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Tesla Trip To Hell & Back

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View attachment 265119 On Thanksgiving day my wife and I started our long Journey from Las Vegas, NV to St Matthews, SC to pick up and tow home our new 2 person 18' travel trailer. The journey took us across the USA on I-40 and we ended up returning on I-10 out of Jacksonville, Florida to Baton Rouge, then we angled NW through Alexandria, Louisiana and Shreveport, through Texas, back to Oklahoma City, and finally returned home on I-40. We had to follow the Superchargers that were spaced no more than 125 miles apart. Towing reduces your range (about) in half. Our MX has a fully charged range of 259 miles.

We happened to arrive about dinner time in Alexandria, LA and they had a huge December 1st Christmas celebration going on. We were not prepared for what happened next.

The superchargers are located downtown, in the parking lot of a large hotel. The downtown area was packed with cars/pick up trucks and pedestrians trying to find their way to the celebration through the hotel parking lot. Five of the eight Tesla Superchargers had ICE cars parked in them and three had "No Parking Floor Stands". With the hotel's permission we unhitched the trailer and backed our MX into the reserved Supercharger spot. Immediately we could tell the Supercharger was not working properly barely giving us additional battery supply. After about a half hour we got on the cell and called Tesla and explained the situation and Tesla said they would get someone there to find and repair the problem (we were able to get an almost full charge after 5 hours and no repairman showed up that night).

What did happen is why I am writing this. About half way through our charge a large man walked up to the two parking spaces with orange "No Parking" floor stands and began to cuss and physically throw them back into the parking space.
I said, "Whoa Mister, please don't do that." He immediately confronted me (I was standing outside the vehicle). He cussed at me and called me a MF...er and confronted me. I am 73 years old, he was in his mid 30s, stood about 6'4" and weighed well over 200 lbs. I kept my distance but asked him to stop harassing us. He went to our MX and leaned over the drivers door (my wife was sitting in the driver's seat). He told her to move the F...ing car and got within 6 inches of her face. She called him a "big bully" and later said he smelled of alcohol. We both explained that we needed the space to charge our car, much like you have to fill your car at a gasoline pump. He had none of that, and being the well educated man that he was, said our car was not a Tesla. Thankfully another bystander with his wife and young child joined our crusade to protect our vehicle and parking spaces. This bystander pulled out a large curved blade knife and stuck it in the man's face. Told him to back off you MF....er and leave these poor people alone.

This is where it gets good. The man than said, "I have a disabled daughter, they let other people park here, why am I being denied the right to park here?" I could not give him a rational explaination why other vehicles were parked in Tesla supercharger parking spaces, but they were there when we arrived. I offered, "What would you do if you wanted to put fuel in your vehicle and someone was blocking your fuel pumps?" We need the supercharger to continue our journey. He would not stop harassing, cussing and threatening us. He did back up from the knife but would not leave. Our bystander kept him at bay and I proceeded to the hotel front desk (which was quite a distance away), and asked them to call the police. Of course by the time the local police arrived the man had walked with his wife and child toward the multi-story parking garage to get his vehicle and we lost site of him.

We desperately tried to explain to the police what had happened. One of the policemen had no idea what a Tesla Supercharger and a Tesla are. They said if the man returned to please contact them again. We sat there charging for another 3.5 hours waiting for the faulty Supercharger to fill our battery, and needless to say were quite apprehensive. Finally, about 9:00 P.M they had a fireworks display (think large small city display) and the downtown crowd began to disperse. We were able to hitch our trailer and leave Alexandria in our rear-view mirror around midnight that night.
We are both traumatized by the incident. I called Tesla that night and told them this story. I also explained how many of the
supercharger sites we visited late at night were not well lighted and were inviting disaster. The Tesla representative assured me they would discuss it at their next meeting.

I must add, many of the fine people of Alexandria, LA were genuinely interested in our Tesla and it's falcon wing doors and large center display. Many young boys and girls will never forget seeing their first Tesla model X that night. One 12 year old boy asked if this could out run a Bugatti? "How can you keep them down on the farm after they've seen Paree?"
 
