Anyone North of Little Rock with HPWC?

Planning a trip to Maumelle, AR from my home in Nixa, MO--~190 miles.
Don't expect any issues, but not a lot of charging options show up on the various charger apps.
Hope to be able to charge at my sister in law's place, but would like to have the 'security blanket' of a HPWC in the area, just in case.
Nixa, MO to Maumelle, AR - Google Maps



PM me if you're uncomfortable posting publicly.

A bit of a bump.
Found out the relative we're staying with in Maumelle doesn't have any accessible 240V outlet for us to use, so I'm in danger of not being able to take the Model S on this trip. We're leaving early Saturday morning, driving the 190 miles to Maumelle, saying a quick "hello", then driving down to Little Rock to see the Zoo, the Clinton Library, then to a baseball game, then back to our relative's place for the night before leaving the next morning to return home.

So, a pretty quick turn around and none of the various apps are showing anyone in the Maumelle area with a HPWC or even a 240v outlet close enough that I could use.

If I were going alone (I'm not--taking my entire family of 5) and wasn't pressed for time (I am) and was able to choose where I was spending the night (see above) then I could use one of several public chargers in Little Rock, but I don't think I want to take that risk and I'll need a near full charge to get home on Sunday morning and 120v ain't gonna cut it.

Any ideas? Anyone know of anyone in Maumelle with a Model S? I wrote to Tesla, but didn't hear back yet.

GlennAlanBerry said:

Have you looked for RV campgrounds with 50 amp service? That may not be possible with a family of five (unless you bring a tent). What about a Nissan dealer in Little Rock? Just throwing out ideas...

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Yea, looked, really nothing within several miles of where we're staying . There are a number of free public chargers in Little Rock, but I don't want to leave the car parked 10-15 miles from where I'm staying in order to get a full charge (will take all night on a 30 amp J1772 charger as I'll be near empty when I arrive in LR).

If my wife was game, this is probably possible...
I'd do the drive down, plug into 120v for the couple hours we're visiting and saying "hello".
Drive to the Clinton Library and use the public charger there while we do that tour (?3-4 hours?) getting back maybe 45-60 miles. Head to the zoo--not sure if there's anywhere to charge nearby. Head to the baseball game, there are 2 public chargers nearby getting me back another 45 miles or so.

If I'm lucky I'll be at 100 miles range when we get back to my sister in law's place and plug back in the 120v--Perhaps 12 hours at 3mph so maybe 130-140 miles range when we're ready to go. There's a Nissan dealer in Harrison, AR we could probably top up at on the way home, but that's gonna take planning, and will be a Sunday so I doubt they're open. There's just not much in between...though an RV park might work. Just not sure my wife is up for a 3 hour stop at an RV park.

The tremendous feedback and interest in this thread has prompted me to post a status update. :tongue:

I'm taking the Model S. My Sister-in-Law still has not charging options for me (other than 110v), though she said she'd see what she could find. But I'm assuming she won't find anything nearby.

But, I used the EV Trip Planner and calculated that I'd use just about 56 kWh (leaving roughly 90 miles of range) to get from home to Maumelle, AR where we'll stop and I'll be able to trickle in another ~10 miles of range or so before we go to little rock.


Sometime after lunch we'll head to the Clinton Library where there is a public charger that will, hopefully, be available. I figure 4 hours there at 18 miles per hour (less the 10 miles from Maumelle to Little Rock) and I'll add another 62 miles of range. From there we'll head to the baseball park and there's a public charger nearby there as well. So another ~4 hours (less 10 back to Maumelle) for another 62 miles range. Back to Maumelle by around 10pm and charge until about 10am when we head home for another 30 miles of range.

So, I'm hoping to add around 150 miles of range to the 90 miles I hope to have on arrival to Maumelle on the first day when I depart on Sunday--240 miles of range for the 190 mile trip home.

