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Mt. Washington Auto Road in a Tesla?

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My husband posted this in the Tesla Forums. He didn't get very much response so I am reposting it over here. Granted you had to go several layers deep to find it and they have no search... :wink:

Any interest in a Tesla climb to the top of the Mt. Washington Auto Road?

deinspanjer | March 15, 2013

I've driven this road previously in a few different cars. It is a thrilling drive and a breathtaking sight.
I'm looking forward to doing it for the first time in my Model S this Summer.
The Auto Road offers exclusive car club bookings, so I'm curious whether there might be enough people within range that would be interested to warrant looking into booking it.
Here are some details:
http://www.mtwashingtonautoroad.com/drive-yourself/car-clubs/
 
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Well, the Model S will eliminate some hassles I had with my last trip up the mountain. This truck is a Toyota Landcruiser HJ-45 I imported from Australia and the cooling system was just a little stressed with the climb. Also the injection pump required adjustment for the altitude. I took my father-in-law on this trip and when it was over, he wasn't pleased with riding in a 30 year old vehicle with drum brakes on a road with no guard rails. Perhaps he'll want to go again in the Model S. For those who do this, don't even think of putting the bumper sticker on your Tesla!
 

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btw, I retract my tentative date of the solstice, as I'll be out of the country on both of the last two weekends in June, but I'd very much like to join the group.

Here are the RV parks nearby that have 50A service available, from south to north:

Saco River Camping Area Campground, North Conway NH 603-356-3360
Green Meadow Camping Area Campground, Glen NH 603-383-6801
Glen Ellis Family Campground, Glen NH 603-383-4567
Timberland Camping Campground, Shelburne NH 603-466-3872
Tarry Ho Campground, Twin Mountain NH 603-846-1026
KOA Campground, Twin Mountain NH 603-846-5559

The Glen or North Conway ones would be best; there's a lot of good food establishments around there. In North Conway, they're in walking distance. Anyone want to take the lead on finding out which might be willing to have us?
 
I would love to join this drive! I live 100 miles from the base of Mt. Washington. The model S would have to fold its mirrors in to use the road. Robert.Boston most of those KOAs in the White Mtns are pretty full through the summer. I'd be surprised if they could accommodate a large group trying to blow all their transformers up! lol.

Would be a great ride if you could work out all the logistics.
 
May 25 is "Alton Weagle Day":
This day honors his spirit and the spirit of all those from camels to unicycles to Segways to pogo sticks to autos who have been the first up the mountain. Actually we’ve never had a pogo stick bounced all the way up the Auto Road – think you’re up to it? We invite you to dream up a “first ascent” of some kind and run the idea by us – you just may get invited to celebrate with us on May 25, 2013! Contact [email protected].
Any idea whether an EV has climbed Mt. Washington before? I won't be around that weekend, but perhaps someone would like to propose a Model S ascent? Probably not sufficiently weird for the spirit of the day, however.
 
May 25 is "Alton Weagle Day":

Any idea whether an EV has climbed Mt. Washington before? I won't be around that weekend, but perhaps someone would like to propose a Model S ascent? Probably not sufficiently weird for the spirit of the day, however.

Unknown, have you emailed the contact? I'm sure several of us could make it, if we get an invitation.
I've only been to Mt Washington once, it was in September to ride the cog railway to the top, we couldn't make it to the top, it was snowed in! They have very few months of good enough weather to drive on that road, May to August I think.
 
Ok, I just called the Auto Road and talked to their group specialist. They are very excited about electric vehicles coming to the Auto Road. She informed me that an all electric vehicle had gone up last summer without a problem although she did not remember exactly what car it was. I don't think it was a Tesla because she did not recognize the name. She also told me that they are looking into installing a charger there. When they have a car club coming they do a sunrise or sunset tour (with the sunset being the most popular). They require 30 people (not vehicles). The charge is $25.00 for adults $12.50 for juniors (ages 5-12) and they require a 20% deposit and a 10% service charge as they keep their staff late. It is a 2 hour round trip, that includes 1 hour at the summit. We would be escorted by two stages (one lead, one rear) to ensure that everyone makes it up safely and also to answer any questions. She wanted us to let her know when we were coming, even if we were just going ourselves as they wanted to have their photographer there to take pictures.
 
I have emailed the contact to get a list of available Saturdays in the summer. I will report back when I get them and we can vote on a day that works for the majority of people interested. We would also need to call the places that Robert.Boston mentioned (and any more that anyone can think of) to make sure that we could find access to enough chargers.
 
Hey there (I'm mdelpin's husband).

I've gone ahead and created a WhenIsGood page for people to fill out. Even though we don't have the list of possible reservation dates, I think it will be helpful for us to begin polling people to narrow down the dates in which we would be most interested.

Please visit this link and fill it out by clicking each Saturday you could attend. If you like, you can be more specific and change the color on the left between perfect, good, and okay.
http://whenisgood.net/mtwashtesla

If you would like to see the results, you can do so here:
http://whenisgood.net/mtwashtesla/results/qhy5ic
 
Ok, I just called the Auto Road and talked to their group specialist. ... She also told me that they are looking into installing a charger there. ...

Be sure and let her know that a standard 30A charger would be all but useless. A 70A model from Clipper Creek or Eaton would actually be cheaper than a ChargePoint and more useful than almost 3 ChargePoints. If they really want "networked" chargers, the 70 A models are only a little more $$ than the 30A versions. Even NEMA 14-50 outlets would be better.