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Brit4864
Member
chickensevil
Active Member
Probably why you said your airplanes were just sitting there for a while huh? haha!
artsci
Sponsor
I'm in! An easy trip for me. Will debut the lighted rear appliqué and maybe do some installs.
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arijaycomet
Member
Doh!! So my wife/I had been talking about maybe going out to OC, MD (a favorite of ours) for our daughters' end of summer break. There is a span of about 2 weeks in mid-August after camp ends but before school resumes that would be perfect for us. Anyhow... that trip is in discussions...
That being said, I may be able to come check this out perhaps--- alone. Doubt we could make it work with wife/kid due to distance from Cleveland, Ohio. But I'll be staying tuned to details because, you just never know... curious who will be traveling the farthest to this event.
That being said, I may be able to come check this out perhaps--- alone. Doubt we could make it work with wife/kid due to distance from Cleveland, Ohio. But I'll be staying tuned to details because, you just never know... curious who will be traveling the farthest to this event.
Would love to have you! Hope you can make it!
We'll have an agenda for the event in early February. I promise it will be a lot of fun...!
Aaron
We'll have an agenda for the event in early February. I promise it will be a lot of fun...!
Aaron
Brit4864
Member
Since I moved down here to South Florida, they don't send me up to Salisbury anymore :smile:
arijaycomet
Member
arijaycomet
Member
Obviously I wasn't there lasts year in DC ... but WRT to the 2015 Event ... i'm curious what chargers you are referring to as "additional charging nearby" ?? I've mapped our OC, MD and surrounding areas, and other than two hotels in Rehoboth Beach (where only patrons can charge), there is just the single Supercharger in Salisbury in what I would call a "reasonable distance" of the planned event location. There are some 120/240 chargers here or there, mostly at dealerships .. or ones that charge such as the university at the south end of Salisbury.
(FWIW, if I went there with the family, the only driving we'd prob do is up to Dogfish Head for a meal-- which is a great suggestion of a place to go, except if you have 50+ people then you'll be too large a group for their small restaurant). But that being said... for us the single supercharger would suffice.
Either way, I'm going to keep this event on my radar. I've made the drive before in 8-9 hours in an ICE... but with a need to stop to S/C every 2-hours for 30-40mins, the drive would be 11-12-hours each way, making it hard to make happen based on the dates chosen... so take lots of pics for those of us who may not make it
Hmm. Caravan
As the time gets closer and we figure out who's driving there from the Midwest, lets definitely organize a caravan.
Either way, I'm going to keep this event on my radar. I've made the drive before in 8-9 hours in an ICE... but with a need to stop to S/C every 2-hours for 30-40mins, the drive would be 11-12-hours each way, making it hard to make happen based on the dates chosen... so take lots of pics for those of us who may not make it
Having done a number of long trips, it sounds like you may be being a little conservative on your times for the trip, a normal 8 hour ICE trip shouldn't turn into a 12 hour drive with the S, but it will take a little longer. When pushing it, I've done 1000 miles in a day in 18 hours, and others have done similar numbers. Here is some great data from Joe, who drove to last years event from FL, which was almost 1k miles door to door. Your drive should be about half of his, not taking any traffic or weather issues into account. If it's just those extra travel hours keeping you thinking from joining us, you should reconsider
.Washington to Tampa, we beat the Tesla Cross Country records !!
Peter
chickensevil
Active Member
Obviously I wasn't there lasts year in DC ... but WRT to the 2015 Event ... i'm curious what chargers you are referring to as "additional charging nearby" ?? I've mapped our OC, MD and surrounding areas, and other than two hotels in Rehoboth Beach (where only patrons can charge), there is just the single Supercharger in Salisbury in what I would call a "reasonable distance" of the planned event location. There are some 120/240 chargers here or there, mostly at dealerships .. or ones that charge such as the university at the south end of Salisbury.
(FWIW, if I went there with the family, the only driving we'd prob do is up to Dogfish Head for a meal-- which is a great suggestion of a place to go, except if you have 50+ people then you'll be too large a group for their small restaurant). But that being said... for us the single supercharger would suffice.
