# Just Completed a 30 Day 6,560 mi Road Trip in My Model 3



## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

This is our second long road trip, last summer about 2,600 miles. We traveled from Riverside, CA (I10) to Phoenix, then up to I40, on to Dallas, TX, then to Nashville, TN where we spent a week, then down to Sarasota, FL where we spent 4 days, then to New Smyrna Beach, FL for a night and back to Sarasota for another 4 days and subsequently to Houston and on to home on the I10. I drove with NoAP or EAP for about 85% of the trip. I was on software version 2019.24.4 for the entire trip.

A few important lessons learned. I almost always ignore the recommended charge amount and try (if possible) to charge with enough range to get to the next two chargers on the leg. The recommended charge is to minimize travel time; however it could result in a much longer trip. For example we were on our way to a location I can't recall and exited to charge. We noticed the stop lights were blinking red but made it to our super charger by a fast food restaurant. Pulled in and plugged in and nothing! Moved to another charger, still nothing. We went in the restaurant and they had no power. It turned out that a few moment before there had been an accident that took out a light pole and there was no power in the entire area. Luckily we had sufficient range reserve to make it to the next super charger on our route. Had we been down around 10-20% we would have been stuck until power was restored. It was a small town and who knows when that might have happened. It turns out that the bit of extra time to have that reserve paid off.

NoAP/EAP: Around Southern California, I have experienced so many unexpected phantom braking issues that at first I was fearful to use it. The I10 to Phoenix is very heavily trafficked with a lot of trucks and people driving far too fast for the level of traffic. Trucks will suddenly pull out to pass another truck and they lack the umph to pass quickly so you are left suddenly having to brake and then wait while someone else is on your ass impatiently expecting you to somehow get around the obstacle in front of you. Phantom braking in such conditions could easily lead to an accident. Once I got up the nerve to give it a try, I was pleasantly surprised that I only experienced one phantom braking event (like the ones in SoCal, sudden and hard) and three milder phantom braking events, though they appeared to have a possible rationale. Why the difference in other states and around SoCal is a mystery to me. I found the NoAP would randomly elect to go for the gore point on right hand exits that did not have a dashed line across the exit. On some it behaved as it should and on others I had to disengage as it headed right for the V point of the exit lane. I only had moderate success at exiting freeways and found that it was easier to disengage before the exit and take over. Far less harrowing. The other irritating thing is that when you are in the left lane, it is constantly trying to move you to the lane to its right. It doesn't look far enough ahead to see that you are rapidly approaching another vehicle that you will be overtaking and you don't want to weave in and out of lanes. I finally, would change to auto-steer with TACC (whatever that is now called, I am calling it EAP). Frankly, I don't think I could have made this trip without this feature. There were too many long stretches of boring scenery at 80mph to keep concentration needed. It takes far less concentration and stress to supervise the vehicle than to do it your self. I drove through numerous heavy rain storms and having EAP was a god send as it could see the lane lines better than I could and with its radar could see what traffic ahead was doing before I could see what it was doing. 

I found that having a fully wrapped car with 3M clear bra was definitely worth having. Between bugs, rocks and tire treads it kept my finish looking good. I did use a spray bottle with water and ONR to periodically clean off bugs and other dirt and then followed with G-Technique's C2V3, which makes the surface slick and very hydrophobic. At night when we stopped at a hotel, a 15-20 minute clean-up was all that was needed. I also learned that the stick on rim rash protectors are not worth having. They can come loose at the most in appropriate times and then slap against the cars finish and fenders. Without the clear bra they would have damaged the paint. Subsequently trying to remove the 3M adhesive residue is very hard and tedious work. Never again.

We experienced one glitch on the trip when leaving a motel in the morning, suddenly we had no TACC, no AP and no NoAP. I tried rebooting several time and it would not return. It was working fine the night before. I finally pulled into a rest stop and told my wife I was going to call Tesla Support and I would probably be on hold for an hour or more. I called support and was amazed to get an instant response with no hold time at all. She had me power cycle the car (I had tried to but it always came back instantly and never powered down). I learned that you have to wait for over 2 minutes and not touch or do anything so the car will cycle down power. Open a door, touch the screen and you cancel the process. It took two tries but after the second one, all functions were back. She said that Tesla had tried to push an update and it had failed. She said we needed WiFi to get the map update and the update to 28.2. However, I have not discovered a way to get WiFi on the road. The Hotel's WiFi, even when you can get close enough, require a protocol not supported by the Tesla Browser. For some reason, it will only occasionally connect to my phone as a hot spot and it quickly disconnects itself and never down loads anything. If anyone knows how to get WiFi on the road, please share your tip.

