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Grand Canyon charging

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Not yet, but we're doing a trip up in Feb -- staying at El Tovar.

With the Flagstaff Supercharger under construction, we're likely to take the Tesla. Trailer Village does have 50 amp hookups, but I haven't called Xantera yet to see if they have an EV rate for a 2-3 hour top off charge. Worst case is to pay $35 for an RV spot and park the Tesla there overnight...
 
That was my take on the worst case scenario. Hopefully you can work out a better deal with them, explaining that you may be the first but if a viable option is available you won't be the last.

Yup, every RV park is different. I have had everything from "That is so cool, there is no way I would charge you." to an RV Park owner hanging up on me when I told her I wanted to charge an EV. Most ask how much electricity I will use. It tell them I don't know their electric rates, but $0.10 per kW-hr is typical and I use 10 kW-hr per hour (10 kW), and that works out to about a dollar an hour. One place had meters for their monthly clients and charged me their $0.14 per kW-hr rate, after commenting that they had never seen the meter spin that fast. Another place had meters, but the manager did not want to fool with them. I was there for two days, staying at hotel down the street. Because it was off-season and she was far from full, she suggested and I accepted two days of in and out for her normal daily rate. I had a KOA that was closed for the winter let me charge and suggested that I make a donation to their KOA Kamp for Kids charity. When I dropped a $20 bill in their coffee can donation bucket, it created one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. That's my car below at the KOA.

Always call ahead!

Its always interesting showing them the car and answering questions. :biggrin: Good Luck!
 

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Will be making a visit to the south rim in March (also staying at El Tovar lodge). While the round trip to/from the Flagstaff SC should be sufficient, I always like to know my plan B options in case things don't go as planned. Things look very sparse (non-existent?) once you head up either 180 or 64 towards the park. Would be interested in how things went for thranx, ZBB or others on their trip. TIA.
 
Will be making a visit to the south rim in March (also staying at El Tovar lodge). While the round trip to/from the Flagstaff SC should be sufficient, I always like to know my plan B options in case things don't go as planned. Things look very sparse (non-existent?) once you head up either 180 or 64 towards the park. Would be interested in how things went for thranx, ZBB or others on their trip. TIA.

We're going up this weekend so will post more. I emailed Xantera reservations last week and they got back to me over the weekend. Their answer was: Charging is avail at Trailer Village free of charge -- but they asked to call them before arriving to make a reservation. Don't know if it would cost if you weren't staying at one of the hotels though...

Our plan is to charge at the Flagstaff supercharger on the way up, and then at Trailer Village overnight. We're doing the scenic route on the way back -- along the rim towards Cameron, then back to Flagstaff, so having a 90% or full charge in the morning will allow plenty of range for that...
 
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Thanks for the info ZBB, will check back after your trip. My ideal is to charge at Flagstaff, enjoy the S rim for the day, charge up overnight at Trailer Village and then head to Kingman the next morning. Heading back to CA (bay area) and so preference to not back track to Flagstaff. As long as we can get a couple of hours in on a 14-50, this should be workable.
 
Thanks for the info ZBB, will check back after your trip. My ideal is to charge at Flagstaff, enjoy the S rim for the day, charge up overnight at Trailer Village and then head to Kingman the next morning. Heading back to CA (bay area) and so preference to not back track to Flagstaff. As long as we can get a couple of hours in on a 14-50, this should be workable.

You should consider the reverse of the route we are taking. From Flagstaff, head towards Cameron, then enter the East entrance of the park (a few miles south of Cameron -- although Cameron makes a good lunch spot). You then drive along the Little Colorado River gorge before coming to the canyon itself. Continue driving along the rim to the main south rim facilities - beautiful drive and plenty of places to stop and check different views. When you head out, go south to Williams and then I-40 to Kingman...
 
ZBB, think I have my wife sold on your suggestion to head into the area via the East entrance. Looks like it should make for an excellent day. Re: Trailer Village - should I just ring them on their (928) 638-2631 # and discuss ensuring I can get a 14-50 late in the day so will be full for the morning run to Kingman? Thanks for the suggestion and any additional input.
 
ZBB, think I have my wife sold on your suggestion to head into the area via the East entrance. Looks like it should make for an excellent day. Re: Trailer Village - should I just ring them on their (928) 638-2631 # and discuss ensuring I can get a 14-50 late in the day so will be full for the morning run to Kingman? Thanks for the suggestion and any additional input.

jjaeger -
I called Trailer Village 2 days before our trip to make a reservation for charging -- they told me I don't need one and that I could just stop in after I arrived. One note -- the office for Trailer Village closes at 5pm -- so just make sure you are checked in by then (I showed up around 4pm). The RV park was maybe 25-30% full -- it is offseason... I suspect a reservation may be needed during summer. I also added Trailer Village to Plugshare after the trip.

