Supercharger - Lima, MT

[ModelX]

This was how all the superchargers all were on my way up from Utah to Washington last week. Had a snow shovel in the back of my X and dug them out a little, but I was too cold to do much. Boise had cleaned up theirs when I came through later in the week.

 

[webbbcam]

Charging now. Icy parking lot but charging stations are all clear.
Jan's cafe is very nice, warm and friendly for being up here on the continental divide. Only had coffee though so I can't comment on the food.

John

 

[Bighorn]

Breakfast was decent--French toast and eggs, I think it was.

 

[goneskiian]

Breakfast was decent--French toast and eggs, I think it was.

Mmmm, French Toast.

 

[SeattleTempo]

Lima's a lot better than Dillon for spacing from Idaho Falls, although Dillon's got better connections.

and move the $%#^&*@## Superior SC to St. Regis, where it always should have been, instead of imposing a totally unnecessary 28 mile (RT) detour for eastbound I-90 travellers going to Glacier.

I seem to recall reading that they wanted to put it in St Regis in the first place but there was a problem with the underground utilities or some such. So the next best solution was Superior. I'm in the same boat as you...the round trip from Superior and then heading to West Glacier is white knuckle range anxiety in our P90D Model X. We made it to West Glacier with 20 miles on the tank after driving most of the way at 60-65 mph. I'd love if they could put one in St Regis but that seems unlikely now. At least there's a plan to put one into Kalispell which will give some potential relief from anxiety going north. Not as much going South.

 

[GRA]

I seem to recall reading that they wanted to put it in St Regis in the first place but there was a problem with the underground utilities or some such. So the next best solution was Superior. I'm in the same boat as you...the round trip from Superior and then heading to West Glacier is white knuckle range anxiety in our P90D Model X. We made it to West Glacier with 20 miles on the tank after driving most of the way at 60-65 mph. I'd love if they could put one in St Regis but that seems unlikely now. At least there's a plan to put one into Kalispell which will give some potential relief from anxiety going north. Not as much going South.

AFAIR the issue was lack of excess electrical capacity in St. Regis, but if that was the case, they should have looked at one of the towns (Henderson/De Borgia etc.) further west to put the SC in. Still, it could be worse. There's a 56 mile detour to Flagstaff and back for people eastbound on I-40 to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, despite the 147 mile distance, 75 mph speed limit and 4k ft. climb from Kingman to Flagstaff. There don't seem to be any plans to put an SC in Ash Fork, Williams or Seligman to eliminate this, let alone a gateway SC in Tusayan (Holiday Inn Express there).

 

[IdaX]

This charger is in a critical position on the I-15 route. But when I was there 2 weeks ago, each of the stalls would overheat and throttle back to 50-70kW within minutes. Initial speeds did get up to over 100kW. I would unplug (the handle was warm), move to the next stall over, and the same process would repeat. Not enough to do here to be able to wait at 50kW for an hour and a half to get the juice to get to Butte!

At the same time given this site's remoteness, I can see why fixing/upgrading it isn't high on the list of priorities.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Glad I skipped it on my last trip through MT

 

[Pricee2]

I used it in May 2018 and don't recall having a problem.

 

[IdaX]

I used it in May 2018 and don't recall having a problem.

I used it myself back in 2017 and didn't have any trouble either, so maybe this is something that happens with age or something that's triggered over the summer?

 

[pdxrajiv]

I charged here yesterday.
Stalls 4B and 3B would charge for about a minute and then shutoff (Charging Stopped), to start again in a few seconds.
Momentary charging rate I got was the highest I ever recall receiving - 126 KW.

Stall 1A was stable and provided enough charge to allow me to continue. I noticed that near the end, it did slow to 20 KW, even though I was only 50% full.

I wonder if some of this is a side-effect of the V2 upgrade and my older 2015 S85D.

 

[IdaX]

I charged here yesterday.
Stalls 4B and 3B would charge for about a minute and then shutoff (Charging Stopped), to start again in a few seconds.
Momentary charging rate I got was the highest I ever recall receiving - 126 KW.

Stall 1A was stable and provided enough charge to allow me to continue. I noticed that near the end, it did slow to 20 KW, even though I was only 50% full.

I wonder if some of this is a side-effect of the V2 upgrade and my older 2015 S85D.

I think that it's just a design effect of the old V2's. When they're brand-new installations, they will run at high power and only tail off as your battery gets full. But after a year or two, and I've noticed this with Lima, MT specifically, they overheat in a couple of minutes like you describe. I wonder if it's that repeated usage, and sitting there baking in Sun and freezing in the winter, somehow increases the resistance in the cable slightly, leading to the cable overheating quickly in summer.

Should be fixed with water-cooled V3 I hope!!

 

[pdxrajiv]

It's up to you. If you are able to provide more exact dates, you and all of us will be able to benefit from better data analytics as the Tableau capabilities are enhanced. If you have the dates, but don't have time to enter them in the spreadsheet, you can PM what you have to me or @Darren S and we will take care of updating it.

I think that it's just a design effect of the old V2's. When they're brand-new installations, they will run at high power and only tail off as your battery gets full. But after a year or two, and I've noticed this with Lima, MT specifically, they overheat in a couple of minutes like you describe. I wonder if it's that repeated usage, and sitting there baking in Sun and freezing in the winter, somehow increases the resistance in the cable slightly, leading to the cable overheating quickly in summer.

Should be fixed with water-cooled V3 I hope!!

I did not notice the cable temps being unusual (like the ones I have experienced before, in some other slow-charging situations).
But I did not particularly check the cable temp either so You may be right.