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San Francisco --> LA trip

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The Tesla Highway will give you a large number of 70 amp options. Tesla Highway - Google Maps Make sure you have an adapter for J1772. Lots of the original Roadster HPCs have been converted.

Also, if you can get ahold of a Can 2 (Model S HPWC to Roadster adapter), you'll be able to charge at 70 amps anywhere there is an HPWC with full power (see Tesla's map on their site - lots of hotels, Tesla stores, etc.). Note, this will not allow charging at a Supercharger. Model S to Roadster adapter
 
Bonnie, thanks for that Google Maps link. Just so I understand clearly, that map is not just for Roadster-compatible charging sites, correct? It has Tesla Superchargers marked on it as well.

Who maintains that map? Thanks.

I am going to get Henry's Model S to Roadster "CAN 2" adaptor. I have a Tesla Roadster to J1772 adaptor.

BTW, two days ago I charged my Roadster at the San
Rafael Service Center's Roster HPC,really nice to have that available 24/7.
 
We've made the trip from Sunnyvale to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles several times. You're going farther from Sausalito, but I can give you my plan as a baseline.

1. Rabobank in Salinas, 70A J1772 and has always been open for us. This is only 68 miles out for us, but we spend an hour and get breakfast as Starbucks.

2. The Rabobank in Atascadero would be a nice second stop because there are movie theaters across the street, but it is now occupied by locals (Leaf, Volt, Fiat, etc.) almost all the time, so don't depend upon it. Instead we go on to San Luis Obispo, where Dr. Lloyd Marcum (Lloyd here in TMC) has a 70A J1772 installed at his office. Tesla friends can ask his office receptionist for the RFID key for free charging, or use a credit card. There are restaurants and movie theaters a few blocks away in downtown. There are also some chargers in the Marsh Street garage.

3. We usually stay a night in Santa Barbara to visit friends. At the Canary Hotel ($$$$) they have a 14-50 outlet in the reception driveway that you can use when you stay there if you have a charge cable. If you are just driving through, you would stop at the Rabobank in Goleta before Santa Barbara.

4. Next is LA, so charging depends upon where you are going. On one trip where we spent a week in LA, we stayed in a hotel downtown adjacent to one of the big garages where they have charging stations installed, but we had to buy a monthly pass for the garage.
 
Thank you guys so much! I do have a J1772 connector, so we should be good. @slcasner thank you for detailed tips!!

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The PlugShare app will also list some Roadster 70amp HPCs as well as owners who'll offer you a charge at their home. You can filter for the Roadster HPCs and 14-50 outlets as well.

PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge your car!

@wiztecy, I'm looking at the filters in PlugShare app. Which filter represents the 70 amp Roadster HPC? I see J1772 filter, which I believe includes non-HPC chargers, Nema 14-50, and Tesla (Roadster). Thanks.
 
There are 70A chargers at the Rabobank in both Atascadero and Goleta. There's another one at the Rabobank in Salinas although I haven't used that one. There are at least two 70A stations in SLO, one in the back parking lot of LLoyd's office, the other in a parking garage in downtown.
 
I did that roundtrip a couple months back. Confirming what slcastner (and SFOTurtle) said:
Rabobank Salinas
Rabobank Atascadero
Downtown San Luis Obispo (Marsh St. garage is next to a mall with movies & food)
Rabobank Goleta (Starbucks down the street, shopping near.)
I also stopped at the Tesla LA store (Santa Monica Blvd.) There are multiple Tesla stores in the LA area with Roadster HPCs.
You can do 30A J1772 other places, but the quicker charging of 70A makes these locations the best way to go to minimize your wait time.

If you want to split the trip into two days, overnighting in San Luis Obispo is a good way to go.
 
I did that roundtrip a couple months back. Confirming what slcastner (and SFOTurtle) said:
Rabobank Salinas
Rabobank Atascadero
Downtown San Luis Obispo (Marsh St. garage is next to a mall with movies & food)
Rabobank Goleta (Starbucks down the street, shopping near.)
I also stopped at the Tesla LA store (Santa Monica Blvd.) There are multiple Tesla stores in the LA area with Roadster HPCs.
You can do 30A J1772 other places, but the quicker charging of 70A makes these locations the best way to go to minimize your wait time.

If you want to split the trip into two days, overnighting in San Luis Obispo is a good way to go.

