Got any road trip advice?

[whizfish]

In a couple weeks I'll be taking a roughly 3200 mile trip in my Model Y LR, driving from Santa Cruz, CA to Lovell, ME. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for me. More details:

The car will be packed pretty full including me and a dog, and we'll do it in 7 days of driving. Five days are quite long, at 9-11hrs. Two days are shorter, at about 4 hrs because I have two brief visits planned on the way, in Salt Lake City and in upstate NY. I've planned my route (more info below) to arrive mid-day at these places so I can visit with my son (UT) and friends (NY) for an afternoon and evening. We'll stay in hotels/motels when we aren't visiting friends or family. My schedule is flexible, so if range predictions prove to be inaccurate or other troubles arise I can adjust accordingly.

I've used A Better Route Planner to get a feeling for driving distances and charging times, and then I settled on various intermediate way points that seem fit my needs. I plugged the whole route into ABRP with way points, desired charging limits and so on, and this is what the plan looks like:
Santa Cruz CA to Elko NV, 11hrs
Elko to Salt Lake City UT, 4hrs
Salt Lake to Ogalalla NE, 11hrs
Ogalalla to Iowa City IE, 10+hrs
Iowa City to Cleveland OH, 11hrs
Cleveland to Canandaigua NY, 5hrs
Canandaigua to Lovell ME, 9hrs

I also played around with the route planner on tesla.com, and it shows very similar (slightly faster) travel times including charging. I haven't used navigation in the car because I haven't figured out how to do point A to point B routes. As far as I can tell it only seems to let you begin a route from where the car is actually located at the time (i.e. my house right now). Am I missing something? Can you ask the car to plan a route that begins someplace other than your current location? I also haven't found a way to plan multiple destination routes like ABRP can do.

I don't yet have a tire repair kit or a spare. I don't have room and don't want to buy or carry a spare tire. I have 200 mile towing on my AAA membership. I'm open to getting a repair kit and compressor, but my current thinking is I don't really need it because flats are unlikely and I can get towed to a tire repair place if I really need it. What do you think, am I being stupid?

Would it be worth subscribing to FSD ($199) for a month to get a few extra features for the drive? It's not entirely clear to me what features I would get because I definitely wouldn't get enrolled in the FSD beta program before this trip (time is short, and I'm on a later software release than the FSD beta). I believe I would get navigation while on highways, and maybe automatic lane changes with autosteer on the highway. There might be some minor in-town features activate, but I don't really care about anything except the long stretches on highways.

Honestly at this point I'm ready to pack the car, load up the first destination and go. What else should I be thinking about?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Jackdforme]

I used NOA on a roadtrip last week. Between that and a glass break, this was a complete game-changer for me personally.

 

[blperk]

I used NOA on a roadtrip last week. Between that and a glass break, this was a complete game-changer for me personally.

Sorry, what's NOA?

 

[jcanoe]

I strongly suggest bringing a tire plug kit and a small compressor. These won't take much room. Otherwise you could lose hours waiting for a tow vehicle (ideally a flat bed) when you could be back on the road in almost no time.

 

[jcanoe]

One useful highway driving feature available with FSD is automatic lane change.

Navigate on Autopilot (NOA) will take you from on ramp to off ramp, could be useful too.

 

[jcanoe]

You may want to purchase the Tesla CCS1 charging adapter. This adapter would enable you to use Electrify America or other DC Fast Charge network charging station in areas where there is no Tesla Supercharger available.

 

[jsight]

I subscribed to FSD for one month a couple of years ago for a ~2500 mile road trip. The automatic lane change feature worked pretty well for me. I think it was worth it.

Someone else mentioned the CCS adapter. IMO, you'd be fine without it, but it is useful. Sometimes there's a CCS station at a restaurant, Wal-Mart, or Sam's Club that you want to go to. I have one, and on longer trips being able to charge at Wal-Mart has come in handy a few times.

 

[MattM24]

I strongly suggest bringing a tire plug kit and a small compressor. These won't take much room. Otherwise you could lose hours waiting for a tow vehicle (ideally a flat bed) when you could be back on the road in almost no time.

