Should I take my X to SF?

[Owner]

Berkeley also writes tickets for no front plate.

Interesting. Where in Berkeley did you get that ticket? Were you parked on the street? When I go there and park a few times a year at most I'm either at a private business or a private parking lot.

 

[eyespii]

I charged today for about 15 min at buttonwillow, 1 hour at Harris ranch, And another hour at Dublin. Probably only needed 15-20 minutes at Dublin since Now I'm parked at the sutter stockton garage getting about 18mph. Couple other teslas (and a model X) charging now too. The Dublin supercharger was the worst - I was lucky cause someone left right when I arrived, but otherwise the place was full and they close the bathroom after hours.

 

[K-MTG]

I charged today for about 15 min at buttonwillow, 1 hour at Harris ranch, And another hour at Dublin. Probably only needed 15-20 minutes at Dublin since Now I'm parked at the sutter stockton garage getting about 18mph. Couple other teslas (and a model X) charging now too. The Dublin supercharger was the worst - I was lucky cause someone left right when I arrived, but otherwise the place was full and they close the bathroom after hours.

What time did you get to Buttonwillow and Harris Ranch? I want to avoid the crowd for an excessive wait, will leave the OC on a weekday in the afternoon but the return trip will be on the weekend in the evening. I plan on staying at Buttonwillow for roughly 45 mins and Harris ranch for 15 but can I skip Dublin and still make it to SF?

Any specific charger that was faster? I heard the some stalls are faster than others, I assume you should typically expect over 300 amps

 

[eyespii]

What time did you get to Buttonwillow and Harris Ranch? I want to avoid the crowd for an excessive wait, will leave the OC on a weekday in the afternoon but the return trip will be on the weekend in the evening. I plan on staying at Buttonwillow for roughly 45 mins and Harris ranch for 15 but can I skip Dublin and still make it to SF?

Any specific charger that was faster? I heard the some stalls are faster than others, I assume you should typically expect over 300 amps

Left Irvine fully charged at 262 miles. Buttonwillow around 11:15? Harris ranch 12:50? I think I had maybe 210 miles leaving Harris ranch, and I arrived to Dublin with around 50 miles range left. Dublin to SF is probably around 40 miles, but I'm not super familiar with SF so I didn't want to chance running out. Also, I'm in an S85D, which is a bit more efficient than the X. i I think I used stalls 1 or 2, pulled around 180 mph.

I'll be driving back tomorrow (Sunday) evening, so we'll see how busy it gets!

 

[K-MTG]

Left Irvine fully charged at 262 miles. Buttonwillow around 11:15? Harris ranch 12:50? I think I had maybe 210 miles leaving Harris ranch, and I arrived to Dublin with around 50 miles range left. Dublin to SF is probably around 40 miles, but I'm not super familiar with SF so I didn't want to chance running out. Also, I'm in an S85D, which is a bit more efficient than the X. i I think I used stalls 1 or 2, pulled around 180 mph.

I'll be driving back tomorrow (Sunday) evening, so we'll see how busy it gets!

Looks like I will have to stay in Dublin for a bit, are you doing the same trip back home? I will be doing the same route as you. Please keep us posted on the return trip. Thanks!

 

[eyespii]

Looks like I will have to stay in Dublin for a bit, are you doing the same trip back home? I will be doing the same route as you. Please keep us posted on the return trip. Thanks!

Trip home was pretty easy! Left SF around 2:30ish with a full range charge, and first stop was in Harris Ranch at 5:15p. Charged about 30 minutes, which got me to tejon ranch at 7:40p and 60 miles left. Supercharged almost an hour because i had to eat, which got me back to irvine with more than 100 miles to spare. Harris ranch was maybe half full when I got there, and tejon only had 1 other tesla when I got there.

 

[bmah]

Interesting. Where in Berkeley did you get that ticket? Were you parked on the street? When I go there and park a few times a year at most I'm either at a private business or a private parking lot.

My wife got a "no front plate" ticket while parked on the street, near the Claremont Hotel (on her BMW 335d). I've parked my Model S multiple times in the same area, on the street, with my front plate sitting on my dashboard, nobody's given me any grief. So...???...

Bruce.

 

[Owner]

The Claremont hotel is actually in Oakland... I've been to Oakland more often than Berkeley with no problems ...

My wife got a "no front plate" ticket while parked on the street, near the Claremont Hotel (on her BMW 335d). I've parked my Model S multiple times in the same area, on the street, with my front plate sitting on my dashboard, nobody's given me any grief. So...???...

Bruce.

 

[bmah]

The Claremont hotel is actually in Oakland... I've been to Oakland more often than Berkeley with no problems ...

Well I said it was near the Claremont Hotel, not actually there. This happened on Domingo Ave., across the street from the Berkeley Tennis Club. That street is in Berkeley. Really. My wife had the ticket to prove it

Cheers,

Bruce.

PS. Sorry for the digression folks...

 

[K-MTG]

Got to SF yesterday, did the entire trip at night as I was worried about the AC failing. I stopped at Buttonwillow for 20 minutes, Harris Ranch for 30 minutes, I didn't plan for Dublin until the car told me to drive under 70 so I stopped for another 15 minutes. Supercharging was a bit over my patience, perhaps as everything was closed. The return trip is tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes.

