So, for my Post #1000... (hey - did you all miss me? Did anyone even notice I've been gone:tongue:)...
As much as it hurts to say this - we tried SO HARD!!! - one still cannot realistically get to Alaska from the Lesser-48 by roads.
I thought we could rely on enough properly-placed RV campgrounds that we could, with only a minimum of thumb-twiddling when confronted by, say, outlets no hunkier than 30A 120V, get back home before the hereafter.
No such luck. As a corollary to the significant decline of the overall number of roadside services along the North Country roads (used to be lots, every few dozen miles. Now, with the vastly improved vehicles and tires, extant roadhouses, etc., are a tiny fraction of what they were in the 1970s and 60s and 50s), there just does not exist at present a way safely to get from Charge Point A to B in much of the country north of central British Columbia. Leaving a Model S (and, thereby, every other EV currently out there) over 1,800 miles away from Home Sweet Home.
Rats.
We wrote, we emailed, we cajoled, we used contacts, we abused friends....
OK, now for the good news:
1. We're safe at home now. Our plan had included driving the Model S in tandem with the F-350, which was towing a trailer. We had to get the pickup back to Alaska, anyway. If something (like out of charge) happened to the Tesla, we could flatbed it to the next charging site. Except that, in early May, there remain far too many hundreds of miles between communities with absolutely 3/8ths of 2/3rds of zippity-doo-dah Nada.
2. My thread-head says "not YET possible". It remains conceivable that, during the high tourist season, one might might might just be able to fulfill our plan. Maybe.
3. Want to use this # to eat a small amount of crow and give the nod to a poster in a long-ago thread who wrote of dreaming about Superchargers along the Cassiar Highway (that is the alternative to the Alaska Highway through the northern 40-50% of BC). I had written about how that true wilderness road - all 450 miles of it - was so wild and woolly that the AK Highway would always be the obvious choice. Well, we just drove the Cassiar - now have done it almost ten times - and Holy Cow is it a different experience from what it ever had been. Magnificent road surface for the southern 250 miles; services now set up at Eziadin Jct AND Bell 2 AND Dease Lake is spruced up and there are new facilities in places that never had anything. There even are restroom (outhouses) sites all along the way! But the most important feature is that (and this is the reason for all the good stuff) BC Hydro is emplacing along the entire length of the road a massive "NW Canada" high-voltage transmission line. So.....dreaming now.....down the road there at least will be the POSSIBILITY of getting electricity absolutely anywhere.
4. PS - we saw nine bears and four moose on the Cassiar. And with the truck parked about 5 miles before the Kluane Lake dogleg turn, we censused from that one spot 102 Dall sheep (that's the all-white bighorn sheep for you southern types).
5. Road surface was clean the entire 3,700 miles. I think this was the first time I ever have taken the trip - well over two dozen - that I didn't get a single rock thrown into my windshield. The Tesla would have done fine! Except for the last 200 miles of Canada - all the way into Beaver Jct the road surface was as hummocky as any Vomit Comet ride. Worse than ever - and, as anyone who's ever taken that road, that is very, very bad.
So....upshot of it is we're just beginning to think about ordering a Model X for Alaska - have it delivered! - and leave the Model S safe down south. Will have to cogitate hard on this.
We saw exactly ONE Tesla the entire trip. On Day 1 we pulled into the Kingman SpC to see if anyone was there....and pulled the Redneck Driving A Pickup Truck trick on poor Dave Howell, quizzing him about what a strange vehicle he had there. You were a good sport, Dave.
As much as it hurts to say this - we tried SO HARD!!! - one still cannot realistically get to Alaska from the Lesser-48 by roads.
I thought we could rely on enough properly-placed RV campgrounds that we could, with only a minimum of thumb-twiddling when confronted by, say, outlets no hunkier than 30A 120V, get back home before the hereafter.
No such luck. As a corollary to the significant decline of the overall number of roadside services along the North Country roads (used to be lots, every few dozen miles. Now, with the vastly improved vehicles and tires, extant roadhouses, etc., are a tiny fraction of what they were in the 1970s and 60s and 50s), there just does not exist at present a way safely to get from Charge Point A to B in much of the country north of central British Columbia. Leaving a Model S (and, thereby, every other EV currently out there) over 1,800 miles away from Home Sweet Home.
Rats.
We wrote, we emailed, we cajoled, we used contacts, we abused friends....
OK, now for the good news:
1. We're safe at home now. Our plan had included driving the Model S in tandem with the F-350, which was towing a trailer. We had to get the pickup back to Alaska, anyway. If something (like out of charge) happened to the Tesla, we could flatbed it to the next charging site. Except that, in early May, there remain far too many hundreds of miles between communities with absolutely 3/8ths of 2/3rds of zippity-doo-dah Nada.
2. My thread-head says "not YET possible". It remains conceivable that, during the high tourist season, one might might might just be able to fulfill our plan. Maybe.
3. Want to use this # to eat a small amount of crow and give the nod to a poster in a long-ago thread who wrote of dreaming about Superchargers along the Cassiar Highway (that is the alternative to the Alaska Highway through the northern 40-50% of BC). I had written about how that true wilderness road - all 450 miles of it - was so wild and woolly that the AK Highway would always be the obvious choice. Well, we just drove the Cassiar - now have done it almost ten times - and Holy Cow is it a different experience from what it ever had been. Magnificent road surface for the southern 250 miles; services now set up at Eziadin Jct AND Bell 2 AND Dease Lake is spruced up and there are new facilities in places that never had anything. There even are restroom (outhouses) sites all along the way! But the most important feature is that (and this is the reason for all the good stuff) BC Hydro is emplacing along the entire length of the road a massive "NW Canada" high-voltage transmission line. So.....dreaming now.....down the road there at least will be the POSSIBILITY of getting electricity absolutely anywhere.
4. PS - we saw nine bears and four moose on the Cassiar. And with the truck parked about 5 miles before the Kluane Lake dogleg turn, we censused from that one spot 102 Dall sheep (that's the all-white bighorn sheep for you southern types).
5. Road surface was clean the entire 3,700 miles. I think this was the first time I ever have taken the trip - well over two dozen - that I didn't get a single rock thrown into my windshield. The Tesla would have done fine! Except for the last 200 miles of Canada - all the way into Beaver Jct the road surface was as hummocky as any Vomit Comet ride. Worse than ever - and, as anyone who's ever taken that road, that is very, very bad.
So....upshot of it is we're just beginning to think about ordering a Model X for Alaska - have it delivered! - and leave the Model S safe down south. Will have to cogitate hard on this.
We saw exactly ONE Tesla the entire trip. On Day 1 we pulled into the Kingman SpC to see if anyone was there....and pulled the Redneck Driving A Pickup Truck trick on poor Dave Howell, quizzing him about what a strange vehicle he had there. You were a good sport, Dave.
