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Supercharger - Gila Bend, AZ

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Now on the website map, but currently have associated the wrong map red dot with Gila Bend. With the slider in the "Open Now" position, the dot is actually for the site "somewhere near Casa Grande" between Tucson and Phoenix. Moving the slider to "Coming Soon" toggles on the dot at the Gila Bend location.

Regardless, it was fun to use the charger on Saturday and confirm it is alive!

I think you saw a different version of the map than I did at the time. I now see the other dot you're referring too. I'll try and reach out to my contact to have it fixed.
 
Charged at Gila Bend on Friday on the way to San Diego
 

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Charged at Gila Bend on Friday on the way to San Diego

Nice shot; good to see Gila Bend in use. Gila Bend is right behind San Juan Capistrano in delay for Transformer connection. The difference is that there are a lot more MS's cruising by San Juan Capistrano than Gila Bend.

I would love to hear about your Yuma to San Diego experience. That's a big climb out of the desert, usually into the wind. It sure will be nice when El Centro goes on-line!
 
Nice shot; good to see Gila Bend in use. Gila Bend is right behind San Juan Capistrano in delay for Transformer connection. The difference is that there are a lot more MS's cruising by San Juan Capistrano than Gila Bend.

I would love to hear about your Yuma to San Diego experience. That's a big climb out of the desert, usually into the wind. It sure will be nice when El Centro goes on-line!

Definitely doable in a 85 doing the speed limit with plenty of margin! evtripper seemed to be a bit inaccurate, I used about 215 Rated and it had forcasted 250~. Had a great trip this past weekend (minus Cars2Go nightmare in San Diego).
 
Definitely doable in a 85 doing the speed limit with plenty of margin! evtripper seemed to be a bit inaccurate, I used about 215 Rated and it had forcasted 250~. Had a great trip this past weekend (minus Cars2Go nightmare in San Diego).

Datapoint: My last trip from Yuma -> SD, we left Yuma with 269 range. I pegged the cruise at 70mph, headwind vector around 20-30 mph per KIPL, and arrived on Coronado Island with 35 miles left. Drank great beer and ate the special at Coronado Brewery while charging at a level 2 nearby, then on we went :)

Your range drops like a rock climbing out of the windmills - especially with a 30kt headwind in those canyons - but you make it back on the other side. Definitely El Centro would be nice even for 85's though, because as pleasant as the supercharger location in Yuma is, it does take a while to get those extra miles on. By pleasant I'm referring to the park down there, not the sewage treatment plant over that way.
 
My Yuma to SD was a bit more nerve racking. I didn't totally top off, and wish I had. I left Yuma with 255 miles, arrived on Shelter Island with 37 miles left. On the flat part out of Yuma, I went around 70 (vs. the 80 I would have normally done), as I was worried about the hill. Going up the hill I dropped down to 65 and 60....was trying to keep the dash indicator below 40kw (not sure why....but that was what my gut told me). My husband was going nuts saying 'this is embarrassing!!! I go faster than this on xyz road (by our house)." Going down hill, I put it into Neutral when I could and let it get as fast as it wanted (safely) - often over 90mph. Passed many of the folks who had passed me, which added to my husband's embarrassment ;-)
Anyway...coming home seemed much better - as there seems to be more down than up on the way back, and...you get the hill out of the way, so you can easier manage your energy on the flat part. Left with 262, arrived Yuma with 41, and I drove faster the entire way. It was certainly an adventure.....not to mention the charging once you got there. Then need a SC there, for sure!!! And...El Centro would be nice too.
 
My Yuma to SD was a bit more nerve racking. I didn't totally top off, and wish I had. I left Yuma with 255 miles, arrived on Shelter Island with 37 miles left. On the flat part out of Yuma, I went around 70 (vs. the 80 I would have normally done), as I was worried about the hill. Going up the hill I dropped down to 65 and 60....was trying to keep the dash indicator below 40kw (not sure why....but that was what my gut told me). My husband was going nuts saying 'this is embarrassing!!! I go faster than this on xyz road (by our house)." Going down hill, I put it into Neutral when I could and let it get as fast as it wanted (safely) - often over 90mph. Passed many of the folks who had passed me, which added to my husband's embarrassment ;-)
Anyway...coming home seemed much better - as there seems to be more down than up on the way back, and...you get the hill out of the way, so you can easier manage your energy on the flat part. Left with 262, arrived Yuma with 41, and I drove faster the entire way. It was certainly an adventure.....not to mention the charging once you got there. Then need a SC there, for sure!!! And...El Centro would be nice too.

