Trip Report: Reno, NV (Presidents Day Weekend 2020)

[mvsmucker1971]

Yes, if you have Free Supercharging you do not leave a footprint. If you pay for charging like me than there is a GREAT record of all your visits to Superchargers in your account at Tesla.com. For all the officially open chargers anyway. Personally I use the favorite star button to track chargers I have visited. So when I joined the game I had sort of a record that I pieced together.

Two downsides of playing, you can't just go along your route, you have to STOP at EVERY charger, and then on the next trip, you have to stop at all the new ones, which can really make navigation w/o advanced planning difficult. And the second problem is that you spend a ton of time traveling across areas you know well, just to get to that one remote new Supercharger. Cannot tell you how many times I have cleared out NorCal.

Of course, some of my favorite trips have been because I was hunting Superchargers. Crisscrossing LA to get to the most unseen chargers in the least amount of time took me places I had NEVER seen. Also took me around states I hadn't thought to visit. It's a good time.

 

[mvsmucker1971]

As a new reader of Tesla OA, I was wondering how Bruce knew how many chargers he has visited. My display indicates "no recent supercharging", but I've been traveling through much of the USA using my 2013 Model S, 136K miles to date--but I've never paid a cent because it came with "free supercharging". My savings? My

Yes, if you have Free Supercharging you do not leave a footprint. If you pay for charging like me than there is a GREAT record of all your visits to Superchargers in your account at Tesla.com. For all the officially open chargers anyway. Personally I use the favorite star button to track chargers I have visited. So when I joined the game I had sort of a record that I pieced together.

Two downsides of playing, you can't just go along your route, you have to STOP at EVERY charger, and then on the next trip, you have to stop at all the new ones, which can really make navigation w/o advanced planning difficult. And the second problem is that you spend a ton of time traveling across areas you know well, just to get to that one remote new Supercharger. Cannot tell you how many times I have cleared out NorCal.

Of course, some of my favorite trips have been because I was hunting Superchargers. Crisscrossing LA to get to the most unseen chargers in the least amount of time took me places I had NEVER seen. Also took me around states I hadn't thought to visit. It's a good time.

(Continued from above)...My Cadillac CTS got about 22 mpg, estimating gas at about $2.30/gal over the years, cost would have been $14,218 for gas. I have paid an average of $25/month for home charging, and have had the car 74 months, or $1850. $12,368 in gas savings, and the Model S is worth about $12,000 more than a 2013 CTS. Makes the initial $82K price for the Tesla more acceptable, especially since it still drives like new and at least once a week someone approaches me to compliment me on the car--that's never happened before with a 6 year old high-mileage vehicle. I couldn't be happier than with my Tesla after all these years.

 

[zarman]

While busy, Rocklin had several open stalls and we took half an hour to charge from 49% to 74%. Such is the life of a Tesla with a charge gated 85 pack. However, this was the only charging stop of the entire trip where we were actively waiting around for the car to charge (unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to do other than hang out at the Tesla store).

There is a great Breakfast/Lunch cafe near the Rocklin Tesla store.
Venita Rheas has great food at reasonable prices. Just a short walk from the Tesla store.

 

[bmah]

There is a great Breakfast/Lunch cafe near the Rocklin Tesla store.
Venita Rheas has great food at reasonable prices. Just a short walk from the Tesla store.

Good to know, thanks!

Bruce.

 

[johnkapral]

Nice trip! Yes to Randy’s point the new Roseville Superchargers have just recently been installed and so that will be a good stop in the future. There is also a smaller 4 bay Supercharger west of Palladio in Folsom just off Highway 50 on Iron Point at the Outlets. There are also a few places nearby to catch a meal.

 

[rdunniii]

I remember their prime rib was really juicy. Wish I was having one now. Although I don't miss the heavy smoke in that area.

I do not believe any of the major casinos allow smoking any longer except in designated areas. At least I do not notice smoke and I'm pretty sensitive to it.

My favorite buffet is the GSR, although the Atlantis is a very close second and the deli there is great.

As I now live in Reno I make day trips to Silicon Valley about a dozen times a year. Westbound I use 80 to 99 to Manteca for charging. It was actually the recommended route on the nav if you didn't want to use 80 west of Sacramento. East bound I have to stop in Rocklin or Roseville to get back to Reno. So that means 2 stops eastbound vs one westbound cause there is no way to get from Silicon Valley to Sacramento with at least 70% charge and I use 60% in summer and 70% in winter to get over the hill.