Further to this, you may not always have cell service. A plug kit and compressor is good insurance. I also pack a small jack as well as a breaker bar and torque wrench

In a couple weeks I'll be taking a roughly 3200 mile trip in my Model Y LR, driving from Santa Cruz, CA to Lovell, ME. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for me. More details:

The car will be packed pretty full including me and a dog, and we'll do it in 7 days of driving. Five days are quite long, at 9-11hrs. Two days are shorter, at about 4 hrs because I have two brief visits planned on the way, in Salt Lake City and in upstate NY. I've planned my route (more info below) to arrive mid-day at these places so I can visit with my son (UT) and friends (NY) for an afternoon and evening. We'll stay in hotels/motels when we aren't visiting friends or family. My schedule is flexible, so if range predictions prove to be inaccurate or other troubles arise I can adjust accordingly.

I've used A Better Route Planner to get a feeling for driving distances and charging times, and then I settled on various intermediate way points that seem fit my needs. I plugged the whole route into ABRP with way points, desired charging limits and so on, and this is what the plan looks like:
Santa Cruz CA to Elko NV, 11hrs
Elko to Salt Lake City UT, 4hrs
Salt Lake to Ogalalla NE, 11hrs
Ogalalla to Iowa City IE, 10+hrs
Iowa City to Cleveland OH, 11hrs
Cleveland to Canandaigua NY, 5hrs
Canandaigua to Lovell ME, 9hrs

I also played around with the route planner on tesla.com, and it shows very similar (slightly faster) travel times including charging. I haven't used navigation in the car because I haven't figured out how to do point A to point B routes. As far as I can tell it only seems to let you begin a route from where the car is actually located at the time (i.e. my house right now). Am I missing something? Can you ask the car to plan a route that begins someplace other than your current location? I also haven't found a way to plan multiple destination routes like ABRP can do.

I don't yet have a tire repair kit or a spare. I don't have room and don't want to buy or carry a spare tire. I have 200 mile towing on my AAA membership. I'm open to getting a repair kit and compressor, but my current thinking is I don't really need it because flats are unlikely and I can get towed to a tire repair place if I really need it. What do you think, am I being stupid?

Would it be worth subscribing to FSD ($199) for a month to get a few extra features for the drive? It's not entirely clear to me what features I would get because I definitely wouldn't get enrolled in the FSD beta program before this trip (time is short, and I'm on a later software release than the FSD beta). I believe I would get navigation while on highways, and maybe automatic lane changes with autosteer on the highway. There might be some minor in-town features activate, but I don't really care about anything except the long stretches on highways.

Honestly at this point I'm ready to pack the car, load up the first destination and go. What else should I be thinking about?

Thanks,
Dan

In my experience, ABRP is a helpful tool for estimating where you need to charge (if you know your average consumption), but it is quite optimistic in how long it will take to get from one place to another.

 

[WNC-MY]

I subscribed to FSD for one month a couple of years ago for a ~2500 mile road trip. The automatic lane change feature worked pretty well for me. I think it was worth it.

Someone else mentioned the CCS adapter. IMO, you'd be fine without it, but it is useful. Sometimes there's a CCS station at a restaurant, Wal-Mart, or Sam's Club that you want to go to. I have one, and on longer trips being able to charge at Wal-Mart has come in handy a few times.

Better to have the CCS adapter and not need it than to need it and not have it. I use my CCS occasionally and have found that the oft maligned EA fast chargers somewhat less expensive than Superchargers and somewhat faster - as my MY allows.

 

[cwerdna]

Better to have the CCS adapter and not need it than to need it and not have it. I use my CCS occasionally and have found that the oft maligned EA fast chargers somewhat less expensive than Superchargers and somewhat faster - as my MY allows.

If one uses ANY public charging that isn't Tesla Supercharger, definitely check Plugshare first. If you need to depend on it, try to find nearby backups. Filter by applicable plugs (e.g. CCS/SAE Combo, Tesla, J1772, etc.)

 

[Febtober]

I don't yet have a tire repair kit or a spare. I don't have room and don't want to buy or carry a spare tire. I have 200 mile towing on my AAA membership. I'm open to getting a repair kit and compressor, but my current thinking is I don't really need it because flats are unlikely and I can get towed to a tire repair place if I really need it. What do you think, am I being stupid?

Definitely get the plug kit and a compressor. They're so cheap it's dumb not to.

Just yesterday I was leaving work and saw that my 3 week old MY had a totally flat tire. I was able to use the compressor to get enough air into it to make it to my mechanic, although it was loosing pressure along the way. He found the world's tiniest sliver cut in the tire; I must have run over a piece of glass somewhere.

That's also how I learned Tesla doesn't include a road hazard warranty on the tires. They wanted $121 to repair the tire, or $410 if it needed to be replaced. Fortunately I simply plugged it and all was well.

