Turtle riding (How far has the turtle brought you ?)

[tigger19687]

I finally hit Turtle yesterday. Had to drive around DD to Dentist, hair, ice cream. I had 3 bars left.

It was warmer out, maybe 35. Thought I could make the 8 miles to work with no issue .... then I went the faster route...... blink blink, 1 bar... no bar, no miles left... TURTLE ! I still had about 1/2 mile to go.
White knuckled I just made it to work. Plugged in and was SO happy to make it in.

I plug into 120v wall socket, so I didn't get full charge, had to plug in at home to charge over night.

But at least I finally hit Turtle.

 

[PV1]

Half-mile? No sweat :lol: .

3rd day of ownership, 3 miles from home at 45 MPH without my cord, hello Turtle . Though I could go get pizza with 5 bars left, which turned out to be 4 bars and about a mile of the 5th bar. I made it, but I learned that anywhere near a close call warrants the cord being in the car.

Glad you were able to charge at work.

 

[tigger19687]

HAHA, I was a little nervous because it was cold out and I had to make a Left hand turn at a set of lights off RT 2 (2 lanes on my side).
I was afraid of getting stuck at the lights {blush}

 

[nikalex]

Well - I officially ran completely out of juice for the first time (hopefully the last time but I doubt it)
Started the day fully charged - 16 bars.
Commute is only 60 kms round trip but ended up having to do 2 short errands for work during the day.
Still should be OK. Today was cool but not too cold, had my seat heaters on and the heat completely off the entire time.
Then my son calls stranded at the Richmond Skytrain station and he and his two buddies need a ride home.
This will be pushing it I know.
On top of it I had to drop off another friend at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. Another 5 or 6 kms out of the way.
With 5 people in the i-MiEV (yes I know it's a 4 seater but I added a 5th Mitsubishi seatbelt in the middle rear seat.)

I made it to the ferry terminal and the turtle came on.
Still 9 or 10 kms to go to get home.
Ran out completely with about 2 kms to go.
The battery symbol illuminated on my dash lights and game over.
Called my wife to tow me home the last 1500 meters or so (Yes I know towing the i-MiEV is not great).
Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Long story short - I had maybe 8 kms after the turtle showed himself before running out of juice.
Cheers, Roman

 

[PV1]

What a trip!

I take it that once the car shuts down, you can't get it into READY so you could use regen while being towed?

 

[nikalex]

Regen isn't working at all with my slightly smaller rear snow tires.
The snow tires will come of next week.
I was more interested in making it home safely and quickly with some of my pride intact and hopefully without ALL of my neighbours seeing me getting towed home.
Although being incognito isn't my strong point.
The sight of a grey market diesel Toyota Hiace 4WD right hand drive towing a Mitsubishi i-MiEV isn't exactly stealthy.
I may not have all of my pride intact but at least now when my friends and neighbours ask "have you ever run out of battery charge?"
I will have to say "Why yes.....".

Kind of like asking a sailor if they have ever run aground...but that is another story.
Most honest sailors will have run aground at some point.
Cheers,
Roman

 

[PV1]

Hey, I've had to make a couple of unplanned charge stops. I've been there, too, where regen won't work with the wrong size tires. Expensive mistake, but they refunded me, eventually. :roll:

Hate to say it, but with regen, you probably would've made it. In my normal driving, I see an energy return of 15-20% from regen.

 

[JoeS]

...Then my son calls stranded at the Richmond Skytrain station and he and his two buddies need a ride home. This will be pushing it I know. On top of it I had to drop off another friend at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. Another 5 or 6 kms out of the way. With 5 people in the i-MiEV (yes I know it's a 4 seater but I added a 5th Mitsubishi seatbelt in the middle rear seat.) I made it to the ferry terminal and the turtle came on. Still 9 or 10 kms to go to get home....

Roman, might I suggest that at that point you might have consulted PlugShare which shows two private and one public EVSEs in Tsawwassen within what looks like 1.5km of the Terminal (you are a PlugShare member, aren't you?), with the public EVSE being at Boundary Bay Regional Park but perhaps 3.5km away. A 1/2-hour charge would have seen you home comfortably.

 

[nikalex]

3rd time seeing the turtle for me.
This time the turtle came on (dash range indicator went to 3 lines) and I was 10.9 kilometers (6.8 miles) from home according to Google maps.
This time I made it without being stranded! Phew

I don't plan on these kind of trips but it just happened.
I know running the battery down this far is not ideal.
I don't make a habit of it. No charging stations that make sense between this spot and home.

