We just got back yesterday... 4,029 Kms or 2,518miles round trip!
Trip down was especially interesting since we ran into an east coast storm which brought torrential rains through most of Penn, MD, and VA. We even encountered snow and sleet - not good since I had just put the summer tires on 21" back on before the trip. Between Niagara Falls and Somerset we decided to take hwy 219 with a top up at the Holiday Valley ski resort 30Amp public charger. Unfortunately, I only charged to 252 and with the heavy rain and increase of about 500ft in elevation over very hilly terrain, we had to do an emergency charge at, of all places- a Burger King 110 outlet just north of Somerset. We had 10miles to go and only a rated charge of 5. With the cold weather at higher elevations we charged to 14 only to drift into Somerset showing '0' range and the car flashing "charge now" for the last mile and a half... Too close for comfort. The same reverse trip was fine with a full 265mi charge and 36mi remaining (minus heavy rain, decreasing elevation, and slightly warmer temperatures).
In Amelia Island, where my conference was, the valet said they had a Tesla in two weeks ago and there was a 110 outlet in a utility room by one of the valet parking spots. This was perfect since, I was there for 4 nights and it was fully charged by the third day.
Some of the lessons learned / observations made from the trip:
- heavy rain on the roads affected our range by up to 10%
- speed was the biggest factor affecting range- was able to hit 80 vs the usual 60 - big drop in range
- temperature was another huge factor. 5-6C consumed about 5-7% more than 18-20C
- great car to sleep in if you had to... Can keep the seats heated and climate control running while charging
- Superchargers are great! Free, empty of other vehicles most of the strops we made, only needed 30 minutes to top up
- used a guideline of 30% over actual miles to calculate a safe buffer for rated range ( ie. if the distance to destination was 100mi, we always charged to a rated range of 130mi or more)
- car does not shut down when you hit '0' but we managed at least another 1.5 miles.
- 30Amp public chargers are painfully slow at 20mi/hour
- 12Amp 110 plugs are even worse at 3-4mi/ hr
- we found that charging at 12A when it is 5C out results is even slower times due to suspected warming of the battery pack.
It was really a treat traveling along the Supercharger network. It made charge stops a breeze and really makes the Model S a true road trip car. I can't wait till the Superchargers are available in Canada, it would make these kind of trips possible here as well.
We we took pictures of every Supercharger we stopped at and also kept a video log. Hopefully if I can get around to it in the next few weeks, I'll post our trip on YouTube.
Trip down was especially interesting since we ran into an east coast storm which brought torrential rains through most of Penn, MD, and VA. We even encountered snow and sleet - not good since I had just put the summer tires on 21" back on before the trip. Between Niagara Falls and Somerset we decided to take hwy 219 with a top up at the Holiday Valley ski resort 30Amp public charger. Unfortunately, I only charged to 252 and with the heavy rain and increase of about 500ft in elevation over very hilly terrain, we had to do an emergency charge at, of all places- a Burger King 110 outlet just north of Somerset. We had 10miles to go and only a rated charge of 5. With the cold weather at higher elevations we charged to 14 only to drift into Somerset showing '0' range and the car flashing "charge now" for the last mile and a half... Too close for comfort. The same reverse trip was fine with a full 265mi charge and 36mi remaining (minus heavy rain, decreasing elevation, and slightly warmer temperatures).
In Amelia Island, where my conference was, the valet said they had a Tesla in two weeks ago and there was a 110 outlet in a utility room by one of the valet parking spots. This was perfect since, I was there for 4 nights and it was fully charged by the third day.
Some of the lessons learned / observations made from the trip:
- heavy rain on the roads affected our range by up to 10%
- speed was the biggest factor affecting range- was able to hit 80 vs the usual 60 - big drop in range
- temperature was another huge factor. 5-6C consumed about 5-7% more than 18-20C
- great car to sleep in if you had to... Can keep the seats heated and climate control running while charging
- Superchargers are great! Free, empty of other vehicles most of the strops we made, only needed 30 minutes to top up
- used a guideline of 30% over actual miles to calculate a safe buffer for rated range ( ie. if the distance to destination was 100mi, we always charged to a rated range of 130mi or more)
- car does not shut down when you hit '0' but we managed at least another 1.5 miles.
- 30Amp public chargers are painfully slow at 20mi/hour
- 12Amp 110 plugs are even worse at 3-4mi/ hr
- we found that charging at 12A when it is 5C out results is even slower times due to suspected warming of the battery pack.
It was really a treat traveling along the Supercharger network. It made charge stops a breeze and really makes the Model S a true road trip car. I can't wait till the Superchargers are available in Canada, it would make these kind of trips possible here as well.
We we took pictures of every Supercharger we stopped at and also kept a video log. Hopefully if I can get around to it in the next few weeks, I'll post our trip on YouTube.