Sounds like 1 bad apple in the group, who can unfortunately make a bad experience horrible. I lived in that area for 2 years and never had anything like that happen to me. From my experience, the Alexandria police will take care of any nuisances like that, and very quickly. It's unfortunate they didn't get to him earlier. Stinks that the Superchargers weren't working correctly. There were a lot of issues this summer, seems like Tesla may have fixed most of them; however, I don't want to speak too soon.

Did you try to switch stalls?
 
Sounds like 1 bad apple in the group, who can unfortunately make a bad experience horrible. I lived in that area for 2 years and never had anything like that happen to me. From my experience, the Alexandria police will take care of any nuisances like that, and very quickly. It's unfortunate they didn't get to him earlier. Stinks that the Superchargers weren't working correctly. There were a lot of issues this summer, seems like Tesla may have fixed most of them; however, I don't want to speak too soon.

Did you try to switch stalls?
Funny that you should mention the police. Looks like they park there too! ;) It looks like it could be one of the shared spaces:
img_2534-jpg.184192

From Supercharger - Alexandria, LA
 
Sounds like 1 bad apple in the group, who can unfortunately make a bad experience horrible. I lived in that area for 2 years and never had anything like that happen to me. From my experience, the Alexandria police will take care of any nuisances like that, and very quickly. It's unfortunate they didn't get to him earlier. Stinks that the Superchargers weren't working correctly. There were a lot of issues this summer, seems like Tesla may have fixed most of them; however, I don't want to speak too soon.

Did you try to switch stalls?
Yes, three times. Don't get us wrong. The people were inquisitive, wonderful people trying to find a parking space to go to the festivities. Cannot fault them all.
 
Funny that you should mention the police. Looks like they park there too! ;) It looks like it could be one of the shared spaces:
img_2534-jpg.184192

From Supercharger - Alexandria, LA
Great photo of chargers in downtown Alexandria, LA. Unfortunately for us we arrived at worst possible time. We first detached our travel trailer, and worried about it being vandalized but it was fine. Lucky for us they had 3 chargers coned off for charging. These were the only set of SC that were not functioning as they should during our trip.
 
Great photo of chargers in downtown Alexandria, LA. Unfortunately for us we arrived at worst possible time. We first detached our travel trailer, and worried about it being vandalized but it was fine. Lucky for us they had 3 chargers coned off for charging. These were the only set of SC that were not functioning as they should during our trip.
Is it possible they were coned off because they weren't working? We recently stopped at the new Colby Supercharger and they had 7 of the 10 stalls with cones in front of them. The other three stalls had a spot that wasn't paved and made it looked like those stalls were still being worked on. We thought the cones were to indicate "no ICE parking" because they were wide enough apart that we could drive between them, park and charge. As we finished charging, an employee came out and told us we shouldn't be parking there because they had recently poured concrete and didn't want us ruining it. The concrete was at least a week old and we didn't ruin it...but it was odd that the cones in our opinion were to block ICE cars and allow charging (as they do in Glenwood Springs and other locations)...but in their mind, they were blocking those stalls and indicating the other stalls were open.

Sounds like Alexandria should've let the ICE vehicles park in front of the three stalls that were having issues. Oh well.

20171014_121126.jpg
 
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Funny that you should mention the police. Looks like they park there too! ;) It looks like it could be one of the shared spaces:
img_2534-jpg.184192

From Supercharger - Alexandria, LA

This “shared space” philosophy is the one of a few supercharger decisions that really grinds my gears (points for knowing the reference).

I get that Tesla has given us an option that Chevy, Nissan, Jaguar and others won’t with the SC network. In my opinion, the legacy manufacturers reliance on ChargePoint and other unreliable networks is foolish.

But the SC network can be unreliable too - such as in the example here. And if Tesla doesn’t write into their contracts the ability to tow ICE vehicles blocking a spot, or supports the “shared space” philosophy as they do at some SC sites, then the network loses value.

