Colorado road Trip, November with Tesla Model Y?

[bngo]

PlusEV, thanks for your feedback, however I'm afraid at this point I'm already too motivated to give up. Almost everything is planned and we accept the risk of spending night at not the place previously planned. I don't think we want normal vacation, we are adventurous family anyway and I guess you can see it from our plan ;-) In the worse case you would be able to read the adventure about towed Tesla! I hope not.

However, to minimize the risk - Could you confirm that:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BG4J5L5D/

or Amazon.com are the CCS1 adapters I'd need for my rental Tesla Y?

 

[doeandjon]

However, to minimize the risk - Could you confirm that:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BG4J5L5D/

or Amazon.com are the CCS1 adapters I'd need for my rental Tesla Y?

That's it. I didn't know that non-OEM versions of that thing were available yet, but that looks correct. I just bought the OEM version of that last week and it doesn't seem particularly complicated, so hopefully a knock-off will work fine. They've priced that just $25 below Tesla's price but maybe the real advantage of the knock-off is that Tesla probably won't sell you one as a non-Tesla owner. There are about 10 places along your route where that could be useful, notably along US-160, US-550, and in Bluff, UT. Hopefully, it will get you 50-100 kW charging as compared to the 5-10 kW you would get from a J1772 or NEMA 14-50. Non-Tesla chargers have a bad reputation for letting people down at inopportune moments, but check Plugshare for recent successful check-ins by Tesla drivers. If the chargers work for others, they should work for you, too.

 

[Tronguy]

Minor comments:

• Late Model Y's come with a heat exchanger. That's 2021 and on; I think the change (no heat exchanger to heat exchanger) sometime in late 2020 or early 2021. It makes a big difference in cold-weather mileage. A model 3 without the heat exchanger gets around 350 W-hr/mile in below freezing weather; with it, it gets around 280-290 W-hr/mile. (In warm weather a M3 LR gets around 225-250 W-hr/mile). If you're renting, you're getting the heat exchanger.
• The true-blue CCS connector had five pins arranged in a circle with two additional, fat pins to carry DC power below the circle. The J1772 adapter has the five pins on one side for connecting to the J1772 cable, found on ChargePoints everywhere and the Tesla-type connector on the other side. The CCS supports DC fast charging at the (relatively few) charging stations that support it; the J1772 is for Level 2 (208-220 VAC) at everywhere else, and there's lots of places. You get a J1772 with practically every Tesla as a freebie; CCS adapters are expensive ($350+?).

 

[PLUS EV]

PlusEV, thanks for your feedback, however I'm afraid at this point I'm already too motivated to give up. Almost everything is planned and we accept the risk of spending night at not the place previously planned. I don't think we want normal vacation, we are adventurous family anyway and I guess you can see it from our plan ;-) In the worse case you would be able to read the adventure about towed Tesla! I hope not.

However, to minimize the risk - Could you confirm that:

Amazon.com

or https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BJ6XKC3H/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1 are the CCS1 adapters I'd need for my rental Tesla Y?

Well if you're up for the adventure, go for it!

I mean don't get me wrong. This would be a relatively simple Tesla trip for me, but there's a big difference between me having nearly 400,000 miles of Tesla road tripping experience traveling by myself and some n00b with a family in tow. But if you're willing to do all the research and detailed planning, you should be okay.

I would recommend trying to stay on the "supercharger highway" as much as possible and use the public/hotel chargers as a nice bonus if they work out. Because those type of chargers are often not very reliable and when you're out in such remote areas, you don't want to be up a creek without a paddle just because one of them failed you.

As an example, I would plan on charging charging in Blanding and Page on the way to Tusayan. And if that highway in Tusayan is closed, you'll need to charge in Flagstaff as well. This route still takes you through Monument Valley. It does add a couple hours (driving + charging time) but the peace of mind of not having to be reliant on public chargers is probably worth it. But even here you can audible. If you successfully charge at Gouldings or some place in Kayenta, then you should be able to skip Page and save the time. But when you're supercharging in Blanding, you should be routing to Page and not leave until you have a good arrival percentage for Page (at least 10%, preferably closer to 20%). This supercharge in Blanding will take a long time as the charge speed tapers as the battery fills up.

