Road Trip xCountry Advice

[Tessy Flyer]

Hi,

I have a Model S 90D. I have had it for about a year now, but have not taken it on any major trips.

Next week I plan on traveling xCountry, from Florida's east coast to San Jose California. I am planning on a routine of driving a day, staying two nights at a hotel with site-seeing on the middle day, then back on the road. Being my first long trip I have some minor charging anxiety. Although there are lots of superchargers along my planned route, I have several "off the beaten path" stops where i will need to find a ChargePoint or other chargers. I don't know how quickly these charge, I know they are not fast.

I am looking for any advice on how to prepare in advance for the trip, not just for charging, but any other advice.

I will be bringing my charging cables for 110v and adapter for Level 2 Chargers. I have also borrowed a CHAdeMO adapter from a friend who suggested I have it with me.

The friend that loaned me the CHAdeMO adapter was on a trip once and had planned on a Supercharger stop. When he arrived there, the station was not working, he couldn't charge. He found a Nissan dealer nearby that would let him charge there, but didn't have an adapter. He had to get a hotel and wait a day before the Superchargers were fixed. After that experience he purchased the CHAdeMO adapter and has carried it with him.

I will also be bringing an extension cord for 110v in case I need to charge that way (I know that only charges about 3mph - but if it is the only option ... ). I have the PlugShare and ChargePoint apps, and a ChargePoint account.

I am sure there are other things I can do, bring, or prepare for. Hence I am looking here for any advice from someone who has experience and knows what kind of things to watch out for.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[bishoppeak]

I took a 12000 miles trip last summer all around the US for a month. Never had a problem at a supercharger and never suffered range anxiety. Just use the nav system to figure the charge required to the next supercharger enroute and load up to 100% before taking your off course excursions.

 

[ishareit]

Hi,

I have a Model S 90D. I have had it for about a year now, but have not taken it on any major trips.

Next week I plan on traveling xCountry, from Florida's east coast to San Jose California. I am planning on a routine of driving a day, staying two nights at a hotel with site-seeing on the middle day, then back on the road. Being my first long trip I have some minor charging anxiety. Although there are lots of superchargers along my planned route, I have several "off the beaten path" stops where i will need to find a ChargePoint or other chargers. I don't know how quickly these charge, I know they are not fast.

I am looking for any advice on how to prepare in advance for the trip, not just for charging, but any other advice.

I will be bringing my charging cables for 110v and adapter for Level 2 Chargers. I have also borrowed a CHAdeMO adapter from a friend who suggested I have it with me.

The friend that loaned me the CHAdeMO adapter was on a trip once and had planned on a Supercharger stop. When he arrived there, the station was not working, he couldn't charge. He found a Nissan dealer nearby that would let him charge there, but didn't have an adapter. He had to get a hotel and wait a day before the Superchargers were fixed. After that experience he purchased the CHAdeMO adapter and has carried it with him.

I will also be bringing an extension cord for 110v in case I need to charge that way (I know that only charges about 3mph - but if it is the only option ... ). I have the PlugShare and ChargePoint apps, and a ChargePoint account.

I am sure there are other things I can do, bring, or prepare for. Hence I am looking here for any advice from someone who has experience and knows what kind of things to watch out for.

Thanks,

Paul

A tire repair kit - Model S/X/3 Tire Repair Kit

 

[Jashev]

I would also suggest that you open a Blink Network account and a SemaConnect account. You will run into them in those parts of the country. I've made the trip from PA to Austin, TX numerous times. As long as you relax and enjoy the journey, it will be easy. I always map my trip out with evtripplanner.com to use as a guide, but I find that the nav system is really good for trips like this. I also, put the addresses for stops (hotels, restaurants, etc.) in the calendar on my phone. They will then show up in the car and you can select them instead of entering addresses all the time. I also use that function to simulate waypoints.

It is by far the best road tripping car I've ever owned!! ENJOY!

 

[JasJ]

A tire repair kit - Model S/X/3 Tire Repair Kit

To go with the tire repair kit - a pair of pliers (with cutters) and Tire plug kit. It's surprisingly easy to plug most nail/screws in a tire while on the car if you don't mind getting a bit messy.

The plugshare website is your friend.

We try to stay at hotels with some type of charging. Many hotels have some outdoor outlet at least 20amp 120V and if you speak to the manager in advance they will often accommodate you - you need the right adapter/extension cord adds 4.5miles/hr of range per hour. Those that have HPWC are even better.

