This is a long post but I've always enjoyed other people's trip reports, thought I'd contribute my own.
I've had my Model S for a little less than a month and have yet to have the opportunity to venture more than 30-40 miles away from home until this week. Last Tuesday, I loaded up the wife and kids to spend some time with family at the beach for spring break. First task was load up the car with wife, two boys, dog, and a crap load of stuff. It is unreal how much stuff we packed into that car! Kid would ask, "Da can I bring along x crap toy?" Answer: "Sure toss it in!" The trip is just over 280 miles, so I planned on stopping for a charge-break at my Mom's house about 100 miles from the beach, in Wilson, NC. My preparation included route research and calling ahead to a local RV park to charge when I arrived. I packed the UMC with standard adapters, a 14-50 to 10-30 frankencable adapter that I made. I also brought a 15 ft 15A extension cord along with the charger cable for our Plug In Prius just to ward off evil spirits.
I'm glad I researched routes, as the MS Nav will always select the quickest route, and AFIK there isn't an option to change the route. The MS tried to route me on a 210 mile trip on divided highways through the Raleigh-Durham area. The route I wanted was 166 miles (these are distances to Wilson, NC) through South Boston, VA and Oxford, NC. Even after I ventured off the nav route, I didn't pay close enough attention and ended up taking a 182 mile route to the first stop in Wilson. The route is mostly 2 lane country roads and except for the occasional violent acceleration to pass other cars, typical speeds were 55-65 mph. The entire trip I got around rated range, sometimes a little better. I didn't put much effort into driving conservatively on the first leg as knew I had plenty of juice to get to the first charge.
Arrived at my Mom's house with 76 miles rated range. The last 20 miles to her house was a 70 mph divided freeway that I legged out at 78-80 mph, which burned a lot of electrons. I hooked up to her dryer outlet, right next to the driveway and it worked perfectly, giving 16 miles/hr of range at 24A. It was getting late in the day and I was anxious to get to the beach, so we left after about 2 1/2 hrs and 120 miles rated range. It's 106 miles to our destination and I knew it was risky but felt pretty confident after the first leg. I drove more cautiously and although a strong sea breeze headwind cut into efficiency toward the end, arrived at the beach with 12 miles rated range.
Outbound numbers:
Start with range charge 267 miles rated
Leg 1 182.6 miles - 55 kWh - 301 Wh/mile temp mid 40's to mid 50's sunny, avg speed about 55 mph
Leg 2 108 miles - 30.8 kWh - 285 Wh/mile
The RV park I used (Holiday Trav-L-Park) was great. I called a couple of weeks ago, and they had never had anyone do this before but agreed to let me charge overnight for $25. The full rate for a 50 amp camper spot is $50. I called when I got to the beach and the lady had no idea about this, but she told me to bring the car on over. The friendly guy at the gate showed me to a spot, pointed out the outlet. I plugged in and walked away. I've never been in an RV park before, but this one looked pretty nice as it had a lot of trees and grassy areas, and it's right on the beach. The next morning, my Dad dropped me off at the car and I chatted with a couple of the maintenance guys about the car before leaving. They told me to charge up any time! The park office was closed and nobody ever asked me for payment, but I went back a couple of days later and settled up as I didn't want them to sour on EV users. After that I used the 110 outlet at the beach house to top off every day. The outdoor outlet in the carport didn't work for some reason, I suspect age and corrosion as the breaker was closed, but luckily there was an outlet right inside a door and the extension cord came in pretty handy! The last day before leaving, I did the heaviest day of driving - about 40 miles to Fort Macon at the other end of the island and then an unexpected 20 mile round trip to dinner (my Dad said, "Oh it's a couple of miles on the other side of the bridge" - not quite). The 110 outlet couldn't match this so I was only able to charge up to I think 248 rated miles.
We left the next AM to sunny skies, temps in the low 60's. I drove fairly cautiously again and spent 3 hours at my Mom's on the 10-30- I cheated the amperage up to 26 this time and got 18 miles/hr. We left with 192 miles rated. This leg was the only real stress of the trip as I followed the 166 mile route that I had planned but the nav kept recalculating some crazy route that kept totaling 181 miles. I began to get nervous that even though I double checked Google maps and Mapquest, maybe I screwed something up! I started thinking of looking for RV parks when we finally saw signs for Lynchburg showing I had a nice 25 mile cushion! Arrived back home with a very dirty car and 20 miles. Pics are of the loaded car and the display on arrival at home. Trip A is the total miles for the trip.
Lessons learned:
#1 by far is do your own route research, especially if you're traveling through country roads. Tesla needs to come up with Nav preferences that will give you quickest route or most efficient route.
#2 I probably should have given myself a little more cushion on the second leg to the beach. There's frequently road construction in those areas and if I had been detoured, that would have been a major problem.
#3 The car was very comfortable and I enjoyed every minute of the drive. Some of the fun gets taken out, though, when you have to guard your electrons. The occasional warp speed launches to pass don't cost that much in the big picture though.
#4 I drove through some pretty remote areas (South Central Virginia into eastern NC and only spent a total of about 10 miles without 3G coverage.