Either way, I'm going to keep this event on my radar. I've made the drive before in 8-9 hours in an ICE... but with a need to stop to S/C every 2-hours for 30-40mins, the drive would be 11-12-hours each way, making it hard to make happen based on the dates chosen... so take lots of pics for those of us who may not make it
What is all this talk about stopping for 30-40 minutes each time? I keep hearing this from other owners and I swear on the three roadtrips I have done, the ONLY time I was at a charger for more than 20 minutes was for a food stop (as in sit down and eat slowly at a restaurant of some sort) and most of my stops tend to be 10-15 minutes in length. This is not intended to offend, I am legitimately concerned that people may not quite get the most optimal way to do supercharging so you have minimal stopping and the most time efficient trip. And unless you are going considerably over the speed limit that is an 8 hour drive non-stop (Cleveland to OC). Which I suppose would be one negative about the Tesla, you cannot speed, unless you want to charge longer... maybe that is what you are trying to do? It is actually quicker to go the speed limit and resist the urge to go fast since you get far better mileage going 65-70 than flying at 80+. This means your stops are considerably shorter. Until we either get larger packs or a quicker charge time, the most optimal tripping is to generally stay at the 65-70 range. I would reference the recent blog post that shows the range curves for a given speed. It really starts to drop fast beyond 70.
So you should be able to start off with a full charge and make it to Somerset, PA (since I don't know where you live, I am just using the center of Cleveland as the starting point), which is around 200 miles (even with considerable speeding this is EASILY doable in an 85). After about 3 hours of driving I normally need a break anyway, so make a short stop here just enough to get back on your feet again and get *just enough charge* to make it to Hagerstown. If you were going the speed limit starting with a full charge, you should arrive with 50-60 miles of range left, which means you only need to spend 5-10 minutes here to get enough to make it to Hagerstown (107 miles away, but there is a bit of hills and such on this leg, so you want to put a cushion on the dial... no more than 150 should be needed for reasonable driving). Then plan to make Hagerstown your food stop. You should be ready to eat by this point anyway. If you make this a food stop you should easily get the 175 miles you need to make it straight to Salisbury. If however you don't want to eat here, and get back on the road again quickly, you could stop in at Bethesda. Depending on time of day, I would prefer to avoid this stop, since it is out of the way AND forces you into DC traffic. Time wise, you should at most add an hour onto the 8 hour - at the speed limit straight through driving - coming into Salisbury at around the 9 hour mark. That's 10 minutes at Somerset and 40 minutes at Hagerstown (which 40 is being a bit generous, and I don't think you would need to charge that long to get around 200 miles back for a decent cushion for the last leg).
The only terrible stop is going to potentially be Salisbury, since I don't know how much range you are going to need/want to put on there, depending on other end of day charging arrangements you will have made. But I hope this helps you with your planning, whether for this trip or another road trip into the area!
I am in too. So nice to see familiar names will be there and new ones too.
Quite a few folks still missing though...
Quite a few folks still missing though...
arijaycomet
Member
Totally agree with EVERYTHING you said. However, you're not taking elevation into account, first off. Secondly, I didn't spend $85,000 on a car to drive below the speed limit. Most of the expressway you're talking about there is 65-70 MPH, and I'm going to do 5-MPH over the speed limit because I don't personally want to be in the slow lane. Additionally, I'm not really sure how my car will do in the summer since I just picked up this car 1-month ago--- but I'm only seeing about 65% of my rated range actually realized due to winter driving, snow tires, etc. I'm also the kind of person who wants to leave 10% or more room for "uh oh" such as traffic being stopped because of an accident etc (I've had long trips where I sat on the freeway stand-still for an hour, with the heat needing to be on, which would drain power on a REALLY cold day).
But-- you're right, in the summer time hopefully I'll get more like 80% of my rated range instead of 65%. And hopefully my 20" wheel/tire setup I just bought will get better efficient dynamics. And you're also hitting a very big important point to only need to charge based on the locations you want to charge to. Because of where I live in Cleveland versus the Somerset station, I'd need to go ~180 miles to get there. Based on charging to 100% before I leave the house that means 180/265 = 68% efficiency. Again I've only had my car a month, and the temps haven't been above 40-deg-F since purchase, so I have zero clue. But my wh/mi is 425 right now. That makes Somerset doable, with a 10% margin of error right now. Since I've never done that drive, that would be tight in winter, but again, perhaps better in summer based on the fact yes I've ready plenty of people have made that drive.
I'd personally rather stop more often for shorter charging stops. But yes, I've mapped out Wash/DC since my brother lives in Annaplolis MD. I've used EV Trip planner, and I indeed see what you're talking about (that most chargers are around 120-150 miles apart). So I get the fact that you only REALLY need to charge enough to add that much back. But 150 miles, at 75% effective range, means you need 200 miles of rated range. Assuming you arrive with only 10% left then you'll still want to probably add a full 200 miles. In my experience that took 40 minutes the times I've had to charge here. But again those were in below-freezing temps (still getting 350+ MPH charging for first 15mins). But I hear ya... and I really do hope the visits are shorter. I won't "over charge"-- but I'll add extra charge time to allow me to go over the speed limit.
