Gearhead Firefighter, first time tesla owner.

[FireFighterHil]

Just wanted to introduce myself. Im located in the vicinity of Jacksonville Florida. I am a Federal Firefighter and I sell Milwaukee tools on the side. I'm a big time gearhead. I love anything motorized. I'm not one of those guys who want a tesla to save the planet. Ive owned everything from a first generation Prius (I had to rebuild the main traction battery), to muscle cars and military trucks. My current daily driver is a plug in hybrid. I recently got solar and im looking to maximize on my investment by getting a fully electric vehicle.

I am the member of multiple car forums and know from experience some of the best knowledge can be found on them, stuff the manufacture probably doesn't even know or realize!

 

[bmah]

Welcome to TMC!

Bruce.

 

[DayTrippin]

Welcome! I know the area quite well.

What other brands and models are you checking out? If leaning toward Teslas there is a very active Florida Tesla Owners group that I've been a part of. The Tesla service center in JAX on Phillips Hwy is generally pretty good. Mostly there are a lot of clueless people at the Tesla Store @ St Johns Town Center but there actually are a few that are really plugged in. If considering a Ford in JAX, most of the dealers there are clueless about them.

This forum is a great place to learn a lot about potentially buying/owning a Tesla. There is also a lot you can learn about batteries here that will apply to the competitors. Like most forums, many people will be pretty outspoken about what they don't like. I'd encourage you to take them with a grain of salt but also try and understand what the underlying concern is and if it may impact you and your driving environment.

For example, some of the things that didn't bother me much in Florida have driven me to change cars because I am spending more time in Texas. For someone selling tools you'll totally appreciate the concept of the right tool for the right job.

 

[FireFighterHil]

Welcome! I know the area quite well.

What other brands and models are you checking out? If leaning toward Teslas there is a very active Florida Tesla Owners group that I've been a part of. The Tesla service center in JAX on Phillips Hwy is generally pretty good. Mostly there are a lot of clueless people at the Tesla Store @ St Johns Town Center but there actually are a few that are really plugged in. If considering a Ford in JAX, most of the dealers there are clueless about them.

This forum is a great place to learn a lot about potentially buying/owning a Tesla. There is also a lot you can learn about batteries here that will apply to the competitors. Like most forums, many people will be pretty outspoken about what they don't like. I'd encourage you to take them with a grain of salt but also try and understand what the underlying concern is and if it may impact you and your driving environment.

For example, some of the things that didn't bother me much in Florida have driven me to change cars because I am spending more time in Texas. For someone selling tools you'll totally appreciate the concept of the right tool for the right job.

Currently I have a 2014 Ford C-Max Energi PHEV. The Parks Ford in Gainesville is definitely clueless and does terrible work. I am buying a 2015 S P90D from zmarko. I am flying to virginia on Thursday to pick it up and drive it back to Florida. I am sure it will be a learning experience driving it 550 miles straight through my first trip! Depending on super charging locations my plan was to charge to 90% and then recharge around 30-20% so hopefully I can do the whole 550 in 3 charge stops. In a few years if you wanna sell that Plaid edition, Id love to have one!

 

[DayTrippin]

We had the same Ford. It was reliable as heck.

For your trip, get ABRP (A better route planner). I would encourage going to 80% and then down to 20% and recharge. We can connect real time and I can explain the rationale around that. Short version is that you keep the supercharger close to the peak charge level. At higher levels of SoC (state of charge) the charging tapers off and you can spend more time going from 70 to 90% than to go from 20%-70%.

 

[FireFighterHil]

Well the Parks Ford of Gainesville Florida is incompetent. I finally had to get the service manager and the regional ford rep involved to get them to replace the transmission under warranty after dropping about $1,600 dollars in parts and hundreds in diagnostic fees. All the while there was a TSB that described my issue EXACTLY and it says explicitly in the TSB to REPLACE TRANSMISSION. They wouldn't even give me a courtesy ride home when I dropped it off over and over and I had to fight to get a loaner while they waited for ford to send a replacement transmission. They tried everything they could to weasel out of the repair and then when they did the work it took them months, never bothering to reach out to give me updates, and they returned my vehicle to me dirty, with a dead battery, misaligned body panels, a rattle I cant find, missing and mismatched clips everywhere, various missing screws and bolts on various liners air dams etc and they didnt bother to clip the wires back into place! Makes me livid just thinking about it!

 

[FireFighterHil]

I have the app downloaded. And thanks for the super charging advice. I will employ that strategy. Im curious if ill be able to do 550 miles on just 3 stops averaging speeds of 70-80mph. im guessing ill most likely have to do 4 stops. Once I get it home ill probably only be supercharging once a week, as I probably only average about 250 miles a week for my commute. I already have the Tesla Gen2 wall charger setup for 48amp charging, though I will probably software limit it to 30 so it doesnt drain my solar batteries. Or just trickle charge with the 120v adapter since I usually make excess power by 11am on sunny days.

 

[DayTrippin]

I have the app downloaded. And thanks for the super charging advice. I will employ that strategy. Im curious if ill be able to do 550 miles on just 3 stops averaging speeds of 70-80mph. im guessing ill most likely have to do 4 stops. Once I get it home ill probably only be supercharging once a week, as I probably only average about 250 miles a week for my commute. I already have the Tesla Gen2 wall charger setup for 48amp charging, though I will probably software limit it to 30 so it doesnt drain my solar batteries. Or just trickle charge with the 120v adapter since I usually make excess power by 11am on sunny days.

I would say look at overall travel time rather than how many stops. For example I'd rather have 3 x 15 minutes stops than 2 x 30 minute stops. The charge curve dramatically tapers off as you get closer and closer to 100% charge.

So initially you might be charging at the rate of 700 mile of range per hour. Then it slows down to 500, then 300, then 100, etc. So the first 15 minutes of charging you might reclaim 150 miles of range. Then next 15 minutes might net you only 70 miles back. It might then take you another 30 minutes to top the battery up to 100%. Not worth it at all.

The charging curve depends on a lot of things but generally it works the same way and is worse when the batteries are very hot or cold. Dischargingg too deeply is bad. Keeping a high SoC for a long time is bad as well. I normally plan to drive about 70-80 mph on the highway (LEOs and traffic permitting) and charging about every 2 - 3 hours. Running that fast for 3 hours is typically my max and only on my last leg usually. I am almost always between 2-2.5 hours. That was has been the sweet spot on my S and 3. My Y was closer to 2 hours at 80 mph. I made more stops but they were so much quicker and back on the road. ABRP will guide you once you understand it.

I wouldn't set 10% as the lower limit until you understand your personal car better. I'd set 15-20% as my lower limit for charging. Also I'll only go to 15% if I know there are other SCs in the area and weather is good. Your range will take a massive hit in the heavy Florida rain. It can almost cut your range in half!