Help for a MS owner planning their first long distance trip

[DEinspanjer]

We live in NH and are planning to take a trip down to Memphis, TN. We've made the trip many times in our Prius in past years, but obviously, we'd prefer to take the MS now... if we can.

The challenges are not really wanting to take more than 2 days of travel time and having two young kids who aren't allowed to eat in the MS.

I tried using the site linked below to plan out a trip. Unfortunately, they don't include the Tesla Super Chargers in their charging POIs, so I had to add them as normal waypoints.

I think one of the major problems with this plan is that I opted for Level 2 public chargers rather than trying to get camping grounds. I'd love to get some details from people about how camp ground charging works.. Do you rent an RV spot and charge then go out to eat after it is done? How long would it take to charge an 85 to either 80% or 100%?

Please try to take a look at this road trip plan and let us know what we can do to make it work.

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- - - Updated - - -

I am sorry, I can't edit the post, but here is a link that should work better:

MyScenicDrives.com - Trip from Salem, NH to Memphis, TN

 

[bluetinc]

Hey There,

Wow, that's quite a trip plan, especially with your time requirement. I'll make the assumption that you are use to doing the trip in two days, 700 miles a day, or about 12-14 hours on the road including fill-ups and lunch/dinner/etc? That's going to be tough to match with today's Supercharger setup. Here are some rough times to give you an idea of fillup times and how I would try to accomplish what you are looking to do. I also want to note that these number are subject to the voltages that you get when you plug in at a EV site, which are not well documented and tend to be a phase of a 3 phase power yielding charge times that are 20% worse than what you would expect at home at the same current.

Average EV charge station (I found this is almost always the case)
30A at 200V = 6kW, empty to full charge time ~15 hours

Lucky EV charge station (I've found a few of these but they are hit or miss and not documented)
30A at 240V = 7.2kW, empty to full charge time ~12.5 hours

RV park (3 phase distribution, not the norm)
40A at 200V = 8kW, empty to full charge time ~11 hours

RV park (signal phase distribution, I found this as the norm)
40A at 240V = 9.6kW, empty to full charge time ~9 hours

Roadster charger at Tesla Store
70A at 200V = 14kW, empty to full charge time ~6.5 hours (IF you have twin chargers)
40A at 200V = 8kW, empty to full charge time ~11 hours (IF you only have a single charger)

S HPWC running full up at someone's house
80A at 240V = 19.2kW, empty to full charge time ~ 4.5 hours (IF you have twin chargers)
40A at 240V = 9.6kW, empty to full charge time ~9 hours (IF you only have a single charger)

With that info, and my assumptions that a 14-15 hour days would be ok and you have twin chargers, I would say you could do something like:


Please note to any reading this, some of the mileages shown in this plan are optimistic, extra charge stops might be needed depending on conditions (21" wheels, rain, snow, wind, etc.)

Day 1:

3 hours driving
1 hour CT Supercharger
3 hours driving
1 DE Superchargers
2 hours driving to Tysons corner Tesla Chargers
2 hours charging
3 hours driving to Roanoke, VA

Total Time 15 hours

at this point, it's about 9-10pm (started at 6am), I'd find an RV park that you could stay at in a cabin, or one near a hotel that you can fully charge the car at overnight. It will need to charge from about 10pm till 7am, and you should note that charging at a standard EV charger just won't cut it.


Day 2,

At this point, you still have 650 miles to go, and the only way to make this work in one day (without another supercharger) is to find two people with HPWC's running at 80A. IFF you have those in the correct locations, then you could do something like this:

Drive 4 hours
4 hours Charging at another owners charger HPWC 80A near Knoxville, TN
Drive 3 hours
3 hours Charging at another owners charger HPWC 80A near Nashville, TN
Drive 3 hours to Memphis, TN

Get in around midnight.

Total time 17 hours

Personally, I would think about breaking it up into three days until few more Superchargers installed on the east coast, or there is an adapter to allow for use of the CHAdeMO chargers that seem plentiful in TN, but, hopefully this gives you a good flavor of what you would be looking at.

Peter

 

[DEinspanjer]

Peter,

Wow. Thank you so much for the info, this is exactly what I was hoping to get.
On previous trips, we have made pretty aggressive driving plans, twice going non-stop other than fuel and meals. I definitely figured we would need to take a more leisurely approach for a trip with the MS.

The approximate charge times are especially helpful in general, thanks.

I had a few follow-up questions.

What are the Tyson's Corner chargers you mentioned? Maybe a service center?

Are you saying that the chadmo stations aren't currently compatible with any of the MS adapters? Is there a good thread to read up on that?

Is a Roadster HPWC compatible with an MA or does it need some sort of adapter?

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Jason S]

Re: CHAdeMO -- no adapter available at this time, sorry. No idea when one will show up, but it has been promised.

Roadster changer needs an adapter. Hopefully the Tesla store has one available. Sometimes Roadster chargers in the wild have been adapted to J1772 tho.