Ah, thanks for the overnight tip. I think that's what we'll do, so we can take the scenic route. Is San Luis Obispo pretty safe area? I've never been there before
 
The garage in San Luis Obispo where the 70A charger is located (marsh garage) is a paid parking lot and closed at night. If you stay at the B&Bs nearby
most of them include the garage parking overnight. I hadn't had any problems the times that I had parked there - it's a pretty busy area so stealing
the car is unlikely although petty theft is more likely.

Ah, thanks for the overnight tip. I think that's what we'll do, so we can take the scenic route. Is San Luis Obispo pretty safe area? I've never been there before
 
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San Luis Obispo is relatively safe from what I could see. Maybe some small areas to avoid right next to the freeway.
It has a lot of J1772 charging options. When I stayed overnight, I just saw a movie and had dinner at the Marsh St area to get to full before driving to my nearby hotel. If you wanted to charge while sleeping, you might be able to get a hotel near one of these public J1772 sites that is open overnight.
(Sorry, can't tell you which ones would be, but maybe looking on plugshare you could find something in the notes.)

From PlugShare.com:
SLO1.png
 
When I went down 1, I charged at Carmel Valley Ranch Lodge HPC (70A), then stopped again (although I didn't really need it) at Morro Bay City Hall (30A J1772) on my way to San Luis Obispo. Doing 90 minutes of opportunistic charging when convenient meant I didn't need to find an all night location in SLO to get back to full.
 
Hey guys, thanks again for all the tips. Here is what I've compiled from some of your suggestions.
We definitely want to take the scenic HWY 1 route on the way there. On the way back, we'll take the faster I-5.

On the way there through HWY 1: Route
Leave Sausalito
Arrive at Carmel Valley Ranch Lodge. (134 mi) Charge @70A.
Arrive at Marsh Street Parking Garage. (138 mi) Get a hotel and charge overnight.
Arrive at Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara. (93 mi) Charge @NEMA.
Arrive in Santa Monica (92 mi).

On the way back through I-5: Route
Leave Santa Monica.
Arrive at Buttonwillow Speedway. (134 mi) Charge @NEMA
Arrive at Harris Ranch Shell. (68 mi) Charge @70A.
Arrive at Koa Campground, Los Banos. (72 mi) Charge @NEMA
Arrive in Sausalito (130 mi).

I hope this helps the next person.
Please let me know if you see any problems with these routes. Thank you.
 
Hmmm, I do have some comments on your proposed itinerary.

On the southbound trip, your charging stop would be shorter in Goleta @ 70A rather than at the Canary Hotel @ 40A. Of course, downtown Santa Barbara is a nicer place to be than the vicinity of the Rabobank in Goleta. I've never asked at the Canary about charging when not staying there. There are several other public charging stations in Santa Barbara but they are 30A, so even slower. You might consider Goleta to be your Plan A with SB as Plan B in case there is a problem at the Rabobank charger. It's always a good idea to have a Plan B.

On the northbound trip, it is not clear that I-5 is the faster route. When on a trip that requires intermediate charging stops, the overall time is reduced by driving slower rather than faster because of reduced efficiency due to increased aerodynamic drag at higher speeds. If you burn less energy while driving then the charging stops are shorter. My target speed is 62 mph on these trips as a reasonable balance between efficiency and traffic interference (55 would reduce the overall time a bit, but I don't like driving that slowly). Driving at that speed on I-5 is more of a problem than on 101, and I consider 101 to be more scenic. Also, you have two 40A charging stops in your plan. That will also increase your time versus all 70A charging that is possible on 101. It would be a really long day. If I were doing your trip, I would stop at Goleta, Dr. Marcum's office in SLO, and Salinas.

I recommend charging in Range mode, but then switching to Standard mode to drive. When you make that switch, it reduces the displayed range by 25 miles, but you can consider that to be a reserve to be used in case of emergency. Battery wear is reduced if you don't go down into that region. Also, being in Standard mode means you have full acceleration available in case you should need it.

Charging in Range mode delays the tapering of the charge current at the end of the charge, which is particularly useful when charging at 70A. To minimize overall time on the road trip, you always want to start out with a full Range mode charge, then at intermediate stops you want to charge in Range mode until the charge current drops below what your charge current will be at the next stop, presuming that the range is sufficient at that point.
 
slcasner, thanks. Very good points.

Southbound, I will switch to Robobank @ Goleta @70A, keeping Santa Barbara as Plan B.
Northbound, I initially thought no way HWY 1 will be faster than i-5. Then I sat down and calculated charge times, and you are right. The total time ends up being about the same!

