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Supercharger - Lone Pine, CA (LIVE 28 Jan 2015, multiple expansions, 16 V3 stalls)
- Thread starter callmesam
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- California ski Supercharging USA
MountainRatMat
Member
Drove past today in the ICE (hauling Downhill bikes to ride Mammoth and the 3 isn't set up for that) and there was zero sign of construction. I didn't look super close but still didn't see anything. I'll try and take a closer look on Sunday when I pass through. Inyokern isn't as nice of a location but I'd rather see the expansion there. I've run in to more issues waiting at inyokern than I have at Lone Pine.
I'm glad I'm retired so most of our ski trips to Mammoth are midweek. We did drive up for Memorial weekend 2019 and had to wait 9 minutes to get a spot in Lone Pine around 2:30PM Friday. We had dinner in Lone Pine the next Tuesday on the way to Death Valley and had no problem in Lone Pine. After Death Valley we had a nail biter drive out to the Beatty supercharger, driving 25mph for the last hour with the rated miles showing zero about 4 miles out of town though we still got there.
It is important to expand Lone Pine because it's a good idea to leave there going north with at least 200 miles rated range given the hill climb and variable weather. But I think Lone Pine would have been an excellent candidate for v3 chargers because of that need to charge to 200 rated miles.
We have occasionally used Inyokern and never seen more than one other car there. Now that we have the new Raven we will never have to use Inyokern any more on the way up. I realize that Inyokern is more critical for those coming up the 395 vs. the 14. I see Mojave as possibly needing an expansion, with both N-S and E-W traffic. That's usually our dinner stop on the way down. We have never had to wait but we have seen 4-5 of the 6 chargers in use midweek at dinner time so I suspect there could be problems on some Friday/Sunday nights.
It is important to expand Lone Pine because it's a good idea to leave there going north with at least 200 miles rated range given the hill climb and variable weather. But I think Lone Pine would have been an excellent candidate for v3 chargers because of that need to charge to 200 rated miles.
We have occasionally used Inyokern and never seen more than one other car there. Now that we have the new Raven we will never have to use Inyokern any more on the way up. I realize that Inyokern is more critical for those coming up the 395 vs. the 14. I see Mojave as possibly needing an expansion, with both N-S and E-W traffic. That's usually our dinner stop on the way down. We have never had to wait but we have seen 4-5 of the 6 chargers in use midweek at dinner time so I suspect there could be problems on some Friday/Sunday nights.
MountainRatMat
Member
You make excellent points. For me I'd really rather see a new supercharger at Kramer Junction than expansions anywhere else, it would get busy but would also open up so many more options in that area. One thing I do on busy weekends is charge if there is an open stall or just skip if it is full. Adding a supercharger at Kramer Junction would help out that strategy if Lone Pine and/or Inyokern are full. I usually travel the 395 to Mammoth and occasionally take the 14.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
A V3 supercharger at Kramer Junction would be awesome.
I'm driving up the 395 tomorrow afternoon through West LA. They also need supercharging in the Palmdale/Lancaster area too. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it even with 100% charge to Mojave and I suspect all the superchargers along the 405 are a disaster.
MountainRatMat
Member
Take the 395 and top it off at San Bernardino, you can make it all the way to Lone Pine. I do that when traffic is bad on Fridays so I can skip the Inyokern stop.
Agreed about all the chargers on the 405, Irvine will be open soon, you can bet that one will always be full too.
brucet999
Active Member
Is that better than Rancho Cucamonga? San Bernardino adds miles from Orange County.
San Bernardino can get busy, but it has nowhere near the congestion that the Rancho Cucamonga SCs get, and it's a little more convenient to the freeway. Stopping in San Berdoo instead of Rancho typically adds about 6-7 miles from Orange County.
However, why not instead charge at the new Superchargers in Fontana?
By the way, when driving from our home in the San Bernardino Mountains, our Model S 85 has no trouble reaching Lone Pine on a single charge.
brucet999
Active Member
When is RC congested? I usually arrive about 8:30 to 9:00 am on a weekday on my way to 395 north, and have never seen more than 4 cars charging.
You're starting at a high elevation which is a huge advantage.
MountainRatMat
Member
Pretty much any other time of day, I'd say it starts stacking up around lunchtime and then doesn't stop until later in the evening. Mornings are typically a good time to supercharge. Fontana is a good option as well. In that area the RC supercharger is the most congested.
Of note: The RC supercharger is a full 150kW charge rate system while the others in the area are 72kW Urban Superchargers yet the urban superchargers ultimately take less time to charge because there is less waiting time and no sharing of stalls. Counter intuitive but that has been my experience. I also typically travel through those areas during high traffic times so take that into consideration as well.
Yes, starting at our elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains does give us an advantage, though we generally want to start at no more than 90% charge in order to have a decent level of regen available, and we need to take the slightly more time consuming (but more scenic and efficient) route through the mountains via CA-18 and CA-138. If we were to follow Tesla navigation and instead descend CA-330 and then drive the freeways (210, 215, 15), then we would actually be at a disadvantage reaching Lone Pine, compared to someone charging at Fontana. So it is not as clear-cut as it might appear. But I digress.
More on topic, has anyone seen any recent evidence of progress in adding more Superchargers in Lone Pine? I wonder if there is going to be congestion during the peak Labor Day weekend travel times.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
Went up to Yosemite on the 395 through West LA. Luckily (?) LA traffic allowed me to make it all the way to Mojave without needing a charge (good thing because the chargers in LA appeared to be severely impacted). Lone Pine supercharger always shows two chargers in use so I assume the temporary 72kW chargers are out of service. Anyway, the new charge profile is crazy fast and there were no lines on Saturday or Tuesday. Hopefully they can get the Lone Pine expansion done soon or this winter will be a disaster.
MountainRatMat
Member
Yes, charge speeds are so much faster than when I bought my car a year ago. I can do the Mammoth run with 15 min less charging time now.
Labor Day Monday ~4 pm.
App showed 1 of 6 chargers available. Arrived to find one of the temp chargers ICEd and 4 M3s waiting to charge.
Thankfully, we left Mammoth with a full charge and could get to an empty Inyokern (Mojave was also full).
Expansion couldn't happen soon enough. Plus additional superchargers in Bishop and Palmdale/Lancaster.
App showed 1 of 6 chargers available. Arrived to find one of the temp chargers ICEd and 4 M3s waiting to charge.
Thankfully, we left Mammoth with a full charge and could get to an empty Inyokern (Mojave was also full).
Expansion couldn't happen soon enough. Plus additional superchargers in Bishop and Palmdale/Lancaster.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
Yeah, don't think I'm going to be driving the Tesla up the 395 between Fridays and Sundays this winter!
Yikes. Glad we went for another hike instead of trying to get home early! We arrived at Lone Pine after 7pm yesterday (Labor Day) on our way home from Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. There were two other cars charging when we arrived, and for a brief time, ours was the only car charging. Two or three other cars came and went. Since congestion wasn't a problem, we simply hung out in Lone Pine (one family member stayed in the car) until we had enough charge to drive all the way home.
We actually used one of the 72 kW chargers, after first attempting to use one of the "permanent" chargers and only getting 36 kW.
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