Supercharging on a road trip is like stopping to smell the roses

[Rottenapplr]

That’s vw great. A scooter connected to the tesla charger. And you will automatically qualify to rent it but you have to return it.

Be really cool to charge the scooter on the super charger, 30 seconds

 

[SMAlset]

I have only had the Model 3 for 4 months, but already had 4 road trips totaling 3,000 miles and generally enjoy the supercharging breaks to explore the local businesses and get a snack. One exception was coming back to Miami from Key West a couple of weeks ago, and charging at the only superchargers in the Keys: at the Marathon airport. This is a sleeping small town airport, and there is nothing within walking distance of charging stations: no restrooms, soda machines; nada.

And that’s when you can relax listening to your sound system or playing games on your center screen. We so seldom have the luxury of quiet time without something to do it’s nice.

 

[SMAlset]

I've only done one trip requiring supercharging so far, it was from San Diego to the Bay Area and back. For anyone not familiar with the I-5 on this route, there are really no towns but rather roadside clusters of restaurants and gas stations at the highway intersections. I had never noticed it before, but these areas were definitely not designed for pedestrians. The absence of crosswalks and sidewalks, along with the large number of cars and trucks plying these roads, made for a much less than pleasant walk.
That said, for me the ratio of time spent supercharging to time spent driving is about right, and helps keep me fresh on a drive like this.

I hope you stopped at Kettleman City. Amazing Supercharger location, gorgeous lounge and like you said not much to see otherwise while charging along that route. Kettleman’s is kind of like being in Supercharger Heaven. Baristas too.

 

[SMAlset]

This. Surprised that nobody has devised a theft-resistant squeegee system for these locations...

Erik made a YT video of a trip he did east from Colorado and made a point of packing one of those spray window washer/scrapers with him. It has a handle that fills with window washer fluid. Nice for also getting your side windows and rear. He also packed in his trunk some bug cleaner and he sure needed it in some parts of his travels.

 

[KenC]

I don’t think we’ve actually smelled roses while Supercharging, but we do enjoy most of the breaks. A walk. A meal. Casino visit if my father-in-law is with us. We find we arrive after a 12-hour trek much less exhausted. If we ever actually commit to one bike carrying solution or another, we’ve talked about using the bikes to explore, say, Lovelock, NV while we acquire electrons.

I've traveled thru Europe in my BMW and I've traveled thru Europe on a 12-speed Schwinn, and the difference is interesting. On the bike, you see everything. In a car, you miss all the stuff between destinations, as they just go by too fast. Not to mention you appreciate your destinations that much more if you've been riding a bike all day! Now with e-bikes, that could make bike travel more accessible to us as we get older. Charge the battery off an inverter as you go.

 

[SammichLover]

And the cabin was still uncomfortable due to radiated heat coming in through the glass so I ended up waiting in the shop anyways.

First, do you have heat block film? 360?

IMore importantly if you would have tried to overcome that "uncomfortableness" with the HVAC I expect you wouldn't have been able to due to the AC capabilities being saturated. You just didn't do what was necessary to make it really obvious that the HVAC was maxed out.

 

[moshee]

First, do you have heat block film? 360?

IMore importantly if you would have tried to overcome that "uncomfortableness" with the HVAC I expect you wouldn't have been able to due to the AC capabilities being saturated. You just didn't do what was necessary to make it really obvious that the HVAC was maxed out.

All of the glass in my car is completely stock. I considered tinting at one point to reduce cabin heating while parked in the sun, but it seems like that doesn't really lower the peak temperature, just maybe slows it down a tiny bit. Reflectors seem to behave the same way.

It's true I didn't max out the AC, but it was hardly blowing warm air. If I held my arm up to the vent under direct sunlight it would feel comfortable, aside from UV concerns. I don't know if there's a way to really keep your skin cold in still air (away from the vent) if there's direct sunlight, is there?

It won't be the same but I'll be driving up through California next week so maybe I'll try it again. Might run into at least 100 degrees somewhere.

 

[SammichLover]

but it seems like that doesn't really lower the peak temperature,

This is dead wrong. You’re probably using “well this is too-hot & that is too-hot” scale. Or crappy film.

