Charging Down Route 66

[rkarl89203]

Day 5, continued.
After Charging at HyVee L2 in Springfield, decided to stop at Double J
Rv park in Chatham IL and charge a bit more using our EVSE 50Amp EVSE upgraded charger. This is the first time we have officially charged at an RV park. It worked great. NEMA 14-50.
We left an hour before dark, headed south to Litchfield. Decided to take the Freeway I-55 for the stretch that runs concurrent with route 66. This is the longest we have driven on a freeway with our imiev. She was perfect at 58 mph for 20 miles! We kept in the ECO zone most of the way and had pretty much the same energy consumption as slightly under that speed on side roads. Very proud of this car. Pulled into our parking spot at Quality Inn in Litchfield IL at 730pm. Arrived with 34 miles RR left! I love this car! All chargers were free except for the RV park. $15 for 2 hours...
Note; down the street from our hotel
Is A Ford dealership with a new L2 aeroenvironment charger. Drove over while my wife did laundry. No one there but charger was on. Hooked up to it and gained 18 miles in one hour!
Wow!
Tomorrow Day 6 should get us into Missouri.

 

[JoeS]

Looking good! You sure have a lot of charging stations along the way, so far. Nice that you're adding comments on PlugShare. If you find a friendly and reasonable-cost RV park that isn't listed on PlugShare you can add it yourself.

I started a Google spreadsheet to keep track of some data. Here's the link, and anyone is welcome to add/modify it (and please check my data entries for errors):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NTfCLfcw9dBG4xJutQKU2KYRV5vMI7AuBLqrhRSurqU/edit?usp=sharing

One day behind schedule, but easily make-uppable IMO (is that a word?). :roll:

Sounds as though you have a NEMA 14-50 adapter for your EVSEUpgraded Mitsu (Panasonic) EVSE. You are actually pulling 13A through it at 240vac.

A RR gain of 18 miles in one hour means you've been driving very efficiently - approaching 6 miles/kWh. Whenever you fully fully charge, you might note the RR - I expect you'll be in the high-70's or low 80's (it'll get better as the weather warms up).

Have fun! You need a huge sticker across the back: "California or Bust!"

 

[rkarl89203]

Good Morning! Day 6 begins in Litchfield IL.Charging L1 just outside
Hotel. Will top up L2 at Victory Lane Ford. Already have 53RR. Edwardsville DCQC is 30 miles south. Clear and sunny. 31 degrees.

 

[PV1]

Hopefully I'm not too late. Did you have plans to stop and check out the Solar Roadways installation in Conway Missouri?

http://www.ecowatch.com/nations-first-solar-roadway-coming-to-historic-route-66-1891182977.html

Enjoying following you along the journey. History is being made.

 

[JoeS]

Good Morning! Day 6 begins in Litchfield IL.Charging L1 just outside Hotel. Will top up L2 at Victory Lane Ford. Already have 53RR. Edwardsville DCQC is 30 miles south. Clear and sunny. 31 degrees.

Rick, time to start thinking about time optimization - for example, no reason to stop by the Ford dealer for the L2 top-up as that Edwardsville DCQC is pretty-well guaranteed to be operational and, more importantly, you'd like to arrive there with minimal SoC as the DCQC will give you a quick jolt in a fraction of the time that the Ford L2 would (unless you're going to go for breakfast or a visit to the the local attractions while the car is charging). DCQC charging really starts slowing down when the battery charge gets above the halfway charge point.

On your pleasure trip the name of your game is to charge the car while sightseeing, visiting museums, eating, etc., which I'm sure was an integral part of your planning process. Timing to arrive at your overnight stop with a low SoC makes best use of your sleeping time. I found that motel staff would invariably go out of their way to provide access to a power outlet, as virtually everyone is intrigued by our electric cars. In that part of the world I sometimes found engine block heater outlets by their truck parking spots.

In addition to all the Route 66 guidebooks, we found Trip Advisor as yet another source, especially for any newly-opened attractions which the guidebooks may not contain. Here's a sample:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g35933-Activities-Edwardsville_Illinois.html

I notice that your metric is RR which, to me, is secondary to the fuel gauge. Both of those plus a GPS Distance-To-Go and you have a great relaxing trip (barring unforseen 20-mile detours). :roll:

As you can tell, some of us are following you with interest, in addition to your Route 66 blog:
http://forum.historic66.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7003

 

[rkarl89203]

Agree, Joe S. I guess what is spooking me most is the awesome performance I am getting on the Freeway sections I have experenced. Absolutely did not expect that. This is a good, but totally unexpected thing. It DOES make me leery of passing any DCQC by..