Generally speaking, legs of <100 miles between superchargers should be easy. Legs of 100-200 miles should be doable, but attempted with caution (especially in the 150-200 range). Legs over 200 miles long are doable, but I would not recommend that a novice attempt them. When in doubt, charge longer and drive slowly, especially at the beginning of each leg. As the arrival percentage goes up, you can let 'er rip and start driving faster. You'll get the hang of the latter pretty quickly.

 

[PLUS EV]

You get a J1772 with practically every Tesla as a freebie

I believe Tesla stopped including the J1772s with new car sales recently (even though they shouldn't have imo). No idea if a rental company would include it (but they should!).

 

[bngo]

OK, I've got confirmation that all Hertz Teslas currently on the parking lot are with CCS enabled - I've bought this CCS adapter in case of emergency. I hope I won't use it and be able to return it (and save $200...).
Regarding other adapters - I've mentioned that earlier, I'm going to get 5-40 and J1772s from Hertz.

Thanks for your help, I hope I know everything (or at least enough ). I will try to update you about my journey or at least with the summary when I'm done.

 

[Tronguy]

OK, I've got confirmation that all Hertz Teslas currently on the parking lot are with CCS enabled - I've bought this CCS adapter in case of emergency. I hope I won't use it and be able to return it (and save $200...).
Regarding other adapters - I've mentioned that earlier, I'm going to get 5-40 and J1772s from Hertz.

Thanks for your help, I hope I know everything (or at least enough ). I will try to update you about my journey or at least with the summary when I'm done.

Um. What that 'CCS Enabled" means is that the software/hardware circuit boards in the Tesla can handle the protocol used by CCS charging stations. I have a 2018 Model 3; that, obviously, doesn't have the circuitry. At some point in time, depending upon the uptake of CCS and how Tesla feels about it, they might make a you-pay-for-it upgrade for older cars, but there's no guarantee.

As I kind of mentioned before, the actual CCS adapter (plastic body, metal contacts, plus whatever electronics Tesla/whoever feels it needs) is what costs money and only helps one if there's a CCS charging station about. And, while the numbers of those things are growing, they're 1/10 or less of the DC chargers that are out there. In other words, you're a heck of a lot more likely to run into a Tesla Supercharger than a CCS charger somewhere. I might be off on that "1/10" number, but not by much, I'll wager.

Of course, probabilities are probabilities, and if there's a CCS charger exactly where one needs one and no SuperCharger nearby, then one can throw the statistics out the window. Maybe I missed something in this thread, but did you actually establish that there was a leg on your proposed journey where there wasn't a SC but there was a CCS charger?

 

[bngo]

Bluff is one point, I'm going to stay there overnight, but... just in case. I thought also Tuba City - but I see I'm wrong, there is Tesla plug.

 

[Rocky_H]

I believe Tesla stopped including the J1772s with new car sales recently (even though they shouldn't have imo). No idea if a rental company would include it (but they should!).

I heard a few people incorrectly assuming that when Tesla stopped including the mobile charging cable, but I don't think it's true that they ever stopped including the J1772 adapter.

 

[doeandjon]

Bluff is one point, I'm going to stay there overnight, but... just in case. I thought also Tuba City - but I see I'm wrong, there is Tesla plug.

According to Plugshare, there are CCS chargers available at the following locations along your route: Buena Vista, Alamosa, Del Norte, Wolf Creek Ski Area, Pagosa Springs, Durango, Purgatory Ski Area, and Ouray. That's in addition to Bluff (which you already mentioned) and Poncha Springs and Telluride (which also have Tesla superchargers). I've driven my MY through parts of your route, but I've never used any of those chargers because there was no Tesla-CCS adapter at that time. I'll be driving to Purgatory in January, so I have a personal interest in your experience.

 

[dgpcolorado]

One caveat about the trip leg between Durango and Ouray. That goes over Coal Bank, Molas, and Red Mountain passes. Red Mountain Pass (11,018 feet) to Ouray can be difficult in winter driving conditions. Once it is plowed and sanded, it should be ok but if it is snowing and snowpacked you need snow tires or chains. I doubt that Hertz supplies either on its cars. There are areas with steep drop-offs and no guard rails or shoulders (so that avalanches can flow over the road). Northbound, as you have it, is safer than southbound.

If the weather is nice and the road is clear, it will be a lovely drive. I'll be heading that way, both directions, for Thanksgiving, weather permitting. Ouray to Ridgway over Dallas Divide to Telluride and Lizard Head Pass is also quite scenic.