Couple other tips/thoughts:
- The car lost 3G connectivity from a bit north of Williams to just outside Cameron. No map downloads or app access to check on charging. You might want to try to cache the maps when you are in Cameron -- I forgot to do that.
- I would recommend putting Trailer Village into your nav search before you lose 3G. That way its in your recent list and you can pull it up on the dash nav if needed (otherwise follow signs for Campgrounds -- Trailer Village wasn't on all the signs, but once you were at Mather Campground, it was then signed...)
- Since I couldn't monitor the car while charging at Trailer Village, I decided to turn the amperage down to 10 Amps to slow charge overnight (just in case there was any power fluctuation overnight -- this was my first time charging at a RV park, and I've heard some have flaky power distribution). I chose 10A since that gave me a charging rate that would take ~14 hours to finish (this was around 4:15pm -- wanted a range charge complete by ~7am). When we got back to the car around 8:30am, it was complete...
- The busses are supposed to run every ~15 min during the day, but we waited nearly 30 min in the morning. I would have walked, but my 7 year old really wanted to take the bus ;-)
- We used 128 rated miles to drive 119 actual miles from Trailer Village to Flagstaff via Cameron (with 5-6 stops along the way) -- I'd expect about the same in the reverse (we have a 60 with 19's)...

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Thanks for all the hints! With a little luck, I will be doing the same path in two weeks with my son. Being able to follow the Supercharged highway with destination charging enabled side trips is wonderful! :biggrin:

I predict a Supercharger in Williams to make the Kingman to Flagstaff route easier and to enable visiting the Grand Canyon easily from either direction!
 
Wanted to provide an update to the thread on how things turned out - perfect. ZBB, the east rim drive was perfect. PHX to Sedona for a leisurely breakfast, topped up a bit at Flagstaff and then a nice drive to the east park entrance. I think both time of year, and coming in from the east, made for a low traffic drive of the rim. Got to Trailer Village before they closed - and had a huge site to charge on (car looked lonely a site meant for a mega-coach trailer :) Only downside was that the cell service was so weak at the Grand Canyon Village area, that i could not monitor the charge that evening. Had kicked the current down to 1/2 rate, so was not concerned, but always nice to know all is well. The walk from El Tovar to Trailer Village is a bit of a hike (did not wait for the bus) but easily doable. The next morning the drive from the Village to Kingman was easy - as was the rest of the days drive to the SF Bay area. A great way to top off a 2100 mile 7 day stay in AZ. Now I'm hoping that by 2015 I can do a similar jaunt to Idaho in my MS.
 
Great thread for visiting the Grand Canyon. My wife and I are planning to go cross country next month, and our first stop (from LA) is the Grand Canyon. I'd really like your thoughts on:

1) Kingman SuperCharger to Grand Canyon Village is 173 miles going I-90 to Hwy 64. There's a 3000 foot elevation climb, but I assume that's still doable in an 85. Correct?

We'll have to be able to charge overnight at the Trailer Village to do this.

2) Grand Canyon Village to the Blanding, UT Supercharger is 253 miles. That's going out to Cameron on 64, then up 89 to 160 and then 191. Should be an incredibly beautiful drive, but scary for range. Is there any place at all to charge (even a 110) along the way? Plugshare.com doesn't show anything.

Thanks again for a great thread.
 
Great thread for visiting the Grand Canyon. My wife and I are planning to go cross country next month, and our first stop (from LA) is the Grand Canyon. I'd really like your thoughts on:

1) Kingman SuperCharger to Grand Canyon Village is 173 miles going I-90 to Hwy 64. There's a 3000 foot elevation climb, but I assume that's still doable in an 85. Correct?

We'll have to be able to charge overnight at the Trailer Village to do this.

2) Grand Canyon Village to the Blanding, UT Supercharger is 253 miles. That's going out to Cameron on 64, then up 89 to 160 and then 191. Should be an incredibly beautiful drive, but scary for range. Is there any place at all to charge (even a 110) along the way? Plugshare.com doesn't show anything.

Thanks again for a great thread.

Check out Goulding's Lodge, a little out of the way but it was a beautiful place to charge.