I’ve never arrived at a gas station where there wasn’t a spot or a short wait to fill up. Tesla has to start changing the mindset of the SC model to be one of you’ll be able to charge immediately or once a TESLA that is already charging finishes. And that only happens if they contractually enforce towing.
 
View attachment 265119 On Thanksgiving day my wife and I started our long Journey from Las Vegas, NV to St Matthews, SC to pick up and tow home our new 2 person 18' travel trailer.

Scottie,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Hopefully this was the only hiccup on your trip.

Slightly OT...but do you mind posting a thread about your trip. Things such as trailer name/brand/model, energy usage, charging strategies etc?

Thanks
 
This “shared space” philosophy is the one of a few supercharger decisions that really grinds my gears (points for knowing the reference).

I get that Tesla has given us an option that Chevy, Nissan, Jaguar and others won’t with the SC network. In my opinion, the legacy manufacturers reliance on ChargePoint and other unreliable networks is foolish.

But the SC network can be unreliable too - such as in the example here. And if Tesla doesn’t write into their contracts the ability to tow ICE vehicles blocking a spot, or supports the “shared space” philosophy as they do at some SC sites, then the network loses value.

I’ve never arrived at a gas station where there wasn’t a spot or a short wait to fill up. Tesla has to start changing the mindset of the SC model to be one of you’ll be able to charge immediately or once a TESLA that is already charging finishes. And that only happens if they contractually enforce towing.
We should start parking in front of gas pumps in retaliation o_O!!! If only they didn't stink!

PS: someone might try to pump gas in through the charge port so probably not a good idea...
 
  • Funny
Reactions: jon1478
Sounds like 1 bad apple in the group, who can unfortunately make a bad experience horrible. I lived in that area for 2 years and never had anything like that happen to me. From my experience, the Alexandria police will take care of any nuisances like that, and very quickly. It's unfortunate they didn't get to him earlier. Stinks that the Superchargers weren't working correctly. There were a lot of issues this summer, seems like Tesla may have fixed most of them; however, I don't want to speak too soon.

Did you try to switch stalls?
Yes, three times. Don't get us wrong. The people were inquisitive, wonderful people trying to find a parking space to go to the festivities. Cannot fault them all.
Bummer that neither worked well. Also, from my experience, and I just returned from a month trip in Alexandria, La -- most people there still have no clue about Tesla. I stayed at the Best Western -- a few miles away from you -- and they had a NEMA plug on a lightpost in the back. I didn't add it because I didn't try it/.verify it worked (was using a rental). Maybe someone else could check it out and add it to plugshare if it works. It sounds like your speeds were extremely slow -- that could have possibly helped? Also it looks like there is an 80A at the Fairfield inn. Do you have dual chargers? Maybe that would have helped too? I'd bet either place would have assisted.
 
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(note that I didn't finish reading your entire post - stopped after the paragraph about the 6'4" goon)

This is exactly why I have a concealed weapon permit and carry a weapon. Words like these, "but asked him to stop harassing us" are completely useless for your defense and your helpless wife's defense.

I have NEVER had to use my weapon or even come close. I try to use common sense about where I go and getting myself into bad situations (in other words, I pretend I don't have any protection and make decisions accordingly). I never let my possession of a weapon influence my decision to possibly go somewhere or into a situation I otherwise would not have. However, none of that would have helped you in your situation. Anyone would have felt safe to go to those chargers. I would hope that even with protection, you would have been able to escape the situation just as you did (without having to use your protection). But for the life of me, I don't understand why anyone, including you, would leave your safety (and the safety of your beloved wife) in the hands of a goon like this, or on the hopes that a bystander will protect you. Are you afraid that you might use your weapon to massacre a bunch of people or something? Do you think it will change who you are and you will suddenly become the bully? Why not do everything possible to protect your own life and your wife's life? Why not buy a weapon, learn to use it, and be able to protect your family?
 
