Hatched a Tesla

[JoeS]

Along the line of needing to extend one's driving range unexpectedly: drove up to Medford, Oregon, today and 50 miles up from the Corning Supercharger station I realized that I had left my iPad at the Starbucks there, necessitating a backtrack (and a short recharge), thus turning a 400-mile drive into 500 miles (still effortlessly).

This past week the Supercharger stations along this route were swamped with eclipse-watchers trekking to Oregon, necessitating multi-hour waits. My long distance travel to date in the Tesla has still been totally unencumbered by queues at the Superchargers.

We'll see if that still holds true, as right after Labor Day we're taking the northern route across the States and up to Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and down through the New England states to view the Fall colors. Whether it's sailing across oceans or driving across the country, for me it's the journey and for my wife it's the destination.

[JoeS]

Happiness is having the right adapter.

The Tesla UMC (portable EVSE) has a lovely high-current low-insertion force connector adapter that presently has replaceable sockets for a conventional 120v 5-15 plug and a 14-50 plug. They used to have adapters for other 240v plug variants, but no longer offer them. Separately, they also provide a J1772 adapter for their inlet connector (which, unfortunately, does not work with the Mitsu EVSE).

I consciously bought my used Tesla MS with the optional second 40A charger, allowing me to input 240vac at 80A if it was available. The Tesla's ac charging input current is on-screen programmable, from 80A all the way down to 5A. The beauty of this is I that I can scale down the current to match both the circuit and my departure time, as I still prefer to draw a lower-than-maximum current to go easy on both the wiring and the battery pack.

As an i-MiEV-related aside, the current programmability and its very elegant implementation is one of the features I really like about the EVSEUpgrade.com of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV EVSE. Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this company, but both of my i-MiEV's have these modified EVSEs.

Well, the first two days of our trip allowed me to exercise not just my Tesla's 80A input capabilities, but my adapter collection as well.

In the Turbocord thread I had written:

"For years I had standardized all my EV extensions using locking NEMA L6-30 connectors with a zillion adapters for that 30A connector, but now I have the Tesla UMC which can comfortably draw 40A out of a 50A circuit (and even 80A if I hardwire the HPWC), thus obsoleting my collection... "

Hit the road on Tuesday in the Tesla, heading for Nova Scotia…

On Tuesday night stayed with friends in Reno, Nevada. He's a very skilled woodworker and his garage was wired with a 240vac NEMA 6-20 straight-in outlet for his wood lathe. My adapters consisted of:
6-20P —> L6-30R
L6-30P —> 14-50R
14-50P —> Tesla UMC

Comfortably charged overnight dialing down the current to 12A and having a little over 70% by the time we departed - plenty to get to the Lovelock supercharger 100 miles away - could have charged more and gone directly to Winnemucca Supercharger (170 miles), but we like to stop and walk around and see the local sights and stretch our legs as we are, after all, tourists. Then, on to Winnemucca on the way to Boise, Idaho.

After charging in Winnemucca, Nevada, we headed for McDermitt on the Nevada-Oregon border where the casino has an 80A J1772 Clipper Creek EVSE, on the way to Boise - I discovered that I had made a "minor" math error as somehow I thought that McDermitt —> Boise was 140 miles but instead it was 183 miles , and I had consciously stopped charging early at the Supercharger in Winnemucca. Not to worry, the coffee shop in the casino was nice for our now-extended lunch and we needed to catch up on emails as well as walk around a bit, and I really appreciated having bought my used Tesla with an 80A charger which sucked in a steady 73A at 206v from that Clipper Creek J1772 EVSE. My wife convinced me to let Tesia charge a bit more, as I was all set to take off when the car predicted 10%SoC at the destination, and we waited until that number was 18%. Good thing we did, as during this drive the predicted end charge dropped to as low as 7%, I think because the car's battery cooling system was working overtime in the heat while driving through all that horrible smoke from all the forest fires. Would have really liked to have had a new Tesla's Bio-Weapon Defense Mode air filtration system! Anyway, arrived at my friend's house with 17%SoC, simply by slowing down a bit and following this nice big truck for a while.

