Hello all, made it to Niagara falls yesterday, barely. The whole supercharger route worked flawlessly. I was even able to SKIP the Angola Supercharger (even with my 60kW battery). To do that and make it to Maumee/Toledo, I just had to slow down to 60 the last 15 miles of that stretch, from the 75 we were cruising at.
Charged up in Cleveland, did a full 100% range charge, and good thing I did. Going from Cleveland to Niagara Falls was only about 216 miles, slightly outside my normal charge range (209 miles is my rated). I figured i'd only need to stop at a level 2 for about a hour. Boy was I wrong. Halfway point, was getting really sleepy, so I stopped off at Erie, and found a BMW dealership that just got the top of the line Chargepoint station installed last week for their shipment of i3's that are coming (very nice people at the dealership, I was the first one to charge their! and they were all very curious about the model s. Most of the comments I heard are "This blows the i3 away" and wow, I didn't think it was this good!").
Charged for 2 hours, got what I thought was enough to make it.
One thing I did not consider, was the ELEVATION CHANGE, and extreme winds. It's almost all UP HILL for the 200 mile stretch. Rolled into Buffalo with CHARGE NOW on my screen. was lucky enough to limp it to a Kohl's Department store, that had a 30 amp Chargepoint at 208v in their parking lot. So while we were charging, Grannie was shopping (oh boy...).
Spent almost 2 hours charging. Was up to 20 miles rated, and only had 15 miles left to the hotel (on the canadian side). So limped er along at 50mph just to be safe.
In the high winds though, the range was dropping quickly. Realised I wouldnt have enough to make it. So we stopped off again. Right at the bridge between US and Canada, their was 2 chargepoints in the parking lot at the Hydro plants tourist lot. I will be returning their Monday to shoot documentary video. Spent about 40 minutes their. Horrible charger run by national electric power co. It was 32 amp, BUT, the voltage drop brought it down to 190-191v. Thus TRIPPING THE SAFETY on the cars charging, reducing current by 25%, then, another 25%, so now it was charging at 16 amps at 191v.......... that was hell. I HATE THIS NEW FIRMWARE! and YES, the chargepoint was installed correctly, just on a VERY long wiring run. Ended up with 6 miles extra after 45 minutes. Continued over the border, and limped er along.
Arrived at the hotel (Super 8) with 4 miles left, which dropped to 3 by the time we were finished checking in.
Now, I had asked about being able to plug in at night, as their is a outlet outside right by the room. They wanted $10/day to plug into a 120v 15 amp outlet. I had to explain that, on a 120v 15 amp outlet, the most I'd draw per day was $1 of electric, and that would on the high end of the electrical rate spectrum.
Eventually, convinced them to charge me $10 to charge for my entire stay, 3 nights, 4 days, and might add a additional night, to make it 4 nights.
After checkin, and unloading our stuff into the room, we met up with a friend, at "Taps" brewery and restaurant. Good food, good beer, AND a 70amp Sun Country J1772 Charging Station!!! WOOO HOOO! Although, I did not get as much range back as I had expected. As it was a 70 amp station, and I had a single charger in my car, the voltage stayed very stable at 213v. No voltage drop. Got about 30 miles charge.
The 120v outlet was a savior though. I awoke this morning with a 50% charge on the car, and their are TONS of level 2's (Although, most rather slow).
So, that is it for now, going to go see where we are stopping today!
Charged up in Cleveland, did a full 100% range charge, and good thing I did. Going from Cleveland to Niagara Falls was only about 216 miles, slightly outside my normal charge range (209 miles is my rated). I figured i'd only need to stop at a level 2 for about a hour. Boy was I wrong. Halfway point, was getting really sleepy, so I stopped off at Erie, and found a BMW dealership that just got the top of the line Chargepoint station installed last week for their shipment of i3's that are coming (very nice people at the dealership, I was the first one to charge their! and they were all very curious about the model s. Most of the comments I heard are "This blows the i3 away" and wow, I didn't think it was this good!").
Charged for 2 hours, got what I thought was enough to make it.
One thing I did not consider, was the ELEVATION CHANGE, and extreme winds. It's almost all UP HILL for the 200 mile stretch. Rolled into Buffalo with CHARGE NOW on my screen. was lucky enough to limp it to a Kohl's Department store, that had a 30 amp Chargepoint at 208v in their parking lot. So while we were charging, Grannie was shopping (oh boy...).
Spent almost 2 hours charging. Was up to 20 miles rated, and only had 15 miles left to the hotel (on the canadian side). So limped er along at 50mph just to be safe.
In the high winds though, the range was dropping quickly. Realised I wouldnt have enough to make it. So we stopped off again. Right at the bridge between US and Canada, their was 2 chargepoints in the parking lot at the Hydro plants tourist lot. I will be returning their Monday to shoot documentary video. Spent about 40 minutes their. Horrible charger run by national electric power co. It was 32 amp, BUT, the voltage drop brought it down to 190-191v. Thus TRIPPING THE SAFETY on the cars charging, reducing current by 25%, then, another 25%, so now it was charging at 16 amps at 191v.......... that was hell. I HATE THIS NEW FIRMWARE! and YES, the chargepoint was installed correctly, just on a VERY long wiring run. Ended up with 6 miles extra after 45 minutes. Continued over the border, and limped er along.
Arrived at the hotel (Super 8) with 4 miles left, which dropped to 3 by the time we were finished checking in.
Now, I had asked about being able to plug in at night, as their is a outlet outside right by the room. They wanted $10/day to plug into a 120v 15 amp outlet. I had to explain that, on a 120v 15 amp outlet, the most I'd draw per day was $1 of electric, and that would on the high end of the electrical rate spectrum.
Eventually, convinced them to charge me $10 to charge for my entire stay, 3 nights, 4 days, and might add a additional night, to make it 4 nights.
After checkin, and unloading our stuff into the room, we met up with a friend, at "Taps" brewery and restaurant. Good food, good beer, AND a 70amp Sun Country J1772 Charging Station!!! WOOO HOOO! Although, I did not get as much range back as I had expected. As it was a 70 amp station, and I had a single charger in my car, the voltage stayed very stable at 213v. No voltage drop. Got about 30 miles charge.
The 120v outlet was a savior though. I awoke this morning with a 50% charge on the car, and their are TONS of level 2's (Although, most rather slow).
So, that is it for now, going to go see where we are stopping today!
This man deserves much better 
