Down grade to 18" aeros for extra range?

[Zorak03]

I will be making several trips from Birmingham, AL to Destin, FL in my mid range. The distance from my house to the supercharger on the route is about 150 miles, then its another 150 miles or so to Destin. Right now I have 19" sport wheels so I should be losing about 20 miles of range off the 264 miles Tesla claims. Think it might be a good idea to switch to aeros? I am worried about things like traffic jams, headwinds, cold weather etc that could leave me stranded.

 

[SleeperService]

Traffic jams shouldn't be an issue since you won't be using much energy just sitting there. Headwinds are always an issue, but the advice I've consistently seen is to watch the energy use graph and slow down if the range is getting tight. Surely it doesn't get all that cold between Birmingham and Destin!? Consensus seems to be that the Aeros add ~3-4% range at 70+ mph. So probably only 10-12 miles max on your car. It seems like you SHOULD have plenty of range as long as you aren't in too big of a hurry and you aren't bucking 40 mph headwinds when it is -10F outside. I completely understand wanting to have maximum factor of safety in your range though!

 

[LCR1]

As long as you have charging in Destin, you'll have no problem making the 150 mile legs in the MR, I've done Houston to Florida with less range in 30-50 degree weather.

 

[Zorak03]

Thanks for the replies, lessened my range anxiety lol. I have plenty of charging in Destin and, according to Tesla's website, a SC will open in Destin later this year.

 

[Magnets!]

A youtuber did a test of aero covers and found a 0.5% increase in range. That's 1.5 miles for a LR battery. Not sure what the impact of 18's vs. 19s would be.

 

[wcorey]

Tesla Range Table - Teslike.com

Model 3 towards bottom of rows Note two sets of tables miles and kilometers.

 

[ewoodrick]

I will be making several trips from Birmingham, AL to Destin, FL in my mid range. The distance from my house to the supercharger on the route is about 150 miles, then its another 150 miles or so to Destin. Right now I have 19" sport wheels so I should be losing about 20 miles of range off the 264 miles Tesla claims. Think it might be a good idea to switch to aeros? I am worried about things like traffic jams, headwinds, cold weather etc that could leave me stranded.

Come on, traffic jams between Birmingham and Destin? Montgomery maybe. But as other have said, traffic jams are often desirable since they increase range. I don't expect many headwinds, wrong direction, plus way too many pine trees to allow them to reach the ground.
You will probably want to head by Defuniak Springs on the way in, at least until the Destin Supercharger is available. And hopefully you have someone at your destination that you can plug in, even at 120V.
I made the trip in from Meridian down to Destin last year, a little more back country, but in a LR RWD. Stayed at the Residence in SanDestin and they had a Destination Charger on site. There's not a lot of J-1772 in Destin proper.

A little later last year we went from Atlanta down to Ft Lauderdale and while there's Superchargers around, we found that just plugging into the hotel 120V made up for daily driving and over the week, we finally made it up to something like 80-90%

The most important thing, and it ends up be easy on the last 1/3 is your speed. 75 mph is going to have you arriving empty. Decreasing to 70, or even 65 will give you a lot more range. I believe that at 37 mph, the record is around 600 miles. So I can guarantee that you can make it, it's just how fast you will go.

And if the car is providing navigation, it will tend to warn you when you need to decrease speed to reach your destination. Until you get a good feel of just how much range the car has, I'd recommend listening to the car.

You know what one of these nice spring weekends are for? A trip to Tuscaloosa/Meridian or Auburn (depending on what team you are on) Or down to Greenville if you don't belong.

A trip to Meridian through Tuscaloosa and some ribs does sound good right now.

Gotta get over the range anxiety!

 

[eastpointvet]

A youtuber did a test of aero covers and found a 0.5% increase in range. That's 1.5 miles for a LR battery. Not sure what the impact of 18's vs. 19s would be.

no its more than that. I have LR and i take a trip to New Orleans from Atlanta on the regular. Ive done it with and without the aeros and the aeros easily get me about 20-30 miles per super charger stop. Without aeros one of the stops ive gotten so low i had range anxiety for the first time. Its a 2 stop trip but the aeros definitely give me piece of mind with the extra mileage.

 

[Jedi2155]

Its not the aero covers or size of the tire that causes the range loss between the 18/19/20s. Its the fact that the 19/20s are performance tires rather than range focused eco tires on the 18. If you could put the same tires on the 19/20s it would be much closer.

 

[Magnets!]

no its more than that. I have LR and i take a trip to New Orleans from Atlanta on the regular. Ive done it with and without the aeros and the aeros easily get me about 20-30 miles per super charger stop. Without aeros one of the stops ive gotten so low i had range anxiety for the first time. Its a 2 stop trip but the aeros definitely give me piece of mind with the extra mileage.

Good info...not sure why the youtuber experienced such a small improvement, but your numbers seem to match the numbers on the table posted above on mileage improvements.

 

[Cycle11111]

Its not the aero covers or size of the tire that causes the range loss between the 18/19/20s. Its the fact that the 19/20s are performance tires rather than range focused eco tires on the 18. If you could put the same tires on the 19/20s it would be much closer.

There are multiple YouTube tests I have watched and the aero covers seem to give about 3-5% like for like rim size and tire comparison.