Driving in Mendocino, Gualala to ukiah charging help

[angelman]

I am in Gualala on Mendocino coast. I have about 120 miles of charge on my lr rwd model 3. Trying to decide if I should risk going the mountain route to ukiah or stay by the coast and go longer route to Santa Rosa, or try to hang at one of the slow desolation chargers in the area

 

[Mrbrock]

Are you going up to point arena then through Boonville? It sounds like you are trying to go south since you mention Santa Rosa. Ukiah is out of your way if that’s the care.

If you do go to Ukiah, there are L2 chargers in Point Arena and Boonville. ABRP shows it as using 23% on a LR RWD 3. 64 mile trip distance. It is usually pretty good at calculating based on elevation My 1600’ elevation gain commute calculates at 323wh/mile. It says 17% but usually takes me 20%. Even if you add 20% to the 23% you are talking 30% which should be around 90 miles of indicated range. Maybe stop at AV Brewing in Boonville and have a beer while adding some buffer.

 

[HaroldC]

You should be able to make both of those. It really depends on where your final destination is. The route to Ukiah is all downhill for the second part of the trip, so you would regen all the way down. I‘ve done the Ukiah to Mendocino round trip on an LR without any issues.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I'd take mountain view/253 if you are trying to get to ukiah .should be easy w/ not much range. I did Eureka down 1 over that rd in my old S
Comptche/Ukiah - orr springs is super fun but a bit north

maybe late info

 

[angelman]

update. My night of madness, worrying and worrying about this charging trip was of course ridiculousness. I learned.. "trust the car".. I had plenty of range to get to Ukiah. It's hard though to really believe just how much range you gain from going downhill vs up hill. I was actually ended up with more range than I started with for quite a while (I was staying at the top of a steepish hill). I also learned that of course slow driving is incredibly efficient. The very twisty mountain road limited my speed anyway but keeping it around 30mph I was using very little power, gaining everything I lost going up hill on the downhills.
Bonus was the incredible drive. This drive from Gualala to Ukiah was stunning. Incredible driving road, stunning forests, beautiful rivers. There were also several wineries and breweries on the way that also offered free Tesla charging as well as delicious cheese, wine and beer.
It was a bit ridiculous to drive 140 mile round trip just to charge and I probably ended up with only 70 miles more than when I started but that was after some more "spirited driving" on the return journey up the mountain and gave me plenty of range to take the family home the next day. So trust the car, trust the car, trust Tesla