My family and I went to Suncadia in Cle Elum this past weekend. We drove from Redmond.
It was only ~95 miles (with a stop for groceries ) but I had bikes on the back of the car and used 135 ideal miles getting there.
AC was blasting on the trip, and the car was fully loaded.
Even though TorkLift says the hitch is good for 200 pounds tongue weight I actually stayed a little below the 70mph speed limit on I90, because I am a little apprehensive about hitting a bump at 70+ with bikes on the rack.
We had called Suncadia and asked them if they had charging, and they said they did not. I did absolutely zero other research, and no planning on how to charge. On the way there we used the web browser in the car and discovered that there are Aerovironment L2 and L3 chargers right in their parking lot. Apparently the people who answered our questions on the phones are not well informed.
When we got there we plugged in at the L2 charger and went on to enjoy the resort. Unfortunately Suncadia had run out of pack-n-plays and we needed one for our 2 year old to sleep in. Because they had bought all of them from Ellensburg I decided to drive to Yakima to get one after dinner.
I drove briskly between Cle Elum and Yakima, and even though I had removed the bike rack, my wh/mile was very high. It must have something to do with my average rate of speed, which I shall not post here.
On the return leg from Yakima I stopped briefly in Ellensburg to supercharge - mostly because I never had before. My 'A' pack topped out at 292 miles/hour charging ( highest amps*volts I saw was 89.9kW ).
Since I could plug in at the L2 at Suncadia, I only stuck around Ellensburg for a few minutes of charge - I needed to get back before the kids bedtime.
So it turned out that my first opportunity to supercharge wasn't even necessary, but I did it anyway. If I hadn't needed to get back before the kids bedtime, I would have stuck around at the supercharger for another 25 minutes and wouldn't have bothered with the L2 at Suncadia.
When we got home, the energy used on the trip to and from Suncadia showed that we would have been able to do the trip ( not the extra excursion to Yakima ) with no charging - but would have had zero margin for error. The bikes on the back of the car absolutely kill the aerodynamics.
It was only ~95 miles (with a stop for groceries ) but I had bikes on the back of the car and used 135 ideal miles getting there.
AC was blasting on the trip, and the car was fully loaded.
Even though TorkLift says the hitch is good for 200 pounds tongue weight I actually stayed a little below the 70mph speed limit on I90, because I am a little apprehensive about hitting a bump at 70+ with bikes on the rack.
We had called Suncadia and asked them if they had charging, and they said they did not. I did absolutely zero other research, and no planning on how to charge. On the way there we used the web browser in the car and discovered that there are Aerovironment L2 and L3 chargers right in their parking lot. Apparently the people who answered our questions on the phones are not well informed.
When we got there we plugged in at the L2 charger and went on to enjoy the resort. Unfortunately Suncadia had run out of pack-n-plays and we needed one for our 2 year old to sleep in. Because they had bought all of them from Ellensburg I decided to drive to Yakima to get one after dinner.
I drove briskly between Cle Elum and Yakima, and even though I had removed the bike rack, my wh/mile was very high. It must have something to do with my average rate of speed, which I shall not post here.
On the return leg from Yakima I stopped briefly in Ellensburg to supercharge - mostly because I never had before. My 'A' pack topped out at 292 miles/hour charging ( highest amps*volts I saw was 89.9kW ).
Since I could plug in at the L2 at Suncadia, I only stuck around Ellensburg for a few minutes of charge - I needed to get back before the kids bedtime.
So it turned out that my first opportunity to supercharge wasn't even necessary, but I did it anyway. If I hadn't needed to get back before the kids bedtime, I would have stuck around at the supercharger for another 25 minutes and wouldn't have bothered with the L2 at Suncadia.
When we got home, the energy used on the trip to and from Suncadia showed that we would have been able to do the trip ( not the extra excursion to Yakima ) with no charging - but would have had zero margin for error. The bikes on the back of the car absolutely kill the aerodynamics.