This is a Telsa forum. Can we take the pros/cons of carrying a concealed weapon somewhere else?

thanks

(note that I didn't finish reading your entire post - stopped after the paragraph about the 6'4" goon)

This is exactly why I have a concealed weapon permit and carry a weapon. Words like these, "but asked him to stop harassing us" are completely useless for your defense and your helpless wife's defense.

I have NEVER had to use my weapon or even come close. I try to use common sense about where I go and getting myself into bad situations (in other words, I pretend I don't have any protection and make decisions accordingly). I never let my possession of a weapon influence my decision to possibly go somewhere or into a situation I otherwise would not have. However, none of that would have helped you in your situation. Anyone would have felt safe to go to those chargers. I would hope that even with protection, you would have been able to escape the situation just as you did (without having to use your protection). But for the life of me, I don't understand why anyone, including you, would leave your safety (and the safety of your beloved wife) in the hands of a goon like this, or on the hopes that a bystander will protect you. Are you afraid that you might use your weapon to massacre a bunch of people or something? Do you think it will change who you are and you will suddenly become the bully? Why not do everything possible to protect your own life and your wife's life? Why not buy a weapon, learn to use it, and be able to protect your family?
 
Did you notice what the navigation info gave for a description on the charging station? Some do not offer a full 120 kW of charging capability. A lot of destination chargers (the ones listed in gray) use the same A/C HPWC you would use at your home vs. the fast DC superchargers.
 
A bit more on our Journey from Las Vegas, NV to South Carolina and back. We drive a MX 90D. It performed flawlessly both ways. We followed the well worn path of Superchargers and interstate highways. For those that care we had a problem once we got to Oklahoma City as at that point you cannot get half way across Arkansas (Little Rock) even with a 259 mile range. So we angles SE out of Amarillo to Childress TX (this was our first stop, It took 19 hours to get here), then on to Ardmore OK, decided to skip two superchargers and drive state routes to Texarkana TX (motel here). We made it with power to spare. The key to getting longer range in your Tesla is slowing down. Slowing down is the one most important thing when you are in danger of running out of range. Next we drove to Little Rock, Memphis, North to Kuttawa KY (wife visited her sister spent night) then Cookville TN, Knoxville TN (motel here), cross the Smokey Mountains to Asheville NC, Greenville SC to our final destination of Santee SC.

Here we picked up our travel trailer which we had ordered 12/2016 The trailer is 18ft long including tongue, weighs approx 2,500lbs, fiberglass shell, wooden cabinets on inside, kitchen, bath, sofa, queen bed, mainly made for shore power, but can be configured for off grid with solar panels. The MX is a towing machine, it does not lack for power or speed, what it lacks when towing is range. The more aerodynamic the trailer is the more range you will have. We are having our windows installed in Las Vegas (that's another story).

Our route home we went South. From Santee to Savannah, Kingsland, Jacksonville, Lake City, Tallahassee, DeFuniak Springs, Mobile, Slidell, Baton Rouge, up to Alexandria, Shreveport, Lindale, Sulphur Springs, Denton, Ardmore, and back to Oklahoma City. From here it was I-40 all the way to Kingman AZ and then Vegas, baby. For Buddyroe, I had .357 under driver's seat, enough said.
IMG_0735.JPG

Try this website when figuring out your trip route. It has a handy range circles that can be adjusted to fit your Tesla range. supercharge.info Another highly recommended website is Tesla Winds and Elevation download and save to favorites on your Tesla.

We were able to charge 75% of the time with trailer hitched to MX. Traveling at night helped. Doing so, you block up to 4 supercharges. The short turning radius of the MX allowed us to get out of tight spaces. We avoided destination chargers because we were towing.

Here is our reality of towing a trailer. You seldom, if ever, get to drive at highway speeds. Weather, terrain, speed and other factors eat your
range. Not knowing the road ahead presents many challenges and we chose to be conservative and drive slower to conserve range. Thankfully it saved us on two legs of the trip, I would say our average towing speed was 50mph.
Snoozy Interior.jpeg
 
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