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Road Trip - Should I Question My Sanity?
- Thread starter mmoran
- Start date
Have fun!
Also, Colby would be a better stop than Goodland if you can manage the stretch between Colby and Limon.
Ah...just saw you are skipping Limon, so nevermind!
Also, Colby would be a better stop than Goodland if you can manage the stretch between Colby and Limon.
Ah...just saw you are skipping Limon, so nevermind!
Looks awesome. I'd suggest slightly changing your route north of Yellowstone so that you hit Beartooth Pass, south of Red Lodge, MT. It is the most incredible stretch of road I have seen in North America. Also jump in the Boiling River if you go through Gardiner, MT to West Yellowstone SC.
I think we're overnighting in Denver. The picture is one from A Better Route Planner. It has me leaving Denver with 83% - If we leave with 95% or maybe stop for the first bathroom break in Limon and add a few percent we can skip Goodland and charge at Colby.
Thanks for the info!
What car/battery do you have? I could easily make it from the western Denver suburbs to Goodland in an S90D. Now that I have an S100D, I can easily make it from Golden to Colby.
BTW, Limon isn't the best spot either as there's not much except for Arby's. Colby's Supercharger has several different food options plus a dog park.
IdaX
Member
intrepidtoo
Member
As Crocodile Dundee might have said "Call that a LONG road trip??? It's a sunday afternoon drive!! This is an EV road trip" Picked up an S85D in LA 3 weeks ago and 3500 mi later have now reached Vancouver Island. Although we have stayed clear of most freeways, taking scenic by-ways where possible we've had no problems getting charge at superchargers and L2 chargers. So I can't imagine you'd have too many problems with your proposed route, although I would note at the risk of stating the obvious that going up and down the Rockies uses a fair bit more charge than we had initially expected. However any experience of Northern BC through Yukon would be welcome; we plan to go up Vancouver Is and take a ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, then head north via Whitehorse.
cantdecide
Member
Having done Sally lake City to Denver several times each way including a month ago I do prefer the grand junction route over the winning route. Both are beautiful but the Wyoming route is similar to other parts of the trip.
The Wyoming route has longer distances between superchargers and if you have reduced range (older car, performance, larger wheels) then the tools including the in car tools will underestimate the charging time significantly when you are charging to 250+ miles. Also the Wyoming route has superchargers with no good for options while the Colorado ones are better in this regard.
The only downside to the Colorado route is that some of the Utah section is not dual carriageway and hence autopilot is not recommended and on i70 in Colorado the lane lines are so washed out that autopilot will emergency brake many times as you are casually passing trucks.
The Wyoming route has longer distances between superchargers and if you have reduced range (older car, performance, larger wheels) then the tools including the in car tools will underestimate the charging time significantly when you are charging to 250+ miles. Also the Wyoming route has superchargers with no good for options while the Colorado ones are better in this regard.
The only downside to the Colorado route is that some of the Utah section is not dual carriageway and hence autopilot is not recommended and on i70 in Colorado the lane lines are so washed out that autopilot will emergency brake many times as you are casually passing trucks.
OK Intrepid. You can call me Intrigued.
We're going to be in Newfoundland with our Tesla & RV this summer. I briefly toyed with the idea of driving from Blanc-Sablon to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. I say briefly because as far as I can tell there is no charging infrastructure along the Trans Labrador Highway...no Superchargers...no Chademo...no J1772...no destination chargers...no RV parks...no nothing.
I guess you could charge at 120V/15A along the way. But that's only about 70 mile/day of charge. So you would have to stay a few days at each location. Unless you can find higher amperage outlets along the way (welders, dryers, diesel block heaters)
According to the Trans-Labrador Highway Wiki (Trans-Labrador Highway – Travel guide at Wikivoyage):
"Assume that, outside the few towns or villages along the route, you will have access to nothing - no fuel, no services, no communications - nothing."
"While not a next-to-impossible destination, the Trans-Labrador Highway is not easy to travel and not on the beaten path."