Just mentioning the distance I was able to travel after the turtle appeared.....
Cheers, Roman

 

[jaraczs]

Roman, this is pretty decent. Was the turtle portion of the trip on flat road or slightly downhill?
Stan

 

[nikalex]

My 10.9 kms / 6.8 miles turtle travel was perfectly flat at a speed 90 km/hr for half and 50 km/hr for the other half.

 

[JoeS]

Roman, thank you for posting, as these are interesting data points.

After I got over the shock that you hit turtle again… :shock:

After I got over the shock that your turtle occurred almost seven miles from home… :shock:

After I got over the shock that your speed was 90km/hr and 50km/hr while in turtle… :shock:

I sent my silent condolences to your i-MiEV.

To paraphrase Lord Tennyson -

'Tis not for the i-MiEV to reason why,
'Tis for the i-MiEV to do or die

The way I figure it, you must enjoy stressing out 'living on the edge'.

You have a 2014 so it has the 'improved' battery pack and you've had the car for a little over a year. How many miles on it?

 

[jray3]

Well, it finally happened; the flatbed of shame. Bound to happen when one pushes the limits and has unknown reserve capacity.
I knew better, but decided to press my luck this morning when the wife arrived home from her graveyard shift with only two bars.... I briefly charged back up to three bars and headed for work 16.4 miles away.
My morning commute is a significant net downhill that only takes the first two bars of a fully-charged pack, and the final three bars might barely introduce me to the turtle in summer. I also opted for a highway segment that is entirely downhill in order to avoid some stops on my usual slow and winding route, but taking that downhill at speed completely eliminated my usual regen gains, and the car shut down right before it had to climb the off-ramp. In total, I went 6.6 miles on the turtle, mostly downhill. The car restarted several times, but would only go forward in creep mode. Pushing the go pedal at all would shut 'er down immediately. Temperature was about 30 degrees and the car now has 64,800 miles on the odometer.

Of course, the flatbed truck driver was amused and didn't charge mileage on the 1.5 mile tow to the L2 EVSE at my office... A buddy with a rope would've been the ticket, but my wife is home sleeping with a sick kid and the timing would've been very inconvenient for anyone else I could call on...
Oy vey, $80 of my fuel savings have been returned to the service economy, and MR BEAN now knows his limitations....

 

[JoeS]

jray3, thanks for sharing. Good to know your high-mileage car still has over 5 miles left on turtle. That low temperature didn't help. Would've been interesting to try CaniOn to see how well the pack was balanced at that low SoC. I can imagine the ribbing you're enduring at work.

 

[PV1]

Getting brave, are we? :lol:

It would've been interesting to see what the pack was doing at the time. Given the temperature, I'd say you hit LVC rather than 0% SoC, and that's why the car would restart and creep along.

Personally, I haven't seen turtle for quite a while now. I think coming home from Pittsburgh at the end of 2015 might have been the last time.

 

[jray3]

Getting brave, or foolhardy? Besides the other firsts, this was the first time in quite a while I've regretted not having CanIon with me. The car just plain works so well that I stopped following the data quite some time ago.
Final insult is that the RX-7 was fully charged, I just didn't want to scrape off all that icy glass. It's time for me to set up a heater on remote control so I'll use the Golden Arrow more in winter... Or finally build that second garage :roll: ....

 

[jray3]

FYI, after today's mother-of-all recalibration recharges, my RR read 85 miles. That's certainly my cold-weather record, and some consolation that not only does my battery have good capacity remaining, but I was hypermiling pretty well before the total discharge!

 

[sandange]

Jayray3
Just curious, how did you do your recalibration, 110v uninterrupted to fully charged?
Also -
What's the most noticable benefit you notice & how long do you find the recalibration effect lasts

 

[Don]

. . . . not only does my battery have good capacity remaining, but I was hypermiling pretty well before the total discharge!

Lets give credit where credit is due!

I knew better, but decided to press my luck this morning when the wife arrived home from her graveyard shift with only two bars.... I briefly charged back up to three bars and headed for work 16.4 miles away

She was hypermiling pretty well . . . . :lol:

Don

 

[PV1]

She was hypermiling pretty well . . . . :lol:

Don

Maybe, but the distance driven by Jay should've mostly overwritten the previous drive (16.4 miles total - 1.5 mile tow = 14.9 miles driven by Jay).