My fiancee and I took a first ever ten days road trip with the Y last week. We went from the Bay Area to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Overall, it was a great experience trip, can't wait to do something like it again.
I did run into an issue though towards the end of the trip with supercharging which I will elaborate below.
Just going to go over some of my thoughts regarding the trip with the Y and what to keep in mind if you decide to take a road trip in your Y and you're planning to sleep in it.
We spent eight of the nights in RV Parks and two nights in hotels. When we slept in the Y, we used the Tesmat mattress and their bedsheet:
TESMAT
I'm driving a Performance model Y with 20" induction wheels. I drove the car on "chill mode" the whole trip.
The Good:
Overall the trip was awesome! I drove and used FSD/AP on the way there and back.
I used TeslaFi to log the trip here:
I think autopilot is amazing, it made the drive to the parks less stressful and I wasn't tired at the end of the day. It also allowed me to enjoy the scenery a lot more. Each way took about 16hrs (Including charging) and 923 miles to get to Wyoming so I decided to split drive to two days (500 miles first day and 400 miles the following), there and back. I used BetterRoutePlanner to see where to charge and how long to charge for. I charge a bit more than what the app suggested so it'd give me more less range anxiety since this is our first ever EV roadtrip. I found that the Tesla estimation of how much battery is left at the destination is more accurate than BetterRoutePlanner.
I did not use AP in the national parks because of the wildlife and potholes which AP can't avoid.
Camp mode was really useful, adjusted the temperature really well during the night as the temperature in the parks fluctuated from 70F to 30s throughout the day. It also snowed for one day in Yellowstone and the heat pump was working great.
Range in Yellowstone:
I was able to drive around in Yellowstone without having to worry about the range. I charge the car up to 95% each day and I got back to the RV parks with 40%-50% battery left at the end of the day. It's also really efficient to drive in Yellowstone since the speed limit doesn't go over 45mph so with the Y I was getting 110% efficiency in the park. I didn't charge inside the park at all with the Y, there are a couple places you can charge though, you can find them on Plugshare. The RV parks we stayed at are 3 - 22 miles away from the park.
Car is a great convo starter, even from a 6ft distance away.
The Bad:
Most of the RV parks have gravel, which doesn't sound nice when I heard the rocks hitting the car. There's also a major road work being done north of West Yellowstone right now so it's about half of mile of gravel driving. I do have full frontal PPF and ceramic coating done on the car but those rocks really like the rocker panels. I got some minuscule rock chips on the rocker panels which I got some touch up paint for to fix. Might get PPF done for the rocker panels.
Camp mode allows the car to be on and open all the time but it turns the sentry mode off, not sure why. I wish Tesla could give us the option to turn it back on, just in case something happens while we're sleeping in the car and I don't have wake up to save the footage.
Tesmat mattress- the mattress is nicely designed in terms of being compact and easy to store but it's not very comfortable if you're a side sleeper like me, took some time adjusted to. I think next time I'll get a padded topper on it to see if it'll help with the comfort. The whole trip we left the mattress and bed sheets setup, didn't bother to pack it up because it would become a hassle especially when there are a ton of bugs flying around
Windshield wiper is a hit or miss when it's set on auto. Sometimes it doesn't turn on when it's raining. Sometimes it's going at full speed when it's only a drizzle but when it's pouring it's going slow as hell. I don't know how many times I had to press the left stalk button myself to turn it on and get it going.
Rare or non-existent reception in the park so be sure to download the apps for Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park. Also download the offline maps for Google maps or your navigation app because that will come in handy to let you find places around the park you want to go to.
Sleeping in the RV parks means sharing public bathroom and shower facilities so make sure to bring your own cleaning supplies, toiletries, and towels especially during this time. Not all of them are clean and not everyone is mindful of social distancing/wearing masks.
The Ugly: Charging Equipment At Fault
Thankfully this happened on the way back of our trip. While I was supercharging the Y at Twin Falls, Idaho, I noticed the Y would charge a few minutes then stop completely, then start again. I thought it was a stall issue so I moved to a different one. It happened again twice but I was able to finish charging and started driving again.
When we got to Elko, Nevada supercharger, I plugged the car in at an open stall. I got three beeps and the error message "Charging Equipment at Fault".
I reset the car once and moved to the stall next to me. Same issue. I moved to a stall next to a charging car. Same issue.
This is when I started having anxiety set in because I only had 9% battery left.
I put in a roadside assistance request on the app and someone reached out via text. We went through power cycling the car (Controls > Safety and Security > Power off. Wait two mins, then open door). Same issue. Then the agent asked me to go to Walmart across the street because there are free charging there. Nope, turns out it's Electrify America chargers and I don't have a chademo adapter. Now I'm down to 7%. I went into Walmart and got a dust blower, went back to the supercharger, tried to clean the port, and no luck.
Agent then suggested to try a destination charger or the mobile connector. I went to Ledgestone hotel nearby with 6% left and thankfully that worked and started charging. We stayed there for the night. The next day I charged the car to 100% and then drove 2 hours and charge for 4 hours in Winnemuca, drive for 2 and a half more hours, charge for 6.5 hours in Reno. And finally made it home at 2am in the morning.