If you have the newest Colorado Driver's license, the mountain on the front of it is Mt. Sneffels, between Ridgway and Dallas Divide. That part of the San Juan Mountains is one of the most photographed vistas in the state.

-Twenty-three year Ouray County resident

Some pictures taken in March 2016 with the snow mostly gone:

^ US 550 south of Ouray, looking south.


^ US 550 looking north. This is one of the wide spots that allowed me to pull over to take a picture.


^ US 550 in June, looking north. Another wide spot.

 

[Tectonic]

PlusEV, thanks for your feedback, however I'm afraid at this point I'm already too motivated to give up. Almost everything is planned and we accept the risk of spending night at not the place previously planned. I don't think we want normal vacation, we are adventurous family anyway and I guess you can see it from our plan ;-) In the worse case you would be able to read the adventure about towed Tesla! I hope not.

However, to minimize the risk - Could you confirm that:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BG4J5L5D/

or Amazon.com are the CCS1 adapters I'd need for my rental Tesla Y?

So, how did it go?

 

[bngo]

It went great! I've just arrived back at home and I'm still a bit jet-lagged Let me elaborate in details in a few days.
quick summary:
We did ~3100miles, met a couple very nice Tesla drivers, didn't stuck at any place. I've also added brand new tesla destination charger to plugshare, which was deployed the day I arrived to the hotel, so the hotel manager was surprised in the morning that it really worked

 

[bngo]

Hi again, sorry for keeping you waiting. I still didn't manage to go through the photos, but I must write something
So our final trip was not much different than the initial plan. The weather was wonderful so we did almost everything, even a few things from the 'MAYBE' list.

We did the trips in the following legs (one point = 1 day):

1) Denver -> Colorado Springs
2) Colorado Springs area (like Pikes Peak)
3) Colorado Springs -> Salida
4) Salida → St Elmo → Great Sand Dunes → South Fork
5) South Fork → Pagosa Springs → Durango → Silverton → Ouray → Montrose (much longer than planned! Unfortunately we had the reservation at South Fork so we couldn't drive more previous day and also the weather was bad next day, so we wanted to see Milion Dollars highway before the sunset, which we did only in 80%.)
6) Montrose →Blanding → Bluff
7) Bluff → Valley of Gods (this loop took like 3h, we were too tired to do Monument Valley loop same day, and also a bit too stressed about the charging so instead of going South we went to…) → Page
8) Page → Tusayan (route 64 was open, no issues, just a few Elks...)
9) Tusayan → Sedona
10) Sedona → Flagstaff → Monument Valley (there was a marathon taking place! So we couldn’t do a loop again )→ Moab
11) Moab → Goblin Valley → Grand Junction
12) Grand Junction → Fruita → Glenwood Spring
13) Glenwood Springs → Boulder → Estes Park
14) Estes Park → Boulder → Denver


It was 3100miles total, Hertz charged me $220 for superchargers, but unfortunately I didn't note where I charged and how much kWh. I'm waiting for the details from Hertz but they are slow. I bought (and returned unused) CCS charger from amazon.
A trip was a bit rushy in a few places, trying to get somewhere before the sunset or finally vising things like at/after sunset. We were driving in the evenings a few times, even though we tried not to. I didn't check the power consumtion nor how many miles I can drive 80%->20%, I thought I will do this, but somehow I didn't I've tried to charge at the hotels to 100% to be ready for the worse.
Finally I think I've never arrived to a charger with <15-20%, during leg 10 I was driving really slow at the first part,to save energy and it was for nothing!

I was surprised by a few driving things in US! Like the middle line for turning, very nice. Or how evenly drivers keep the speed. Also your looooong straight roads and the views were awesome! Not so awesome for me - driving all lines instead of keeping the right one. In germany you can easily get fine for driving like that but I guess here the speed difference is much smaller so maybe not a big deal?

offtopic question - how does it work with speed limit - is it easy to get a ticket for speeding? sometimes people were drving exactly at the speed limit, but on i70 the traffic was moving much faster than the speed limit, even above 80 at some places (at 65 limit).

Last thoughts about Tesla - so quiet! I was surprised how loud is my car when I was back home. I've been driving in the creep mode and I loved it. Unfortunately I'm still doing one pedal driving (and it doesn't work ) in my old car... The acceleration is amazing, when I got used to it and It felt normal I was surprised where are the other cars behind me in the mirror! I could complain about audio volume knob which I maxed out a few times when turning a wheel and autopilot - I had like "emergency breaking" every a few days because Tesla thought that the hill is something I'm going to hit... ouch! Tesla should have a radar.

