Need advice, first Long drive: Frisco to Birmingham, AL

[Singh]

So planning to upgrade my S60 to 75 and make the drive this long weekend with family. Kinda nervous, would be leaving thursday evening after work to shreveport, spend night there, and drive early friday to Birmingham.

1. Any advice from people who have made this drive?
2. Have the Tesla tire repair kit, what else can I get to make the trip safer?
3. If one of the superchargers on my way is broken, I am screwed. how often does it happen for SCs to go down?

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated guys! Here's the route link:

A Better Routeplanner

 

[KidDoc]

I drove College Station to Baton Rogue a few years ago so not the same route but somewhat similar. In general you want to use cruise control and keep it under 75 MPH. You are better off starting off a bit slower to make sure you have the electrons to make it then speeding up as you get closer to the SC and you are sure you have enough juice.

With the most recent update the supercharger status is displayed on the nav. Personally I have never had issues with ALL superchargers being broken or in use down here in the South but who knows with this busy travel weekend. Good luck!

 

[L.Robinson]

Made the trip from Dallas to Birmingham in October a week after Meridian SC opened. I had no issues in a 90D. The longest drive without chargeing was Meridian to B'ham at about 150 miles. Stopped at all 5 chargers along the way. Used the trip computer to estimate charge level at the next SC to make sure I had at least 20% margin when I left a SC. There are a number of Plug Share sites (get the APP) along the way so make sure you are able to charge using the UMC if need be. It took 13 hours going and 12 coming back, we learned to use our time at the stops more wisely as going we wasted a lot of time. Used AP and ran at the speed limit (75 on I20 in East TX) plus up to 10 MPH, none of this slow stuff. With a family that stop every 2 hours or so is good to break up the time.

 

[Missile Toad]

@Singh I did some calculations (elsewhere in TMC), based on daily review of the Nav YTD 2017 for stations that are experiencing Tesla-reportable problems. Math was:

"...6/131,688 or 0.005% chance that a SuperCharger manifest itself as temporary-closure/reduced-service. "​

The above figures are for a 'surprise outage' that occurs while in transit to the Supercharger. The sources of error are chiefly twofold:

1) Did I accurately see all the 'bad' pins in the Tesla Nav each day;
2) Did Tesla truthfully and accurately update its Nav to indicate current status;​

Long story short, the Superchargers are highly reliable. However, it is always smart to be alert to alternative or non-Tesla chargers. The various databases from Tesla, Plugshare.com, AFDC and Chargerville.com are rife with errors. Errors about the address; the GPS coordinates or even the count of chargers at a location. The Supercharger database, on the other hand, is bedrock, at least as far as GPS coordinates and addresses are concerned. The Destination Chargers... well, they have their errors -- perhaps, in part, due to the installation of the chargers being supervised by the host hotel/restaurant/locale. These errors for Tesla Destinations and the other databases can be as high as 5% -- so it is best to call ahead for those.

I'm intending an Irving -> Atlanta trip a couple months away. I'd be interested in @Singh 's comments especially of the Monroe Supercharger, and the local Marriott's, where I hope to stay overnight.

Incidentally, the Shreveport Supercharger is at a small mall. At least two spots to eat there.

 

[cmf]

I did Atlanta to McKinney round trip last Thanksgiving in a MS 70D and it was not bad. The only nerve racking thing was on my way back from McKinney to Atl, the Shreveport supercharger was shown as down on the nav. That forced me to fully charge in Lindale to try to make Monroe, La which I think I could have done, but as I was on my way Shreveport came back online.

I'm actually back in McKinney for the month and thus did the Atl to McKinney run in 2 days and all the supercharger were behaving normally. I'm planning on doing the McKinney to Atl run next weekend without any hesitation.

BTW, if you see a white S with GA plates around McKinney/Frisco/Plano, wave hi.

 

[Missile Toad]

I really wish I knew how Tesla decides to mark a site "Temporary Closure". The info in the Nav is constantly being contradicted by reports on Plugshare. For example, see the Arlington report, from Wednesday, indicating that the chargers are working just fine.

 

[animorph]

We hit the following Superchargers on the way to Charlotte in April with a Model X 100D, 19" wheels with all season tires, mostly 70 - 80 degrees out:

Denton, TX
137 Rated Miles to Lindale, TX
117 RM to Shreveport, LA
121 RM to Monroe, LA
138 RM to Pearl, MS
101 RM to Meridian, MS
158 RM to Birmingham, AL

We stayed overnight in Lindale. Left about 8 AM and arrived at Birmingham at about 7 PM driving mostly speed limit +5 MPH. Kind of repetitive with three mall Superchargers with pretty much the same stores. The Birmingham SC is in a pay parking lot, though you can get one of the nearby restaurants to validate. We stayed overnight at the Westin there and paid $8 for the overnight parking in the Supercharger lot. We did not see any attendant on duty there, so I'm not sure if there is a way to get out without paying.

None of these segments was particularly challenging, other than Dallas area traffic, but we did use about 15% more rated miles than EV Trip Planner had estimated.

 

[purplewalt]

You should be fine.

There is a LOT of road WORK east-bound on I-20 just East of Tyler/Lindale today.
If GPS directs you to leave I-20: DO IT.

Same thing was happening on the West-bound route from Shreveport to Lindale.
About 16 mile re-route, but it sure beat the stack up and one lane traffic.