Roadster Trip - Houston to North Dallas Charging Options?

[DeedWest]

Hello all! Tomorrow, I finally take delivery of my 2011 Roadster 2.5! The car itself is in west Houston, roughly 270 miles away from my home. I am headed down to pick up the car myself, and am trying to figure out mapping a halfway point to charge the car. From looking at the maps, it looks like 180 miles from the pickup point is Waco.

Does anyone know of a way to charge the Roadster, preferably at 70A, or a quick charging method, in Waco? Ideally, this is the safest and most practical location for me to charge before the home stretch to North Dallas.

From there, it's about 100 miles to the North Dallas service center, where I could top off (if needed) and head home, free of worry!
Notes: The car is being range charged to maximize the outcome of everything going smoothly. Other than this small step, I'm the most excited human being on earth!

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help!

 

[purplewalt]

For your consideration:
If you are heading North up to Dallas, I-45 might be the most direct route.

I think you might be heading out of your way to go over to Waco (on I-35), and taking a lot of back roads (two-lane) to get to Waco.
Huntsville, Madisonville, Buffalo, Fairfield, Corsicana, Ennis are all on I-45, and appears it may be about 30-35 miles less.

 

[DeedWest]

@purplewalt - Thank you! Not sure I'd want to be on back roads in my new soulmate. The only reason I decided on Waco, was because I figured the Supercharger station there might be incentive for the probability of a Roadster charger. Still, I'm desperate to find a way to charge efficiently in one of those towns on the way. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[ecarfan]

Congratulations on your purchase!

Take a look at http:/www.chargepoint.com for places to charge. You did not mention what kind of charging cables or adaptors you have.

Post photos. Good luck!

 

[DeedWest]

@ecarfan - I was JUST thinking that I probably need to do that. Hah.

The car only comes with the UMC NEMA 14-50 connector...this could get interesting. Thanks so much for the link; I'll check it out now!

 

[purplewalt]

@purplewalt - Thank you! Not sure I'd want to be on back roads in my new soulmate. The only reason I decided on Waco, was because I figured the Supercharger station there might be incentive for the probability of a Roadster charger. Still, I'm desperate to find a way to charge efficiently in one of those towns on the way. Do you have any suggestions?

Well, congratulations on your new soulmate.

I only have a Model S (I can't seem to fit in a Roadster).
My understanding is you can only charge @ a Supercharger if you have a Model S.

IF you are Okay with charging at either an RV Park or a State Park using a NEMA 14-50 outlet, it will take about 6 hours (32 miles per hour) for a full charge from reviewing the data.
And you will need to have a Universal Mobile Connector for your initial road trip.
The higher the Amps from the outlet, the shorter the charging time.


I have located a State Park

Fairfield Lake:
(903) 389-4514

Several RV Parks:

Willis:
Castaways RV Park
(936) 856-2949

Lake Conroe RV
(800) 807-6097

Park on the Lake
(936) 890-2375

Riverside:
Bethy Creek RV Resort
(800) 537-6251

Heartland RV Park
(866) 439-0350

Onalaska:
Lakeside RV Resort and Marina
(903) 646-3824

Ennis (I think these are all municipal type parks):
High View
(972) 875-5711

Mott Park
(972) 875-5711

Waxahachie Creek Park
(972) 875-5711

Since it is kinda Winter time, you probably want to call ahead and ask if:
** They have any available spaces with 50 Amp outlets.
** They will let you charge your EV
** How much it will cost for your car to charge.

And it is always good to have a back-up plan (my personal experience).

You will probably need to have some sort of 30 or 50 Amp outlet installed in your garage at home, but first you have to get your new baby back there....

If you decide to do the battery and other upgrades to 3.0, you will have about 400 miles of range, so you could make it to Houston with a full charge.
Best of luck.
Bring a good book along, or an iPad with a couple of loaded movies while your car is charging.

 

[ecarfan]

The only reason I decided on Waco, was because I figured the Supercharger station there might be incentive for the probability of a Roadster charger.

Not sure I understand what you mean by that, but want to point out that there is no relationship between the location of a Tesla Supercharger station and the likelihood of there being some type of charging suitable for a Roadster in the same area.

What would be very helpful to have would be a J1772 adaptor, either the one Tesla sells or the one that Henry Sharp makes called the "CAN JR." I would choose Henry's adaptor since it takes up less space in the Roadster's tiny trunk.

 

[supersnoop]

Not sure I understand what you mean by that, but want to point out that there is no relationship between the location of a Tesla Supercharger station and the likelihood of there being some type of charging suitable for a Roadster in the same area.

What would be very helpful to have would be a J1772 adaptor, either the one Tesla sells or the one that Henry Sharp makes called the "CAN JR." I would choose Henry's adaptor since it takes up less space in the Roadster's tiny trunk.

There is no Roadster, nor J1772 charging anywhere in Waco. Between Austin and Dallas (Pflugerville and Plano at 204 miles), I'll stop in Hillsboro for the charging station at the outlet mall, but it's not very quick (203v @ 24A).

There is a 14-50 listed in Waco, but it didn't look like a great part of town based on google street view, so I haven't checked it out.

Many of us would love to see some high-power chargers placed at the supercharger sites, but it doesn't seem like Tesla is interested in doing that.

 

[purplewalt]

So today at the local Cars and Coffee, there were two Bright Orange Tesla Roadsters, a Signature 1.5 and a 2.5.
Just not at the same time.
The 1.5 got there before 6:30, and the other one finally got inside after 10 AM, as things were thinning out.
He was there "early" (around 7:30), but it was insanely packed today and any arrivals after 6:45 or so were probably not going to find a way in or a place to park.

Once I introduced myself and started chatting with the new arrival, I found out he had the car for only 7 days.
And he had driven it back from Houston.

***click***

We realized we had already chatted.
He had used one of my charging suggestions and stopped at the Willis RV Park on his maiden voyage North, said they were very nice people.

He had been tracking Roadsters for a very long time, and finally got one.
Many congratulations for such a great looking car.

To cap this whole thing off-- the Dallas Service Center had them both there earlier in the week at the same time.
The 1.5 was there for service, and the 2.5 was there to get a range charge and get his TESLA letters installed (previous owner had taken them off).


Oh, and there were two other unbelievable cars at Cars and Coffee:
A red 918 Porsche and a really late arriving yellow LaFerrari (after 9 AM), with over a 1,000 people (literally) crammed in around it.

It was nuts.

Today was even better than December's Bugatti Veyron and McLaren P1 sitting side-by-side.

 

[stevejust]

I missed Cars and Coffee today, and now I really regret it.

Congrats on the Roadster purchase. I didn't know there were any orange ones in North Texas. The Roadster population had been shrinking -- it's good to hear it'll grow again.