 

[croman]

12V vacuum. It fits nicely in trunk side wells.

I've taken 6 road trips in 1 year (25k miles in 12.5 months!). Never had "range anxiety" but I did drive it down to single digits miles in terms of range a couple times (lowest was 2miles of range). The Nav is generally conservative (it yells at me to drive slower than 55mph but I just set AP to 70mph and monitor the consumption).

Use the energy information to determine your actual range (i.e. if you're consuming 290wh/mi for that leg, you are getting rated and can expect 290 miles of actual range). If you start to consume more, you should reduce your expectations. The Nav will eventually stop yelling at you to slow down (sometimes it just says slow to 65mph) after it sees that you'll have at least 5% SoC by the time you reach your destination/SC.

If you have AP, this will be great. Just get into the mindset that you are the supervisor of the driving and keep an eye out for all the other cars (they will be your biggest worry). I set following distance to 6 for long trips and mostly try to stay engaged in the supervision tasks.

I was able to do 17 hours of driving in one day (including charging stops) thanks to AP. Your plan on obtaining rest is a good one but remember that your avg speed will be around 50mph with stops included (if you set 70mph, you might actually average less with higher speeds because you'll need to stop to charge more frequently).

 

[Tessy Flyer]

A tire repair kit - Model S/X/3 Tire Repair Kit

Thanks - I had not thought of that and is a great idea - especially since there is no spare.

 

[Tessy Flyer]

I would also suggest that you open a Blink Network account and a SemaConnect account. You will run into them in those parts of the country. I've made the trip from PA to Austin, TX numerous times. As long as you relax and enjoy the journey, it will be easy. I always map my trip out with evtripplanner.com to use as a guide, but I find that the nav system is really good for trips like this. I also, put the addresses for stops (hotels, restaurants, etc.) in the calendar on my phone. They will then show up in the car and you can select them instead of entering addresses all the time. I also use that function to simulate waypoints.

It is by far the best road tripping car I've ever owned!! ENJOY!

Thank you - I will open those, I had not heard of them, I guess they are not on the east coast.

 

[Tessy Flyer]

To go with the tire repair kit - a pair of pliers (with cutters) and Tire plug kit. It's surprisingly easy to plug most nail/screws in a tire while on the car if you don't mind getting a bit messy.

The plugshare website is your friend.

We try to stay at hotels with some type of charging. Many hotels have some outdoor outlet at least 20amp 120V and if you speak to the manager in advance they will often accommodate you - you need the right adapter/extension cord adds 4.5miles/hr of range per hour. Those that have HPWC are even better.

I have used tire plugs in the past and they work great. I had not even thought of it for this trip put I will pick up a kit - since there is no spare makes it more of a required item.

 

[Tessy Flyer]

12V vacuum. It fits nicely in trunk side wells.

I've taken 6 road trips in 1 year (25k miles in 12.5 months!). Never had "range anxiety" but I did drive it down to single digits miles in terms of range a couple times (lowest was 2miles of range). The Nav is generally conservative (it yells at me to drive slower than 55mph but I just set AP to 70mph and monitor the consumption).

Use the energy information to determine your actual range (i.e. if you're consuming 290wh/mi for that leg, you are getting rated and can expect 290 miles of actual range). If you start to consume more, you should reduce your expectations. The Nav will eventually stop yelling at you to slow down (sometimes it just says slow to 65mph) after it sees that you'll have at least 5% SoC by the time you reach your destination/SC.

If you have AP, this will be great. Just get into the mindset that you are the supervisor of the driving and keep an eye out for all the other cars (they will be your biggest worry). I set following distance to 6 for long trips and mostly try to stay engaged in the supervision tasks.

I was able to do 17 hours of driving in one day (including charging stops) thanks to AP. Your plan on obtaining rest is a good one but remember that your avg speed will be around 50mph with stops included (if you set 70mph, you might actually average less with higher speeds because you'll need to stop to charge more frequently).

Thanks yes I have AP and know from the few day trips I have made it really cuts down on the fatigue factor. 12v vac a good idea, I want to arrive at my daughters place in San Jose with a clean car!

 

[croman]

Thanks yes I have AP and know from the few day trips I have made it really cuts down on the fatigue factor. 12v vac a good idea, I want to arrive at my daughters place in San Jose with a clean car!

I'd use EV Trip Planner to initially map out your route and then use the Nav to go from SC to SC (it does a poor job doing the entire trip, particularly if you're not doing it in one go).

Waypoints are still not a thing for the nav.

Good luck!