I have an appointment this Thursday to take a look at the issue. I'm assuming the DC charging module blew out on the car and that the charge port needs to be replaced.
If level 2 or AC charging didn't work, the car would need to be towed to the nearest service center.. Salt Lake City or Reno.
I realized that without supercharging is very inconvenient, especially when you're on a road trip and you're in the middle of nowhere.
Verdict:
I'm glad this didn't happen in the beginning of the trip or when I was in Yellowstone, if it did, my confidence level in another EV trip could be really different.
I hope it'll be a simple fix and I am looking forward to our next adventure with the Y!
Some Trip Pictures:
Here is our itinerary for the trip in case people are interested, I also included the charging options they provide-
Day 1
June 12th - 13th
Double Dice RV Park
3730 E. Idaho St.
Elko, NV. 89801
NEMA 14-50
Day 2
June 13th - June 14th
Anvil Hotel
215 N Cache St, Jackson, WY, 83001
Day 3 - 5
June 14th - 16th
Signal Mountain Campground
Signal Mountain Campground electric spots. (First come first serve). We got spot 29. Be sure to go at 7am-8am and find one of these spots for plug in-
1: 30 Foot Camper
2: 30 Foot Camper Electric
3: 30 Foot Camper Electric
5: 20 Foot Camper Electric
6: 20 Foot Camper Electric
7: 30 Foot Camper Full Hook-ups (The Gem)
9: 30 Foot Camper Electric
11&12: 20 Foot Camper Electric
20: 20 Foot Camper Electric
22&23 Van Electric
26: 30 Foot Camper Electric
28: 25 Foot Camper Electric
29: Van Electric (Spot we got)
30: Van Electric
33: 20 Foot Camper Electric
34: 20 Foot Camper Electric
35: 25 Foot Camper Electric
36: 30 Foot Camper Electric
NEMA 14-50
Day 6
June 16th - 17th
Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park & Cabins
210 S Electric St
West Yellowstone MT 59758
NEMA 14-50
Day 7
June 17th - 18th
Yellowstone RV Park
121 Hwy 89 s
Gardiner MT 59030
NEMA TT-30 and 120v.
Day 8 - 9
June 18th - 20th
Yellowstone Holiday Resort Lakeside
16990 Hebgen Lake Road, West Yellowstone, Montana 59758, United States
P11 Spot (Lake view)
NEMA 14-50
Day 10
June 20th - 21st
Head Home
Ledgestone Hotel
Elko, NV
Destination Charger
Happy road tripping everyone! Stay safe!
I did run into an issue though towards the end of the trip with supercharging which I will elaborate below.
Just going to go over some of my thoughts regarding the trip with the Y and what to keep in mind if you decide to take a road trip in your Y and you're planning to sleep in it.
We spent eight of the nights in RV Parks and two nights in hotels. When we slept in the Y, we used the Tesmat mattress and their bedsheet:
TESMAT
I'm driving a Performance model Y with 20" induction wheels. I drove the car on "chill mode" the whole trip.
The Trip
The Good:
Overall the trip was awesome! I drove and used FSD/AP on the way there and back.
I used TeslaFi to log the trip here:
I think autopilot is amazing, it made the drive to the parks less stressful and I wasn't tired at the end of the day. It also allowed me to enjoy the scenery a lot more. Each way took about 16hrs (Including charging) and 923 miles to get to Wyoming so I decided to split drive to two days (500 miles first day and 400 miles the following), there and back. I used BetterRoutePlanner to see where to charge and how long to charge for. I charge a bit more than what the app suggested so it'd give me more less range anxiety since this is our first ever EV roadtrip. I found that the Tesla estimation of how much battery is left at the destination is more accurate than BetterRoutePlanner.
I did not use AP in the national parks because of the wildlife and potholes which AP can't avoid.
Camp mode was really useful, adjusted the temperature really well during the night as the temperature in the parks fluctuated from 70F to 30s throughout the day. It also snowed for one day in Yellowstone and the heat pump was working great.
Range in Yellowstone:
I was able to drive around in Yellowstone without having to worry about the range. I charge the car up to 95% each day and I got back to the RV parks with 40%-50% battery left at the end of the day. It's also really efficient to drive in Yellowstone since the speed limit doesn't go over 45mph so with the Y I was getting 110% efficiency in the park. I didn't charge inside the park at all with the Y, there are a couple places you can charge though, you can find them on Plugshare. The RV parks we stayed at are 3 - 22 miles away from the park.
Car is a great convo starter, even from a 6ft distance away.
The Bad:
Most of the RV parks have gravel, which doesn't sound nice when I heard the rocks hitting the car. There's also a major road work being done north of West Yellowstone right now so it's about half of mile of gravel driving. I do have full frontal PPF and ceramic coating done on the car but those rocks really like the rocker panels. I got some minuscule rock chips on the rocker panels which I got some touch up paint for to fix. Might get PPF done for the rocker panels.