 

[bluetinc]

Tyson's Corner is a large mall that has a Tesla Store waiting to open (I've heard that it's been ready since December but waiting on permits) so it makes for a faster than average charge with a decent place to hang out. Even though they are not open they do have two chargers set up and powered already (I've used them both) in a blocked off area, but you do need an adapter to go from Roadster to S. Depending on when your trip is, once the store is open they will have adapters onsite so you don't need to worry about bringing/borrowing one, and they did wire the system so it's ready for the new S HPWC's at 80A to be installed, but I think they are just trying to get open first.

For the adapter discussion see this link.

Likelihood of a CHAdeMO adapter for the Model S

Peter,

Wow. Thank you so much for the info, this is exactly what I was hoping to get.
On previous trips, we have made pretty aggressive driving plans, twice going non-stop other than fuel and meals. I definitely figured we would need to take a more leisurely approach for a trip with the MS.

The approximate charge times are especially helpful in general, thanks.

I had a few follow-up questions.

What are the Tyson's Corner chargers you mentioned? Maybe a service center?

Are you saying that the chadmo stations aren't currently compatible with any of the MS adapters? Is there a good thread to read up on that?

Is a Roadster HPWC compatible with an MA or does it need some sort of adapter?

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Enadler]

One other thing to remember. If you dont have twin chargers then your car will only be able to accept 40A from the HPWC or Roadster chargers.

 

[bluetinc]

Great point! I updated my times to show this important note.

Peter

One other thing to remember. If you dont have twin chargers then your car will only be able to accept 40A from the HPWC or Roadster chargers.

 

[ChadS]

I have nothing specific to your trip (like bluetinc offered); but there is a fair bit of info useful to people taking their first electric road trip in THIS thread.

 

[dbfish]

Use the trip planner on KOA to find KOA RV parks - many also have cabins you can stay in overnight but pack sheets/blankets, etc - and always call ahead! For meals, pick up a take-out lunch/dinner/etc nearby, head to the RV park, and let the kids burn some energy. If it's raining, eat at a restaurant then head to the RV park for reading/nap time. Drive slow! to maximize charging hours. Here is a link that might work to the trip planner between the Wilmington DE supercharger and Memphis, otherwise use this one: http://koa.com/trip-planner

You can also find other RV parks at Allstays | Campgrounds | RV Parks - and please update this thread with your choices during your trip (You'll have lots of time while charging!) to help others that may follow your route!

There are also some RV parks recommended on Plugshare on your route:
Harrisonburg Shenandoah Valley KOA
http://www.plugshare.com/?location=152

Wytheville Virginia KOA
http://www.plugshare.com/?location=160

I found these using the ChargePlanner route planning website that gets data from Plugshare locations. You can also search at Electric Cars - Charging Stations - Recargo.

With RV parks, as long as you've called ahead, unless there is a power outage you don't really need a Plan B as long as you plan them close enough together and drive conservatively. If you plan on using any public J1772 EV Chargers, definitely have a Plan B. You may end up blocked by a gas car, the charger might be broken, etc etc.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Robert.Boston]

Another resource I'd recommend is the smartphone app Allstays Camp & RV. This app allows you to filter for campgrounds that have 50A service (=NEMA 14-50) and has all the contact info and relevant data about each. The reported experience about charging at RV parks has been mixed. Nearly all allow it, typically for a nominal charge (~$10), while others require a full rental. Some RV parks have cabins for rent, making for an easy overnight charge-up.

Trying to do this in two days is really ambitious. Personally, I find it more enjoyable to take an extra day or two and enjoy that beautiful and interesting part of the country.

 

[DEinspanjer]

Yeah, sadly, after reviewing the helpful information shared here, I think 2 days just isn't that feasible.

While I would love to make it a drawn out casual trip, we only have 11 days between end of school and prior engagements that require us to be back home, and every extra day on the road is two fewer days to spend with family while we are there.

As much as we would prefer to take the MS, the Prius might be the more reasonable choice.

 

[mdelpin]

Cursed Snow Days !!!!!

 

[Robert.Boston]

While I would love to make it a drawn out casual trip, we only have 11 days between end of school and prior engagements that require us to be back home, and every extra day on the road is two fewer days to spend with family while we are there.

Some people would be delighted to have a good excuse of dwaddling a bit along the way... ;-)

 

[DEinspanjer]

I had a long detailed post with various estimated trips and such, but I accidentally hit back on my browser and the forum ate my saved copy, so you'll just get the tl;dr.

The trip doesn't seem to be feasible within even 3 days of driving with the current lack of superchargers and even if you had optimal sharing of HPWC @ 60 amps from other owners along the route. :/

Hopefully this will change soon, in the meantime, we'll have to take our ICE Prius yet again.

 

[jerry33]

I had a long detailed post with various estimated trips and such, but I accidentally hit back on my browser and the forum ate my saved copy, so you'll just get the tl;dr.

The forum actually saves your posts. Just click "post quick reply" and then click on the "restore saved" button. I've resuscitated many posts using that method.