Road trip in July. questions from a brand new owner

[Dvs76]

Hello,
my car is due to arrive June 12th. I have a road trip planned from Wisconsin to Denver, Co. the MYP we ordered with the 21 uber tires are these okay for the trip? round trip we may put 4k miles on the car. any tips and and advice on taking a large trip like this? its about 15 or 16 hour drive with charge up times included. Thanks for helping a newb in advance haha.

 

[zpaul]

Hello,
my car is due to arrive June 12th. I have a road trip planned from Wisconsin to Denver, Co. the MYP we ordered with the 21 uber tires are these okay for the trip? round trip we may put 4k miles on the car. any tips and and advice on taking a large trip like this? its about 15 or 16 hour drive with charge up times included. Thanks for helping a newb in advance haha.

Uberturbines should be fine on highway and actually I enjoy them on highway more than 19 inch. The only worry potholes and bad roads, that is when 21 becomes uncomfortable.
Install ABRP app I used it for my first trip and I liked it more since it allowed multiple points.

 

[ReddyKW]

You will love this trip in your Y. We make the trip to the Denver area from MSP at least twice a year in our M3 LR. I use Tesla's route planner and have found it to be very accurate at estimating charge level at SC stops. Do not waste time charging beyond 80%, I watch the estimated charge level for my next stop and stop charging when I see a comfortable level (~15 to 20%). In winter we stop at nearly every SC, I80 is well covered.

 

[Velcade]

Don't charge to 100%. Charge to 90%. The car behaves very different when the battery is full, I was not a fan. Regenerative braking is nonexistent and one-petal driving doesn't work.

 

[Johnny Vector]

In general, I plan my trips with A Better Route Planner and then throw it all out and use the in-car nav when it comes down to it. Although sometimes the in-car nav is not quite ideal, so I program in the next charger I want to stop at.

If the car is navigating to a Supercharger, either by you manually telling it to go there or because it put one on your route, it will precondition the battery before you get there, speeding up charging even more.

As others have said, don't bother charging above 80%. Takes more time than it's worth. Also, you charge fastest at lower states of charge, so try to pull into the next charger with as low a charge state as you're comfortable with. I shoot for 10-25%. If you're at a V3 supercharger, you'll be back at 60% charge in ~12 minutes. That's usually enough to get you to your next stop, and no more time than it took to hit the loo and grab a snack or drink. In other words, stop more often and the stops will be much shorter. And you may find you enjoy the trip more. I certainly do! No more bladder-bursting 5-hour legs for me, and I'm the better for it.

 

[quadroplexor]

Just to add a bit. At home before the first leg I charge to 90 or 95%. This lets me stretch that first leg out. Then keep subsequent stops more frequent/short maximizing the charge curve.

I learned a lot watching Out of Spec Motoring road trips on youtube. Small tricks like alternating stalls at V2 chargers or pulling in around 10% to maximize charge rate I use on all my trips.

While the Tesla takes a bit longer with the charge times, my overall experience is superior to our minivan. AP/FSD takes a huge mental load off. First car I've ever truly enjoyed road tripping.

 

[Dvs76]

thanks everyone! we just booked an airbnb in Lakewood,Co it has a chevy volt charger and it says we can use it. Sorry for this stupid question but we dont even have our car yet, what will i need to use that charger? i have installed a Tesla wall charger already. does the car include what i need to use that charger at the airbnb? also any road trip accessories anyone advises are must have? thanks so much!

 

[Dvs76]

You will love this trip in your Y. We make the trip to the Denver area from MSP at least twice a year in our M3 LR. I use Tesla's route planner and have found it to be very accurate at estimating charge level at SC stops. Do not waste time charging beyond 80%, I watch the estimated charge level for my next stop and stop charging when I see a comfortable level (~15 to 20%). In winter we stop at nearly every SC, I80 is well covered.

We are super excited! this is great advice thank you.

 

[StealthMicro]

Hello,
my car is due to arrive June 12th. I have a road trip planned from Wisconsin to Denver, Co. the MYP we ordered with the 21 uber tires are these okay for the trip? round trip we may put 4k miles on the car. any tips and and advice on taking a large trip like this? its about 15 or 16 hour drive with charge up times included. Thanks for helping a newb in advance haha.

Do you have a VIN or are you just going off of what your Tesla advisor says? Mine was due May 26th and was changed to next week but still no VIN so not holding my breath. I too am looking forward to road tripping in the MYP.

