My daughter and I are heading from San Diego to rural WY in a few weeks with a stopover in St George, UT. I found a hotel with charging and also allows pets (the dog is going with us) and supercharging seems adequate until we get to WY. We’ll have to make do with DCFC at one of the few spots available in WY or make a separate trip to Jackson for supercharging. As this is our first big road trip, I’m just wondering if there is anything else I should be considering or if those with road tripping experience have any tips.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
First MYLR road trip tips?
- Thread starter kman42
- Start date
Few thoughts:
1. Be prepared that road-tripping a Tesla (or any EV) needs a little different mindset compared to road-tripping an ICE car.
a) Special note for general aviation pilots: Think of doing a cross-country flight in a GA aircraft.
2. Drive on the "bottom" part of the battery for more efficient charging. Charge enough to make your next charging stop, then move on.
3. But don't be afraid to "fill 'er up" if you really need the range or you're heading into a "charging desert".
4. Be flexible in your plans, particularly if you're traveling on holiday weekends (or other busy times), in bad weather, or if you have to go off the Supercharger networks.
5. Hotel charging is great (assuming it works, which is usually but not always the case). Try to plug in when you arrive, rather than before you leave.
6. Bring all your charging equipment with you (e.g. mobile connector, J1772/CCS/CHAdeMO adapter etc.). I'm not saying you need to buy anything in particular, but just load up whatever you have...those adapters won't do any good sitting at home in your garage.
7. You can use the Tesla trip planner feature in the nav system, but sanity check whatever it tells you. Trust but verify.
a) Personally I plot my charging stops out manually and just use the car nav to get me to the next charger, but I don't recommend that approach for everybody.
8. Bring some windshield cleaning supplies if you have them, you won't be using gas stations as much.
Hrm. I really ought to make a one-pager out of these.
Bruce.
1. Be prepared that road-tripping a Tesla (or any EV) needs a little different mindset compared to road-tripping an ICE car.
a) Special note for general aviation pilots: Think of doing a cross-country flight in a GA aircraft.
2. Drive on the "bottom" part of the battery for more efficient charging. Charge enough to make your next charging stop, then move on.
3. But don't be afraid to "fill 'er up" if you really need the range or you're heading into a "charging desert".
4. Be flexible in your plans, particularly if you're traveling on holiday weekends (or other busy times), in bad weather, or if you have to go off the Supercharger networks.
5. Hotel charging is great (assuming it works, which is usually but not always the case). Try to plug in when you arrive, rather than before you leave.
6. Bring all your charging equipment with you (e.g. mobile connector, J1772/CCS/CHAdeMO adapter etc.). I'm not saying you need to buy anything in particular, but just load up whatever you have...those adapters won't do any good sitting at home in your garage.
7. You can use the Tesla trip planner feature in the nav system, but sanity check whatever it tells you. Trust but verify.
a) Personally I plot my charging stops out manually and just use the car nav to get me to the next charger, but I don't recommend that approach for everybody.
8. Bring some windshield cleaning supplies if you have them, you won't be using gas stations as much.
Hrm. I really ought to make a one-pager out of these.
Bruce.
Also, remember, Tesla nav is great. If it's telling you to detour, it's probably for a good reason. I was fighting the nav when I took a trip to cali and wanted to drive up the PCH. It kept detouring me to I-5. I was calling it stupid until I looked up why: there was a huge rockslide and the road was closed. I wouldn't have made it to a SC if I ignored it.
However, it's not perfect. Same trip, on one stretch leaving Slab City, the nav kept varying wildly from arriving at 9% to arriving at -2% from mile to mile. It didn't say it was recalculating, and I wasn't hammering it, the nav just flipped out. Restart didn't correct. I got there closer to 9%, but when in doubt, just slow down so you can make it.
...still take terrain into account. It does that to some extent, but it can still be scary. Same trip, I was navigating to a SC, and I didn't know I had to go up and down a mountain. It said I would arrive at 3% but when I started going uphill and I started to see that percentage drop really really fast, I got very scared. I had mentally resigned myself that I would have to call AAA to tow me off the side of this mountain. I think I got as low as 1%, but then I crested the mountain, and I gained 2% going downhill on the mountain and got there exactly at the 3% it said it would. When in doubt, once the car says you're ready to proceed, go ahead and watch another quick youtube video or something to get that extra few percent for piece of mind.
Similar threads
- Article