 

[howardnj]

In a couple weeks I'll be taking a roughly 3200 mile trip in my Model Y LR, driving from Santa Cruz, CA to Lovell, ME. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for me. More details:

The car will be packed pretty full including me and a dog, and we'll do it in 7 days of driving. Five days are quite long, at 9-11hrs. Two days are shorter, at about 4 hrs because I have two brief visits planned on the way, in Salt Lake City and in upstate NY. I've planned my route (more info below) to arrive mid-day at these places so I can visit with my son (UT) and friends (NY) for an afternoon and evening. We'll stay in hotels/motels when we aren't visiting friends or family. My schedule is flexible, so if range predictions prove to be inaccurate or other troubles arise I can adjust accordingly.

I've used A Better Route Planner to get a feeling for driving distances and charging times, and then I settled on various intermediate way points that seem fit my needs. I plugged the whole route into ABRP with way points, desired charging limits and so on, and this is what the plan looks like:
Santa Cruz CA to Elko NV, 11hrs
Elko to Salt Lake City UT, 4hrs
Salt Lake to Ogalalla NE, 11hrs
Ogalalla to Iowa City IE, 10+hrs
Iowa City to Cleveland OH, 11hrs
Cleveland to Canandaigua NY, 5hrs
Canandaigua to Lovell ME, 9hrs

I also played around with the route planner on tesla.com, and it shows very similar (slightly faster) travel times including charging. I haven't used navigation in the car because I haven't figured out how to do point A to point B routes. As far as I can tell it only seems to let you begin a route from where the car is actually located at the time (i.e. my house right now). Am I missing something? Can you ask the car to plan a route that begins someplace other than your current location? I also haven't found a way to plan multiple destination routes like ABRP can do.

I don't yet have a tire repair kit or a spare. I don't have room and don't want to buy or carry a spare tire. I have 200 mile towing on my AAA membership. I'm open to getting a repair kit and compressor, but my current thinking is I don't really need it because flats are unlikely and I can get towed to a tire repair place if I really need it. What do you think, am I being stupid?

Would it be worth subscribing to FSD ($199) for a month to get a few extra features for the drive? It's not entirely clear to me what features I would get because I definitely wouldn't get enrolled in the FSD beta program before this trip (time is short, and I'm on a later software release than the FSD beta). I believe I would get navigation while on highways, and maybe automatic lane changes with autosteer on the highway. There might be some minor in-town features activate, but I don't really care about anything except the long stretches on highways.

Honestly at this point I'm ready to pack the car, load up the first destination and go. What else should I be thinking about?

Thanks,
Dan

What I did in planning my 1200+ mile trip from NJ to Florida is use PlugShare to compile a list of charge stations between NJ and Florida in a word document. I keep making notes in it such as 250kW vs 150 kW, clean bathrooms, food, etc. It will give you the mileage and drive time from your starting location. I always plan to stop every 2-3 hours 150 miles to stretch, snack, and pee. I enter that charge location into the navigation as well as Waze. The vehicle will begin to warm the battery prior to your arrival at the next charge location to speed up charging. As others have mentioned acquire a CC1 adapter. I use mine at the 350 kWr FPL charge stations in Florida

 

[jsight]

Better to have the CCS adapter and not need it than to need it and not have it. I use my CCS occasionally and have found that the oft maligned EA fast chargers somewhat less expensive than Superchargers and somewhat faster - as my MY allows.

Agreed. I've only used it a few times, and it has been useful. Occasionally free ccs stations are available too.

 

[whizfish]

CCS adapters I’m finding online are limited to 150<whatever these units are>. Are there adapters that permit even faster charging? 350 is mentioned above. Can my car even support that?

Maybe I should be asking: what’s a good source for newbies to read about EV charging on the road?

Thanks for all the replies so far!

 

[MattM24]

CCS adapters I’m finding online are limited to 150<whatever these units are>. Are there adapters that permit even faster charging? 350 is mentioned above. Can my car even support that?

Maybe I should be asking: what’s a good source for newbies to read about EV charging on the road?

Thanks for all the replies so far!

kW is charge speed.
But the CCS adapter directly from Tesla.

YouTube has a lot of great Tesla roadtrip videos.