PS: Obviously everyone's driving style is different. However, crazy as it sounds, if I could charge for 20mins longer so that I can drive 5-10mph faster for 2 hours, and the time becomes a "wash"--- I'd rather spend the extra time at the supercharger, so that I can drive the way I prefer, versus having to hyper-mile. We have a Nissan Leaf we've owned for 2-years and I know all about driving slow and using surface streets to get the most out of the car. For me spending 10minutes or 20minutes more here or there for a stop to be able to drive like a "normal" car, that might be worth it to me personally...
Here is some info that I put together from Google Maps for planning purposes.
Distance & Travel Time to Salisbury, MD Superchargers from:
Bethesda, MD: 127 mi, 2h 10 min
Newark, DE: 99 mi, 1h 46 min
Hagerstown, MD: 175 mi, 2h 54 min
Edison, NJ: 195 mi, 3h 11 min
Norfolk, VA: 139 mi, 2h 27 min
Lanny
Distance & Travel Time to Salisbury, MD Superchargers from:
Bethesda, MD: 127 mi, 2h 10 min
Newark, DE: 99 mi, 1h 46 min
Hagerstown, MD: 175 mi, 2h 54 min
Edison, NJ: 195 mi, 3h 11 min
Norfolk, VA: 139 mi, 2h 27 min
Lanny
Xenoilphobe
Well-Known Member
chickensevil
Active Member
Didn't want to quote the whole thing for space purposes. You getting the car in winter is really the worst possible impression you will ever have of the car. Yes, the heater really hurts range, especially when dealing with commuter traffic and short trips. Longer trips are less of an issue because the hardest hit is the combination of warming a cold battery and warming a cold cabin. Once you get both warmed up the batteries will maintain themselves just from driving and so all you need to worry about would be the cabin. Anyway, just thought you should know it gets MUCH better outside of the three months of cold. April will be one of the best months for a trip because the temps outside will be some of the most optimal that you won't likely be needing to run the AC OR Heater. I will say that I did a trip while it was 90 degrees outside and turning the AC off (or opening a door) just sucked out the cool so of course having it off was NOT and option and even with that plus two passengers going 70mph I was getting slightly better than the rated. So without needing to run hardly either I would say you should come out quite well on your trip.
I tried to take some notion of elevation into account but as I have not actually traveled on those roads I can't speak for certain. But unless you are going serious mountains (like through Cumberland) I wouldn't be too worried. What you lose going up tends to be made up going down (its not perfect but it isn't totally terrible either) so unless the beginning or the end of the trip is a mountain it should come out in the wash.
The only thing I can't comment on is the speeding. The only trip I did with crazy driving was coming back from New York on the turnpike... I was going... A little... Fast but I had plenty of range to burn. Even then I seem to recall only hitting like 340-350 wh/mi (I have 19" tires). So that was why I felt pretty confident that on your first leg you will easily make it to Somerset even going like 90 mph on a full charge... Because of the time of year and such. And again if you make hagerstown a food stop that should preoccupy you long enough until you enough charge. I still think you original time estimation is quite a bit high.
With 6.1 it makes it even easier to really see what is going on with your range. It isn't like you are just going to randomly run out. You should be able to tell within about the first 20-30 minutes of driving how your range should really pan out. It will all make sense when you get to your first stop, at least it did for me. By the time I had finished getting to my destination in FL on my first road trip I was confident enough to only be putting a 10 mile buffer on what I thought I needed. And would arrive with 10-15 miles of range left.
arijaycomet
Member
I'm not willing to drain my battery down to that low -- 10 miles of range left would be around 4% and I've done enough reading to feel that 10% (~25 miles) is the lowest I'd really like to ever have the battery drain for longevity purposes. Of course I don't tend to keep my cars long enough for it to matter (I'm 38 yrs old, and have owned over 55 different cars since age 19- LOL). But still, I'm thinking ideally on a trip I'd like to hit the 10% to 90% SOC spectrum.
Still all your other data makes good sense. I just got the v6.1 update last night, and will be playing around with that in the weeks to come. I've also got a trip to head from Cleveland, Ohio to Baltimore MD and then up the coast to Newark NJ -- planned for late March. That should be weather that will better indicate to me wh/mi data on a less cold part of the year, and I may even have my 20" TSW wheels installed by then (if weather permits). All of these factors will change how I drive the car, and how I perceive the experience.
But I'm hearing you... though I think your approach differs from mine and my decisions to stop (and how long I'd have to stop with my 7-year-old) might not mimic that of others. But to each their own, right ?
... thank you so much for all the input it is much appreciated. I'm taking my 2-years of Nissan Leaf ownership experience, the fact that I drive 25,000+ miles per year, and my now 1-month Tesla experience, and compounding it all in my brian ... :cursing:Similar threads
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