Charging on I-5

[slcasner]

We recently drove the Roadster from Indio in southern California to our home in Sunnyvale in northern California with two charging stops:

1. At Autoskinz in Santa Clarita / Valencia, a very friendly detailing & coating business found on PlugShare that offers access to their Tesla HPC that will deliver 70A but at an unusually low 185V. They were able to squeeze us in for a wash and wax while we charged. We had a good lunch at Eggs & Things across the street.
2. At the Tesla Superchargers in Kettleman City. There are two HPC chargers on pedestals directly in front of the main door to the coffee bar. They are marked as handicapped parking spots but I was told it would be OK to park there to charge. Fortunately I was able to park in the adjacent Supercharger stall so I avoided that concern. These chargers also will deliver 70A at 208V. The entry code for the doors to the coffee bar changes periodically and is displayed on the screen of an S/X/3 upon arrival, but that doesn't help a Roadster. So you'd probably need to tailgate through the door, which shouldn't be a problem considering the traffic level unless you're there in the middle of the night. The staff and other Tesla owners were excited to see a Roadster. There are several restaurants nearby. Thanks to Kim Rogers of Tesla for scouting the site and verifying the current capacity for us ahead of our trip. Photo at the end below (sorry the pedestal is hidden behind a pole).

We also stopped at Harris Ranch to check out the Roadster charger installed there in 2010. It is still there and functional, but it only delivers 64A at 208V. There is also some damage to the cable where it enters the connector, as shown in this photo, but it still works:

Kettleman City:

 

[Roadster]

Thx for the recon on the I-5 L2 options @slcasner! That Harris Ranch HPC has to be one of the oldest still in service so nice to see it still alive and functional. When was it installed; 2007?

 

[X.l.r.8]

Wasn’t their a corridor from north to south with the roadster chargers or was it an informal thing. When talking to a few owners on the way back through Washington they mentioned a network of owners who had set up a route.

 

[slcasner]

That Harris Ranch HPC has to be one of the oldest still in service so nice to see it still alive and functional. When was it installed; 2007?

Wasn’t their a corridor from north to south with the roadster chargers or was it an informal thing. When talking to a few owners on the way back through Washington they mentioned a network of owners who had set up a route.

The Roadster charger at Harris Ranch was installed in 2010 at least partially funded by contributions from Roadster owners. Tesla participated in the dedication ceremony, though, with a short speech by JB Straubel. That was the occasion when the line input fuses in my PEM failed and we opened up the PEM on site to swap in fuses from his car.

Separately, several owners funded the installation of chargers along I-5 from northern California to the Canada border. I used all of them on a road trip in 2014, but I don't know the current status.

 

[Roadster]

Right! I forgot about that JB fuse swap in the wild! Reposting that awesome photo below for the uninitiated. Such a bummer he's no longer CTO.

JB Straubel was speaking at the event and had driven there in a Roadster. When we called him over to show him the problem, his response was, "Why do I come to these events?"

 

[slcasner]

For your enjoyment, here are a couple of photos from the dedication ceremony for the Roadster charger at Harris Ranch.

 

[MichaelP90DL]

Harris Ranch. Great place to fuel up both Tessie and myself!