At my friend's house here in Boise last night I plugged into his modern 240vac NEMA 14-30 dryer outlet using -
14-30P —> L6-30R
L6-30P —> 14-50R
14-50P —> Tesla UMC

Dialed down the current again to 12A for the overnight charge to 60%, which will be plenty for today, but I'll take her up a bit before leaving tomorrow for the Twin Falls Supercharger 134 miles away.

Sorry for the long-winded writeup, as I had only intended to talk about charging adapters…

9/8/17 Edit: clarified adapters provided with Tesla's UMC.

[sandange]

Can't beat the fun of a road trip
Armed with a portable evse's and a box full of adapters
The open road is yours!!
Where there's a plug there's a charge!!

No looking over your shoulder like in Mad Max..LOL
The price of gas here in Montreal just took a large leap last weekend-
as much as 1.45 liter = x 3.79 for 1 US gallon =
$ 5.50 gal Canadian dollars .

Have a great trip

[Don]

I read today that a Tesla taxi service now has 300,000 miles on their first 2015 Model S. They anticipate putting another 900,000 miles on it before the Tesla 8 year, unlimited mileage warranty expires! They're averaging around 17,000 miles per month

A million mile Tesla won't hurt their reputation any

Don

[Don]

Tesla enabled those with 60 Kw Model S's fleeing Hurricane Irma to dig deeper into the battery pack to give them an extra 30 to 40 miles of range to ensure they could make it to the next Supercharger

Gotta love what they can do online with those cars!

Don

[jray3]

Gotta love what they can do online with those cars!

True, though I'd prefer to have full owner control over all features. I think Don is referring to 60 kWh Model S that are really 70 or 75 kWh cars that were software-limited to 60 kWh for a lower selling price? In that case, TESLA split the baby quite admirably by proactively releasing some emergency capacity. (And likely prompting a few upgrade purchases.)

I get a sort of sick thrill from meeting the turtle a few blocks from home, taking it as a sign of perfect trip planning. However, the one time I've encountered the Flatbed Of Shame, it would've been nice to have a message that said "You may press the emergency override button for an additional 2 Ah, providing approximately 3 miles of additional range. This may result in cell failure or a permanent capacity loss of 1%." or some such thing. However, I just don't see that happening with 99% of companies in today's litigious environment.

[JoeS]

A quick update on our cross-country Tesla jaunt - uneventfully meandered from Boise up to Jackson Hole WY then across and up a few states and then we met up with Fiddler John who, with his wife, gave a fun and very talented performance near Minneapolis. He's heading west to California from the East Coast in his Tesla X, so it was fun connecting and swapping i-MiEV and electric vehicle praises.

Met with Ben Nelson yesterday at the National Drive Electric Week Event in Madison Wi and then drove over to his house - he's very enterprising, and his new heated-floor garage is terrific!

Amazing how many common interests I share with both John and Ben… guess it's the i-MiEV connection.

Heading for Milwaukee today to see my godson whom I haven't seen in ages, and then continue onward in our meandering sightseeing touristing travels, still headed for Nova Scotia. Have over 3000 trip miles so far, and thoroughly enjoying experiencing Americana. Everywhere, the Tesla attracts positive attention and conversations, and only had one negative electric car reaction so far.

[JoeS]

Brief update on our cross-country Tesla tour. Today heading for Prince Edward Island, after being shown a fantastic time in Montreal by Sandy ("sandange") and his wife, and had a nice meetup with DonDakin. There is such a commonality of viewpoints and interests amongst us i-MiEV owners!

[JoeS]

Another brief update - have covered over 9000 miles since we started in early September, touristing and visiting extended family and friends. Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia (and part of Cape Breton Island), down through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, etc., down to New Orleans and presently in Dallas-FortWorth waiting for my wife's return from her family emergency. Will give a synopsis with a few photos after our return home.

Have to share what I consider one of the most unique PlugShare home charging station locations, in what has to be the largest number of charging stations per capita of any locale in the world(?):
https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/122822

[JoeS]

Arrived home yesterday after 12,158 miles and 50 days. Fantastic trip with the Tesla being a wonderful long-distance car. I'll post a few photos shortly.