If you have a good film & measure it in an actual sense it does, and it most definitely saves a lot of energy use if you’re using the AC to get back to a not-too-hot state.

Same with the “I held my arm to the vent & it was cool”, that’s evapouration you’re feeling. If you turned it to LO it won’t chill the cabin like if you’re not SCing.

 

[StealthP3D]

I drove through 110+°F degree heat (max I saw was 47°C/116°F) over 2 days from OKC to Orange County last weekend and I didn't have any issue with AC getting bogged down (SR+). I had mine set to 74 while charging in Needles with an ambient temp of 113 and it seemed to handle that ok. Didn't check the mi/hr charge rate but it didn't take any longer than I expected for a 15-97% charge. Felt like I almost burned myself on the plug when unplugging though. And the cabin was still uncomfortable due to radiated heat coming in through the glass so I ended up waiting in the shop anyways.

View attachment 447625

One-hundred and sixteen degrees Fahrenheit? Holy crap that's hot! I've ridden my motorcycle through temperatures of 107-110F and the faster I went, the hotter it felt. I found it was best to leave my riding suit zipped up tight with none of the air vents open. When I did this I found I was pretty comfortable. I just drank a lot of water and relaxed in the saddle and everything was fine.

Did you grow up with the metric system? Very unusual for someone from Seattle to have their display set to Celsius.

 

[moshee]

This is dead wrong. You’re probably using “well this is too-hot & that is too-hot” scale. Or crappy film.

I haven't done any tests myself, I just read some posts on this forum where temperature was logged over time and the curves apparently matched very closely.

Same with the “I held my arm to the vent & it was cool”, that’s evapouration you’re feeling. If you turned it to LO it won’t chill the cabin like if you’re not SCing.

Well, evaporation would occur regardless of airflow, right? The mass flow of air over a surface has its own independent cooling effect, think blowing fans over heatsinks.

Did you grow up with the metric system? Very unusual for someone from Seattle to have their display set to Celsius.

I am an engineer with weird mannerisms, and part of it is that I've forced myself to use metric in most of daily life just to get a better feel for it. I still have to convert back to standard units for most people in this country to comprehend though.

 

[SammichLover]

I haven't done any tests myself, I just read some posts on this forum where temperature was logged over time and the curves apparently matched very closely.

Either you misunderstood them or what I said applies to them.

Well, evaporation would occur regardless of airflow, right?

Not at the same rate. That’s why water damage triage teams bring large portable fans with them. Stagnant air next to water quickly approaches saturation (100% humidity) and as it does evapouration slows and stops.

I am an engineer

 

[moshee]

Either you misunderstood them or what I said applies to them.


Not at the same rate. That’s why water damage triage teams bring large portable fans with them. Stagnant air next to water quickly approaches saturation (100% humidity) and as it does evapouration slows and stops.

I think we mostly agree, but my original hope with the tint was to prevent the cabin from getting up to the cabin overheat threshold daily while sitting in a sunny parking lot all day. Definitely don't dispute the direct heat blocking effect, but I don't live in a place where this is normally a problem. It was not until I experienced the Mojave desert that I wished for some sort of tint again, for the correct reasons this time.

And yes, everyone hates engineers... not a software "engineer" if that makes anything better.

 

[Nostromo]

I hope you stopped at Kettleman City. Amazing Supercharger location, gorgeous lounge and like you said not much to see otherwise while charging along that route. Kettleman’s is kind of like being in Supercharger Heaven. Baristas too.

Yes I did. You’re right it’s a beautiful place. A bit spooky the day I was there though. Just me and the barista most of the time, no more than 3 cars charging. She told me it wasn’t unusual for a weekday but it was like a speakeasy the day after a raid.

 

[Rottenapplr]

Raid?

I regret not buying a tesla T-shirt when I went there. One of these days I will stop buy again.

 

[MarsNext]

Now if the 3 had a frunk refrigeration unit for road trip snacks/drinks.....

I bought the Frunk Cooler from Evannex. Fits perfectly and holds everything I need for a road trip
Frunk Cooler for Tesla Model 3