Charger I've added - Wingate by Wyndham Page Lake Powell | PlugShare

Quick question - it is possible to check-in at plugshare with the past date? I'd love to mark my checkins to have them for the future reference, but I've done them month ago, not today...

I'm open for questions If I miss something.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[doeandjon]

Awesome trip! Thanks for the update. You should expand your writeup and submit it to travel magazines or websites. It would be good for non EV enthusiasts to see what is possible with these vehicles. Most people would assume it to be impossible. That's what I thought when I read your itinerary. On that topic, it looks like you modified your itinerary a bit and you used superchargers when possible. Did you charge anywhere besides superchargers or hotels? You had some 200+ mile legs with significant elevation changes, so I'm curious if you had to pick up a little extra charge. If you completed South Fork > Pagosa > Durango > Silverton > Ouray > Montrose trip with no extra charge, I'm shocked! There are 3 major passes in that stretch that will suck your battery dry.

is it easy to get a ticket for speeding?

This varies by location. Some places are notorious for strict enforcement and some will only give you a ticket if you are clearly driving dangerously. I've only had two tickets in my life and the last one was one for driving 65 on a perfectly flat and straight road in Alamosa county. I think the posted limit was 55.

it is possible to check-in at plugshare with the past date?

I don't think so but you can always just add a comment explaining when you actually charged. I think it would still be useful information for the community that uses that website.

 

[Tectonic]

Charger I've added - Wingate by Wyndham Page Lake Powell | PlugShare

Thanks for the report, and thanks for adding the charger to Plugshare! BTW, are there 3 Tesla chargers there, or just one? The plugshare page indicates 3, but the picture and subsequent report indicate one.

And yes, I agree with the above post that late plugshare checkins are useful, especially for chargers that don't have many checkins - just indicate the actual date in your comment.

 

[bngo]

On that topic, it looks like you modified your itinerary a bit and you used superchargers when possible. Did you charge anywhere besides superchargers or hotels?

Yes, I charged at free chargers near City Hall or Tourist Information Center, however mostly during night. During day If I had to, I used Supercharger when possible to save time. However It was possible on the northern part of my trip.

You had some 200+ mile legs with significant elevation changes, so I'm curious if you had to pick up a little extra charge. If you completed South Fork > Pagosa > Durango > Silverton > Ouray > Montrose trip with no extra charge, I'm shocked!

I don't recall this leg as stressful. ABRP shows it as 0 chargers needed... I started at South Fork at 100%, I charged at Durango while eating lunch for free at some hotel near Danny's, then at Montrose Supercharger.

BTW, are there 3 Tesla chargers there, or just one?

Huh there was 1 ready, 2 "to be mounted next day" so I set 3. Seems like next day hasn't come yet

You should expand your writeup and submit it to travel magazines or websites

Haha, I don't see this as such achievement, but thank you!

One more question about superchargers - Do I have to drive away to not pay the idle fee? I mean - all chargers are free, I've charged to 100%, unplugged but stayed in the car. Is it OK?

And one extra note about Tesla Y - Is putting the card under the arm rest really a must, or owners don't deal with that because of keyless system? Every time I turned/stoped too hard I had to look for the card under the passenger's seat ;-)

 

[doeandjon]

One more question about superchargers - Do I have to drive away to not pay the idle fee? I mean - all chargers are free, I've charged to 100%, unplugged but stayed in the car. Is it OK?

From Tesla.com:

For every additional minute a car remains connected to the Supercharger, it will incur an idle fee. If the car is moved within 5 minutes, the fee is waived. Idle fees only apply when a Supercharger station is at 50% capacity or more. Idle fees double when the station is at 100% capacity.

As far as I know, they determine if you have "moved" by whether you unplugged, but obviously unplugging but remaining in the charger space would violate the purpose of the rule.

And one extra note about Tesla Y - Is putting the card under the arm rest really a must, or owners don't deal with that because of keyless system? Every time I turned/stoped too hard I had to look for the card under the passenger's seat ;-)

Right, if the car is keyed by your phone there's no need to use access card. I keep the access car in my wallet in case I need to allow someone else to drive it or my phone shuts down due to low battery.