lot where your panel is. This typically allows for a full charge overnight.

Hope that helps.

Finish it out Reis,,,,,,

Or that level 2 charger that comes with the vehicle will charge you up, in somewhere between 2 and 9 days depending on how big your truck battery is.

No. Let’s assume a 150 kWh battery and then extrapolate from there depending on your expectation of battery size. Using the built in charger and supplied EVSE at a conservative 8 KW setting. Assuming you arrive with 20 percent (most people don’t run their “tanks” dry) you would expect to see a 17 hour charge using a standard stove plug and running it at a conservative 32 amps. If you wanted to spring for an aftermarket EVSE that supports 48 amps on a dedicated hardwire 60 amp circuit then you would be looking at 12 hours. But most of us are cheap and just use the unit that comes with the EV so say 17 hours. Cars are about half of that as the battery is half the size. That would be our case.

We only use about 8 kWh a day but our commute is only 50 kilometres. The car typically starts to charge at 2 in the morning and is done by three.

[noteven]

Tesla Model 3 towing 26ft Airstream

Follow up video during a 500 mile in a day trip

[wanderingaimles]

Reisender wrote:

Redcatcher70 wrote:
Well, I didn't fill in all the info. We don't own any type of unit currently, maybe in the future. My daily driver is a F250 Super Duty, CC, V-10, 2WD. I am planning on downsizing in the near future. DW daily is a Buick Encore. We like to make trips in the truck, car is a little small. We make the Texas trip every two or three months, to see the grands. First question, when are all these charging stations going to be installed, who is paying for the stations, how much will a charge cost. We all know the power grids in Texas are about maxed out, how much is a home charger installed cost? I don't see a electric truck in my future.... Son does not have a charger at his home either, you think he might install one for me.

Howdy. I can only help with the last two questions re chargers at your home or your sons.

All EV’s come with built in level 2 chargers as well as the EVSE that connects to the homes power source. The expense comes in adding the stove plug (14-50 receptacle same as found in RV parks) in your sons or your garage. In our case it was 350 bucks. But every house is different. Depends a lot where your panel is. This typically allows for a full charge overnight.

Hope that helps.

Finish it out Reis,,,,,,

Or that level 2 charger that comes with the vehicle will charge you up, in somewhere between 2 and 9 days depending on how big your truck battery is.

[wanderingaimles]

Redcatcher70 wrote:
OK, saw the ad on television for the Electric F-150, not really impressed. 300 mile average distance traveled on a charge, then charge overnight and ready for another 300 miles. I live in Central Arkansas, my son lives in Rockwall, Texas, I calculated my mileage and come up with total distance of 327 miles. Not counting off and ons for potty breaks and he lives a few miles off I-30, I rounded it up to 350 miles.
Now if I drove the elec. truck, I would have to find a place between Greenville and Rowlett to charge and spend the night. Why would I want one of these trucks?

Welcome to the wonderful world of the always a day late, and a mile short EV's.