Ultimate Powerboost Roadtrip: 8600 miles to Yellowstone and Back!

[snyce1]

Sounds like a wonderful trip, in a beautiful blue F-150 too! So glad you're enjoying your Truck!

Awesome post. Ive had my PLATINUM PB for a year . I love the utility of the generator. I love thd range of the truck with just 30 gallon tank. Best range ive ever had in a truck . Went with mild load in car 643 miles on one full tank from NY to southwest Virginia and had estimated range of 53 miles left when i filled up

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[muscleJack04]

Sunset in the Badlands

Last month I took my 2021 Lariat Powerboost on the ultimate roadtrip: A 8600 mile journey from Orlando to Yellowstone National Park and back (stopping at many more parks along the way). I put as many miles on it in a month that I had on the odometer in the first year. This was the trip I had in mind when I bought the truck a year ago and overall I have to say it performed like a champ. In fact I’m so pleased that I am reconsidering my Lightning reservation which came up for order while I was out of town. My Powerboost feels like a keeper.

Route:

Orlando to Detroit (to pickup family): 16 hours driving
Detroit to Moab: 24 hours
Moab to Bryce Canyon: 5 hours
Bryce Canyon to Vernal, UT: 6 hours
Vernal, UT to Yellowstone: 8 hours
Yellowstone to Badlands, SD: 9 hours
Badlands to Detroit: 16 hours
Detroit to Orlando: 16 hours

We visited:
Arches NP
Canyonlands NP
Mesa Verde NP
Capitol Reef NP
Grand Staircase - Escalante NM
Bryce Canyon NP
Dinosaur NM
Grand Teton NP
Yellowstone NP
Badlands NP
Minuteman Missile NHS

Plus numerous other state and local parks and places of interest. I’d be happy to answer any questions on those parks if you are interested but I figure that most of you are looking for my thoughts on the truck.

BlueCruise

My BlueCruise was activated via OTA a couple months before the trip. I had limited experience with it on the local highways around central Florida before the trip but I was pleased with how it was going. This trip was a real trial for the feature as most of the distance traveled was on BC eligible highways (major sections between Utah to Yellowstone and Yellowstone to South Dakota were not limited access highways and therefore not eligible for BC). After many thousands of miles of BlueCruise driving I would say it worked great 96% of the time. The hands free feature was a great benefit for long road trips as I was able to relax a lot more and didn’t get tired as quickly as I might have with hands-on driving. In fact I did a lot more driving than I had planned as I was always quite fresh and my passengers didn’t need to back me up as often.

My observation is that when it couldn’t do hands-free driving was when the camera had issues seeing the road lines. This happened most commonly when the sun was in front of the vehicle or when the paint was very close in color to the road surface. Basically if I had difficulty seeing the lines with my eyes (due to glare or poor paint) then the truck couldn’t see them either.

There were also times when it asked me to put hands on the wheel but kept steering (hands-on BC) usually on tight curves. My experience here in Florida was that almost never happened but I had it happen a lot more often on various highways across numerous states. Road standards are really all over the place. My thought is that it’s really a case of the road curves being too tight for the truck to handle confidently and just wants your hands on the wheel for backup. I still rarely had to steer myself.

Overall I highly recommend BlueCruise and I’m glad I had it for this trip.

Gas Mileage

My hybrid Powerboost experience has been that my best mileage is usually around 50-60 MPH on flat Florida roads. In those conditions I have gotten 26-28 MPG. For this trip of mostly highway driving I wasn’t expecting that but I was quite pleased. By the end of the trip I had 22.4 MPH average on the display (I didn’t bother with any hand calculations). The worst mileage I saw on the whole trip was around 11MPG while driving 80MPH (the speed limit) through South Dakota with some high winds. My best was about 143 MPG…. driving down some mountains around Moab.

Trip Totals

WOAH

Offroad

My truck has the FX4 package with no aftermarket modifications. Unfortantely I wasn’t able to do much off-roading. Many National Parks don’t have places where you can drive off road and the weather didn’t cooperate when we were in places that did (many rainy days in Moab). I did do a little including driving down the switchbacks of the Echo Park road in Dinosaur (before being forced to turn around due to oncoming rain). I tried out the various drive modes and used combinations of 4A, 4H, and 4L. Never had any issues and never got stuck.

