Charging at Campgrounds and RV Parks

[bonnie]

Good to know there are people like you, Bruce. I appreciate your efforts for all of us.

 

[doug]

Does code allow one to put a NEMA 14-50 outlet on a line that's meant for only 40A?

 

[Lloyd]

Nope!

 

[doug]

Did not think so.

 

[TEG]

Those events are a bit of a temporary "code be damned" affair...

 

[Slackjaw]

Yogi Bear Jellystone Camp Ground (Sturbridge, MA)

I described our experience at Pine Acres back here in this same thread.

Now, for the Maine -> NJ leg, I am in an RV camp called Jellystone in Sturbridge, MA. The posts have 2 x NEMA 150-40 and 2 x 110v (with 20A pin). We plugged in to the 50A last night after paying $40 for an RV spot (ouch!). It was raining pretty hard so I wrapped some shopping bags around the vulnerable parts of the cables. Sorry for the low quality phone images; time was short:

Then we drove in the ICEV to a hotel (Publick House; so close, you could walk it) to stay. It was a good plan in theory but when we came over at 06:30 to hit the road I found that the car stopped charging after about an hour last night, citing "Line Voltage Lost Sync". So we were only up to 80 miles this morning, and the rest of my family had to leave me behind! Oh well.

A huge RV had parked next to us after we left and I thought that might have triggered the voltage problem. But they left already, and I've had some repeats of the same problem already today (as you'd infer from the timestamp in the screenshot) so that wasn't it. This may have been the culprit:

That cute cat pressed on the electronic door handle thing and opened the door just as I took the photo. Then it climbed into the car and left tiny footprints everywhere before I gently lifted it out muttering something about "may void my warranty".

Now I'm just wasting time in the RV park cafe (luckily for, um... you guys, they have WiFi) and checking the car as often as I can be bothered. I wish I could sit in the car with the heater on while charging but it doesn't let you. Hopefully the rest of today will be uneventful - finish charging, drive the remaining 180 miles, clean the leaves/pine needles/dirt from the car. Relax.

 

[bonnie]

Sorry, Ian. I had a similar problem in Reno at a hotel, but the cause was different - the double-GFCI trip problem (now remedied thru cable mods). This is a situation where the Tesla Tattler or other form of notification would be so helpful - you would have known your car stopped charging and could have remedied it immediately, instead of having your morning hijacked while you wait for the miles.

(The cat OPENED the door far enough get in? I hope my garage kitties don't figure that one out.)

 

[rabar10]

This is a situation where the Tesla Tattler or other form of notification would be so helpful

Exactly, also why vehicle-based notification would be more useful/reliable than charger-based notification...

 

[Slackjaw]

Sorry, Ian. I had a similar problem in Reno at a hotel, but the cause was different - the double-GFCI trip problem (now remedied thru cable mods).

Yeah, I read about that and modded my cable accordingly. I might even have got more charge if I'd plugged into the 110 last night! Boo!

This is a situation where the Tesla Tattler or other form of notification would be so helpful - you would have known your car stopped charging and could have remedied it immediately, instead of having your morning hijacked while you wait for the miles.

Sort of... Except that it was tripping about once per hour this morning. The Tattler would probably still have been useful as it would have alerted us before we'd gone to bed but we did check the car after the first 45 min or so, and it was fine. I probably would have ended up sleeping in the car for 1 hr stretches and waking up to reset the charger each time.

Anyway, I got home OK; the last stretch was 158 miles and used 237 - 67 = 170 ideal miles (I drive in standard mode but measure in range mode). The odd thing is that my estimated range on the homeward trip was 10-15% below by ideal even when I'm driving near-ideally. On the trip up, it was quite different; estimated range was at or above ideal for the whole trip. The route and traffic level was identical, I wasn't using the heating/AC at all. The only difference was the audio - mostly Transport Evolved episode 69 on the way up, episode 68 on the way back. (The Alpine GUI is too rubbish to tell which episode I'm about to start).

(The cat OPENED the door far enough get in? I hope my garage kitties don't figure that one out.)

You can't really see it in the picture but the car was inclined somewhat because I'd put it partially up on the grass next to the charging post. So the sequence was: Cat opens door, leaps away in fear, door swings slowly open, cat sees opportunity...