 

[Johnny Vector]

thanks everyone! we just booked an airbnb in Lakewood,Co it has a chevy volt charger and it says we can use it. Sorry for this stupid question but we dont even have our car yet, what will i need to use that charger? i have installed a Tesla wall charger already. does the car include what i need to use that charger at the airbnb? also any road trip accessories anyone advises are must have? thanks so much!

That's going to be a Level 2 charger, which will have a J1772 plug. The Tesla comes with an adapter that converts J1772 to a Tesla plug. Take that with you and you can charge at their charger, or indeed any Level 2 charger in the country. And if you take the mobile charger that comes with the car with you, you can also plug into any 15 A 120 V outlet and charge very very slowly. We did that at an Airbnb in the outer banks, and because we mostly didn't drive anywhere due to the pandemic, we added a hundred miles or so of range over the weekend. A Level 2 charger will charge it all the way overnight.

 

[FFR6288]

thanks everyone! we just booked an airbnb in Lakewood,Co it has a chevy volt charger and it says we can use it. Sorry for this stupid question but we dont even have our car yet, what will i need to use that charger? i have installed a Tesla wall charger already. does the car include what i need to use that charger at the airbnb? also any road trip accessories anyone advises are must have? thanks so much!

I believe the Chevy Volt uses a J1772 connector. If so you will be fine, as the Tesla portable charger included with your car includes a J1772 adapter.

 

[Dvs76]

I believe the Chevy Volt uses a J1772 connector. If so you will be fine, as the Tesla portable charger included with your car includes a J1772 adapter.

thank you so much!!

 

[Dvs76]

Do you have a VIN or are you just going off of what your Tesla advisor says? Mine was due May 26th and was changed to next week but still no VIN so not holding my breath. I too am looking forward to road tripping in the MYP.

no vin yet and but my SA said it looks around June 12th and i should have a vin soon. idk? hehe

 

[dogmodes]

We just got back from a 2500 mile trip and the car was great. As others have mentioned get ARBP, but use a combination. Tesla routing is a little too optimistic and will try and get you to a charger with 3% which isn’t enough cushion for me. What arbp will help you with is knowing there’s a supercharger 30 miles before the one tesla wants you to stop at. ARBP allows you to set your minimum arrival percentage, add extra weight, use your actual wh/mi to make estimates.

Couple things I would get. A tire plug get, a sealant tire Kit/pump, maybe a couple charger adapters 14-50, 10-30, maybe TT-30 if you’ll be around campgrounds.
Agree with the others charge to below 90%. If tesla says charge to X% give it a few extra minutes. I like to always give it a few extra minutes.
Autopilot was awesome. Worse thing about the car was no cooled seats, so after 8 hours they get a bit warm.

 

[Fourdoor]

That's going to be a Level 2 charger, which will have a J1772 plug. The Tesla comes with an adapter that converts J1772 to a Tesla plug. Take that with you and you can charge at their charger, or indeed any Level 2 charger in the country. And if you take the mobile charger that comes with the car with you, you can also plug into any 15 A 120 V outlet and charge very very slowly. We did that at an Airbnb in the outer banks, and because we mostly didn't drive anywhere due to the pandemic, we added a hundred miles or so of range over the weekend. A Level 2 charger will charge it all the way overnight.

If they speciefied that it is a Volt charger (Chevy Volt) then it is probably a 16 amp 240V charger, that will take 20 hours to charge a LR MY from empty to full.

Keith

 

[Bigriver]

@Dvs76, congratulations! Here is my advice, some of it overlapping what has been said above:

