-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Supercharger - Beaver, UT
- Thread starter Denarius
- Start date
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
FWIW, this is what nav says about Beaver as of a few minutes ago:
^Nav seems to think that there are six stalls now. Since it is 382 road miles away, I am disinclined to check it out for myself.
^Nav seems to think that there are six stalls now. Since it is 382 road miles away, I am disinclined to check it out for myself.
I guess time is a blur when you drive 2000 miles without hotel stops.
it was a little more than 24 hours that I charged at Beaver before I posted. It was at night and I didn't pay much attention because I was very tired. Maybe they added two stalls and I just didn't see it?
I just drove through a couple hours ago. This charger is frequently a bottleneck for me as well. I saw the 6 stall thing on the Nav last time I passed through, but didn't investigate.
Today I did, and next to the car wash in front of the chargers, left of it if you are facing the car wash, there were 3 more plugs, with the new design 72kW max output, although only 2 of the plugs seem to work, one on each side (front and back). The charging plug that worked for me on the front was the leftmost one when facing them. I didn't get over a 48kW charge, but it was still helpful since 3 of the other 4 were taken when I got there, and another Model X arrived slightly after I did. A Model S arrived thereafter and charged behind me, and didn't slow me down at all... so that was a relief! They really have all the space they need to expand even more on that side... so here's hoping they do!
P.S. Sorry I didn't shoot any pics! I will try to when I pass back through in about 4 days.
Today I did, and next to the car wash in front of the chargers, left of it if you are facing the car wash, there were 3 more plugs, with the new design 72kW max output, although only 2 of the plugs seem to work, one on each side (front and back). The charging plug that worked for me on the front was the leftmost one when facing them. I didn't get over a 48kW charge, but it was still helpful since 3 of the other 4 were taken when I got there, and another Model X arrived slightly after I did. A Model S arrived thereafter and charged behind me, and didn't slow me down at all... so that was a relief! They really have all the space they need to expand even more on that side... so here's hoping they do!
P.S. Sorry I didn't shoot any pics! I will try to when I pass back through in about 4 days.
As I said above, it's a short-term solution. I'm sure they will either expand this site or add another one in Cedar City before the summer driving season.
There is an entire thread about the 3-pronged urban superchargers that have been used as a short-term solution at a few superchargers. Only 2 of the 3 work and they only deliver 50kW. But it's definitely better than waiting for a stall.
Getting 50 kW is better than waiting in line and not charging at all. These temporary stalls are quick to install without a permit. Adding permanent stalls requires a construction crew and a lot more overhead. Eventually they will build more and expand
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
The thread linked to in the post above yours explains that only two of the three cords are actually live; they reportedly supply up to 50kW each, unlike permanent urban Superchargers that supply ~72kW.
From your second picture I see that all four original stalls are full!
Beaver supercharger has been a real disaster lately. A friend of mine had to wait for over 2 hours for his turn to plug in, and he said that by the time he was done the line was twice as long. That was about a month ago. I would imagine that even with added stalls the situation is not great. If you have the range, try to skip it and go to Nephi (or St. George, depending on direction). Nephi almost always has slots available. It is so close to SLC area that a lot of drivers skip it.
Going north on I-15, If you don't have the range to make Nephi from St. George without a stop, you may still be able to make it to Richfield (detour to the east on I-70) and thereby skip Beaver. It's about 170 miles from the St. George SC. Then either continue north on US-89 (skipping Nephi also) or go back to I-15 by heading west on US-50.
Only thing is that Richfield is also a 4 stall SC, so I'm not sure whether its traffic is much better than Beaver's.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
Much less traffic through Richfield than Beaver IME. It would be quite unusual for the Richfield Supercharger Station to be full.
Thank you! So they are temporary Urban Superchargers, not "Three Prong" chargers. I didn't use it as I was able to plug into a higher powered supercharger when I arrived in Beaver, but when I left there were two cars plugged into the Urban stalls and another Model 3 pulled in right when I was leaving. In fact I hadn't finished buckling up my kids and pulled out so somebody else could plug in.
Stayed at the hotel near the Beaver supercharger last night so I plugged in in the wee hours before I checked in and then topped off again after I checked out around noon (Sunday). I wanted to check out Great Basin National Park which is very difficult to get to in an electric vehicle so I needed every mile I could get.
Anyways, the charger worked great at 2am. I was surprised to have a charging buddy at that hour, but I believe this is an indication that Teslas are becoming much more common and superchargers are getting more and more busy. I had a charging partner in Nephi after midnight as well. I am a night owl so I've supercharged at these hours many times and until recently I would always be alone after midnight, but these days I often have company even at these late hours.