Overall

My F-150 Powerboost was a great vehicle for this trip. Lots of space for people and stuff. Gas mileage was good and the range meant fewer stops for fill ups (only needed 2 full tanks to drive Orlando to Detroit, for example). The FX4 was more than enough for the driving we did on some mountain dirt roads and the tires held up well. No issues with the truck, like I said it handled all the driving like a champ.

It was an amazing trip and I’d love to head out west again sometime in the future and I would trust my truck to do it again.

Shafer Trail in Canyonlands

Arches NP

Mesa Verde NP

In the La Sal Mountains above Moab

Colorado River, Moab

Bryce Canyon

Echo Park Road, Dinosaur NM

Dinosaur NM

Old Faithful

Grand Tetons

Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Really cool... and really tough, although F150 is Built Tough
I wonder if there is any issue during such a long driving, like overheating something or tire problems.

 

[Ziggy73]

Sunset in the Badlands

Last month I took my 2021 Lariat Powerboost on the ultimate roadtrip: A 8600 mile journey from Orlando to Yellowstone National Park and back (stopping at many more parks along the way). I put as many miles on it in a month that I had on the odometer in the first year. This was the trip I had in mind when I bought the truck a year ago and overall I have to say it performed like a champ. In fact I’m so pleased that I am reconsidering my Lightning reservation which came up for order while I was out of town. My Powerboost feels like a keeper.

Route:

Orlando to Detroit (to pickup family): 16 hours driving
Detroit to Moab: 24 hours
Moab to Bryce Canyon: 5 hours
Bryce Canyon to Vernal, UT: 6 hours
Vernal, UT to Yellowstone: 8 hours
Yellowstone to Badlands, SD: 9 hours
Badlands to Detroit: 16 hours
Detroit to Orlando: 16 hours

We visited:
Arches NP
Canyonlands NP
Mesa Verde NP
Capitol Reef NP
Grand Staircase - Escalante NM
Bryce Canyon NP
Dinosaur NM
Grand Teton NP
Yellowstone NP
Badlands NP
Minuteman Missile NHS

Plus numerous other state and local parks and places of interest. I’d be happy to answer any questions on those parks if you are interested but I figure that most of you are looking for my thoughts on the truck.

BlueCruise

My BlueCruise was activated via OTA a couple months before the trip. I had limited experience with it on the local highways around central Florida before the trip but I was pleased with how it was going. This trip was a real trial for the feature as most of the distance traveled was on BC eligible highways (major sections between Utah to Yellowstone and Yellowstone to South Dakota were not limited access highways and therefore not eligible for BC). After many thousands of miles of BlueCruise driving I would say it worked great 96% of the time. The hands free feature was a great benefit for long road trips as I was able to relax a lot more and didn’t get tired as quickly as I might have with hands-on driving. In fact I did a lot more driving than I had planned as I was always quite fresh and my passengers didn’t need to back me up as often.

My observation is that when it couldn’t do hands-free driving was when the camera had issues seeing the road lines. This happened most commonly when the sun was in front of the vehicle or when the paint was very close in color to the road surface. Basically if I had difficulty seeing the lines with my eyes (due to glare or poor paint) then the truck couldn’t see them either.

There were also times when it asked me to put hands on the wheel but kept steering (hands-on BC) usually on tight curves. My experience here in Florida was that almost never happened but I had it happen a lot more often on various highways across numerous states. Road standards are really all over the place. My thought is that it’s really a case of the road curves being too tight for the truck to handle confidently and just wants your hands on the wheel for backup. I still rarely had to steer myself.

Overall I highly recommend BlueCruise and I’m glad I had it for this trip.

Gas Mileage

My hybrid Powerboost experience has been that my best mileage is usually around 50-60 MPH on flat Florida roads. In those conditions I have gotten 26-28 MPG. For this trip of mostly highway driving I wasn’t expecting that but I was quite pleased. By the end of the trip I had 22.4 MPH average on the display (I didn’t bother with any hand calculations). The worst mileage I saw on the whole trip was around 11MPG while driving 80MPH (the speed limit) through South Dakota with some high winds. My best was about 143 MPG…. driving down some mountains around Moab.

