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Used a Supercharger for the first time

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I have owned my Telsa Model S 70 since Dec 2015 and until today have only charged it in my garage. My wife and I live just outside of the orlando area and planned a short day trip to Tarpon Springs, FL., which is less than 1/2 hour north of Tampa. The round trip is 280 miles, so I figured 300 miles total. I fully charged my 70kw battery for the first time and was suprised to see it charge to 242 miles of range! I expected a max of 237 and was gladly wrong. Any extra miles I could get would easily be used up since our temps are in the low to mid 90's and humid. After arriving in Tarpon, I realized how comfortable I was in the next gen seats. It's only a 2 1/2 hour drive, but it felt the same as when I commute to my office in downtown Orlando (30 min). I also didn't have any complaints about our Navigation system, although I have read all the posts on TMC regarding its shortcomings. I gladly did not experience any of them. I noticed I still had 100 miles of range left which was plenty to drive to the Brandon, FL Supercharger 40 miles away. We had 55 miles of range left when I plugged in. I checked my Tesla app 15 minutes later, and I already had 130 miles of range which was plenty for the return drive to Orlando (100 miles). I also factor in a cushion of 20%, so I was comfortable with 120 miles range. I know the SC is capable of 300 miles charge per hour, so it didn't surprise me. I actually wanted more time to roam around the shops, get some ice cream and then hit the road. When I pulled in to charge, I was the only one. When we returned to leave, there was a Silver Model S and a White Model X. A quick wave and a smile to both of them and wondered if either was a member of this forum. A great overall experience with the drive and and supercharging. As I tell my wife almost daily for the past 6 months, I love this car!

I wondered if anyone had any surprises on their first Tesla road trip?

Happy 4th of July!

Gary
 
We dove into the deep end of the pool with our first Model S road trip.

We picked up our P85 last year at the end of June, and embarked on a planned trip from Bend, OR, out to Newport, OR on the Oregon Coast for the 4th of July holiday to go camping with family. After that, we would drive down the coast to Eureka, CA, to visit more family, before heading back to Bend.

If you look at the Supercharger map, even today, the only Supercharger between Bend and Newport, OR, is the Springfield, OR Supercharger, and there are none on the coast. There is, however, the "West Coast Electric Highway" which is a network of Aerovironment Chademo and J1772 charger. We planned to plug in at our campsites, and depend on those Chademo chargers to get us to Eureka.

Surprises:
1) A 30-amp RV socket is NOT 240v, 30 amps. Its 120v, 30a, and the NEMA 10-30 (240v 30a) plug will fit in it fine, but the car won't charge. We ended up using the 110v socket good for just 4 miles per hour of charge. Fortunately, the Newport Chademo charger wasn't too far away, leading to surprise #2:

2) Those Chademo chargers can be a bit picky with the timing. It took us about 3 tries to actually get the car charging. Either the charger timed out, or the adapter timed out, or the car timed out. I don't know, but I'm happy Aerovironment had a staffed 800 number to reset the charger until it started working!

3) We drove 1900 miles in our first 3 weeks of ownership and used just 2 superchargers and it still worked fine.
 
My family and I are in the middle of our first big SpC-powered trip right now, having hit four SpCs so far. My wife and I both agree: when
the whole SpC model works, it is awesome. We were able to time things so that our stops mostly aligned with meals or at least the
desire to get out and stretch. Being able to get 200+ miles of free (*) driving added while you're getting dinner is like magic. The max
utilization we saw at any charger was 3/8, briefly. I'd say the average was about 1.4 or so. Obviously we're not travelling through
heavy Tesla country... ;)

(*) "free" in an amortized-over-a-very-large-number-of-SpC-stops kind of way
 
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My family and I are in the middle of our first big SpC-powered trip right now, having hit four SpCs so far. My wife and I both agree: when the whole SpC model works, it is awesome. We were able to time things so that our stops mostly aligned with meals or at least the desire to get out and stretch. Being able to get 200+ miles of free (*) driving added while you're getting dinner is like magic. The max utilization we saw at any charger was 3/8, briefly. I'd say the average was about 1.4 or so. Obviously we're not travelling through
heavy Tesla country... ;)

I'm about ready to do the same thing. Going to Kansas next week to visit our daughter who just moved to SpC equipped Salina (convenient of her). Followed by a trip to see a client in New York. At least I can bill 54¢ a mile for that trip, heheh.
 
Those Chademo chargers can be a bit picky with the timing. It took us about 3 tries to actually get the car charging. Either the charger timed out, or the adapter timed out, or the car timed out. I don't know, but I'm happy Aerovironment had a staffed 800 number to reset the charger until it started working!

Do you own a CHAdeMO adapter and if so, how often do you use it? At $450 a pop I would think that the "cost per use" is rather high!
 
2) Those Chademo chargers can be a bit picky with the timing. It took us about 3 tries to actually get the car charging. Either the charger timed out, or the adapter timed out, or the car timed out. I don't know, but I'm happy Aerovironment had a staffed 800 number to reset the charger until it started working!

We had the same kind of experience with CHAdeMO at Gereenlots. We finally got it to work by plugging the CHAdeMO adapter into our car and then the charger's CHAdeMO plug into the adapter. I think the instructions on the Tesla adapter have you doing it the other way. I'm guessing that the charger has a very limited amount of time to establish the "handshake" for safety reasons.
Tesla: if you are listening, please correct the instructions.
 
Do you own a CHAdeMO adapter and if so, how often do you use it? At $450 a pop I would think that the "cost per use" is rather high!

We have a CHAdeMO adapter, and we actually took delivery of it before we took delivery of our car! In the past year, I've used it maybe 15-20 times. Around here, they are a bit more numerous than Superchargers, and so they are handy, given where we drive. And sometimes, they are in a nicer location than the closest Supercharger. For example, I have projects in Hood River, OR and when I drive up there from Bend, I can either choose to use the CHAdeMO charger in downtown Hood River (for $7.50), or drive 20 miles east out to The Dalles, OR and use the Supercharger. The difference is that the Hood River CHAdeMO charger is right across the street from the Full Sail Brewery and pub, and close to a dozen other great restaurants, whereas the Supercharger in The Dalles is at a hotel/restaurant surrounded by car dealers on the outskirts of town.

On the trickiness of getting the adapter to work, go to the Service Center and ask them to update the adapter's firmware. We did that a few months back and connecting has gotten easier and faster.
 
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