St. Louis to Louiville--anyone done that route?

[efusco]

I need to drive to Frankfurt, KY next month. I'm expecting the Rolla Supercharger to be operational (finally) by then so getting to St. Charles shouldn't be an issue. But the road to Louisville is 281 miles without a destination charger or Supercharger along the way. There's one RV park that looks promising for a top up, but it looks like I'll be there a minimum of 3 hours (likely 4).

Just wondering if anyone has experience on this route and any tips. Any Tesla owners with an 80 amp HPWC along the route that are kind enough to allow owners to charge? I didn't really see anything on Plugshare, but there are a lot of little tear drops to click.

 

[Rocky_H]

Ohh, I love routing challenges like this. Out of the box thinking will get you there, and driving a bit slower continuously to avoid slow charging is sometimes most time-efficient. I live in the wide open Western U.S., where there are usually only one or two highways through the desert so not many choices. This place in the middle states, there are enough close together small towns that there are LOTS of little roads to choose from.

I just plotted an interesting route on EVTripplanner that should work without the need for any slow charging. Since the Navigation in the car doesn't do waypoints, you will need to input each of these little towns as the next destination one at a time, but to see what it looks like, enter these in order on EVTripplanner:
Effingham, IL
Washington, IN
Paoli, IN
Louisville, KY
I used some basic variables of 50 degrees outside, 70 degrees inside, 500 pounds load, and 1.0 speed multiplier. It takes just under 4 hours for that drive, but because the speeds are lower on those smaller highways, the efficiency is much better, so it only uses 180 rated miles. So that gives you some room if you can fill it most of the way up in Effingham. And if you want a little fallback plan for charging on the way, Plugshare does show two hotels in French Lick Indiana that are 80A Tesla destination chargers. Call them to see if you could make a meal stop there to charge for a while or pay them a fee to use it or something.

Or, you could just do the brute force way. If you just put in Effingham to Louisville and route through Superchargers, it shows that you can Supercharge just once in Terra Haute, and then make it through Indy to Louisville on the interstates. That way is showing about 4 and a half hours. Either way seems fine.

 

[bluefuego]

I've done that route from Effingham to Louisville last February. It is slow going but, for me, worth it to not have to swing up to Indy and then down to Louisville. Since it was winter, ie cold!, when I drove the route, I liked knowing that French Lick Resort was my fall back (they have a couple of HPWC's). But I made it to Louisville without having to stop. I believe Paoli, IN has a cool town square that seemed out of Back to the Future (of course I drove through after dark, so it could have been wishful thinking.)

Good luck!

 

[efusco]

Ohh, I love routing challenges like this. Out of the box thinking will get you there, and driving a bit slower continuously to avoid slow charging is sometimes most time-efficient. I live in the wide open Western U.S., where there are usually only one or two highways through the desert so not many choices. This place in the middle states, there are enough close together small towns that there are LOTS of little roads to choose from.

I just plotted an interesting route on EVTripplanner that should work without the need for any slow charging. Since the Navigation in the car doesn't do waypoints, you will need to input each of these little towns as the next destination one at a time, but to see what it looks like, enter these in order on EVTripplanner:
Effingham, IL
Washington, IN
Paoli, IN
Louisville, KY
I used some basic variables of 50 degrees outside, 70 degrees inside, 500 pounds load, and 1.0 speed multiplier. It takes just under 4 hours for that drive, but because the speeds are lower on those smaller highways, the efficiency is much better, so it only uses 180 rated miles. So that gives you some room if you can fill it most of the way up in Effingham. And if you want a little fallback plan for charging on the way, Plugshare does show two hotels in French Lick Indiana that are 80A Tesla destination chargers. Call them to see if you could make a meal stop there to charge for a while or pay them a fee to use it or something.

Or, you could just do the brute force way. If you just put in Effingham to Louisville and route through Superchargers, it shows that you can Supercharge just once in Terra Haute, and then make it through Indy to Louisville on the interstates. That way is showing about 4 and a half hours. Either way seems fine.

Thanks for the ideas. I found Washington, not sure where Paoli is, but it looks like that a similar route I was looking at is right on that same line. I was able to find a reasonable route direct to Louisville that was only about 210 miles (a distance I'm comfortable with).
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Eff...71fd32!2m2!1d-85.7584557!2d38.2526647!3e0!5i1

Looks to add about 30 miles or so over the most direct route from STL to Louisville, but without slow charging.

 

[efusco]

I've done that route from Effingham to Louisville last February. It is slow going but, for me, worth it to not have to swing up to Indy and then down to Louisville. Since it was winter, ie cold!, when I drove the route, I liked knowing that French Lick Resort was my fall back (they have a couple of HPWC's). But I made it to Louisville without having to stop. I believe Paoli, IN has a cool town square that seemed out of Back to the Future (of course I drove through after dark, so it could have been wishful thinking.)

Good luck!

Had you contacted French Lick? Do you have to be a patron? Always good to have a bail-out plan though I don't anticipate needing it in October. I'll keep Paoli in mind for a lunch or dinner stop.

 

[bluefuego]

Had you contacted French Lick? Do you have to be a patron? Always good to have a bail-out plan though I don't anticipate needing it in October. I'll keep Paoli in mind for a lunch or dinner stop.

I had not, but I figured that I could turn it into a dinner break which would make me a patron (right?).