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Road Trip - Round trip San Jose, CA to Fort Collins, CO

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Just to share the experience of a longer road trip in my Tesla Model 3 LR AWD purchased August 2019.

After developing a serious case of cabin fever due to COVID-19 isolation I decided to take a road trip to visit family.

I live in San Jose, California and family members are in Fort Collins, Colorado. One-way about 1,250 miles.

Outbound trip - I decided to leave Wednesday evening around 5:00 PM and spend the night at a hotel in Reno. Next night was spent just east of Salt Lake City then on to Fort Collins.

Return trip - based on the outbound trip I realized that I could easily make the trip back home in two days.

It was interesting plotting charging stops using the abetterrouteplanner.com website. This was useful for figuring out where to spend the night.

But, during the actual drive, I relied solely on the Tesla navigation system. I found that the Tesla navigation and energy calculation is much more accurate and "aggressive" than abetterrouteplanner. Aggressive in that Tesla navigation suggested I drive longer distances before charging. It was spot on.

Have to confess that I was quite conservative about SOC. I felt too nervous to allow the predicted destination SOC to drop below 20%. In hindsight, this concern was really not warranted.

While driving I paid close attention to the Energy Trip graph. I always arrived within a point or two of what the Energy Trip calculated. Of course, the Tesla navigation can not consider weather. I encountered a fairly strong headwind on one of the legs through Wyoming. Monitoring the Energyt Trip graph allowed me to compensate by adjusting my speed. Even 2-3 MPH makes a difference.

I never had a problem waiting at SuperChargers. There was always an available stall. The only issue was the SuperCharger in Truckee on Brockway road. It was only putting out around 65kW. After a few minutes I got bored and drove to the Truckee SuperCharger on Donner Pass Road - got close to 150kW so much better.

The actual driving was better than expected. I don't have FSD but used TACC and AutoSteer almost exclusively on the open road. I drove myself when driving through heavier traffic in Salt Lake City and Reno - just more comfortable for me personally.

I was able to figure out a good hand placement on the steering wheel - just enough resistance so AutoSteer rarely nagged.

Without FSD I needed to manually change lanes to pass slower vehicles. I found that if you slightly depress the turn signal stalk and put just a tiny bit more pressure on the steering wheel the AutoSteer disengages quite nicely. I let TACC manage my speed and re-engaged AutoSteer after completing the pass. Easy.

For much of the drive I almost felt like a passenger. I enjoyed observing the scenery and let my thoughts wander a bit. Letting the car do the steering and manage speed was truly much more relaxing that I had anticipated.

I did have a problem on the outbound trip just before Cheyenne. The A/C stopped blowing cold air. This was immediately noticeable as it was about 97 degrees.

I had read that the A/C is sometimes used to help cool the battery in very hot environments - not sure if that's true but...

I arrived in Fort Collins Friday night so couldn't really do anything about the problem. I tried restarting including the full "Power Off" action - no luck.

I tried using the Tesla mobile app to schedule a service appointment. But the soonest it would let me choose was almost 2 weeks out...not good.

Talked to Tesla roadside assistance Saturday morning. A very nice woman confirmed that the car had reported a fault - interesting how it communicates with the Tesla servers. She suggested that I show up at the nearest Tesla Service Center Monday morning to see what they could do for me.

So, Monday AM I arrived at the Tesla Service Center in Superior, Colorado. The service manager explained they were all booked up but agreed to accept the car and "do their best".

By Monday late afternoon the service manager called to let me know they diagnosed the problem as a bad condenser. They would have to get a replacement part from another Service Center the next day (Tuesday).

I got another call just after mid-day Tuesday to let me know that the part arrived and the technician would start on it soon. They did advise me that it was a 4 1/2 to 5 hour installation process so it may not be ready by the end of the day. At 4:30 I got another call apologizing and was told it would be definitely ready Wednesday late morning.

As promised, the service manager called Wednesday late morning - car was done, tested and ready to go.

While it was unfortunate that the car experienced a problem I couldn't be happier with the service center. They were willing to accept the car and the communication was fantastic.

The drive home was uneventful. I took 2 days and the A/C worked flawlessly as did the car as a whole.

I can confirm that using a Tesla for this kind of long drive resulted in feeling much more relaxed at the end of the day.

The only real negative was how dirty the car got!!! And it seemed that about a billion bugs decided to commit suicide on my car!

It was a fun trip and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Happy driving.
 
What a timely post!

Our son lives near San Jose and we live just outside of Fort Collins (Loveland). We’ve been contemplating your trip in reverse directions.

It’s good to know that the trip sounds fairly easy in the Model 3. Ours is white, so those suicidal bugs will be clearly displayed on our car.

Thanks for the trip report!