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Supercharger - Woodburn, OR
- Thread starter PhilBa
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- Northwest oregon supercharger USA
I got there about 20 minutes before totality; the place was packed – not just the Superchargers, but the entire lot – Teslas as far as the eye could see! (See the first picture.)
I kept driving into residential land and found a nice gravel lot off the side of the road on the edge of some well-treed land for viewing both the eclipse (mind-blowing) and the shadows it creates through leaves. Shortly after totality, a kitten started mewing rather intently in the bushes/forest; as I was trying to get closer, I stumbled across what appeared to be a homeless encampment, along with some skeletal remains that… may have been human. I had to call it in, so that probably kept me an extra hour or so – which was fine since traffic going back to the freeway was jam-packed for awhile.
By the time I got back to the Superchargers, they were all still taken – but after striking up a conversation with the nearby peoples, I learned that I was third in line… and during that conversation it seemed like I barely waited at all, but it was probably close to 15 minutes. I was only getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 kW or so (understandable given that all 8 stations were in use), but I only needed a top-off from 70%, so that gave me enough time to eat my Arby's smoked porchetta sandwich at a comfortable pace. When I finally finished, my car was at 97% and there were now at least 4 more cars waiting to get in.
I took the second picture as I was just about to leave; that's my Sig Red on the right. Oh, BTW, this was my first SC experience – I just picked up the car last Saturday. It was a patience-trying experience, but a pleasant one nonetheless.
The drive home, OTOH… well, that's another experience.
I kept driving into residential land and found a nice gravel lot off the side of the road on the edge of some well-treed land for viewing both the eclipse (mind-blowing) and the shadows it creates through leaves. Shortly after totality, a kitten started mewing rather intently in the bushes/forest; as I was trying to get closer, I stumbled across what appeared to be a homeless encampment, along with some skeletal remains that… may have been human. I had to call it in, so that probably kept me an extra hour or so – which was fine since traffic going back to the freeway was jam-packed for awhile.
By the time I got back to the Superchargers, they were all still taken – but after striking up a conversation with the nearby peoples, I learned that I was third in line… and during that conversation it seemed like I barely waited at all, but it was probably close to 15 minutes. I was only getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 kW or so (understandable given that all 8 stations were in use), but I only needed a top-off from 70%, so that gave me enough time to eat my Arby's smoked porchetta sandwich at a comfortable pace. When I finally finished, my car was at 97% and there were now at least 4 more cars waiting to get in.
I took the second picture as I was just about to leave; that's my Sig Red on the right. Oh, BTW, this was my first SC experience – I just picked up the car last Saturday. It was a patience-trying experience, but a pleasant one nonetheless.
The drive home, OTOH… well, that's another experience.
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Your first supercharger experience was on the busiest day in the history of superchargering in the Northwest. I've been to Woodburn a few times and it's usually very quiet with maybe one or two cars charging.
Sounds like you found a good, out of the way spot. I did just scan the local news for the last week and there are no reports of human remains being found around Woodburn, so it may have been something else.
I wonder if you got the sig red S that belonged to someone else here on the forum. He lives in Vancouver, WA and traded in his sig red S for a new one a few months ago.
Sounds like you found a good, out of the way spot. I did just scan the local news for the last week and there are no reports of human remains being found around Woodburn, so it may have been something else.
I wonder if you got the sig red S that belonged to someone else here on the forum. He lives in Vancouver, WA and traded in his sig red S for a new one a few months ago.
Hey I recognize a few people in that photo, mainly myself and my wife =p. I think i remember seeing your car pull in quickly and left. You should of pulled up the chargers and waited for one of the chargers opened up. At one point there we 3 cars lined up waiting for a charge and all of them were able to get a charge before totality started.
It was a pretty much a Telsa meetup / eclipse viewing party all morning. I know I had an awesome time that morning.
Oh, I fully expected that – I knew this was going to be an ordeal, I just didn't expect it to be as easy to get down there as it was – which in turn surprised me with how difficult it was getting out.