Issues:
1) A piece of the undershield or molding lost a screw and it is sticking out near the passenger door so I pushed it back in. Will get that fixed at the SC eventually

2) The tesla complained for the first time an object is detected while I tried to close it at Twin Peaks (perhaps the wind???) so I had to override it. Will see if it still works

I saw the new Tesla store in SF, it seems that is almost finished. Looks awesome

Also, only the Buttonwillow supercharger gave me speeds over 300. The others were much slower, around 230. I was the only one at the SC for all of them. Why is that?

 

[K-MTG]

So lemme tell you how it went on the way back, I actually got back a few days ago.

So left SF with a 90% charge, stopped in Dublin for 22 minutes to get the range to 225 and I drove to Harris Ranch and charged for 25 minutes until 180 and last stop was at Buttonwillow for an hour and got the range to 225 again for the drive home. So superchargers added over an hour to this trip, I was hoping for less time as I expected 80% charge in 20 minutes.

Also, make sure you keep a 50 mile buffer. Driving at 80 miles per hour eats the range when passing through grapevine and the 580

 

[Hendry01]

You would probably need more than 12 minutes charging @ Harris Ranch to get you to SF and maybe some time @ Dublin SC since the headwind going north always seems to take a toll on the range

 

[Hendry01]

I always see a faster charge rate at Buttonwillow as well probably since its new. Its not a very popular place since Tejon ranch is only 30 miles away and have more food options. I prefer Buttonwillow for the availability and speed but the family prefer Tejon ranch for the food options

 

[K-MTG]

I drove to Palo Alto earlier this month (2 weeks ago) in my X as my flight to SFO was canceled due to weather. I can confirm the trip planner overestimated this time, contrasted to my prior trip in August where it underestimated. Thus, I arrived at each of my destinations with 45-80 miles. This time, I didn't use the AC or Heat and was driving 75/80 MPH.

My stops:
Home to Palo Alto

• Bakersfield ~ 25 minutes
• Harris Ranch ~ 45 minutes

I did some slow charging at the Hilton Garden Inn (next to the Tesla service) and went to San Francisco but the destination charger at my hotel over there was ICED.

San Francisco to Home

• Dublin ~ 20 minutes
• Gustine ~ 50 minutes
  
• Bakersfield ~ 50 minutes
• Tejon Ranch ~ 15 minutes

I had to top off at Dublin (which was nearly full at 10 PM) since I couldn't charge at my hotel in San Francisco. But for some reason my car told me to slow down to 70 MPH shortly after departing Bakersfield even though I had 50 miles of extra range. Thus, I stopped in Tejon Ranch to juice up the battery but I made it home with 80 miles. So I am not sure why the trip planner told me to slow down??


I will be doing another trip to SF and I will be staying at the Intercontinental on Howard Street (as its close to my meeting) but it appears they have two ParkPod J1772 chargers that are limited to 17 amps and users report only receiving 10 MPH! Intercontinental Hotel | SF, CA | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare
Hopefully I can get enough juice so I can skip Dublin and go directly to Gustine. Did any of you charge at that hotel??

So here is my supercharging plan, do you think my stops and the amount I will be charging will be sufficient??

Irvine to SF

• Bakersfield: Charge to ~ 200
• Gustine: Charge to ~ 160

SF to Irvine
Depart Intercontinental (SF) with ~ 160.

• Gustine: Charge to ~ 200
• Bakersfield: Charge to ~ 210

Even though parking rates at the hotel will be equivalent to airfare, my previous flight trip from home to my hotel in San Francisco took 6 and a half hours. I would rather drive than deal with security, delayed flights, limited luggage allowance, etc.....

 

[keytalker]

Thanks for the detailed timing, which will help us a lot when we plan our trip down to LA.

And I'm glad you skipped the Mountain View/San Mateo SC, because they constantly have lines no matter it's noon or midnight, weekday or weekend.

 

[K-MTG]

Thanks for the detailed timing, which will help us a lot when we plan our trip down to LA.

And I'm glad you skipped the Mountain View/San Mateo SC, because they constantly have lines no matter it's noon or midnight, weekday or weekend.

Dublin was nearly full when I arrived at 10 PM! This time I will only do Gustine and Bakersfield and will avoid the others throughout my entire trip.

 

[xkwizit]

Mountain View SpC - I have had good luck on couple of occasions. Same with the Tesla factory. On both either I drove straight into an empty Bay or waited 10min at the most.

Though I never needed to use, but I carry the ChadeMo. Couple of Walgreens locations around Russian Hill show fast DC chargers on PlugShare. That may be better than what your hotel provides.

 

[K-MTG]

Will leaving the heat on be a problem? I will probably keep it at 72 and it will be 38-48 outdoors throughout my trip?

 

[aesculus]

Irvine to SF

• Bakersfield: Charge to ~ 200
• Gustine: Charge to ~ 160

I would think you might have an issue getting to Bakersfield from Irvine but it will depend a lot on the weather and your climate setting. You can either slow down to 60 mph or go into range mode to see if that helps. I would run the Trip Planner on that leg to monitor and you could also bale out at Tejon if it looks like you cannot make it to Bakersfield.

 

[K-MTG]

I would think you might have an issue getting to Bakersfield from Irvine but it will depend a lot on the weather and your climate setting. You can either slow down to 60 mph or go into range mode to see if that helps. I would run the Trip Planner on that leg to monitor and you could also bale out at Tejon if it looks like you cannot make it to Bakersfield.

I have done the Bakersfield/Buttonwillow stretch from a full 100% charge at home (Irvine) without an issue driving 80 MPH. I arrived with atleast 40-50 miles. I did it with AC and no AC. But I never did it with the heat on