Harris Ranch is not working 11/18/14

[napabill]

What are some viable backup options people have used when planning for road trips that require SC usage being unavailable? ICE'd? Crowded? etc...

I have over 30K miles since late 2012, much of which has been on the SC highways. Napa to Tucson several times, Napa to Santa Barbara, Napa to Vancouver, BC. The only problem I've ever encountered has been at Harris Ranch. Had issues shortly after opening in 2013 as well as currently. Consequently I wouldn't worry about SC's being unavailable. If Harris Ranch is in your plans, you might want to divert to 101 and miss it altogether.

As a faithful reader of TMC I don't recall any other instance entire SC's being unavailable. I'm sure someone out there will correct that observation if incorrect.

 

[russman]

For Harris Ranch it lists a HPWC at Shell, but earlier in this thread people are saying it's not there. Is that true? Anyone confirm if it's there?

If you click on a Supercharger on the Tesla Motors Find Us Page, then there are local public charging locations listed for most.

 

[Benjamin Brooks]

For Harris Ranch it lists a HPWC at Shell, but earlier in this thread people are saying it's not there. Is that true? Anyone confirm if it's there?

It's gone

 

[napabill]

It's gone

Surprising as it was really intended for Roadster folk, and I expect still needed.

Bonnie, you lurking?

 

[NoMoGas]

Lloyd I agree and have been hoping for the past year that the Model S would show real time Supercharger status including number of chargers in use. Tesla has that information. They need to make it available to their customers. I realize it will take some work, but it needs to happen.

If I was planning a trip on 5 right now I would seriously consider taking the 101 instead.

I'll go you one better, It should predict availability. EG: Im driving from LA-SF and enter destination in GPS, select route via superchargers (should be able to do that too) then MS could know when I'll be at charger and put that availability info out there. It'd be clunky at first but with time would probably become quite accurate.

 

[wraithnot]

I'm at Harris Ranch charging right now (along with four other Model S's) and I'm pretty impressed with Tesla's response. There are three new superchargers sitting in crates in the parking lot, two reasonably large rental diesel generators and the largest generator I've ever seen. It's in a 30 foot long semi trailer. The big one is running. There is as also a guy hanging out in a PG&E truck. I guess Tesla wants to make extra sure Harris ranch doesn't go down during thanksgiving.

 

[BlueTan85]

Photos if possible! thnx

 

[Larry]

Pic

Here you go

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This whole thing sucked for my family. Tesla was apologetic and sincere but their poor internal communication as well as their delay in letting us know what was going on will hopefully teach them an important lesson-we as owners make the company what it is. They can't keep us in the dark when this happens. After multiple communications with Cal Lankton I do believe they get it. Let's hope they follow through, and I think they will. Cal is embarrassed and a little taken back by what happened so I'll call it growing pains and move on

 

[tga]

I'll go you one better, It should predict availability. EG: Im driving from LA-SF and enter destination in GPS, select route via superchargers (should be able to do that too) then MS could know when I'll be at charger and put that availability info out there. It'd be clunky at first but with time would probably become quite accurate.

With a year or two of usage data under their belts for each station, Tesla could develop a pretty good regression model for each supercharger (based on time of year, weather, location, etc). Ie, I'm guessing it's not to hard to predict that Folsom and Roseville will be pretty busy on a Friday evening in February, after a snowstorm that morning, as hordes of people head to Tahoe from the Bay area.

 

[stevezzzz]

I have over 30K miles since late 2012, much of which has been on the SC highways. Napa to Tucson several times, Napa to Santa Barbara, Napa to Vancouver, BC. The only problem I've ever encountered has been at Harris Ranch. Had issues shortly after opening in 2013 as well as currently. Consequently I wouldn't worry about SC's being unavailable. If Harris Ranch is in your plans, you might want to divert to 101 and miss it altogether.

As a faithful reader of TMC I don't recall any other instance entire SC's being unavailable. I'm sure someone out there will correct that observation if incorrect.

During the road trip from the east coast to TMC Connect, we arrived at Green River, UT to find that one of the two SpC cabinets was out of Service (2 stalls out of four). Then we learned that another Utah SpC, in Beaver, was entirely without power: a lightning strike had caused a power outage for most of the town. The early birds left Green River the next morning with no assurance Beaver would be operational by the time we started arriving. Fortunately, power was restored just a few minutes before the vanguard arrived and it all worked out.

 

[SW2Fiddler]

But power from the generators feeding into the same cabinets are perfectly fine. They don't know what's wrong. To me, it sounds like something is wrong with PG&E power. Noise issue or sagging?

