Anyone charged at a Texas State Park?

[EVer Hopeful]

I'm ass-u-ming all I need to do is get the 14-50 adaptor for $35 from Tesla - oh and book an RV site, not a camping site, but I wondered if anyone had done this and how it had worked for them.

Do the Parks people even let you do this? I don't see why they wouldn't but you never know

...and I mean when staying overnight, not just turning up on a day pass and filling the battery

 

[brkaus]

I'm ass-u-ming all I need to do is get the 14-50 adaptor for $35 from Tesla - oh and book an RV site, not a camping site, but I wondered if anyone had done this and how it had worked for them.

Do the Parks people even let you do this? I don't see why they wouldn't but you never know

...and I mean when staying overnight, not just turning up on a day pass and filling the battery

I have without problem.

Do note that some parks only have 30a service. That is code for a 30a/120v TT-30 outlet. That adapter is not available directly from Tesla. Price has gone up but I have one of these -https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30-adapter-for-tesla-model-s-x-3-gen-2/

They will also typically have 20a/120v 5-20 outlets. So if you have that 5-20 adapter it will charge faster than the standard 5-15 included with the car. Not great, but it adds up over time.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

ok, thanks

 

[DriverOne]

The TT-30 is useful for sure. Also you'll likely have to dial down the amps 20% or so, or the breaker will trip after a while. Still great for overnighting.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Well I tried it over at Goose Island and again at Mustang Island and was able to take a charge, but here's my question:

If I'm using the 14-50 adaptor on the mobile charger and I've verified the breakers are 50A breakers ... why does the car tell me it's charging at 32A ?

I know about the 80% rule, but that would mean it should charge at 40A right?

And I checked the screen , but the Amperage Selector was greyed out, so it's not a thing that I could change





ok so we were at Mustang Island State Park in the RV area, but went exploring over to Malaquite Beach which is a National Park. We thought that was a better location so decided to spend the night there[1]. We set up camp, then decided to drive back to Mustang Island to take a charge and while we were there watch two episodes of The Chestnut Man[2] on Netflix

Now bearing in mind the round trip between the two places is 40 miles, we were able to charge about enough to make the round trip, so sort of a wash really, though good to see the system worked as expected

[1] Too bad we didn't think about this beforehand, because we have the Lifetime Senior Pass which would have got us in for free, but of course we'd left it at home so had to pay instead
[2] It's a Danish crime drama ... pretty good if you're into that sort of thing

 

[Guacahummus]

Well I tried it over at Goose Island and again at Mustang Island and was able to take a charge, but here's my question:

If I'm using the 14-50 adaptor on the mobile charger and I've verified the breakers are 50A breakers ... why does the car tell me it's charging at 32A ?

I know about the 80% rule, but that would mean it should charge at 40A right?

And I checked the screen , but the Amperage Selector was greyed out, so it's not a thing that I could change





ok so we were at Mustang Island State Park in the RV area, but went exploring over to Malaquite Beach which is a National Park. We thought that was a better location so decided to spend the night there[1]. We set up camp, then decided to drive back to Mustang Island to take a charge and while we were there watch two episodes of The Chestnut Man[2] on Netflix

Now bearing in mind the round trip between the two places is 40 miles, we were able to charge about enough to make the round trip, so sort of a wash really, though good to see the system worked as expected

[1] Too bad we didn't think about this beforehand, because we have the Lifetime Senior Pass which would have got us in for free, but of course we'd left it at home so had to pay instead
[2] It's a Danish crime drama ... pretty good if you're into that sort of thing

Sounds like you're using a Gen 2 UMC. Those are limited to 32A. If you want full 40A then you'll need either Gen 1 UMC (no longer sold by Tesla) or the Corded Mobile Connector.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Ah I see

...another four hundred bucks!!!!! - the fifty five grand is just the beginning

Thanks

 

[brkaus]

You may not have missed out on much. When I used an RV spot and my gen1 connector the car was reducing from 40a to 30a just because of the voltage drop.

 

[tonybelding]

Monahans Sandhills State Park, last spring. I asked at HQ, was told it was okay, didn't stay long enough to actually get much use of it, but proved to my satisfaction that this works.

I suspect that there is no official, statewide policy on charging in the parks. It's probably up to each park to figure out how they want to handle this.

 

[cwerdna]

For any public charging that isn't Tesla Supercharger, suggest you check Plugshare first. Hope it has a listing.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

My theory is that you pay extra for the sites with electricity because they expect you to use it - even if they also expect you to be in an RV

 

[boogak]

I bought a state park annual pass last year due to needing to get out of the house during the pandemic and went all over the state. I would just reserve either a 30amp or 50amp site, plug in, and set it to camp mode, never had any issues.

For the 30a outlets, you do have to set it for 24a max charging or risk blowing the breaker. I only got 10 miles/hr charging this way (9 with climate control on), with 50a I'd get ~30 miles/hr.

 

[dduffey]

I know this is late, but we've stayed at several TSPs. We usually try to grab a 50 amp site for two reasons. First is that it's 240v so we can charge faster in a pinch. Second is we haul a TT-30 amp trailer so we have a 14-50 to TT-30 split adapter.

We've never had any issues with the rangers, etc.

That allows us to plug in both the car and trailer at the same time if we want (although we have not actually done this except for teesting). (120v 30amp to both, on different legs).

The 50a pedistals usually have both 14-50 and TT-30 but I believe you should only use one or the other. Also there is some risk in using adapters if not used correctly (for example if your 14-50 to TT-30 doesn't have a 30 amp fuse to protect the 30 amp wiring).

 

[DblOSmith]

That allows us to plug in both the car and trailer at the same time if we want (although we have not actually done this except for teesting). (120v 30amp to both, on different legs).

I was thinking about that earlier today. If you have a campsite 50a, 30a, and an edison plug, can you plug in and use all 3 at the same time?

 

[dduffey]

I don't think you can use a 14-50 and TT-30 at the same time (one leg of the post would then be 50+30 amps, and campsites are expecting you to use one or the other, not both.

But if you split the 14-50 to two 30amp 120v (like TT-30s) legs then you are not overloading either leg of the 14-50 or post.

 

[boogak]

I was thinking about that earlier today. If you have a campsite 50a, 30a, and an edison plug, can you plug in and use all 3 at the same time?

Haven't tried all 3 at the same time before, but I've used a 50a and edison plug and 30a and edison plug simultaneously before. I charge my Model 3 on the 50a or 30a and also boil water using an electric kettle for my camp food.

 

[Supcom]

I spent the night recently at Tyler State Park to do some mountain biking on their trails. I reserved a campsite with electricity, which was only $4.00 over the non-electric sites. 50 amp service with an outlet for 14-50 connector. There was also a TT-30 outlet and 110V outlet, but I had no need for those. Charging went well, though I did have to dial back the max amps to 25 to avoid tripping the 50 amp breaker. Even then, the break got very hot. I suspect that the breaker is pretty worn due to it being regularly flipped on and off.

It still was a great deal. For the $4.00 extra fee for the electric service, I got over 50 kwh of juice ($0.08/kwh!), plus got to sleep in the back of a nice cool car. In Texas summer, that's as good as it gets!