Flinders Ranges, Uluru and King's Canyon - possible?

[Midnight Man]

Thank you for any sage advice here, it will be appreciated!

We are looking (a bit later this year, possibly early next year) of taking a long overdue and long holiday.

I am currently planning a route from the Hunter Valley, over Melbourne, through the Adelaide Hills... and thought about extending that a bit further to cover the Flinders Ranges, Uluru and King's Canyon. Whilst I went to the Flinders Ranges as a young lad, we have never been together to Flinder Ranges, and neither of us have ever been to Uluru etc.

Of course we are planning to stop a bit along the way at places like Coober Pedy - I suspect Mrs Midnight Man will end up with an opal or two from there. There may be some other things to stop at along the way - I am not sure - but largely, it seems this leg of the trip will be about getting to Uluru before the fun stuff begins?

I've been looking at charging options along the way - and sadly, due to my work in IT (where every second thought is "What if this or that fails?"), there doesn't seem to be much in the way of back-up charging options along the way - and furthermore, there seems to be no charging option at King's Canyon (a round-trip from Erldunda to King's Canyon is 550km, well outside the range of an MY RWD).

Has anyone done this trip before? Any sage advice to offer a relatively new, and nervous EV driver who is risk averse?

EDIT: I have a Mennekes Type 2 cable (7.5m) and Tesla UMC charger with 10A and 15A tails. What other cables should one pack along?

 

[cafz]

There's three-phase charging at King's Canyon Resort.

Harald Murphy just did the big figure 8 earlier this month, going north-to-south down the middle twice. Might be worth connecting with him:

https://twitter.com/harald_murphy

 

[aceon]

Not a cable but get the 32A 5 pin tail for your UMC. Here’s one example. You can filter for this in Plugshare (“three phase”).

 

[Chuq]

Tesla Owner's Club of Australia has a number of 3-phase charging kits (with 4 tails) which they allow members to borrow. Well worth the $25/year membership if you aren't already.

I used it on my trip last year (Hobart to Perth). Your trip should be doable as far as Pimba without it, but it will probably be a necessity after that.

 

[Midnight Man]

Not a cable but get the 32A 5 pin tail for your UMC. Here’s one example. You can filter for this in Plugshare (“three phase”).

Thank you. I had forgotten to note above - I have a Fronius WattPilot Go at home for charging. So, essentially, it has a 32A tail with the wall plug as shown in your linked example, which then plugs into the Fronius charger (which is the GO version, so I can unclip it and take it with me). At the vehicle end of the WattPilot it will take my Mennekes type 2 cable.

I am assuming that would fit the use case instead?

 

[Vostok]

I've been looking at charging options along the way - and sadly, due to my work in IT (where every second thought is "What if this or that fails?"), there doesn't seem to be much in the way of back-up charging options along the way - and furthermore, there seems to be no charging option at King's Canyon (a round-trip from Erldunda to King's Canyon is 550km, well outside the range of an MY RWD).

As others have said, such a trip is do-able with some planning, but you’d probably need to stay overnight at Kings Canyon to charge up.

In remote areas, the backup is always 10A or 15A charging and an extra night’s stay wherever you happen to be. So it’s best to not have a completely inflexible itinerary. Else plan from the start to do the trip as if 10A charging is your only option once you leave DCFC territory, and anything else that is faster and working is upside.

You didn’t mention it, but the Mereenie Loop would be awesome to do, but probably a bridge too far. Not sure if it’s ever been done in an EV.

 

[Chuq]

the Mereenie Loop would be awesome to do, but probably a bridge too far. Not sure if it’s ever been done in an EV.

One has, at least - Mark Tipping did it in 2022.

Tesla Model S goes bush on mission to reduce energy poverty

"Hey John, I just saw a bloody Tesla. What's that doing out here!" Fighting energy poverty, that's what.

thedriven.io

 

[Hairyman]

Contact @outbacktesla on X/Twitter

 

[mark.tipping@e]

Yep, I've done the outback a few times. Yuendumu, Kings Canyon (there is charging there), Papunya, Mt Liebig. Only flooding stopped us getting to Kintore.

Critical piece to carry is a 32 amp 3 ph adapter. Bring a spare UMC. If you're not a member of TOCA then join and avail of their adapter loan program. We also carry a a few spares. We have also stripped out the rear seats to carry a greater load.

This is a map of our second trip outback. This one we went out past Yuendumu. We plan to get back here and drive the Tanami Track when we can get the time.

Feel free to reach out with any questions

 

[mark.tipping@e]

Charging at Kings Canyon Resort

 

[mark.tipping@e]

 

[Vostok]

View attachment 1033235

Where was that photo taken?