Photos if possible! thnx

Johnny!

 

[RiverBrick]

As a faithful reader of TMC I don't recall any other instance entire SC's being unavailable. I'm sure someone out there will correct that observation if incorrect.

Check the plugshare comments for Mitchell, SD.

Edit: http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/20676

 

[liuping]

One relatively easy thing Tesla Could do very quickly to help travelers would be to share the super charger status with Plugshare. They already give you the availability status for blink charger and some others.

Given the infrequency of Super chargers going down, they could even feed the data to plusher manually when one goes down (I'm sure an alarm goes off somewhere in the home office).

Ulitmately the car should let you know you are heading to a down Supercharger, etc. but that will take months to implement and test. There is likely to be a lot of traveling next week and around Christmas time.

 

[bonnie]

Surprising as it was really intended for Roadster folk, and I expect still needed.

Bonnie, you lurking?

Wait, WHAT? It's gone?

Could someone check that and confirm? That's a well-used Roadster connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

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For Harris Ranch it lists a HPWC at Shell, but earlier in this thread people are saying it's not there. Is that true? Anyone confirm if it's there?

It's gone

Okay, these two comments indicate an HPWC - which would be a Model S connector, not a Roadster connector. Are we getting HPC and HPWC mixed up here? Is the Roadster HPC still at the Shell station? I'm guessing it is and it's a Model S HPWC that is gone. Could someone confirm that, please.

 

[napabill]

Well, I'm off for my semi-annual trek north from Tucson to Napa first thing in the morning. Should be at Tejon, after an overnight in Santa Clarita, about 9:00 or so. Will be monitoring this thread so see if Harris is open. But think I will likely head over to Atascadero just because it's a different, if slightly longer, route.

 

[wraithnot]

Photos if possible! thnx

I walked around the generators, but couldn't find any obvious power ratings or model numbers. The smaller two were similar to what large theme camps at burning man use and said "120 A" if I remember correctly. The larger one was MUCH bigger and was a shorter version (about 30 feet long) of a standard semi trailer. It was very loud and there were a bunch of very fat cables running to the superchargers.

edit: a couple of hours later, we saw Steve Wozniak at the Tejon ranch superchargers. We were waiting for a spot and he waved at us to indicate he was leaving. Then he got in a white Model S with "BATT CZY" plates and drove off. My wife didn't believe it was really him until she googled it and found a photo of him standing next to the same car with the same plates.

 

[dpeilow]

Wait, WHAT? It's gone?

Could someone check that and confirm? That's a well-used Roadster connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

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Okay, these two comments indicate an HPWC - which would be a Model S connector, not a Roadster connector. Are we getting HPC and HPWC mixed up here? Is the Roadster HPC still at the Shell station? I'm guessing it is and it's a Model S HPWC that is gone. Could someone confirm that, please.

By the time I was rolling out the UK Roadster network, Tesla were using the term HPWC for the Roadster version too, so I wouldn't be so sure.

 

[Benjamin Brooks]

Wait, WHAT? It's gone?

Could someone check that and confirm? That's a well-used Roadster connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

- - - Updated - - -





Okay, these two comments indicate an HPWC - which would be a Model S connector, not a Roadster connector. Are we getting HPC and HPWC mixed up here? Is the Roadster HPC still at the Shell station? I'm guessing it is and it's a Model S HPWC that is gone. Could someone confirm that, please.

The HPC, which also had an S adapter, is gone. along with the single supercharger stall that was next to it

 

[TEG]

The HPC, which also had an S adapter, is gone...

Subliminal message from Tesla?:
We want you to buy a Model S and put the Roadster in a museum?

 

[pgiralt]

I walked around the generators, but couldn't find any obvious power ratings or model numbers. The smaller two were similar to what large theme camps at burning man use and said "120 A" if I remember correctly. The larger one was MUCH bigger and was a shorter version (about 30 feet long) of a standard semi trailer. It was very loud and there were a bunch of very fat cables running to the superchargers.

edit: a couple of hours later, we saw Steve Wozniak at the Tejon ranch superchargers. We were waiting for a spot and he waved at us to indicate he was leaving. Then he got in a white Model S with "BATT CZY" plates and drove off. My wife didn't believe it was really him until she googled it and found a photo of him standing next to the same car with the same plates.

The longer one you describe is probably a 2MW generator. The smaller one in the picture above looks like a 1MW just judging by the size.