Following a log truck, knowing our final destination
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We took Thunderbolts Way from Armidale, starting with blue sky and green paddocks up on the tablelands. Down off the Great Dividing Range to Gloucester, it was a captivatingly beautiful drive, with lots of contrast. As the road dropped into the forest, the mist rolled in. We crossed a few river bridges, and stopped by some to stretch our legs.
We followed a log truck around the wet bends for a while, trying not to imagine the opening scene from Final Destination 2.
Stopped for lunch in Gloucester. Bought pies from a local bakery, one known for being less than friendly. We met up with our daughter Amber and her friend since primary school, Kayla, at Kayla’s home, along with her 18-month-old triplets and her Maremma sheepdog, Kimbo.
Kimbo is as tall as the triplets, and literally watches over them. He likes stealing their dummies, and gives the side eye when asked to give them up. Amber and Fran gave him plenty of pats, and we spent a couple of hours catching up before heading south again.
Next: Raymond Terrace.
Charging
We left Armidale with 98%, after the free overnight charge at the Armidale Inn.
It’s important to enter the day’s final destination (Erina) into the navigation, not just the first stop (Gloucester). That way, the car plans where to charge along the way, rather than delivering us to the first stop with nowhere to charge.
We could rely on the car’s premonitions; we’d reach Gloucester with 52%, and charge later in Raymond Terrace.
Yesterday’s climb up to Armidale took extra energy, and today some of it came back. The first 104 km, across the tablelands, averaged 161 Wh/km. The next 83 km, down the range, averaged just 83 Wh/km, against about 140 Wh/km on our usual highway drives. Overall, we used 26.5 kWh over 213 km, an average of 124 Wh/km.
For those who are interested, I’ve included a chart and table of all the geeky energy and elevation stats. I pulled it all out of the app “logs” afterwards. I didn’t calculate or log anything during the trip. I just told the car my stops and final destination.
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Asking as it’s my big concern before we buy as we love road tripping too.
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LFP gives regular full charge with less degradation. So, the recommended 100% max on ours is probably close to the recommended 80% on a long range.
We just aim to charge whenever we stop for some other reason, like amenities, food, sleep or sight seeing. The only time a long range would have come in handy was when we rolled into Coober Pedy with 2%.
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