Shore Trip

[Don]

So if I go 25mph I should expect to get about 110 miles range correct? 25mph still gets me there in just over 3 hours instead of 5-6 if I stop and charge. I could go half way at 25 and then stop and calculate to see if I can pick up the pace on the last half.

I'm thinking of just putting one of those orange triangles on the back of the car and putting along. There are plenty of straight stretches to pass and it would be easy to do so when I'd be moving so slow.

. . . . or, you could go 40 mph the entire way and not risk getting run over (or assaulted by a gun toting madman you've been holding up for the last ten miles) and then stop to charge for one hour (you don't need to fill it up to get there) and still get there just as quickly as driving 25 mph the entire way

You're having 'fun' . . . . but don't throw common sense put the window

Don

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

its really easy to pass, lots of dotted lines and straight and not a lot of traffic early in the morning.

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

I think I have my charging travel pack ready to go....

https://youtu.be/KrnsDU404Yw

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

Today will be my 3rd trip to the shore. Otto and I are going to the Longport dog beach. The past 2 trips I stopped and charged, kept track of mileage, and basically proved that I could make it the whole way (75 miles). I found a nice direct road (322) with 4 lanes for about 20 miles where I can go slow and gain range. The goal is to arrive with 10 miles remaining which would mean I can also make LBI (Long Beach Island). This video is trip #1. Video for trip #2 coming soon.

https://youtu.be/9QPQWWRhosY

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

Trip 2 the next day

https://youtu.be/nDpeysPVxlk

 

[Aerowhatt]

its really easy to pass, lots of dotted lines and straight and not a lot of traffic early in the morning.

Actually Don isn't far off the mark. Remember that the car has overhead loads just being turned on. Often referred to as "vampire" loads on the forum. Personally I like overhead loads since my favorite little car shouldn't have anything suggesting undead, blood sucking, murderer related to it .

Anyway, the overhead loads are relatively constant if the car is in ready mode or charging. I've found that the sweet spot for flat ground efficiency is somewhere between 33 and 41 MPH (still trying to narrow it down further). Much slower and you aren't covering enough ground, fast enough, and the overhead load is dragging down your mi/kWh average. Much faster and wind resistance quickly becomes your enemy, dragging down your mi/kWh average. Remember that wind resistance is relative too. I've even considered the idea of putting a wind speed indicator (Think speedometer for an airplane) on my car so that I'm not guessing at the wind speed and direction from glancing at trees, flags, etc. If I have a tail wind, I want to know about it so that I can go faster (less overhead load per mile covering more miles in an hour). Bottom line, going 25 mph doesn't give you the best efficiency even though it might challenge one's common sense a bit. I know that the results I have compiled don't match those graphs earlier in this thread. It is what it is though, in spite of them. Perhaps they were done off of a formula and not real world??

Aerowhatt

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

I felt like the car wanted to go between 33 and 42 efficiently. 25 may be a good idea if you are running way low and need to extend the range but it's just too slow on some roads and as you say, not way more efficient...I agree.

I just calculated my times.

It took me 142 minutes driving straight thru (no stopping).
115 minutes if I stop and charge (including 20 min stop to charge).

So 27 minutes less if I stop and charge. And I think I can make it quicker next time I go and stop to charge because last time I had enough miles left when I got there that I felt like I could drive 50-55mph the whole way after the quick charge to 80%. And I was being conservative 35 for a long way, then 45 and 55 later on.

There is something beautiful tho about driving thru without charging, and it doesn't seem much longer, I guess because you don't stop. The challenge is fun and I learned a great deal and got way more comfortable driving longer distances and seeing how the range remaining could be easily bumped up if need be. I feel way more comfortable driving my car now and would highly recommend the experience to all. I'm going to do it again.

I'm not sure about the longer trip to my other friend's place in LBI. I'm going to do it with the fast charger first and get used to the roads and then try it later some day...it's really hard to stay on 322 for me right now because I don't know it and it zigzags a little in south jersey and the GPS has taken me off of it many times (to save traffic slowdowns), and sometimes rerouted me back to highways before I realized it a couple of miles later. So I just really have to figure out how to deal with that....probably by setting more destinations in the phone before leaving so that it won't reroute.