While you are charging, if you get out of the car and your partner is left in the car, show them how to keep climate on. In 100-110 degree weather it gets hot inside very quickly. Since you are charging anyway, I do that while we go get a bite to eat as that means the car will be comfortable when we return.

I will be making the trip back to Sarasota, Fl in early September as we purchased a home while there. I will be driving alone as my wife has to stay in Riverside to meet some commitments she has. I hope the new advanced summons and better FSD features are available by then.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> Pulled in and plugged in and nothing! Moved to another charger, still nothing. We went in the restaurant and they had no power. It turned out that a few moment before there had been an accident that took out a light pole and there was no power in the entire area. Luckily we had sufficient range reserve to make it to the next super charger on our route.


I've been taking some chances in this area. I try to arrive at my planned supercharging station with under 10% battery to minimize charging times. But I'm going to be in some trouble when I encounter this kind of scenario.


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## mswlogo (Oct 8, 2018)

Nice write up.

I try to never go below 30%.


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## mzichao (Aug 9, 2019)

Nice info! Did you stay in any hotels with destination chargers? If so, what websites/apps you used to find/book the hotel and how was the charging experience? Should I stay near a hotel with a supercharger close by or with destination chargers on hotel ground? I plan to take an extended road trip in my 3 soon and appreciate any recommendations.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

I did not stay at any hotels with destination chargers. I usually stayed at hotels near a super charger. I used a better route planner as a general guide but found it is difficult to work with, does some strange things when you try and make changes to a plan and it doesn't give you highway numbers only a map visual without such details. It is still pretty buggy and no way to easily print out the information in a usable format. The Tesla app on their web site is better except it isn't updated on super charger locations so when I tried to use it on my return leg through Texas it wanted to route me around Ft. Stockton that now has operational super chargers. It made me double check that Ft. Stockton was operational before I got to Ozona. My goal was to target 5-7 hours of driving each day (not including charging and break time) and I could usually wind up near a super charger meaning my mornings were ready to go time when I was freshest and not tired.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

mzichao said:


> Nice info! Did you stay in any hotels with destination chargers? If so, what websites/apps you used to find/book the hotel and how was the charging experience? Should I stay near a hotel with a supercharger close by or with destination chargers on hotel ground? I plan to take an extended road trip in my 3 soon and appreciate any recommendations.


In my experience, the majority of SCer's are located in the parking lots of mid-range chain hotels like Holiday Inn Express or Residence Inn. Your simplest solution would be to stay at those hotels, charging before sleeping, or while eating your continental breakfast. I would use the Supercharger map in concert with google maps to determine which chargers are located at hotels. On your car's screen, if you tap the screen, then the charging icon on the bottom left, a list of nearby SCers will pop up. If you scroll to the bottom of this list, you'll see a list of nearby destination chargers. You can also use Chargepoint and Plugshare to locate other charging solutions. I have now completed over 20,000 car camping miles in my Model 3 over the last 10 months. I've used destination chargers twice just because I stumbled across them. I've used chargepoint once when I couldn't make it to a SCer in Alberta. I stay away from interstates, and don't make reservations. I go where the road takes me, plan my next charging stop while I'm at a supercharger, and all the info I need is contained in the car's systems and my handy atlas as backup detail.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

I too relied more on the information contained in the car's system. We used a better route planner as a general plan but then used the car's system to go from charger to charger bearing in mind how much reserve we wanted to have and skipping some if we could.


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## mzichao (Aug 9, 2019)

Interesting to see the EV charger info on Plugshare and Booking.com are not very assuring when I want to know the current working condition (stretch goal is available/in use) of the destination chargers. The info are not guaranteed, just crowd-sourced. I guess I need to call to confirm the status before booking. Staying at a hotel with destination chargers and Tesla SCers nearby (as backup) would be my best bet with a wife and 2 kids. 

Love the quick responses from you all and this forum is awesome!


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

mzichao said:


> my best bet with a wife and 2 kids.


Forget everything that I said earlier. From your avatar I was assuming you were a single female. Just do whatever your wife tells you to!