Camp mode allows the car to be on and open all the time but it turns the sentry mode off, not sure why. I wish Tesla could give us the option to turn it back on, just in case something happens while we're sleeping in the car and I don't have wake up to save the footage.
Tesmat mattress- the mattress is nicely designed in terms of being compact and easy to store but it's not very comfortable if you're a side sleeper like me, took some time adjusted to. I think next time I'll get a padded topper on it to see if it'll help with the comfort. The whole trip we left the mattress and bed sheets setup, didn't bother to pack it up because it would become a hassle especially when there are a ton of bugs flying around
Windshield wiper is a hit or miss when it's set on auto. Sometimes it doesn't turn on when it's raining. Sometimes it's going at full speed when it's only a drizzle but when it's pouring it's going slow as hell. I don't know how many times I had to press the left stalk button myself to turn it on and get it going.
Rare or non-existent reception in the park so be sure to download the apps for Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park. Also download the offline maps for Google maps or your navigation app because that will come in handy to let you find places around the park you want to go to.
Sleeping in the RV parks means sharing public bathroom and shower facilities so make sure to bring your own cleaning supplies, toiletries, and towels especially during this time. Not all of them are clean and not everyone is mindful of social distancing/wearing masks.
The Ugly: Charging Equipment At Fault
Thankfully this happened on the way back of our trip. While I was supercharging the Y at Twin Falls, Idaho, I noticed the Y would charge a few minutes then stop completely, then start again. I thought it was a stall issue so I moved to a different one. It happened again twice but I was able to finish charging and started driving again.
When we got to Elko, Nevada supercharger, I plugged the car in at an open stall. I got three beeps and the error message "Charging Equipment at Fault".
I reset the car once and moved to the stall next to me. Same issue. I moved to a stall next to a charging car. Same issue.
This is when I started having anxiety set in because I only had 9% battery left.
I put in a roadside assistance request on the app and someone reached out via text. We went through power cycling the car (Controls > Safety and Security > Power off. Wait two mins, then open door). Same issue. Then the agent asked me to go to Walmart across the street because there are free charging there. Nope, turns out it's Electrify America chargers and I don't have a chademo adapter. Now I'm down to 7%. I went into Walmart and got a dust blower, went back to the supercharger, tried to clean the port, and no luck.
Agent then suggested to try a destination charger or the mobile connector. I went to Ledgestone hotel nearby with 6% left and thankfully that worked and started charging. We stayed there for the night. The next day I charged the car to 100% and then drove 2 hours and charge for 4 hours in Winnemuca, drive for 2 and a half more hours, charge for 6.5 hours in Reno. And finally made it home at 2am in the morning.
I have an appointment this Thursday to take a look at the issue. I'm assuming the DC charging module blew out on the car and that the charge port needs to be replaced.
If level 2 or AC charging didn't work, the car would need to be towed to the nearest service center.. Salt Lake City or Reno.
I realized that without supercharging is very inconvenient, especially when you're on a road trip and you're in the middle of nowhere.
Verdict:
I'm glad this didn't happen in the beginning of the trip or when I was in Yellowstone, if it did, my confidence level in another EV trip could be really different.
I hope it'll be a simple fix and I am looking forward to our next adventure with the Y!
Some Trip Pictures:
Here is our itinerary for the trip in case people are interested, I also included the charging options they provide-
Day 1
June 12th - 13th
Double Dice RV Park
3730 E. Idaho St.
Elko, NV. 89801
NEMA 14-50
Day 2
June 13th - June 14th
Anvil Hotel
215 N Cache St, Jackson, WY, 83001
Day 3 - 5
June 14th - 16th
Signal Mountain Campground
Signal Mountain Campground electric spots. (First come first serve). We got spot 29. Be sure to go at 7am-8am and find one of these spots for plug in-
1: 30 Foot Camper
2: 30 Foot Camper Electric
3: 30 Foot Camper Electric
5: 20 Foot Camper Electric
6: 20 Foot Camper Electric
7: 30 Foot Camper Full Hook-ups (The Gem)
9: 30 Foot Camper Electric
11&12: 20 Foot Camper Electric
20: 20 Foot Camper Electric
22&23 Van Electric
26: 30 Foot Camper Electric
28: 25 Foot Camper Electric
29: Van Electric (Spot we got)
30: Van Electric
33: 20 Foot Camper Electric
34: 20 Foot Camper Electric
35: 25 Foot Camper Electric
36: 30 Foot Camper Electric
NEMA 14-50
Day 6
June 16th - 17th
Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park & Cabins
210 S Electric St
West Yellowstone MT 59758
NEMA 14-50
Day 7
June 17th - 18th
Yellowstone RV Park
121 Hwy 89 s
Gardiner MT 59030
NEMA TT-30 and 120v.
Day 8 - 9
June 18th - 20th
Yellowstone Holiday Resort Lakeside
16990 Hebgen Lake Road, West Yellowstone, Montana 59758, United States
P11 Spot (Lake view)
NEMA 14-50
Day 10
June 20th - 21st
Head Home
Ledgestone Hotel
Elko, NV
Destination Charger
Happy road tripping everyone! Stay safe!
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