• Be aware that the miles listed next to the battery icon are “rated miles” and they will disappear faster, sometimes a lot faster, than the actual miles you have driven when you are traveling at highway speeds, up hills and with those 21” tires. Use the energy graph to see the estimated range remaining. It continually updates based on your recent efficiency. I usually rely on the last 30 mile setting.
• I find the in car estimates of what my state of charge will be at my next stop to be very good. But you have no experience with this yet, and it can’t hurt to charge an extra 5% to 10% until you get a feel for it. But as others have said, the higher the state of charge, the slower the charging speed. So give up any idea of running full to empty like in an ICE. It would be faster to make 2 SC stops (e.g., 20% to 60% twice) rather than 1 stop (20% to 100%).
• I like ABRP for planning ahead of time, but agree with those above who said to ditch it once on the trip. The car tells you what you need to know.
• Carry your mobile charger and the adapters with you but you are unlikely to need it unless you want to use it at the AirBNB. I don’t think there are any parts of your route where there are gaps in superchargers.
• There are 3 different vintages of superchargers, best distinguished by the max charge rate that is part of the SC info available from your navigation map. The oldest are 120 kW, the next are 150 kW and the newest are 250 kW. The latter are referred to as V3, are the fastest, and have the advantage that every stall is independent. At the older V2 SCs, the stalls are paired and your charging rate will be affected if another car is at the paired stall. They are numbered, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc and it is the A/B stalls that are paired. Usually these are next to each other. However if it is one of the oldest SC sites, the stalls may be 1A, 2A, 3A, 1B, 2B, 3B. It is generally considered good SC etiquette to try not to pair up with another car if the site isn’t very busy. If that’s not possible, go ahead and take an open spot. Occasionally another driver will pop out of their car to suggest where might be the best spot as they may know who has been there the longest.
• Relax and have fun!

 

[Dvs76]

@Dvs76, congratulations! Here is my advice, some of it overlapping what has been said above:

• Be aware that the miles listed next to the battery icon are “rated miles” and they will disappear faster, sometimes a lot faster, than the actual miles you have driven when you are traveling at highway speeds, up hills and with those 21” tires. Use the energy graph to see the estimated range remaining. It continually updates based on your recent efficiency. I usually rely on the last 30 mile setting.
• I find the in car estimates of what my state of charge will be at my next stop to be very good. But you have no experience with this yet, and it can’t hurt to charge an extra 5% to 10% until you get a feel for it. But as others have said, the higher the state of charge, the slower the charging speed. So give up any idea of running full to empty like in an ICE. It would be faster to make 2 SC stops (e.g., 20% to 60% twice) rather than 1 stop (20% to 100%).
• I like ABRP for planning ahead of time, but agree with those above who said to ditch it once on the trip. The car tells you what you need to know.
• Carry your mobile charger and the adapters with you but you are unlikely to need it unless you want to use it at the AirBNB. I don’t think there are any parts of your route where there are gaps in superchargers.
• There are 3 different vintages of superchargers, best distinguished by the max charge rate that is part of the SC info available from your navigation map. The oldest are 120 kW, the next are 150 kW and the newest are 250 kW. The latter are referred to as V3, are the fastest, and have the advantage that every stall is independent. At the older V2 SCs, the stalls are paired and your charging rate will be affected if another car is at the paired stall. They are numbered, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc and it is the A/B stalls that are paired. Usually these are next to each other. However if it is one of the oldest SC sites, the stalls may be 1A, 2A, 3A, 1B, 2B, 3B. It is generally considered good SC etiquette to try not to pair up with another car if the site isn’t very busy. If that’s not possible, go ahead and take an open spot. Occasionally another driver will pop out of their car to suggest where might be the best spot as they may know who has been there the longest.
• Relax and have fun!

thank you for taking the time to write all of this! i am taking many notes.

 

[Johnny Vector]

If they speciefied that it is a Volt charger (Chevy Volt) then it is probably a 16 amp 240V charger, that will take 20 hours to charge a LR MY from empty to full.

Keith

Oh, excellent point! I didn't realize there was a specific Volt charger. I thought the original statement was oddly specific, but now it makes more sense.

I'm slightly surprised I didn't know that, on account of how the Volt is what got me into EVs. Sort of. A co-worker talked me into getting a Volt rather than a Leaf, based on battery longevity. Before I bought one, I talked myself into getting a Bolt instead, which I did. So I never actually got the Volt, but I thought the co-worker had told me everything about it. Guess it was almost everything.

 

[CapsEngineer]

Only other thing I can add to what everyone has said is the learn and use the energy display in the car. On my short road trips it’s been very accurate at predicting your arrival SoC so you can see if you have to adjust your driving or not. Frugal Tesla Guy has a great video desc its usage and Out of Spec Motoring’s road trip videos show it in use.

 

[WADan]

We just came back from a long road trip, about 1000 miles one way (two full days of driving).
I am a little chicken (and I don’t want the boss/wife to have anxiety attack), so I always use ABRP to see if what it recommends. I found that Tesla is too optimistic, and sometimes trying to get the battery too low (sometimes below 10 perc) at the the next charging point. I either charged a little higher or added another stop (as recommended by ABRP) so I would not have to worry about it.