I've had my Model S for a little less than a month and have yet to have the opportunity to venture more than 30-40 miles away from home until this week. Last Tuesday, I loaded up the wife and kids to spend some time with family at the beach for spring break. First task was load up the car with wife, two boys, dog, and a crap load of stuff. It is unreal how much stuff we packed into that car! Kid would ask, "Da can I bring along x crap toy?" Answer: "Sure toss it in!" The trip is just over 280 miles, so I planned on stopping for a charge-break at my Mom's house about 100 miles from the beach, in Wilson, NC. My preparation included route research and calling ahead to a local RV park to charge when I arrived. I packed the UMC with standard adapters, a 14-50 to 10-30 frankencable adapter that I made. I also brought a 15 ft 15A extension cord along with the charger cable for our Plug In Prius just to ward off evil spirits.
I'm glad I researched routes, as the MS Nav will always select the quickest route, and AFIK there isn't an option to change the route. The MS tried to route me on a 210 mile trip on divided highways through the Raleigh-Durham area. The route I wanted was 166 miles (these are distances to Wilson, NC) through South Boston, VA and Oxford, NC. Even after I ventured off the nav route, I didn't pay close enough attention and ended up taking a 182 mile route to the first stop in Wilson. The route is mostly 2 lane country roads and except for the occasional violent acceleration to pass other cars, typical speeds were 55-65 mph. The entire trip I got around rated range, sometimes a little better. I didn't put much effort into driving conservatively on the first leg as knew I had plenty of juice to get to the first charge.
Arrived at my Mom's house with 76 miles rated range. The last 20 miles to her house was a 70 mph divided freeway that I legged out at 78-80 mph, which burned a lot of electrons. I hooked up to her dryer outlet, right next to the driveway and it worked perfectly, giving 16 miles/hr of range at 24A. It was getting late in the day and I was anxious to get to the beach, so we left after about 2 1/2 hrs and 120 miles rated range. It's 106 miles to our destination and I knew it was risky but felt pretty confident after the first leg. I drove more cautiously and although a strong sea breeze headwind cut into efficiency toward the end, arrived at the beach with 12 miles rated range.
Outbound numbers:
Start with range charge 267 miles rated
Leg 1 182.6 miles - 55 kWh - 301 Wh/mile temp mid 40's to mid 50's sunny, avg speed about 55 mph
Leg 2 108 miles - 30.8 kWh - 285 Wh/mile
The RV park I used (Holiday Trav-L-Park) was great. I called a couple of weeks ago, and they had never had anyone do this before but agreed to let me charge overnight for $25. The full rate for a 50 amp camper spot is $50. I called when I got to the beach and the lady had no idea about this, but she told me to bring the car on over. The friendly guy at the gate showed me to a spot, pointed out the outlet. I plugged in and walked away. I've never been in an RV park before, but this one looked pretty nice as it had a lot of trees and grassy areas, and it's right on the beach. The next morning, my Dad dropped me off at the car and I chatted with a couple of the maintenance guys about the car before leaving. They told me to charge up any time! The park office was closed and nobody ever asked me for payment, but I went back a couple of days later and settled up as I didn't want them to sour on EV users. After that I used the 110 outlet at the beach house to top off every day. The outdoor outlet in the carport didn't work for some reason, I suspect age and corrosion as the breaker was closed, but luckily there was an outlet right inside a door and the extension cord came in pretty handy! The last day before leaving, I did the heaviest day of driving - about 40 miles to Fort Macon at the other end of the island and then an unexpected 20 mile round trip to dinner (my Dad said, "Oh it's a couple of miles on the other side of the bridge" - not quite). The 110 outlet couldn't match this so I was only able to charge up to I think 248 rated miles.
We left the next AM to sunny skies, temps in the low 60's. I drove fairly cautiously again and spent 3 hours at my Mom's on the 10-30- I cheated the amperage up to 26 this time and got 18 miles/hr. We left with 192 miles rated. This leg was the only real stress of the trip as I followed the 166 mile route that I had planned but the nav kept recalculating some crazy route that kept totaling 181 miles. I began to get nervous that even though I double checked Google maps and Mapquest, maybe I screwed something up! I started thinking of looking for RV parks when we finally saw signs for Lynchburg showing I had a nice 25 mile cushion! Arrived back home with a very dirty car and 20 miles. Pics are of the loaded car and the display on arrival at home. Trip A is the total miles for the trip.
Lessons learned:
#1 by far is do your own route research, especially if you're traveling through country roads. Tesla needs to come up with Nav preferences that will give you quickest route or most efficient route.
#2 I probably should have given myself a little more cushion on the second leg to the beach. There's frequently road construction in those areas and if I had been detoured, that would have been a major problem.
#3 The car was very comfortable and I enjoyed every minute of the drive. Some of the fun gets taken out, though, when you have to guard your electrons. The occasional warp speed launches to pass don't cost that much in the big picture though.
#4 I drove through some pretty remote areas (South Central Virginia into eastern NC and only spent a total of about 10 miles without 3G coverage.