They did tell me it would be a few days before they could confirm anything (assuming they could identify the remains and notify next of kin – there was no skull nearby, so that might be difficult), but if I hadn't heard anything back after about a week, it was probably "nothing."
I ordered it 2 months ago, and it was listed as being in Seattle at the time (and also got about 8K miles put on it from the time it was listed to the time it was delivered… :-\), but anything's possible.
I gladly would've stuck around if I could've found a place to park other than the handicap spot in front of the Arby's; but I was a man on a mission, looking for a solid tree to catch the shadows of the eclipse through – Supercharging was secondary.
Any expansion activity noted here? I'm out of state for a while and haven't charged here for over a month, but I did see locator paint the last time. Now that Eugene's expansion is switched on, I'm thinking Woodburn may be next. Going the other way, Mt. Shasta is almost done, waiting for the utility transformer.
pdxgibby
Software Engineer
I'll be in Woodburn today. I'll drive by the new proposed Woodburn location and see if I can see locator paint too and post pictures with current status. The Tesla map of planned supercharger locations doesn't show the actual location, but rather the center of the zip code.
@otter - do you know if the planned expansion is near the current supercharger?
@otter - do you know if the planned expansion is near the current supercharger?
pdxgibby
Software Engineer
I was interpreting the location literally from the tesla supercharger map that shows planned locations. It could be that they identified the location based on zip code. When they were expanding the Eugene/Springfield supercharger, I don't remember seeing a different physical location on the planned map. Of course, qualified with "Exact timing and specific location may vary..." This is why I was asking for the locale. If it's an expansion, then that answers the question.
Super_Popular
Well-Known Member
It's crazy to read that the Woodburn SC is full, with people waiting. I have been going there for years and have never seen more than one car there. It's also really creepy there at night when the businesses are closed.
As soon as the Vancouver, WA supercharger opens up it will shift how this Supercharger is utilized.
The people going from Seattle to Portland won't need to use this supercharger to get back to Seattle. But, I don't know what percentage of the people charging there do that.
In my experience as someone who did that the utilization was a lot higher during the summers than the winters. It was especially high during summer weekends, but I never had to wait. I did on more than one occasion stop to charge when it was empty only to find it mostly full as soon as I got out of Elmers.
I think it's average during summer day time hours was around 50% utilization. Where it drops off considerably at night, and it is a bit creepy at 2am. Except there is a large bright light on the elmers building. It makes its kinda annoying to try to get some shuteye while the car is charging.
The people going from Seattle to Portland won't need to use this supercharger to get back to Seattle. But, I don't know what percentage of the people charging there do that.
In my experience as someone who did that the utilization was a lot higher during the summers than the winters. It was especially high during summer weekends, but I never had to wait. I did on more than one occasion stop to charge when it was empty only to find it mostly full as soon as I got out of Elmers.
I think it's average during summer day time hours was around 50% utilization. Where it drops off considerably at night, and it is a bit creepy at 2am. Except there is a large bright light on the elmers building. It makes its kinda annoying to try to get some shuteye while the car is charging.
@pdxgibby, I appreciate your having a look! The locator paint I saw was at the present site, as it was before the expansions at Grants Pass and Springfield, although that doesn't neccesarily mean they are planning to expand right there. Could have been gathering data before deciding. On the Tesla website, the grey "site coming" location pins, outside urban areas, tend to be centered on a town, not on the actual site location. Example: Mt. Shasta- the expansion and/or new site is right across the street from the present site, but the location pin is centered some distance away over the geographic center of town.
pdxgibby
Software Engineer
Super_Popular
Well-Known Member
SC at 124kW+ on MX 100 KWH pack at Woodburn SC.
Nice to see this rolling out w/ V 2019.12.1.1
-TechVP
Nice to see this rolling out w/ V 2019.12.1.1
-TechVP
josher32
Member
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