 

[kavyboy]

Staying at overnight locations that have a charger is nice, but not a necessity. You might be able to skip your first supercharger stop in the morning if you leave fully charged. Don't count on these destination chargers, though.
If you're staying overnight near a supercharger, charge when you arrive, not in the morning. Cold batteries charge a lot slower.
Speed is a range killer. Go slower if range looks iffy.
I drive with the trip graph displayed. It helps to figure out what things matter. For example, if you change your speed you might see the slope of the graph really change.
A tire refill kit is useful even in non-emergency. I went from Houston, TX to the mountains of NC in the autumn, for example. Tire pressure dropped a lot due to just temperature and elevation and needed a top-up.
I have never needed CSS in 8 years of road trips - not even when there were *way* fewer supercharger locations than there are now.
Bring your mobile charger (if you have one). It's a slow charge, but it's saved me a couple of times.

 

[jsight]

CCS adapters I’m finding online are limited to 150<whatever these units are>. Are there adapters that permit even faster charging? 350 is mentioned above. Can my car even support that?

Maybe I should be asking: what’s a good source for newbies to read about EV charging on the road?

Thanks for all the replies so far!

Charging is volts * amps. Tesla LR 3 and Y are approximately 400 volts. CCS is typically limited to 500 amps.

Real world, the limit through the adapter is in the 150-200kw range. It peaks lower than the v3 but the curve ends up being a little flatter. Final charge times are very similar.

All of this assumes the station is outputting full power, which is not always the case.

 

[whizfish]

Charging is volts * amps. Tesla LR 3 and Y are approximately 400 volts. CCS is typically limited to 500 amps.

Thanks for the reply. At first I didn't understand this sentence, but then I figured it out. For the benefit of other simpletons like me:

volts x amps = watts, 1000 watts = 1 kilowatt (kW)
400 volts (approximate value for Tesla model 3 or Y) x 500 amps (approximate CCS limit) = 200,000 watts = 200 kW

After watching a couple youtube videos it seems very common that a CCS charger that supposedly is capable of 250 kW may deliver much less in real life, for reasons I haven't tried to understand. For all I know, the same may be true of Tesla's superchargers, but the videos I watched seemed to conclude that Tesla's superchargers are more reliable in their power output / charging rate (and easier to use).

Sorry if this is elementary to others, but I'm still coming up to speed.

 

[MattM24]

Thanks for the reply. At first I didn't understand this sentence, but then I figured it out. For the benefit of other simpletons like me:

volts x amps = watts, 1000 watts = 1 kilowatt (kW)
400 volts (approximate value for Tesla model 3 or Y) x 500 amps (approximate CCS limit) = 200,000 watts = 200 kW

After watching a couple youtube videos it seems very common that a CCS charger that supposedly is capable of 250 kW may deliver much less in real life, for reasons I haven't tried to understand. For all I know, the same may be true of Tesla's superchargers, but the videos I watched seemed to conclude that Tesla's superchargers are more reliable in their power output / charging rate (and easier to use).

Sorry if this is elementary to others, but I'm still coming up to speed.

The CCS standard currently goes up to something like 1000V.

 

[Nosken]

Have done 5 over 4,000 mile road trips, dating back to 2015, when there were far fewer Superchargers and hotel chargers. It is so easy now.
I use PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge to find towns with Superchargers and hotels with level 2 chargers (Tesla Destination Charger or J1772). Hotels are the most convienient, and are usually free. Just plug in and go to sleep like at home. I choose towns that also have Superchargers, just in case I can't charge at the hotel. If you have to use the Supercharger, always charge on arrival, using navigation to preheat the battery. Charging in the morning is likely to be slower due to the battery temperature. I charge to 90%, then in the morning top it up to 100% (from the phone app) if you are plugged in at the hotel., and do 100% while on the road if needed.
Charge early and often on the road. The car charges much faster in lower battery percentages. I usually head to the next charger when the charge rate gets below 50kWh or sooner. I do not depart if the next supercharger if navigation says my battery will be less than 20%, if there are no other Superchargers along the way. I plan my meal stops around the Superchargers. It is Ok to charge fuller during a meal stop. The Nav system will tell you the food places by tapping the fork and spoon in the Supercharger info screen.
All of my trips have been with AutoPilot or now FSD Beta. It makes the drive much less fatiguing. I recently did a 21 hour straight drive from Breckenridge, CO to Lincoln, CA. The only time I was in FSD was in a blizzard, where 20 mph was over driving the conditions.
In Elko, NV I love staying at the Home2Suites. They have 3 Tesla Destination chargers and a decent hot breakfast. Across the street is Ledgestone Hotel with 3 Tesla Destination, and one J1772. Both have free charging. The cafe across the street it pretty good. The Supercharger is one exit west.
Enjoy the drive!