The two-Tesla charging cable conundrum

[timk225]

I strategically positioned the 14-50 outlet in my kitchen for the oven so that I could run a 14-50 extension cord out the door to charge the car. Only downside is I have to cut a notch in the bottom of the door so I can close & lock it at night. But I'll do that.

 

[bnsfengineer]

Can I make my charging cable longer? Splicing additional length into it?

 

[brkaus]

Assuming your asking about the portable charger -

Tesla UMC extension

Or of course

Heavy-duty NEMA 14-50R extension cord for Tesla, 20 ft.

 

[bonnie]

OK, with my Model 3 on order, I still haven't seen a discussion on this topic so will post it. I realize this is not unique to the Model 3, but can come up with any two Tesla's or EV's for that matter, but is certainly going to come up more with widespread Model 3 sales... the question is, have others found the 20' length of the included mobile connecter (charging cable) to be just a wee bit too short to allow convenient placement of the NEMA outlet for charging two Tesla's, or EV's?

Many of us who have a Model S or X quickly realize that you don't need to buy a dedicated wall charger, Tesla or otherwise, as you can use the included mobile connector (UMC) with just a NEMA 14-50 or 14-30 outlet - thereby saving at least $500 plus additional electrician costs, compared to getting a plain NEMA outlet installed. I would hazard to guess that the majority of Model S owners actually charge only with the UMC at home.

It also becomes fairly obvious at home that there are only two good places to put an outlet or charger, either on the left wall, or on the front wall of the garage. On the left wall, it's ideal to park one Tesla on the left so the charging cable does not cross over the other car. With two Tesla's, the cable will cross over one car to reach the other - it's inevitable, and can pose some risk if drivers do not look for the cable before leaving the garage.

Therefore the front wall becomes ideal. But the Tesla's are 15-16' long, and presuming you don't touch your wall with your bumper, you need about 14-15' just from the wall straight back to the charge port. That leaves a precious 5' or so of cable length for lateral positioning from the wall outlet to the charge port. Given that two cars charge ports need to be laterally about 7-8' apart, is it even possible to use one wall-mount mobile connector to reach both cars - and if so, is the possible span of mounting locations for the outlet nearly practically prohibitive?

In this case the extra 4' of the Tesla Wall Connector makes a big difference, and if that was their designed upsell, it's actually quite clever. So instead of asking why Tesla didn't make the UMC 25' instead of 20', what are folks doing to address the two Tesla charging cable conundrum?
-using left or right mounting cable mounting, which requires additional diligence (note it's impossible with one Tesla to drive with the UMC attached, the car will warn you, but with a 2nd Tesla it will not tell you whether you're about to back into the cable plugged into the OTHER car)
-using separate NEMA outlets and charging cables for each parking bay
-springing for the Tesla Wall Connector for the added 4' length
-getting a long or short cable extension, which has its own issues - additional resisitve losses, losing the idealness of the 90 deg turn at the plug in the UMC, etc
-any other creative options?

Back your car in.

 

[lithiumfire]

I park the X on the right-hand-side of the garage. I positioned my 14-50 receptacle on the right-hand wall in the middle of the car close to the ceiling, so I can run the cord either along the ceiling to park head-in, or easily run along the wall to the front of the garage when backing in. After a year and currently a cold winter I have found that I prefer backing in. I used to think it was a hassle, but it gets me a couple things:

1) I can open the rear hatch high enough so that I don't hit my head on it (garage door not blocking)
2) I can shut the garage door before getting out of the car and still be able to unload from the rear.

So I highly recommend backing in, and for right-hand side parking just put the receptacle on the right-hand wall. Back in both cars and you can put it on the front wall and reach both cars.

 

[BerTX]

I park the X on the right-hand-side of the garage. I positioned my 14-50 receptacle on the right-hand wall in the middle of the car close to the ceiling, so I can run the cord either along the ceiling to park head-in, or easily run along the wall to the front of the garage when backing in. After a year and currently a cold winter I have found that I prefer backing in. I used to think it was a hassle, but it gets me a couple things:

1) I can open the rear hatch high enough so that I don't hit my head on it (garage door not blocking)
2) I can shut the garage door before getting out of the car and still be able to unload from the rear.

