How many times have you used the NEMA 6-50 and TT-30 away from home?
My point is, while sure, having every option is the "safe" solution, reality is that the are used somewhere between rarely and never.
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Do I have to buy and carry extra charger in the car for long trips?
- Thread starter paracha3
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My point is, while sure, having every option is the "safe" solution, reality is that the are used somewhere between rarely and never.
I'm not quite sure the context of your question.
Nominally the 12/16 battery is charged periodically from the big battery and it's not a problem.
But if something happens to the charging mechanism, then the 12/16 battery isn't charged and because, as in any vehicle, there's always something drawing a little current, the battery can go to volts (or at least very low).
If and only if the 12/16 battery is low, then you can use the jumper points in the front bumper to open the frunk, get access to the battery, charge the batter, and then power the computers back up so that you can do something to the car?
legendsk
Member
Agreed. For routine driving and you have charging at home, (like a wall connector), no need for adapters. For a trip of a few thousand miles and several states, to visit the kids or friends and stay with friends and family and B&Bs, perhaps a motel or 3 and like Star Trek, go where no one has gone before, having the full rack of adapters is very comforting.
NEMA 6-50 never away from home (but all the time at home).
TT-30 used a few times on a road trip because I knew I would be at a campground with TT-30 (and a few NEMA 14-50 that tend to fill up quickly, so cannot be counted on).
Note that I do not have all of the adapters and plugs that I listed previously as being possibly useful. I only have the following:
- J1772 adapter -- came with the car.
- NEMA 5-15 -- came with the Mobile Connector that came with the car at the time.
- NEMA 6-50.
- NEMA 14-50.
- NEMA 14-30.
- Adapter with NEMA 14-30R and TT-30P.
howardnj
Member
I have all of the above as well as a CC1 adapter and a 30 foot extension cord. Never had a need to use any except the CC1 adapter in 30k miles and seven round trips from N.J to Florida. I only camp at Marriott properties that have hot showers, comfortable beds, indoor pools, fitness centers and a free breakfast.
I also have AAA.
smogne41
Active Member
NEVER try and revive one of the Tesla 12 V Lithium batteries. They are one and done:
Context would be coming back to my taxicab to find myself locked out due to the toplight and my tablet and eftpos machine draining the 12V to no go voltage.
I can get in with the 9V trick and power it back up off the jump pack I intend to carry in the frunk.
Then what? I can run around on the kickstarted 12V and it may or may not be revived by the car but so long as it stays in sentry mode it won't shut me out again.
Are you saying the lithium 12V will only die if the car has a fault in the charger? Seems like that should be the case with a big giant battery to keep it up.
What concerns me is the number of times I have seen the Prius guys phaffing around with dead 12V, likely due to the taxi gear constant load. They have a fairly chunky main battery too which the car engine always keeps a charge in.
I could do better to chuck a USB power pack in the centre glovebox to do it all and leave the MY power out of it. But that is one more charging chore to do of an evening and another expense I could do without, and more wires. If I only have to be concerned with a fault in the 12V Lithium charger I won't bother.
I am a bit mystified. I would never hack into a battery to recharge it.
Are you saying the car could have a go and have the same result once jump started?
FastEddieB
Member
I may be repeating myself, but when road tripping I think the best bailout adapter is the 14-50.
If unusual circumstances arrive and there’s no Supercharger or other charging option within reasonable range, just type “campground” into navigation, navigate there and offer the manager a small but reasonable amount to charge for an hour or whatever is needed. I’ve not yet needed to do it, but I suspect many campground managers would let you do it for free.
And it might be an unusual exception, but on one trip we found 6-50P receptacles at two friend’s houses that we had no adapter for. I purchased the below adapter which we’ve already had occasion to use twice:
If unusual circumstances arrive and there’s no Supercharger or other charging option within reasonable range, just type “campground” into navigation, navigate there and offer the manager a small but reasonable amount to charge for an hour or whatever is needed. I’ve not yet needed to do it, but I suspect many campground managers would let you do it for free.
And it might be an unusual exception, but on one trip we found 6-50P receptacles at two friend’s houses that we had no adapter for. I purchased the below adapter which we’ve already had occasion to use twice:
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How are your accessories wired in and how much to they draw? It could be possible that the car can't keep up with them. Since they evidently stay on, that suggested that they are wired where the car can't really see them.
A 12V battery doesn't like going to 0. From my experience, you get about 3 times before the battery is toast. So since it seems to be happening regularly, you probably have a bad battery.
You may want to find a way to make the equipment turn off when the car shuts down.
I may be repeating myself, but when road tripping I think the best bailout adapter is the 14-50.
If unusual circumstances arrive and there’s no Supercharger or other charging option within reasonable range, just type “campground” into navigation, navigate there and offer the manager a small but reasonable amount to charge for an hour or whatever is needed. I’ve not yet needed to do it, but I suspect many campground managers would let you do it for free.
And it might be an unusual exception, but on one trip we found 6-50P receptacles at two friend’s houses that we had no adapter for. I purchased the below adapter which we’ve already had occasion to use twice:
What was your friend's expected use of the plug? 240V portable heater?
FastEddieB
Member
Welder in one case. Unsure of the other. Both outlets pretty conveniently mounted in the garage.
Oh, well no, that's not a thing that happens. Whether the car is on or off, it ALWAYS will activate and draw from the huge main battery pack to refill the small battery as often as needed. So if you're just talking about these little low voltage 12V loads, the car can be left alone for several weeks with just that stuff and be fine.
Again, not needed. If there is any energy left in the main battery to drive around on like that, it won't let the small 12V battery go flat.
Right, this is the only condition that is a problem--if the 12V battery simply cannot be recharged at all. That could be one of two reasons: if the 12V battery itself has gone bad and defective, so it can't receive a charge, or if the charging circuit in the car has gotten a failure of some kind so it can't supply any charging power.
In either of those cases, I think you have to just chalk it up to a rare failure case that might happen. But it's not like the "battery running down" scenario you seem to be trying to prepare against. The car won't let that happen as long as there isn't something actually broken.
(And yes, I know some cars have 16V and some have 12V. I'm just using the old traditional "12V" terminology for simplicity's sake.)
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