 

[Doug_G]

At highway speeds the wind can have a fairly significant effect on range. Of course headwind versus tailwind...

 

[Slackjaw]

... Except that it was tripping about once per hour this morning. The Tattler would probably still have been useful as it would have alerted us before we'd gone to bed but we did check the car after the first 45 min or so, and it was fine. I probably would have ended up sleeping in the car for 1 hr stretches and waking up to reset the charger each time.

Sorry to quote myself here, but can anyone confirm that it would have been less likely to trip if I'd lowered the current draw?

I didn't think of it until a friend suggested it in an email this afternoon (apparently he's too busy driving his Roadster to post here :biggrin. Lower current would also make sense for other reasons, e.g. to not leave the car fully charged in Range Mode for six hours. A current draw of 30A might have reduced the likelihood of a sync error and would still have delivered 200 miles in 12 hours no problem. We parked around 6 pm and wanted to leave at 6 am next day.

 

[ChadS]

Sorry to quote myself here, but can anyone confirm that it would have been less likely to trip if I'd lowered the current draw?

Yup. Lower current isn't a guarantee that it will work; but it has fixed the problem for me a few times at campgrounds. Now when I hit a campground I always try to calculate the min current I can use to be ready in time, and set it to that.

Over a year and a half ago I asked Tesla to please, please have the car notify us if it stops charging, and they said they were "working on it". Nothing since. So at campgrounds, you still have to check it over and over...

 

[scott451]

Sort of... Except that it was tripping about once per hour this morning. The Tattler would probably still have been useful as it would have alerted us before we'd gone to bed but we did check the car after the first 45 min or so, and it was fine. I probably would have ended up sleeping in the car for 1 hr stretches and waking up to reset the charger each time.

Actually the tattler would have been a little more helpful, as it can adjust the current limit in increments of one Amp. So if the breaker trips at 40A, set it to 38A and try again.

 

[mpt]

I wish I could sit in the car with the heater on while charging...

+1 & throw in AC too but, I did find that you can run the heated seats whilst charging.

 

[Doug_G]

I hadn't run into this before, but I guess it was inevitable... the campground I usually charge at has closed for the season. Doh.

Unless I can find some kind of alternative there is simply no way to drive from Ottawa to Toronto until next May.

 

[richkae]

I had an experience with bad ( old ) breakers at an RV park when I first got the car.
The first breaker I used tripped at 40 amps in about 11 minutes, I lowered the current to 32 and it tripped in 15 minutes. I did not try dropping it down to 24 amps, I moved over one spot to try another breaker. It tripped after 15 minutes at 40 amps, but held for hours at 32 amps.
When these breakers tripped they got super hot, too hot to touch. Even when it held on at 32 amps for hours it was very very hot.
Most likely a different defect than you ran into - but I learned to always wait a few minutes and test the breaker temperature. If it is getting hot, you may have trouble.

 

[Slackjaw]

... I learned to always wait a few minutes and test the breaker temperature. If it is getting hot, you may have trouble.

Good advice. These breakers were tripping -- at least, they were in a middle position, not fully on or off -- each time I looked. And they were getting warm too. Not very hot but it might have been a good warning sign. Anyway, lessons learned! Next time I'll be ready for the problem and might even invest in a Tesla Tattler (although I'm not sure this camp site had much cell phone coverage, that's another unknown).

One other bit of real time research I had to do was finding that the charge can be restarted by yanking out the NEMA 14-50, switching the breaker to OFF, plugging the 14-50 back in and then switching the breaker back on. No other sequence at that end yielded the lovely blue ring of lights, and I couldn't unplug the car end because the connector is very tight and was getting stuck, very hard to undo especially in cold weather or with the rain and sweat-slick hands of a frustrated EV owner.

 

[Doug_G]

I couldn't unplug the car end because the connector is very tight and was getting stuck, very hard to undo especially in cold weather or with the rain and sweat-slick hands of a frustrated EV owner.

Odd... my connector works just fine at sub-zero temperatures.

 

[SByer]

Odd... my connector works just fine at sub-zero temperatures.

I've seen enough variation in various Tesla HPC connectors that some combinations could be tight in normal conditions, much less cold ones.

 

[vfx]

... Too bad it's in the middle of nowhere...

That's perfect!


Just where we want charger points.