So I highly recommend backing in, and for right-hand side parking just put the receptacle on the right-hand wall. Back in both cars and you can put it on the front wall and reach both cars.

Back your car in.

He has already stated that he can't back the cars in.

I used to think "Well, you have to either back in or back out, so you might as well back in" -- until I got a house with a curved, uphill driveway with two huge tree trunks partly in the drive and a concrete retaining wall on the other side. Backing out is no problem, but backing in is a bear.

And sometimes my bladder is full when I arrive home. Never when I leave.

 

[Need]

I used to think "Well, you have to either back in or back out, so you might as well back in" -- until I got a house with a curved, uphill driveway with two huge tree trunks partly in the drive and a concrete retaining wall on the other side. Backing out is no problem, but backing in is a bear.

Where in our case, we use summon to back the car out from the tight garage. So just drive straight in, and summon out. Would have summon it in too but the driveway is on slope. Summon refused to go uphill. Lazy Tesla.

As for the 2-cable thing, I was actually thinking about it too but in a different configuration. We had a 3-cars garage but they are fully packed with stuff. It took us a month to empty one to park my wife's MX. There is no way we could empty more to park another car. So the next Tesla will have to park outside and not in front of the left most garage blocking the MX exit. I am thinking of just do a WC with 24' cable outside. Or I could go the cheaper route and install a NEMA 14-50 on the outside left wall.. and run an extension cord... to the UMC to the outside Tesla. But then I have to unplug the UMC and store it back into the car everyday. It seems like a lot of work to do it every morning and probably not good for the 240V adapter to keep plugging and unplugging.

 

[mspohr]

My situation may be more particular than most, but from my street to the garage is a full 180 deg turn, and particularly going into the garage, one has to make a progressively sharp graduated turn to avoid hitting a retaining wall on the left side. Backing into that is not an option; making the graduated turn backing out is tricky even.

Again, may be specific to me, but my the license plate dents in the front wall, as well as scrapes on the front corners of each car against the garage opening, are indicative of my wife's haste in coming and going. I fear that humans in general are not condiitioned to check for low obstacles like a dangling cord behind the car before rushing out the door, and it is basically blind to the rearview mirrors.

Also my garage is fairly narrow, so the way the UMC juts out puts it mere inches from the next car. Therefore the cord is likely to still be at an angle rather than flat on the ground when passing across the left car's bumper or wheel. The image going through my head is my wife hastily pulling the left unplugged car out, the thick cable snagged around the hatch, bumper or wheel wheel. The plug end of the UMC flies out of the wall, denting the quarter panel or cracking the glass on her car. The connector ends tears the charge port clean out of the right car, along with the taillight assembly and possibly damaging the quarter panel on that car as well. I could even imagine myself at least once in 10-years possibly forgetting myself and doing it, and once would be more than enough...

Perhaps I have an overactive imagination....

While you're over thinking, You need a bigger garage

 

[bnsfengineer]

Assuming your asking about the portable charger -

Tesla UMC extension

Or of course

Heavy-duty NEMA 14-50R extension cord for Tesla, 20 ft.

Thanks! That would work!

 

[wwu123]

While you're over thinking, You need a bigger garage

Heh heh, was waiting for someone to suggest that. Yes, I've been eyeing this detached modern garage

Garage | Blu Homes

for a number of years, would complement design of my house fairly well. But it would be $80-100K for foundation work plus home. Same to have a custom-built detached garage, as I've asked some general contractors. For that, I could just replace the entire Model 3 every three years after banging it up going in and out without worry....

 

[bnsfengineer]

Heh heh, was waiting for someone to suggest that. Yes, I've been eyeing this detached modern garage

Garage | Blu Homes

for a number of years, would complement design of my house fairly well. But it would be $80-100K for foundation work plus home. Same to have a custom-built detached garage, as I've asked some general contractors. For that, I could just replace the entire Model 3 every three years after banging it up going in and out without worry....

WOW! I want one

 

[wwu123]

Thanks to all for sharing your situations and plans. I didn't want to make the discussion too specific to my situation, but rather get a sense of what others are doing.

Indeed, it seems not only is everyone's garage different, but everyone also has different ideas of what works for them to solve it - left, right, back wall, ceiling - that's given me a lot more ideas. One thing I didn't realize was the number of folks with not just one, but two HPWC's. They are both smaller in reality than I expected, and this thread also educated me that the latest versions can load-share a single 240V circuit.

