This won't be terribly informative for most long time owners, but I thought I'd share my weekend trip into the very epicenter of the Great Southern Supercharger Desert over the weekend.
I've had an 85D for about two months, on 19" wheels.
I live in Memphis, which is the largest (at least until the Nashville Supercharger opens hopefully in the next day or so) metropolitan area in the U.S. which isn't within range of a supercharger. El Paso, Texas will assume that honor I believe when Nashville opens.
I've made the trip to Nashville, which is straightforward, but I wouldn't want to do it in very cold or bad weather, or at the speeds I might have used during my largely misspent youth.
To my west, though, is the absolute core of the desert. Just look at the coverage circles on the Teslamotors website. Even Plugshare.com is no help in the region around Heber Springs, AR.
Heber Springs is a small resort/tourist town next to the Greers Ferry Dam, which annually generates almost 200 Gigawatts of renewable electricity. My mission was to drive to Heber Springs, and find some way to get enough of the power into my Tesla to get me safely home.
My brother has a house in Heber, but I was unable to find any public charging before I left, and his house has all the 220 circuits on the opposite side and uphill from the driveway. Steep terrain made charging at his house unfeasible. fortunately, His down the hill neighbor graciously allowed the use of her 30 amp dryer circuit. Armed with a cell phone photo of the outlet I went to Home Depot and cobbled up an adaptor, which I tested on my own dryer circuit before leaving.
It took 161 road miles at an average of 55-60 mph with a brisk crosswind and mild temps. Most of the driving was on rural 2-lane roads, with some stretches of 4-lane interstate and some stretches of twisty mountain roads with switchbacks. This consumed a little over 170 rated miles over about 3 hours.
The dryer circuit worked well, if a little slowly at 18 m/hr of charge. I saw several RV parks that would have been good emergency backups, but none were convenient to my destination. We charged for about 5 hours while boating and going out to eat.
we launched for home with 196 rated miles, and arrived with just over 30 (11%). Conditions on the return were close to ideal, with mild temp around 70, light traffic, and light winds. We average a little faster, mostly between 60 and 65 coming home.
As many others have said, the Model S is an excellent road car, although the charging infrastructure still requires more planning than an ICE trip.
We ate at the Request Rejected, which I think would be an excellent site for a destination charger. If you are inclined and live within a few hundred mile of north central Arkansas, please hit the link and see if it's someplace you might visit in your Tesla. If so send them an email, or answer this thread or PM me so I can use it to bolster my case as I try to convince them (and Tesla) to put in a HPWC.
The link should be redappleinn followed by a dot com. I suspect it got auto moderated as "advertising" but my intent here is more to bolster support for a destination charger. I have no connection the the Red Apple Inn other than as a semi regular customer...
I've had an 85D for about two months, on 19" wheels.
I live in Memphis, which is the largest (at least until the Nashville Supercharger opens hopefully in the next day or so) metropolitan area in the U.S. which isn't within range of a supercharger. El Paso, Texas will assume that honor I believe when Nashville opens.
I've made the trip to Nashville, which is straightforward, but I wouldn't want to do it in very cold or bad weather, or at the speeds I might have used during my largely misspent youth.
To my west, though, is the absolute core of the desert. Just look at the coverage circles on the Teslamotors website. Even Plugshare.com is no help in the region around Heber Springs, AR.
Heber Springs is a small resort/tourist town next to the Greers Ferry Dam, which annually generates almost 200 Gigawatts of renewable electricity. My mission was to drive to Heber Springs, and find some way to get enough of the power into my Tesla to get me safely home.
My brother has a house in Heber, but I was unable to find any public charging before I left, and his house has all the 220 circuits on the opposite side and uphill from the driveway. Steep terrain made charging at his house unfeasible. fortunately, His down the hill neighbor graciously allowed the use of her 30 amp dryer circuit. Armed with a cell phone photo of the outlet I went to Home Depot and cobbled up an adaptor, which I tested on my own dryer circuit before leaving.
It took 161 road miles at an average of 55-60 mph with a brisk crosswind and mild temps. Most of the driving was on rural 2-lane roads, with some stretches of 4-lane interstate and some stretches of twisty mountain roads with switchbacks. This consumed a little over 170 rated miles over about 3 hours.
The dryer circuit worked well, if a little slowly at 18 m/hr of charge. I saw several RV parks that would have been good emergency backups, but none were convenient to my destination. We charged for about 5 hours while boating and going out to eat.
we launched for home with 196 rated miles, and arrived with just over 30 (11%). Conditions on the return were close to ideal, with mild temp around 70, light traffic, and light winds. We average a little faster, mostly between 60 and 65 coming home.
As many others have said, the Model S is an excellent road car, although the charging infrastructure still requires more planning than an ICE trip.
We ate at the Request Rejected, which I think would be an excellent site for a destination charger. If you are inclined and live within a few hundred mile of north central Arkansas, please hit the link and see if it's someplace you might visit in your Tesla. If so send them an email, or answer this thread or PM me so I can use it to bolster my case as I try to convince them (and Tesla) to put in a HPWC.
The link should be redappleinn followed by a dot com. I suspect it got auto moderated as "advertising" but my intent here is more to bolster support for a destination charger. I have no connection the the Red Apple Inn other than as a semi regular customer...
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