Assuming rough charging speeds:
50mi recharge/hr @ 70A
30mi recharge/hr @ NEMA

I-5:
Stop at Buttonwillow. Need 70miles @NEMA ~ 2.5hrs
Stop at Harris Ranch. Full charge @70 ~ 3hrs
Stop at Koa Camp. Need 70miles @NEMA ~ 2.5 hrs
Total: 6hrs drive + 8hrs charge = 14hrs total

HWY 1 @70A:
Stop in Goleta. Need 100mi ~ 2hrs
Stop in SLO. Need 130mi ~ 2.5hrs
Stop in Salinas. Need 120mi ~ 2.5hrs
Total: 7hrs drive + 7hrs charge = 14hrs total

So it is tempting to switch to HWY 1 on the way back as well... In fact, the more I think about it the more I like it, because we'll be going through somewhat major towns, in case one charger is not available, we'll be able to find another or stay overnight. Whereas through I-5, the charging options I selected are somewhat "out there"...

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By the way, do you have the address for Dr. Lloyd Marcum's office? Should I call someone ahead or what's the etiquette?
 
I got lucky when I drove the trip because I found HPCs available at each stop, but that is by no means a given. Do be prepared to wait or use a plan B if you get somewhere and the charging station is occupied. Each location has only one HPC, and since they switched to J-1772 plugs there is a chance that a slow charging car like LEAF, Fiat500e, etc., could be camped out there all day.

Carmel Valley Ranch Lodge is a private club, but when I told the guard gate that I was going in to charge they waved me through. I think a Tesla basically gets you in. They have a nice restaurant and walking paths right next to the HPC. The HPC has native roadster plug still, but they leave a Model S adapter affixed since that it how it is normally used. You can just remove the Model S adapter to plug in the Roadster. The HPC cable has seen better days, and some of the plastic shielding has peeled back and you can see the inside wires going into the Roadster plug. This is a bit disconcerting but it still seems to work fine.

Along with all this, there are some private residences with 70A HPCs along 101 that can also be used if you happen to know those people. Some may show up on plug-share, but you would have to make arrangements with those people to stop at their house if you wanted to do it that way. I tried that with mixed results. One person was very gracious and let me charge at his house, and there was no chance of having another vehicle already using the charge spot. But on the way back it turned out they were out of town and so it wasn't available then. Also, another person said I could use their garage HPC, but again, they ended up being out of town on the day I came through and the location wasn't available after all, but luckily the public HPCs all worked out for me.
 
@slcasner, you bring up a point that, as a new Roadster owner, I have wondered about. If you charge in Range mode and then switch to Standard mode before starting to drive (and how do you do that, exactly?) your post implies that the additional range gained with the Range Mode charge is accessible and usable even though you are driving in Standard Mode. Is that right?

Does charging in Range Mode still cause additional stress on the battery even if you start driving on Standard Mode? Your post seems to imply it does not cause additional stress as long as the driver does not drive "down" into the additional range provided by the Range Mode charge.

Apologies if I am not understanding your post correctly. I'm just trying to understand if there is any harm in charging in Range Mode and then switching to Standard before starting to drive. I thought that the act of charging in Range Mode hastened battery degradation, so that switching to Standard Mode to drive would not change that.

I recommend charging in Range mode, but then switching to Standard mode to drive. When you make that switch, it reduces the displayed range by 25 miles, but you can consider that to be a reserve to be used in case of emergency. Battery wear is reduced if you don't go down into that region. Also, being in Standard mode means you have full acceleration available in case you should need it.

Charging in Range mode delays the tapering of the charge current at the end of the charge, which is particularly useful when charging at 70A. To minimize overall time on the road trip, you always want to start out with a full Range mode charge, then at intermediate stops you want to charge in Range mode until the charge current drops below what your charge current will be at the next stop, presuming that the range is sufficient at that point.
 
Does charging in Range Mode still cause additional stress on the battery even if you start driving on Standard Mode?

Yes, the stress on the battery comes from charging above 4.0V, especially if you let it sit there.

Driving in Range mode just reduces power compared to Standard mode, and doesn't hide the bottom 25 miles of range.

Personally I never understood the point of driving in Range mode - if I want to reduce power I can do that myself on the accelerator. You can get a bigger savings in range by lowering your average speed or by following a truck - the reduced power for acceleration doesn't make that much difference on a long trip.