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Supercharger - Salina, KS

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Great news... I wonder if they'll go south to connect to their Dallas market from here, or go east and connect to St Louis/Chicago first.

Between Salina and the HPWC in Bristow, it will cut about nine hours off of the trip time compared to RV park only charging. (Salina adds a bit of distance, so it doesn't reduce the total time by as much as it could). An SC in Junction City would have cut off about another 1.5 hours of trip time compared to Salina.
 
Great news... I wonder if they'll go south to connect to their Dallas market from here, or go east and connect to St Louis/Chicago first.



I'm pretty sure they will go east. Only 1 more to connect Kansas City. And then 2 more after that to connect St. Louis. More of note, the Wichita dot doesn't show up on the Tesla Motors supercharger map until you slide out to 2015. Wichita is needed as Salina to Oklahoma City is too far a stretch.
 
I'm pretty sure they will go east. Only 1 more to connect Kansas City. And then 2 more after that to connect St. Louis. More of note, the Wichita dot doesn't show up on the Tesla Motors supercharger map until you slide out to 2015. Wichita is needed as Salina to Oklahoma City is too far a stretch.

However, you can cut the time by going to the HPWC in Bristow, OK (Plugshare), and then to Winfield where you'll only have to spend a couple of hours to get enough charge to make it to Salina if you did a Range charge in Bristow.
 
I'm pretty sure they will go east. Only 1 more to connect Kansas City. And then 2 more after that to connect St. Louis. More of note, the Wichita dot doesn't show up on the Tesla Motors supercharger map until you slide out to 2015. Wichita is needed as Salina to Oklahoma City is too far a stretch.


It looks like while it'll be close, you can make it from OKC to Salina. Once they put a supercharger in OKC then (with minor top ups) the Texas island will finally be connected to the rest of the grid! I never thought texas would get connected by way of I-35...
 
Stopped by Salina today while on another mission in my Twin Ice Vehicle. Here it is parked on the ramp of the Salina Airport (a former SAC B-52 base) with a bunch of Twin Ice Warthogs in the background. My life is a schizophrenic carbon footprint...

Salina-Twin-Ice.JPG



I drove to the Holiday Inn Express, but it was lunch time and no one was there. It was hard to tell if it was work day or not. As I lingered a while, the crew started coming back. This is the same crew that did Silverthorne, Moab, Blanding, and Goodland.


Good news:

  1. They hope to be done before the Fourth of July Weekend!
  2. They are tapping off of the HV from the hotel transformer at the end of the Charging Pedestals, so access for the Utility Connection is easy.
  3. They are very experienced and know all the lingo, 60, 85, taper, etc. This was not true of the first Supercharger Crew that I met in Farmington.
  4. They are pretty sure that they are going to St George after the Fourth.

Bad News:

  1. The spots are pretty prime for hotel guests, and worse yet, the current plan is NO Tesla or EV signage to prevent icing. This was the hotel owners request.
  2. They wanted to put the Stalls in a spot that would not be so ICE tempting, but the town overruled them; too much clutter by the road...
  3. They think that utility connections may create a delay in St George.
  4. The closest food is a quarter mile away, and it's a selection of fast food.
  5. Decent local food is a 5 mile round trip.


The site layout:

Salina-Site.jpg




Pictures with descriptions:

Equipment ready to be installed:
Salina-gear.JPG


The equipment area. The transformer will be at the back right, the Distribution Center at the back left, and the 3 Supercharger Cabinets in the foreground.
Salina-Enclosure.JPG


Six Stalls, Total:
Salina-Pedestals.JPG


The existing Hotel Transformer. It is 300 kVA, 208/120 Volt, 3-Phase. The transformer for the Superscharger station will probably be 500 kVA, 480/277 Volt, 3-Phase. They ran a conduit for the HV lines from this transformer to the new Supercharger transformer in the same trench as the conduits to the pedestals, but I am sure deeper.
Salina-HI-Xformer.JPG
 
With that parking arrangement, better plan to arrive midday if you want a Supercharge in Salina! The city 'planners' of Salina ought to be ashamed of themselves. "Clutter by the road", forsooth! Once frustrated Model S owners start flooding the front desk with complaints at all hours, the hotel may eventually have to change their tune and start using traffic cones, a la Glenwood Springs...
 
Stopped by Salina today while on another mission in my Twin Ice Vehicle. Here it is parked on the ramp of the Salina Airport (a former SAC B-52 base) with a bunch of Twin Ice Warthogs in the background. My life is a schizophrenic carbon footprint...

OT, but...

Salina's got a whole lotta runway. As a teenager in the late '60s, I had my first glimpse of the Quad Mega-Ice, aka the Boeing 747, shooting landings at Salina. Before we left PA on our family road trip I had read in Popular Science magazine that they were making pre-certification test flights out of Salina to take advantage of the long runway, so I was looking for it, but it was still a most impressive sight for this impressionable young propellerhead.
 
Great updates! As a former SAC B-52 Navigator, I am proud that one of our former bases is being used for Supercharging.

We are anxiously awaiting the start of construction on the Dayton OH Supercharger site. If any of you have a chance to talk with the construction crew, would you ask them if Dayton is next on their list? You can tell them we have Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee waiting, along with a free tour of the National Museum of the US Air Force. Of course, it is free anyway, but we have Model S owners that volunteer there.