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Grants Pass to San Francisco on 101

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deonb

Active Member
Mar 4, 2013
4,062
4,363
Redmond, WA
I'm planning a trip down from Seattle to San Francisco in December, and would like to travel via the 101 - specifically Humboldt Redwood State Park. Hence, it doesn't make sense skipping over to it from Mt. Shasta or Corning, which means the last usable SuperCharger is at Grants Pass, OR.

The charging infrastructure further South on the 101 seems to be fairly scarce however.

I don't mind staying over one night on the way down from Seattle, but I'd like to get to San Francisco before dark the next day.


We can overnight in Eureka, which has various chargers, but then the next day we would have to drive 271 miles to get to San Francisco. But that will require at least a 4 hour charge stop in something like Ukia or Santa Rosa, which won't be pleasant.

Is there maybe a HPWC or Roadster charger somewhere out in that area that we could use? Or is there a better way to do this trip? (Other than sticking to the I5).
 
From Benbow to SF is no problem and you probably only really need 2- 2 1/2 hours of charging. I drive to Los Altos from eureka and it is 300+ miles.
Ukiah and santa rosa are only 1772s as far as I know so I'd stick to Hopland or Benbow. I heard Hopland was broken yesterday but I hope that is just temporary since I need it soon.
 
We can overnight in Eureka, which has various chargers, but then the next day we would have to drive 271 miles to get to San Francisco. But that will require at least a 4 hour charge stop in something like Ukia or Santa Rosa, which won't be pleasant.

Is there maybe a HPWC or Roadster charger somewhere out in that area that we could use? Or is there a better way to do this trip? (Other than sticking to the I5).

There are HPWCs at the San Rafael Tesla Service Center, which is about 250 miles from Eureka. If you do a full range charge in Eureka you should be able to make it if you keep it to less than 65mph on the 101 (and much of that route on the 101 the speed limit is less than 65 anyway).

Of course when you get to the San Rafael SC you will have to charge for at least half an hour, but if you make it a meal stop that will be easy. It's less than 20 miles from San Rafael to downtown San Francisco.

I assume that you will have overnight charging at your SF destination? If not, charge up for an hour in San Rafael. You can top off the next day at the Burlingame Service Center HPWCs just south of SF. If that isn't convenient, stop in San Rafael on your way back, or go back home via I5 and the Superchargers.
 
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I made this trip, but it was a bit more painful than anticipated.

I charged overnight at Eureka (at the Fisherman's Market Square). At 7:19am, someone cut the Chargepoint cable and stole it. That left me with 160 miles of charge. Thankfully the 1772 adapter gets locked to the car, and there wasn't any vandalism to my car.

So I thought I'd drive to Humboldt Redwood State Park for a charge. I know they have 240V 40A service. Except... they ran out of water so they closed all the RV parks in Humboldt.

This left me with Benbow. Benbow has painfully slow power - 200V at 37A. Above 37A their system trips out. So I stopped for 5 hours but only got back up to 160 miles.


So I decided to stop trying to reach San Rafeal and just stop in Ukiah for the night.

Stopped at the Super 8, which had a charger (according to the owner, he was the first Hotel in the country to offer EV charging). This worked well, and I got a range charge from there and enough to get to San Francisco.


We REALLY could use a SuperCharger on the 101 North.
 
Wow that sucks about the C st chargepoint Deonb!

I never had problems with Benbow and *always get 40A@230V

A SC near Ukiah/Cloverdale will help some but not be enough to make it to Grants Pass without using I-5. Once you leave Mendocino you are kind of traveling on 'Humboldt Time'
 
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