 

[rkarl89203]

Funny speaking about the DCQC at Edwardsville. Had a bit of a scare there. Had to call Greenlots to get it to work. It did work but oddly my AC didnt come on. My AC always comes on when quick charging. Strange.
Seemed OK though. Went to lunch at Hen House on Chain of Rocks road.
After a diversion around St Louis on I-270 due to road construction curiosity got the best of me. Stopped in Maryland Hgts MO and did another DCQC. This time the AC came on during the quick charge.
Weird. Anyways, after that drove to Rte 66 state park near Times Beach.
It was closed. Drove to Pacific MO and have been L1 charging since 5pm.
Tomorrow was supposed to be Rte 66 state park. Not gonna backtrack so i may have caught up with my projected trip plan. Cool. Today we drove a total of 104 miles. Great day 6!

 

[JoeS]

Funny speaking about the DCQC at Edwardsville. Had a bit of a scare there. Had to call Greenlots to get it to work. It did work but oddly my AC didnt come on. My AC always comes on when quick charging. Strange.
Seemed OK though...curiosity got the best of me. Stopped in Maryland Hgts MO and did another DCQC. This time the AC came on during the quick charge. Weird...

WHEW! Glad it's back to 'normal'. What's also weird (but normal) is that the AC turns off about 3/4 of the way through quick charging.

Spreadsheet updated.

 

[sandange]

rkarl89203
Funny speaking about the DCQC at Edwardsville. Had a bit of a scare there. Had to call Greenlots to get it to work. It did work but oddly my AC didnt come on. My AC always comes on when quick charging. Strange.
Seemed OK though

I've been following your trip down route 66 and am envious - glad your having a great time.

I charge level 3 Mostly when I'm out in the city , at least once, sometimes 2-3 times in one day.

I find the AC may not come on some times, depending on several reasons or combinations of these reasons. However it is very rare.

how cold the outside temperature is
How warm the battery is when starting charging
What level of charge the battery is at at the start of charging
How many amps it is drawing.

I usually find the AC stops at about 60 -65% charge level , I guess this is when the
combination of battery temp and amps drawn hit a certain level.

I wouldn't worry about it unless this happens in very hot temperatures trying to charge a hot battery (just coming off a lengthy highway run)

I once had a FC not connect to charge when trying to connect on a
very hot day with a
very hot battery , (coming off a lengthy , fast highway run)
with a very low battery .
I ended up going to a L2 charger.


Enjoy your adventure and looking forward to reading more of your posts.

 

[rkarl89203]

Interesting situation here at Day 7.
Heavy Thunderstorms here easing to light rain. Read somewhere on this forum about someone who put their EVSE inside their car to keep it dry to charge safely. I thought...ok...we'll try it. Ran an extension cord into the slightly open back window to the EVSE which is safe and dry inside on the back seat, supported so it's slightly above the seat to prevent any possible overheating. The cord with the J1772 plug runs out the same window and plugs in. Neat! After 1/2 hour of charging, cool and dry except for a couple of drops on the armrest. Way neat!

 

[JoeS]

Also a good way of protecting the EVSE to keep it from walking away. :roll:

 

[Don]

Pretty sure you can just set the EVSE on the rear deck and close the hatch on the two cords - Nary a drop of rain anywhere then

Don

 

[rkarl89203]

Yep. Exactly as i did it. Turns out that we ran out of charging time(had to check out at 11). We are now charging at Sullivan MO at an Auto Zone. Many stories to tell of Sullivan. More on that when we arrive at Greenstay Inn at St James MO at about 6PM. They have a J1772 L2 there.
Note: we have caught up to our original trip plan!
Woohoo!

