Poll: Supercharger 2x Distance or RV Park charging?

Have you added up the driving time differences? If they are similar I'd probably take the Supercharger route. 10 hours at an RV park can drag on.

Even though you can technically win the race between superchargers at double distance and RV parks - I don't think you would want to.

Supercharger scenario:
If you drove 800 miles in a day at 60mph, then spent 3 hours at the superchargers that would be a total of 13 hours 20 minutes driving and about 3 hours of charging ( roughly 267 mph charge rate ). That leaves you 8 hours 40 minutes to sleep.

RV park scenario:
If you drove 400 miles in a day at 60 mph ( spending 6 hours 40 minutes driving ) you would spend 16 hours charging at the RV parks ( I'm assuming 25mph charge rate ) - but you could spend most of those charging hours asleep at night, and you would have some time left over. You'd only have to spend about 6 hours chilling in an RV park during the day ( assuming 10 hours of charging overnight ).

I think the crossover point where the superchargers become "better" is somewhere less than double the distance.

To me it would depend on what there is to see near the RV parks. If there is stuff I want to see, then it is free time. If I am just trying to get from A to B as fast as possible then that would shift the balance. Are you cannonballing or on a family vacation?

And the Hays Supercharger may be open by the time you take your trip. I'd go for the RV parks this time. iTunes books and movies work well to occupy the time at the RV Park.

Superchargers.
See the country.

I voted for the RV parks. Take the time to smell the roses. Take a hike, read a book, surf TMC, sleep, eat, etc.

GSP

GSP said:

I voted for the RV parks. Take the time to smell the roses. Take a hike, read a book, surf TMC, sleep, eat, etc.
GSP

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Right on. Put a mountain bike in the back of the car and maybe a fishing pole, along with that book and the hiking shoes. Plenty of things to do while the car charges up. A lot of RV parks have cabins that you can rent.

I posted in your other thread...I'm going to say superchargers as it should be more of a sure thing to visit superchargers then RV parks and just be more pleasant overall. The path of least resistance, if you will.

-m

I vote for superchargers--you do not have to ask permission, beg, plead, or pay to use. Sometimes I find an hour at a supercharger long enough of a wait. South Dakota has lots of interesting sights.

you could try finding residental 80A HPWC on plugshare. There are a few public and residential (the image below is filtered to show only Tesla Model S HPWC and superchargers) it may save you some time. Also worth noting there is one supercharger under construction in Kansas, though I do not believe it is operational yet.

Also, the mobile app 'Allstays Camp & RV' allows you to filter RV Parks with 50amp connections only (very handy).

Owner said:

The plugshare is really dry from topeka to Denver! and that supercharger is not yet open.

I went and bought the Allstays Camp RV app as it is a struggle with so many darn different websites for this.

currently leaning towards the rv route as it isn't too long and bought a sleeping pad for the Tesla. But keep on voting and commenting!

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Superchargers all the way. You get more control of your destiny (can still sit and watch a movie if you wish).

Check out Bjorn's Norway Videos for tips on comfortably sleeping in the Model S.

I think the biggest tip is to put the car in neutral with the parking brake on to keep the heat or A/C going all night without timing out.

GSP

The RV park route will take more planning for sure, but it can be fun. I would call ahead and make sure the park is willing to let you charge the car there. Some parks will do anything to get your business. Others have never seen an EV before and are scared to try anything new.

RV parking web site has a really good search engine with a filter for 50 amp service.
RVParking.com | Find RV Parks, RV Park Reviews

After owning my S for over a year and a half, I had my first experience with charging at an RV park this week. It was the first time I had charged my car away from my garage. I knew ahead of time the owners were EV friendly so that was not an issue. What became an issue was that the 14-50 outlet I was assigned could not handle 40 amps continuous. The car tripped the breaker after about 20 minutes of charging, when I had walked about a mile away to my hotel. Went back and set the charge rate down to 28 amps since I had time with no further issues, but I would add reliability to the list of worries when going the RV route.

Sparrow said:

What became an issue was that the 14-50 outlet I was assigned could not handle 40 amps continuous.

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Many RV parks are like this. Normally they trip within the first 15-20 minutes. Setting the charge rate to 32 amps has always solved the problem for me. My last trip (ended last week) went like this:

home->Bristow: 230 miles 4 hour range charge at an HPWC (50 miles of rated range left)
Bristow->Winfield: 140 miles 2 hour charge at RV park
Winfield->Milford: 150 miles overnight range charge at RV park (slept in cabin)
Milford->Roca: 130 miles B&B with 14-50

Roca->Milford: 130 miles 5 hour range charge at RV Park (hiking trails at this one)
Milford->Winfield: 150 miles 4 hour daily charge (sleeping in the car because arrival would have been too late at Bristow).
Winfield->Bristow: 140 miles 3 hour range charge at HPWC
Bristow->Home: 250 miles (Took a detour plus strong headwinds--17 miles rated range left)

If I am not mistaken, the direct route with RV parks is 849 miles.
That is a 2 day drive with ~6-7 hours of charging time during the day.

The supercharger route is ~1600 miles. I don't think I would try to do that in 2 days. That looks like a 3 day drive to me.

It seems like there is more to see on the supercharger route - and you would have the flexibility to do it, but you'd need an extra day.

If you have time, I would go superchargers. At a glance (and I may be wrong) that route looks more interesting and the superchargers make it easy.