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Phoenix to Durango - any advice?

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I have a 85 Model S with 19 in tires. Tomorrow late afternoon / evening (at near daytime high temp) I will be heading out with my daughter from south Tempe to Durango, Co on our first long distance trip. First leg will be to Flagstaff (overnight, hotel is booked) and is the only one where I have some anxiety. EV trip planner says 235 rated miles consumed with 400 lbs (2 of us + luggage), 100 F temperature, and going the speed limit (multiplier of 1). Range changing tonight.

Any advice on this trip? Some place to eat with a charger that I can at least get 10 more miles of range? Seems like the outlets at Anthem has charger, but likely 25 A = ~13 miles per hour or so. We eat faster than that. Too bad Cordes Junction supercharger is not open yet.

Will range mode made a difference or will we just bake in the AZ heat?

Any other advice appreciated.

Thanks,
Randall
 
I've done this like 4 times without a single problem (minus one issue).

1) You can make it directly to the Holbrook supercharger and bypass Flagstaff unless you have a reason to go there. I live just east of Shea and the 101 and I can make it to Holbrook with about 30 miles of range remaining going above the speed limit. If you're nervous about it PM me and you're more than welcome to use my 100AMP HPWC to recharge the 20 mile difference between Tempe and Fountain Hills. If you choose to go direct to Holbrook be careful, the Tesla nav tries to route you south of Heber for no apparent reason. Make sure you use highway 377.

2) Be really careful when driving between Gallup and Farmington, especially the first 10 miles when you get off the interstate 40. The roads have very brutal pot holes all over the place. My first trip to Durango I blew out a tire and spent a unexpected night in Gallup - definitely miserable.

3) You can save about 30 miles and a ton of time from Gallup to Farmington if you use "Indian Service Route 5" instead of going through Shiprock. EVTripper says it's about 110 rated miles. Indian Service Route 5 is two lanes, 65MPH and nearly a perfect road.

Good luck, you won't have any problems at all. The most anxious leg of the trip for me is from Tempe to Holbrook or Tempe to Flagstaff (especially).

The charger in Durango (listed on PlugShare) is awesome by the way. If you haven't booked a place yet in Durango, try and find a hotel near by (or across the highway, about a 10 minute walk). The two chargers on the north stand charged a bit faster than the two on the south stand.

Since you're staying in Farmington, range charge there that night and you'll have more than enough range to have plenty of fun in Durango. I went to and spent the day in Silverton without charging in Durango without a problem.
 
Just wanted to give a quick thanks to all the advice I received here on such short notice. I took the advice, shortcuts, etc. from rsanchez (and some electrons from his HPWC too). Trip was wonderful and we had no problems.

Here's a few other observations.

The chargers in downtown Durango were easy to used and centrally located. They are ChargePoint chargers, and since I was not a member a the time, I had to call the number on the charger, give my name, e-mail and charger ID for them to unlock it each time I used it. Charging was free. (I am now both a Blink and ChargePoint member).

We did not see any other Tesla's the entire trip, including all the stops at the superchargers. That was a bit surprising to me, although I did ask at some places, and they stated about 10 a day pass through.

On the return trip, I was a bit more diligent on tracking miles. Here's what I recorded and compared to EV trip planner with (S 85, 19" tires, 1.05 speed multiplier, 73/85 cabin/ext temperature, 400 lbs). You can seen I achieved much lower energy consumption.

Not sure if that is because of conservative driving, conservative algorithm or the setting I chose (or a little of each). Firs legs were a little cooler than 85 outside, final legs, a little warmer - but not by too much. I did confirm the route I took was the route from EV trip planner. Not sure why the miles on the Farmington to Gallup was so different. I did take Indian Service Rt 5 (and that is how EV trip planner routes it too). I did bypass most of downtown Farmington by taking the N Browning Pkwy to the Bloomfiled Hwy (that that may be just a little more, not less miles).

Looking forward to the next trip. Tempe --> Wickenburg --> Prescott --> Sedona --> Tempe (really want that Cordes Junction supercharger to be open though) or Tempe to either San Diego or LA.

Thanks again for the advice,

Randall

DurangoTempe.PNG