So back to my specific situation then, I do have one luxury, I have full access to the crawl spaces on the back wall and the left wall, so I can easily reconfigure a circuit or outlet anywhere along those two, or both. The ceiling is out because there's only 2" between the double-wide garage door and the low ceiling when rolled up, precluding mounting anything. So my thoughts in priority order are:

1. Leaning towards getting one HPWC with the 25' cord, starting with a centered backwall mount that can reach both cars' charge ports, giving the option later to slave a 2nd HPWC on the left wall with the short 8' cord for the left bay. That'll solve the UMC/MC being just a wee bit too short. That was closest to my original thought with using the UMC/MC.

2. My second-choice plan though, inspired by various ideas offered here, is one HPWC with 25' cord on the left wall, mounted close to the garage door where it's naturally out of the way. Trivial to charge the left bay. But rather than run the cable behind the left car to charge the right bay, which I'm still uncomfortable about, is to leave that car in the driveway to charge by running the HPWC cable under the garage door. Our 2nd car will be low mileage, so I anticipate it would only need charging up every 4-5 days. Will be harder to miss the sight of a full car in the driveway when when backing out, as well as noticing an empty bay in the garage

Again probably need the extra length of the HPWC, rather than using the UMC. This could also be retrofitted later to the two HPWC setup for convenience.

 

[wwu123]

WOW! I want one

And they'll even prefab it with the EV outlets, making this whole thread moot ;-)

 

[bnsfengineer]

Assuming your asking about the portable charger -

Tesla UMC extension

Or of course

Heavy-duty NEMA 14-50R extension cord for Tesla, 20 ft.

I think I will purchase the extension cord run overhead so it reaches the center just clear of garage door while open and then see if I can install a reel type container so I can pull cord down and then retract when finished. Anyone know of a reel that may work with such a heavy cord as the one that comes with the car?

 

[wwu123]

Looking at the 2nd gen MC that comes with the Model 3, it's really just begging for some aftermarket vendor to come out with longer custom pigtails that plug into the MC to gain cable length. All I really need is another 5' of length via a pigtail, not chargers or connectors.

Someone already offers this extension service for the Model S/X UMC, but you have to send them your entire UMC for them to extend it.

 

[brkaus]

I think I will purchase the extension cord run overhead so it reaches the center just clear of garage door while open and then see if I can install a reel type container so I can pull cord down and then retract when finished. Anyone know of a reel that may work with such a heavy cord as the one that comes with the car?

There was a reel a while ago, but not heard of recently. Warning with a reel is heat build up when reeled.

 

[Jsvette56]

I have two EVs and had a similar problem and solved it by connecting both cars to the shared 50A receptacle.

I bought two 50A contactors and a 24hr timer and wired them in an electrical connection box so it would switch between my cars in the middle of the night (I have PGE EV service which provides cheaper power between 11pm and 7am). I plugged this box into my 14-50 receptacle wired two new 50A receptacles out of the box, one for each car. It cost about $300 and I had it inspected by the local building department.

 

[Lloyd]

I have two EVs and had a similar problem and solved it by connecting both cars to the shared 50A receptacle.

I bought two 50A contactors and a 24hr timer and wired them in an electrical connection box so it would switch between my cars in the middle of the night (I have PGE EV service which provides cheaper power between 11pm and 7am). I plugged this box into my 14-50 receptacle wired two new 50A receptacles out of the box, one for each car. It cost about $300 and I had it inspected by the local building department.

Wouldn't two HPWC's with load sharing included be better and easier?

 

[Jsvette56]

Yes, two HPWCs would be a more elegant and better answer. But when I built the switching box back in 2013 they weren't available and even now they are about 3X more expensive than the homemade solution.

 

[Jpboyerva]

My X parks on the right side of garage while the power chord hits the 220 circuit on the left side. Wife’s Toyota is on that side as it is a smaller space. The paper plate on her windshield which says CHARGING works when I remember it. The chord has been run over maybe six times so far. Not a good set up. Probably need to move or add another 220 outlet on the right side which is the side farthest from the house and the source. Fingers stay crossed on the chord durability.