 

[rkarl89203]

Today was a great example of the effects of weather on travel in the imiev. We awoke to Extreme Thunder and Lightning ..unfortunately we needed to charge a LOT to make it to St. James MO. We dont charge in
Bad Thunderstorms due to the worry about Voltage Surges. So when we left Pacific MO we only had ONE extra mile we would need to get to St James MO. The weather was clearing and we were getting good Regen as we approached Sullivan MO. Bright and sunny!
Then the strong southwest winds started. Our RR started to fall. We were 5 miles less what we needed to get to St James. We decided we had to opportunity charge with our L1 EVSE somewhere to make it. So imagine our happiness when we went past the Menards Training Center just before Sullivan. They had a parking lot with 23 outlets next to parking spaces. All not being used. We drove up to the office, explained our predicament, and offered them $10 to charge at one of their 110V outlets. They said "no we cant allow that." we asked why...they said "it's policy." very rude and dismissive. Unreal.
So, we drove on to Sullivan Mo. We were hungry for lunch so we stopped at a Steak and Shake to have lunch and hopefully charge.
The Steak and Shake back home lets us charge so we asked. Dee, the manager said "sure." Selinda ordered lunch and I went out to hook up the EVSE. None of the eight outlets had power to them. So I and Dee spent the next half hour looking for the breaker to the outlets. We never found it. She was extremely apologetic. She and I tried everything. But we couldnt charge. Sheesh!
My wife Selinda noted an AutoZone next to the Steak and Shake. We asked them and they also said sure. Problem is we couldnt find the breakers to THEIR outlets either. Jeremy, the manager actually ran an extension cord out their back door so we could charge. Very nice fellow.
Charged for an hour there.
Continued through Cuba and Fanning MO. Saw lots of Murals, the Wagon Wheel Motel (Closed), and the worlds largest red rocking chair in Fanning. Unfortunately also saw the winds get even stronger.
Less than 2 miles from our destination at St James MO we were down to 1 mile RR. We powered way down but really didnt think we would make it. Then we drove by a VFW hall. desperate we asked them if we could hook up to their outlet outside. They said sure. For the next half hour we enjoyed Missouri hospitality while charging. I gave the young bartender lady a $5 tip for 4 miles of charge. She wasnt going to take it but i insisted.
We arrived at our "Greenstay" Hotel at 530 pm and are charging with their L2 Sun Country charger. We had 2 miles left.
So i have concluded that wind is my main adversary on this trip.
Also, there are some bad but mostly REALLY good people out there that will really help you in an emergency.
What a day!
Day 7......67 total miles...whew!

 

[JoeS]

So i have concluded that wind is my main adversary on this trip.

Yup, and it'll get worse as you continue across the Plains (but coming back it'll be great!). If you're going 40mph and have a 25mph headwind, aerodynamically the car thinks you're going 65mph. Sucks the juice right out of your i-MiEV! Bet you're developing your hypermiling skills! Helps to follow a slow-moving truck. At least you were in a populated area, and all's well that ends well.

Don't forget another good source for 240vac power in most towns (especially in farm country): welding shops. Just have your trusty Google search engine and map and collection of adapters handy.

 

[rkarl89203]

The winds are howling already.
Should be an interesting day 8

 

[PV1]

Calling it close, but you could've very likely made it without the opportunity charge. Our cars run out of mileage at about 11% charge, with the turtle showing up at 10.5%. I've personally seen better than 3 miles below "---".

 

[JoeS]

Calling it close, but you could've very likely made it without the opportunity charge...

Perhaps, but Rick did the right thing to stop for 1/2 hour and briefly charge. There's a big difference between taking a chance in one's own home territory and being out on the road in a 'foreign land'. A conservative approach is prudent, especially when traveling with one's family. That said, our i-MiEV does provide a turtle safety margin (that's best left in one's hip pocket until really needed) . Maintaining a continuous DTG (Distance To Go) on a GPS and a rapidly-falling RR provides an early warning indicating a need to start hypermiling way early.

 

[rkarl89203]

Boy youre not kidding there. We are charging right now at the MO college of science and technology. We used 20 miles RR getting here and its only 9 miles to this charger. Winds are 20+ and headwinds. So we are topping off. Until full. Period. With possible severe thunderstorms and hail about 3Pm this day may be a bit abbreviated. We'll see.

 

[rkarl89203]

The winds actually eased up big time after Rolla. Charged to 75 miles.
Went to Devils Elbow Inn, had great pulled pork sandwich with tater tots.
Drove to Waynesville and Charged to full (75 miles again) at Lamplight Lane RV park (nema 14-50) . Hosts John and Barbara were outstanding. Played with their 4 chihuahuas. Drove to the iconic Munger Moss Motel where we are staying the Night. Drove 87 miles today. Note: we cannot charge at Munger Moss as all our room outlets have an "open ground." Our EVSE doesnt work here. But its a GREAT motel.