I have an emergency backup plan that in Harrison, AR (about 125 miles from Maumelle) we have a family friend who has what sounds like a 30 amp 240v outlet we can tap into for a couple hours while we hang at my Father In Law's place if we are running out of juice as the return trip involves a 1000 ft. elevation gain and the EV Trip Planner estimates 60 kWh for the return drive and temps are expected to be around 90F.


Slightly risky, and I hate having to think this hard about a trip, but dammit, I bought this car with this trip in mind (along with other regional drives) and got the bigger pack specifically b/c I wanted to be able to make the drive. But Tesla can't get a supercharger installed in the Little Rock area soon enough for me. This needs to be easier.

bluefuego said:

Sorry wish I could help! My in-laws live in Maumelle as well and I have been hinting at having them install a 14-50 at their home so my husband and I could drive down from STL (you now, as soon as a SC gets installed between here and Memphis).

Good luck with the trip - please report back on how well your real world experience matches up with the EV Trip Planner calcs (nice work, btw!)

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Thanks, I'll report back. I seem to be plowing new ground all the time in this SW Missouri/Arkansas area. BTW, if you want to make the LR trip prior to the supercharger, I have a HPWC you're welcome to use and I'm just at the limit of the drive from STL to Nixa.

Trip Report:
All in all everything went well. Even with a few snafus I was able to make the drive down and back without any stops to top up charge in between. Please read through the above rather than rehashing everything in detail. But I will summarize just a bit.
Plan was for a single overnight drive from Nixa, MO to Little Rock, AR spending the night in Maumelle, AR (about 10mi North of LR) at my sister in law's home. No public charging available at all b/w Nixa and North Little Rock (2 Nissan dealers listed, and the usual RV parks).

Had a MAX charge before we left home at 6:30 am Saturday morning, modest climate (73F) settings and outside temps were in the 70s on departure and 80s on arrival. Had around 68 miles of charge left on arrival in Maumelle (58kWh used, 288Wh/mi).


I trickled in another 2-3 miles of range before we headed to Little Rock. I found the free ChargePoint public charger at the Clinton Library. We parked there and left the car on that charger all day (around 6 1/2 hours) with a successful charge. That got me up to around 150 miles of rated range.


We moved to the free public charger (also ChargePoint) at the City Services building in North Little Rock about 3 blocks from Dickey-Stephens baseball park where we went to watch the Springfield Cardinals crush the Arkansas Travelers. Charging started fine, but during the 2nd inning we checked the status and charging had stopped and the ChargePoint app showed a fault. I walked the 3 blocks back to the car, could not get charging restarted, called ChargePoint...which turned out to be pretty pointless, there was nothing they could do remotely. Stuck the car on the 110v outlet (which was working). After the game we were up to around 172 miles rated.


We were back down to around 160 rated by the time we got back to Maumelle. My sister in law has a utility room with 30 amp dryer plug adjacent to her garage that I'd hoped to be able to use, but it required a NEMA 14-30 plug..I have that adapter for my UMC, but the outlet was too far away to reach with the 18' UMC cable and I didn't have an adapter for the 30' 6ga extension cord I brought. So I was stuck with 120v overnight. I was up to around 200 rated by the time we left to go back to Little Rock in the morning.

There was another free charger at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital--a bit hard to find, free to charge, but fee to park ($4.75 for us). We walked the 1/2 mile to the Little Rock Zoo while we successfully charged. We took our time with lunch and got back to the car with 256 miles of rated range and decided to head home. I was concerned about the 90F temps, 1000' elevation gain, and other unknowns. But as it turned out the car performed amazingly. I was never over 300Wh/mi the entire drive and even on the 70mph freeway stretch was in the 260sWh/mi!! I was doing so well I sped up to 5mph over the limit and turned the AC down to a bit more comfortable level for the last 30 miles of the trip home and still arrived with 51 miles of rated range left(58kWh used/280Wh/mi)! Not bad for over 200 miles all highway/Ozark hills and 90F temps with a full load of 5 plus luggage! I am extremely pleased despite the rather challenging charging situation. Assume I must've had a little tail wind coming home.