Council Bluffs, IA, to Independence, MO and Back: Lessons Learned

MSEV · Nov 27, 2015

I have made the trip from Omaha to Kansas City a couple times now. I have made it to the SupC in KC (Independence, MO) with about 10 miles left both times. But I have had problems coming back both times, and both had inclement weather as a part of the problem, as well as me still thinking like an ICE-head and not doing some things correctly. We made it both times, but with problems and L2 stops.

The first time we came back into a 50 mph headwind, lost a lot of energy, took a red herring L2 journey (Learned: don't go to a plugshare site without any history to it because it may not be there), got Tesla help and got to an LW, got enough energy and then on to Council Bluffs SupC and home.

This last time was worse, traveling in rain with decreasing temps. I stopped in St. Joes for an hour to get power, then I had to stop in Nebraska City to make it. I learned: besides slowing down to make it, turn off the heat (HVAC) as much as you can. Our normal trip of about four hours took nine. But more importantly I was thinking I could make the 200 miles from KC SupC to CB SupC in bad weather. And listen to this: the nav system on the Tesla was telling me to go out of my way, all the way over to Topeka and then north to Omaha. I thought that was stupid. But after taking nine hours to go on 29 as I did, I think I could have gone that way, about 50 miles further, but made it in about five hours. Nav wanted me to go get SupC energy on the way, and though it would have been longer, it would have worked better.

I have learned a lot. I, unfortunately, think I taught my son and daughter-in-law to not like EVs.

jerry33 · Nov 27, 2015

Sometimes the short way isn't the fastest way. What you could have done is checked with EVtripplanner.com and put in some variables to simulate your condition. It's pretty accurate if you give it the correct value.

wcfinvader · Nov 28, 2015

MSEV said:
I have made the trip from Omaha to Kansas City a couple times now. I have made it to the SupC in KC (Independence, MO) with about 10 miles left both times. But I have had problems coming back both times, and both had inclement weather as a part of the problem, as well as me still thinking like an ICE-head and not doing some things correctly. We made it both times, but with problems and L2 stops.

The first time we came back into a 50 mph headwind, lost a lot of energy, took a red herring L2 journey (Learned: don't go to a plugshare site without any history to it because it may not be there), got Tesla help and got to an LW, got enough energy and then on to Council Bluffs SupC and home.

This last time was worse, traveling in rain with decreasing temps. I stopped in St. Joes for an hour to get power, then I had to stop in Nebraska City to make it. I learned: besides slowing down to make it, turn off the heat (HVAC) as much as you can. Our normal trip of about four hours took nine. But more importantly I was thinking I could make the 200 miles from KC SupC to CB SupC in bad weather. And listen to this: the nav system on the Tesla was telling me to go out of my way, all the way over to Topeka and then north to Omaha. I thought that was stupid. But after taking nine hours to go on 29 as I did, I think I could have gone that way, about 50 miles further, but made it in about five hours. Nav wanted me to go get SupC energy on the way, and though it would have been longer, it would have worked better.

I have learned a lot. I, unfortunately, think I taught my son and daughter-in-law to not like EVs.

We do this trip every other month. Buy a CHADEMO adapter. There is one on St. Joseph at the HyVee. Though we didn't get it to work last time we tried it plugshare indicates that it has been fixed. There are also stations on the north end 0f the Kansas City Metro.

Here are some trips though:
1. Go slow early and speed up later into your trip when you know you have enough to make it. (We start out no more than 65mph)
2. USE THE TRIP GUIDE! It will continually update. The closer to Iowa you get it'll navigate to the C.B. Supercharger.
3. Use 19" tires.
4. Monitor the Energy graph continually. Last 30 mph average will give you a good idea of how far you will go if you drive same apeed the next 30 miles.
5. There is a small bonus once you get to Iowa. The land flattens out (as you know I'm sure) this results in the energy consumption being less than expected.

This is an electric car with a very newborn Supercharging Network. As the network matures will not need monitor so closely but for now this car has to be driven like an EV not a ICE.
On a final note it is faster to go Independence to Council Bluffs than to go through Topeka even though you cannot do the speed limit the entire way (especially if you're going back north.

wcfinvader · Nov 30, 2015

We just completed the difficult part of the trip last night. We arrived at Independence Supercharger at ~2:30pm and left ~3:30pm. We then decided to top off at the HyVee ChaDEmo 8301 N St Clair Ave in Kansas City. We topped off to 96%. We stopped there since we needed groceries at home anyhow. I believe we left there at 5:30pm or so. Drove home doing ~75mph while on I-29 and 55mph on rural Iowa Highways (Got off on exit 32 in Iowa). So most of the trip doing ~75mph. We cut it a little too close but would have easily made it if we went to the Supercharger in Council Bluffs but wanted to get home instead. We got home with 0 miles at ~8:30pm

glenhurst · Nov 30, 2015

wcfinvader, I notice you have the old-style round speedometer. Is that a configurable option for 7.0, or have you not upgraded yet?

thecloud · Nov 30, 2015

glenhurst said:
wcfinvader, I notice you have the old-style round speedometer. Is that a configurable option for 7.0, or have you not upgraded yet?

That's what 7.0 looks like if your car does not have Autopilot hardware. It's not a configurable option. (There are threads in the Model S : User Interface forum section about this.)

wcfinvader · Dec 1, 2015

thecloud said:
That's what 7.0 looks like if your car does not have Autopilot hardware. It's not a configurable option. (There are threads in the Model S : User Interface forum section about this.)

That is correct. My wife updated it to Version 7.0 but I'm not a fan. I wish we could revert back to the last version. I don't like the look and the heating performs horribly. Our Tesla used to heat up much faster than the leaf now the leaf is the King of heating fast. Pre-Autopilot.

MSEV · Dec 2, 2015

I wanted to be clearer about what my choices were and what the "wrong" choice turned out to be.
I left the SupC at 99% charge in the morning, drove maybe 15 miles to my son's, had (I think) 90% left. (My son's was on the way home from the Independence SupC to the Council Bluffs, IA SupC.) That way, 180 miles on 90% charge took 9 hours with two L2 charge stops, heat off the last leg (32 degrees and dropping) and going 40 mph on the interstate (which was not great and many were slowed but not as slow as us).
The alternative would have meant going 74 mi (IIRC) to Topeka at 65 to 70 mph, get charged up to 100 (let's say 30 min stop at the SupC), then drive home at a minimum of 50 mph (162 mi from Topeka to Council Bluffs SupC).
180 mi with 90% charge VS 162 with 100% charge.
In bad weather, I will pick the longer distance with a SupC (162 with 100% charge) on the way, from now on.

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Council Bluffs, IA, to Independence, MO and Back: Lessons Learned

MSEV

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jerry33

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