Went back the next day to top off and 2/4 were in use so I went back to the same stall I used the night before. Strangely it didn't work this time so I switched to the last of the 120kW stalls, which did work. Then someone else pulled in and that stall didn't work for him either. Can't remember the number but it was 2nd closest to the Chevron. Someone else pulled out so the new guy was able to take that stall. But then immediately another Tesla showed up so I moved to the temporary urban superchargers, which is what I would have done in the first place if I knew it would be this crowded as I was only drawing 20-30kw with a ~90% full battery.
I will say that I didn't spot the temporary chargers at first. The only reason I knew to look for them was this thread. And no one else seemed to know they were there until I moved over there. They should really put a sign up near the main group of 4 that mentions the 2 extra stalls.
When I left around 1pm, another guy had joined me on the temporary stalls with the 3 functioning stalls in the main group all occupied so we were a full house at that point. It's crazy how quickly this has become a bottleneck. The first few times I charged in Beaver back in 2016 and 2017, I never saw another Tesla. They definitely need to put a new (8 stalls minimum) supercharger in Cedar City. I assume they cannot expand Beaver or else they already would have. And honestly it's not a GREAT location anyway. There would be much better options in Cedar City.
This was a Sunday afternoon, but there's no way this problem doesn't get much worse as the summer driving season heats up. I did the same analysis as mociaf and came to the same conclusions about the laborious Richfield detour. It's not a GREAT options as it adds at least 40 minutes of driving/charging, plus takes you off the interstate on more difficult to navigate highways, but it's definitely a better option than waiting at Beaver for 2 hours as mentioned up thread.
If you are driving through here during "supercharger prime time" (weekend during the day), these are the options in order of preference:
1) Skip Beaver altogether. This is much easier southbound than northbound due to the elevation change. Either way it requires a long range battery and some careful driving, at the very least paying attention to the battery gauge.
2) Drive conservatively as you approach Beaver with a smaller battery Tesla. Then if the lineup looks bad, you should be able to make Richfield and go that route. If you are coming from the north, you may have conserved enough battery to skip Beaver.
3) Insist on using Beaver with no back up plan whatsoever. You might have to wait 2+ hours in line and you make the problem worse.
Anyways, the charger worked great at 2am. I was surprised to have a charging buddy at that hour, but I believe this is an indication that Teslas are becoming much more common and superchargers are getting more and more busy. I had a charging partner in Nephi after midnight as well. I am a night owl so I've supercharged at these hours many times and until recently I would always be alone after midnight, but these days I often have company even at these late hours.
Went back the next day to top off and 2/4 were in use so I went back to the same stall I used the night before. Strangely it didn't work this time so I switched to the last of the 120kW stalls, which did work. Then someone else pulled in and that stall didn't work for him either. Can't remember the number but it was 2nd closest to the Chevron. Someone else pulled out so the new guy was able to take that stall. But then immediately another Tesla showed up so I moved to the temporary urban superchargers, which is what I would have done in the first place if I knew it would be this crowded as I was only drawing 20-30kw with a ~90% full battery.
I will say that I didn't spot the temporary chargers at first. The only reason I knew to look for them was this thread. And no one else seemed to know they were there until I moved over there. They should really put a sign up near the main group of 4 that mentions the 2 extra stalls.
When I left around 1pm, another guy had joined me on the temporary stalls with the 3 functioning stalls in the main group all occupied so we were a full house at that point. It's crazy how quickly this has become a bottleneck. The first few times I charged in Beaver back in 2016 and 2017, I never saw another Tesla. They definitely need to put a new (8 stalls minimum) supercharger in Cedar City. I assume they cannot expand Beaver or else they already would have. And honestly it's not a GREAT location anyway. There would be much better options in Cedar City.
This was a Sunday afternoon, but there's no way this problem doesn't get much worse as the summer driving season heats up. I did the same analysis as mociaf and came to the same conclusions about the laborious Richfield detour. It's not a GREAT options as it adds at least 40 minutes of driving/charging, plus takes you off the interstate on more difficult to navigate highways, but it's definitely a better option than waiting at Beaver for 2 hours as mentioned up thread.
If you are driving through here during "supercharger prime time" (weekend during the day), these are the options in order of preference:
1) Skip Beaver altogether. This is much easier southbound than northbound due to the elevation change. Either way it requires a long range battery and some careful driving, at the very least paying attention to the battery gauge.
2) Drive conservatively as you approach Beaver with a smaller battery Tesla. Then if the lineup looks bad, you should be able to make Richfield and go that route. If you are coming from the north, you may have conserved enough battery to skip Beaver.
3) Insist on using Beaver with no back up plan whatsoever. You might have to wait 2+ hours in line and you make the problem worse.
Agree with everything plus ev said above and would only add this, if you have a twitter account ping Tesla and Elon Musk about building a supercharger in Cedar City. It really would help with congestion on the I-15 route in Utah.
Similar threads