Trip Totals

WOAH

Offroad

My truck has the FX4 package with no aftermarket modifications. Unfortantely I wasn’t able to do much off-roading. Many National Parks don’t have places where you can drive off road and the weather didn’t cooperate when we were in places that did (many rainy days in Moab). I did do a little including driving down the switchbacks of the Echo Park road in Dinosaur (before being forced to turn around due to oncoming rain). I tried out the various drive modes and used combinations of 4A, 4H, and 4L. Never had any issues and never got stuck.

Overall

My F-150 Powerboost was a great vehicle for this trip. Lots of space for people and stuff. Gas mileage was good and the range meant fewer stops for fill ups (only needed 2 full tanks to drive Orlando to Detroit, for example). The FX4 was more than enough for the driving we did on some mountain dirt roads and the tires held up well. No issues with the truck, like I said it handled all the driving like a champ.

It was an amazing trip and I’d love to head out west again sometime in the future and I would trust my truck to do it again.

Shafer Trail in Canyonlands

Arches NP

Mesa Verde NP

In the La Sal Mountains above Moab

Colorado River, Moab

Bryce Canyon

Echo Park Road, Dinosaur NM

Dinosaur NM

Old Faithful

Grand Tetons

Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Wow, looks like a dream vacation. It really is almost the perfect road trip vehicle, especially if you utilize any of the perks, coffee maker or small air fryer to cook food on at a rest stop per se. It looks like you did in one vacation what many including me do in 10 years of vacationing. Pretty awesome, lots of memories for sure, I know many that you probably couldn't have the room to speak on here. Glad to hear people are enjoying their trucks.

 

[Samson16]

Thank you for such a wonderful report. I can't wait to get out there with mine.

 

[Calson]

I prefer to fly to a location and then rent a car or RV and spend more time at the destionations and less time driving. Total cost for a trip is roughly the same either way.

 

[Samson16]

I prefer to fly to a location and then rent a car or RV and spend more time at the destionations and less time driving. Total cost for a trip is roughly the same either way.

I understand that. I'm looking to purchase a 26' trailer and see the country that way now that I'm getting a bit older. If we don't take the dogs, my wife will worry and spoil the fun, so load 'em up and let's go!

 

[Orlando150]

I prefer to fly to a location and then rent a car or RV and spend more time at the destionations and less time driving. Total cost for a trip is roughly the same either way.

Maybe it would have been. But sometimes the journey is part of the fun.

I'll probably never do something like that again but I can now say I've been on a classic American cross-country road trip.

 

[Dan M.]

Maybe it would have been. But sometimes the journey is part of the fun.

I'll probably never do something like that again but I can now say I've been on a classic American cross-country road trip.

You’re right the drive out to many of the national parks in the upper Midwest is definitely a fun adventure. I’ve done it a few times and I plan on making another trip to some of the parks in SD, WY, MT, and ND this coming September. It’s a beautiful country and I plan on driving out that way as long as I’m physically able to.

 

[EricR]

Sunset in the Badlands

This photo is awesome!

Ford should licensthit from you!

 

[Atlee]

I prefer to fly to a location and then rent a car or RV and spend more time at the destionations and less time driving. Total cost for a trip is roughly the same either way.

That is true if are doing a single destination, such as Yellowstone NP/Grand Tetons NP.

But if you are on a month or two trip, you need your RV with you.

 

[RickBullotta]

Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Awesome. I was surprised by the fuel mileage, but I then noticed that your average speed was below 50 mph. We just got back from a 7200 mile trip, most of it on 70-80 MPH highways. Our average, with two people, two bikes, some skis/snowboards, and gear (no towing) was about 16.5 MPG.

 

[Samson16]

Maybe it would have been. But sometimes the journey is part of the fun.

I'll probably never do something like that again but I can now say I've been on a classic American cross-country road trip.

I'll be looking for that Blue PB FX4 Lariat around town!

 

[Melipron]

Sunset in the Badlands

Last month I took my 2021 Lariat Powerboost on the ultimate roadtrip: A 8600 mile journey from Orlando to Yellowstone National Park and back (stopping at many more parks along the way). I put as many miles on it in a month that I had on the odometer in the first year. This was the trip I had in mind when I bought the truck a year ago and overall I have to say it performed like a champ. In fact I’m so pleased that I am reconsidering my Lightning reservation which came up for order while I was out of town. My Powerboost feels like a keeper.