I think it takes a bit to get more and more comfortable with the range. Especially when using EVTripper. The more trips I take the less anxious I am while driving. I just use evtripper, put in the speedmultiplier and add 10% for comfort and it's been pretty close or a bit over every time. Once el centro is up the trip will be so much faster and stress free.
 
I've been curious what the hook up between the power lines and the transformer LOOKED like since my visit to Gila Bend AZ superchargers many, many months ago. PHOTOS... they are my favorite! ... here are a few photos of the power pole and surrounding area from earlier this morning 8-16-2014. The last time I was there was when the supercharging pedestals were awaiting the utility transformer.

Check out page four of this thread to see the power pole prior to the Utility transformer being in place.

For fans of Cordes Junction AZ: I think a part of the Utility electrical work, at least the part down the pole, has been completed so I think all we are waiting on at Cordes Junction AZ is the Utility transformer itself, some trenching across the road {or torpedoing under the road} and final hook up and systems checks!!

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Gila Bend indicating 'temporarily closed' on my cars nav screen. I have not checked with Tesla as to Why or When it will be open.

Please check with Tesla if you are traveling through this area today.

I wonder if this is related to the Cabazon outage and optimistically, I'm thinking that maybe they are installing some new type of supercharger technology (possibly higher kW or maybe installing solar?) and for whatever reason wanted to try it out first in warm weather climates. Picking these two locations and this time of year (waiting till after the potentially cold part of winter) would make sense.
 
Was getting 20-50kw max a couple months ago and reported it to Tesla. This status has been on the nav screen since, though I haven't charged here since to confirm you get any juice at all

I called Tesla Wednesday night (roadside assistance number)to see if they had a status update on this. I was told that they would call or email me the next day with an update.....But they never responded. Anyone else want to give them a ring too?
 
Charged here on March 10th. Arrived with high state of charge and received about 85 kW charge rate with normal taper. Was at the charger for maybe 10-15 minutes and charged from 194 -> 229 rated miles (gain of 35 miles). This was at stall "1B".

Charged here on March 14th. Arrived with 75 rated miles. Charge rate was 105 kW for about 3 minutes. Then charge rate suddenly dropped to 30 kW.....then 25 kW. In 10 minutes, I gained only 25 miles - even with the battery at a low state of charge. Would have been much less if I didn't get the 105 kW for the first 3 minutes. This was at stall "3A".

Definitely a problem at this location. Not sure if the stall matters or not. I didn't try moving because I had enough to reach Buckeye.

Model S 90D

I called Tesla again before the trip and they indicated that this charger will "probably" work, but might be very slow. They said if a single car is charging it may be slow. If multiple cars are charging, it might be really painfully slow. Claimed that they are having a problem with the utility company and have been in meetings trying to fix this.

Hope this helps!
 
Charged here today despite it being listed as "out of service" in the nav. I did get a nearly full charge in Yuma just in case I needed to make it to Buckeye, but as it turned out, I didn't need to.

I believe I was on stall 3A, but I'm going by memory. I pulled in with about 30% strength of charge and immediately got 100+kW which seemed totally normal. But then after about 5-10 minutes it slowly dropped to about 40kW. I simply unplugged and plugged in again and was back up around 100kW. This time it seemed to taper normally. I think it was still up around 60kW when I unplugged at about 70% strength of charge.
 
Was through here the past weekend on my first road trip. One stall wouldn't light up the LED's in the charging ring on my car when charging so I moved and all was well. We stopped there on the way back and got some great Mexican food to go from Sofia's just over a mile up the road. pulled out some chairs and sat in the shade while charging enjoying a better lunch than Carls..
 
Was through here the past weekend on my first road trip. One stall wouldn't light up the LED's in the charging ring on my car when charging so I moved and all was well. We stopped there on the way back and got some great Mexican food to go from Sofia's just over a mile up the road. pulled out some chairs and sat in the shade while charging enjoying a better lunch than Carls..

I hope you notified Tesla Supercharger support to inform them of this outage. :)