Autosteer is getting much better than it was a year ago but it still routinely auto disconnects if you are rounding a sharp curve to the left in the left lane and there is a semi in the right lane. It even gets through the curves between Colfax and Gold Run (in both directions) really well now. I just set the speed on 72 over the Sierra and let it decide. I had to come back a couple of weeks ago via 680/80 (which I try and and avoid like the plague) to Sacramento and I was REALLY happy to have EAP as it was the usual miles of 80MPH followed miles of stop and go and it threaded the needle perfectly. I was drifty after 15 hours of driving and meetings and probably would have rear ended someone otherwise.

 

[Mardak]

Westbound I use 80 to 99 to Manteca for charging.

If you want to take 99, the incoming Elk Grove Supercharger might be more convenient than the slight detour to Manteca. Supercharger - Elk Grove, CA (Under construction Jan 2020, possibly 16 V3 stalls)

We just did the charge up in Rocklin to ~75% and arrived Reno ~10% in our Model 3 AWD. Although going forwards, maybe we'll charge up to 100% in Elk Grove while getting some same-plaza dinner and bubble tea instead of the Rocklin stop needing a 10 minute walk to food.

 

[Vapourick]

That would be why they opened that new HUGE supercharger in Roseville, it's awesome. Sadly it's the first charger in a while that I got there AFTER it was already on the Tesla Navigation, so no free power, but I had planned on that being the case. I wonder how long they will keep the old charger across the street. Or where the restrooms are. But there are LOTS of stalls at least.

I was thinking if there was free power last night I would have used it to get to Tahoe City (my only remaining NorCal charger to touch) and again to get home, but no such luck. I can always use DriveTheArc on another day with my Chademo adapter.

What's this about free power from Super Chargers? Does that happen if it's not registered yet on the Tesla navigation network in your car?

Have you used the free charging with Drive the Arc? They appear to average only about 50-80kwh max. There's a station near my home but I can't justify $500 expense for the CHAdeMO adapter for the rare occasion I could get a free charge.

 

[rdunniii]

If you want to take 99, the incoming Elk Grove Supercharger might be more convenient than the slight detour to Manteca. Supercharger - Elk Grove, CA (Under construction Jan 2020, possibly 16 V3 stalls)

We just did the charge up in Rocklin to ~75% and arrived Reno ~10% in our Model 3 AWD. Although going forwards, maybe we'll charge up to 100% in Elk Grove while getting some same-plaza dinner and bubble tea instead of the Rocklin stop needing a 10 minute walk to food.

I'll have to try that. It does have places likely to be open at 7AM and is close to 99 for the morning leg; those are a good signs. But it is about 40 miles farther away from the peninsula and may require an additional stop westbound. Eastbound would require a 100% charge at Elk Grove.

I don't mind the walk to Jersey Mikes in Rocklin. It's a good leg stretch and consumes about 30 minutes. A couple of weeks ago on the trip Superchargers limited themselves to 65kW at two different locations even though they were no where near full so having megawatt Superchargers seems less important with the latest software updates (2020.4.2). The total time was about the same as the charge rate remained higher. I usually stop when the charge rate hits 35kW and that was close to 90%.

I see you consume 60-70% charge between Rocklin and Reno too. So that allows 30% between Elk Grove and Rocklin. That certainly sounds doable.

 

[israndy]

What's this about free power from Super Chargers? Does that happen if it's not registered yet on the Tesla navigation network in your car?

Yes, it seems to, but there is a very short window, I once showed up to charge and checked the map which didn't show the charger yet (I usually favorite them when I have charged at them) and instead of doing a touch and go I thought I would avail myself of the free power and filled up. When I was leaving I noticed on the map that the site now showed up so I favorited it. But since there was no charge showed on the charging page I assumed it was free. But the next time I checked my account, sure enough I was charged for the power.

Have you used the free charging with Drive the Arc? They appear to average only about 50-80kwh max. There's a station near my home but I can't justify $500 expense for the CHAdeMO adapter for the rare occasion I could get a free charge.

I am lucky enough to be near a free CHAdeMO charger so I took the leap and bought the adapter assuming the CCS adapter is a long way off. Just 9 more charges to go to pay it off, cannot wait for summer to get my solar panels back to covering the charging of my cars. Since I have the adapter I have stopped at a few DriveTheArc locations and charged for free, even though they say there were changes coming the program I still managed to charge last week, and I showed another Model 3 owner that she needed to find a level 2 or Supercharger since she didn't have an adapter.

I am the master at leading a conversation away from the thread title. This is the second turn on this one thread...

 

[Zorg]

If charging/eating in Truckee, I like 50/50 brewery by the Brockway supercharger.