Route:

Orlando to Detroit (to pickup family): 16 hours driving
Detroit to Moab: 24 hours
Moab to Bryce Canyon: 5 hours
Bryce Canyon to Vernal, UT: 6 hours
Vernal, UT to Yellowstone: 8 hours
Yellowstone to Badlands, SD: 9 hours
Badlands to Detroit: 16 hours
Detroit to Orlando: 16 hours

We visited:
Arches NP
Canyonlands NP
Mesa Verde NP
Capitol Reef NP
Grand Staircase - Escalante NM
Bryce Canyon NP
Dinosaur NM
Grand Teton NP
Yellowstone NP
Badlands NP
Minuteman Missile NHS

Plus numerous other state and local parks and places of interest. I’d be happy to answer any questions on those parks if you are interested but I figure that most of you are looking for my thoughts on the truck.

BlueCruise

My BlueCruise was activated via OTA a couple months before the trip. I had limited experience with it on the local highways around central Florida before the trip but I was pleased with how it was going. This trip was a real trial for the feature as most of the distance traveled was on BC eligible highways (major sections between Utah to Yellowstone and Yellowstone to South Dakota were not limited access highways and therefore not eligible for BC). After many thousands of miles of BlueCruise driving I would say it worked great 96% of the time. The hands free feature was a great benefit for long road trips as I was able to relax a lot more and didn’t get tired as quickly as I might have with hands-on driving. In fact I did a lot more driving than I had planned as I was always quite fresh and my passengers didn’t need to back me up as often.

My observation is that when it couldn’t do hands-free driving was when the camera had issues seeing the road lines. This happened most commonly when the sun was in front of the vehicle or when the paint was very close in color to the road surface. Basically if I had difficulty seeing the lines with my eyes (due to glare or poor paint) then the truck couldn’t see them either.

There were also times when it asked me to put hands on the wheel but kept steering (hands-on BC) usually on tight curves. My experience here in Florida was that almost never happened but I had it happen a lot more often on various highways across numerous states. Road standards are really all over the place. My thought is that it’s really a case of the road curves being too tight for the truck to handle confidently and just wants your hands on the wheel for backup. I still rarely had to steer myself.

Overall I highly recommend BlueCruise and I’m glad I had it for this trip.

Gas Mileage

My hybrid Powerboost experience has been that my best mileage is usually around 50-60 MPH on flat Florida roads. In those conditions I have gotten 26-28 MPG. For this trip of mostly highway driving I wasn’t expecting that but I was quite pleased. By the end of the trip I had 22.4 MPG average on the display (I didn’t bother with any hand calculations). The worst mileage I saw on the whole trip was around 11MPG while driving 80MPH (the speed limit) through South Dakota with some high winds. My best was about 143 MPG…. driving down some mountains around Moab.

Trip Totals

WOAH

Offroad

My truck has the FX4 package with no aftermarket modifications. Unfortantely I wasn’t able to do much off-roading. Many National Parks don’t have places where you can drive off road and the weather didn’t cooperate when we were in places that did (many rainy days in Moab). I did do a little including driving down the switchbacks of the Echo Park road in Dinosaur (before being forced to turn around due to oncoming rain). I tried out the various drive modes and used combinations of 4A, 4H, and 4L. Never had any issues and never got stuck.

Overall

My F-150 Powerboost was a great vehicle for this trip. Lots of space for people and stuff. Gas mileage was good and the range meant fewer stops for fill ups (only needed 2 full tanks to drive Orlando to Detroit, for example). The FX4 was more than enough for the driving we did on some mountain dirt roads and the tires held up well. No issues with the truck, like I said it handled all the driving like a champ.

It was an amazing trip and I’d love to head out west again sometime in the future and I would trust my truck to do it again.

Shafer Trail in Canyonlands

Arches NP

Mesa Verde NP

In the La Sal Mountains above Moab

Colorado River, Moab

Bryce Canyon

Echo Park Road, Dinosaur NM

Dinosaur NM

Old Faithful

Grand Tetons

Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Thanks for sharing. Sitting at my desk, it's like I've taken a trip to a parallel universe. Totally satisfied.

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