Not to mention the fact that the road is less than stellar.
"Bring a full-size spare tyre and tools, as it's a long way to the next service station and this rough gravel highway is notorious for damaging tyres rather routinely. In most locations, you're on your own."
So what's the charging plan the ~800 miles of Labrador?
Ok made it back - great trip. A few things I learned along the way:
1. Something is wrong with my battery cooling. After every Supercharger (even with 72 degrees ambient temperature) we got an error on the screen that said air conditioning was being shut off to divert cooling to the system. Going in to the Devon, PA shop this friday.
2. The supercharging network is remarkably designed and placed with almost no defective stations. It is well maintained.
3. Yellowstone Park which touts being eco friendly (you can't even buy a plastic bottle of water, only recyclable aluminum cans are available), is extremely ignorant of EV cars in general. There are two superchargers one at the west entrance and one near the south entrance. Finding a charger which was usually a 30A level II charger took a lot of detective work. Got quite a few long pauses on phone calls and funny looks when I asked for if there was EV charging available anywhere. Plugshare was the key here when you could get cell phone connection.
4. We traveled for almost 2 weeks including July 3rd a VERY busy travel day. And never waited for a spot at a Supercharger and only shared a charger once (someone at 1a while we were at 1b).
5. Nashville for a big city is devoid of superchargers.
1. Something is wrong with my battery cooling. After every Supercharger (even with 72 degrees ambient temperature) we got an error on the screen that said air conditioning was being shut off to divert cooling to the system. Going in to the Devon, PA shop this friday.
2. The supercharging network is remarkably designed and placed with almost no defective stations. It is well maintained.
3. Yellowstone Park which touts being eco friendly (you can't even buy a plastic bottle of water, only recyclable aluminum cans are available), is extremely ignorant of EV cars in general. There are two superchargers one at the west entrance and one near the south entrance. Finding a charger which was usually a 30A level II charger took a lot of detective work. Got quite a few long pauses on phone calls and funny looks when I asked for if there was EV charging available anywhere. Plugshare was the key here when you could get cell phone connection.
4. We traveled for almost 2 weeks including July 3rd a VERY busy travel day. And never waited for a spot at a Supercharger and only shared a charger once (someone at 1a while we were at 1b).
5. Nashville for a big city is devoid of superchargers.
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How did the S handle the Dalton?
Every report I see suggests that is a brutal route.
intrepidtoo
Member
Yes the Labrador highway may have been a bit of hubris left over from when we originally planned the route in our X5. Short of towing a generator it’s not an option. We did look at taking the ferry from Natashquan to Blanc Sablon but it too is a non-starter so we’ll probably settle for the ferry from NS. I hope you enjoy(ed) your NF trip - by all accounts it’s pretty spicy. Our immediate challenge however tackling is the Great Canadian Supercharger Desert which appears to stretch unbroken for nearly 2000mi from Calgary to Sudbury. Any recommendations on electron oases and whether to aim for 14-50 charging vs J1772 much appreciated.
intrepidtoo
Member
Unfortunately we whimped out of the Dalton (and the Dawson) beaten back by smoke haze, poor air quality and lack of time on our visas. However we did make it to Alaska, twice, via the Cassair/Glacier and the Klondike Highways. Now we’re about to tackle the Great Canadian EVSE Desert!
Maybe not. We're in Newfoundland now. Last week I was talking to another camper who had taken the Trans-Labrador Highway from Labrador City to Goose Valley to Blanc-Sablon. He told me a Tesla was behind him a good part of the way. I thought it might have been you!
He had no insight on how the Tesla charged or what type it was. Just that it was a Tesla. He also noted that the highway was recently renovated and in pretty good shape, even when it's a gravel surface.
And here I thought I was going to get to show off my 8,335 mile three week summer road trip last month with my new X. Your plan has mine beat, for sure - I don't have enough vacation time to execute your plan right now...
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