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> I too relied more on the information contained in the car's system. We used a better route planner as a general plan but then used the car's system to go from charger to charger bearing in mind how much reserve we wanted to have and skipping some if we could.


That's pretty much what I've been doing as well.

I also change settings in abetterrouteplanner, and tweak things to better match my preferences ("depart charge", "goal arrival charge") and observed vehicle behavior ("reference consumption", "battery degradation").


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## mzichao (Aug 9, 2019)

FRC said:


> Forget everything that I said earlier. From your avatar I was assuming you were a single female. Just do whatever your wife tells you to!


I can see that, definitely need to update the pic. Thanks for the recommendation. No wrong answer her. Only better one to consider.


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## Jim H (Feb 11, 2017)

barjohn said:


> I too relied more on the information contained in the car's system. We used a better route planner as a general plan but then used the car's system to go from charger to charger bearing in mind how much reserve we wanted to have and skipping some if we could.


I am currently on a 6k+ road trip, which started in AZ, drove to Pa for a 50th class reunion, visited friends and family in Delaware, currently in DC area. I am 4300 miles into the trip and agree with the information you have offered. On the road with multiple SC stops, it seems that the arrival SOC for next SC stop is around 14%, which at first I was not comfortable with. I usually stayed an extra 5min or so to have arrival SOC closer to 20%, just for extra assurance in case of problems along the way. 
For overnight stops I would look at the time I wanted to spend on the road, look on Plugshare and search for a hotel with destination charger, that was also near a SC stop. Getting easier to find hotels with this perk. 
Stops in Pittsburg area at a friends with a RV plug, and at my sons home which had a welder outlet for charging. Now at my daughters with a charger at a local food store, and top off with a 110 plug. 
Heading back to AZ next week, with stops in Asheville,NC, Austin,TX, and El Paso. I will continue my formula for charging, which has worked well so far. 
Traveling with the M3 has been an real pleasure, comfortable, quiet, drives great. Even did a software update at my son's home with his wifi, when one became available. 
Took many interested parties for test drives, all who were impressed, and maybe future buyers. 
Great trip so far, which I may repeat in June when my Grandson graduates in Pa.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Jim H said:


> Stops in Pittsburg


It looks like you lost an "h". Here, you can have one of mine: *h *

That sounds like an awesome trip. On my last roadtrip, two of my three hotels had destination charging, and I wasn't even _trying_ to find that perk - I was just booking the lowest-priced semi-decent hotels on our route.


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## Jim H (Feb 11, 2017)

Jim H said:


> I am currently on a 6k+ road trip, which started in AZ, drove to Pa for a 50th class reunion, visited friends and family in Delaware, currently in DC area. I am 4300 miles into the trip and agree with the information you have offered. On the road with multiple SC stops, it seems that the arrival SOC for next SC stop is around 14%, which at first I was not comfortable with. I usually stayed an extra 5min or so to have arrival SOC closer to 20%, just for extra assurance in case of problems along the way.
> For overnight stops I would look at the time I wanted to spend on the road, look on Plugshare and search for a hotel with destination charger, that was also near a SC stop. Getting easier to find hotels with this perk.
> Stops in Pittsburg area at a friends with a RV plug, and at my sons home which had a welder outlet for charging. Now at my daughters with a charger at a local food store, and top off with a 110 plug.
> Heading back to AZ next week, with stops in Asheville,NC, Austin,TX, and El Paso. I will continue my formula for charging, which has worked well so far.
> ...


Finally back in AZ. Total miles on this trip was 7600 miles. I believe this was the longest road trip I have ever done. Left DC area 10 days ago, driving to Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore Estate and surrounding area. Next stop was Austin, TX. Long drive with a mix of construction, rain, and delays. Took about 4 hrs longer than expected which resulted in a 16hr stretch on one leg of the trip. Found a bakery in Waco,TX that offered free Tesla SC charging plus free coffee for Tesla owners. Came in handy on that long 16hr stretch. Next was El Paso,TX to meet a buddy and charge at Rudy's BBQ. Finished up the trip after leaving El Paso.
Finding SC was never really any problem, and I always thanked the Hotel or Dining places I used for their SC stations. Wanted to make sure they knew I chose their establishment's because of their support for Tesla owners, with the charging stations.
Longest time between SC was 3hr 45min. Arrived with 10% left, which was the stated SOC on the trip planer. Navigation worked great and proved to be fairly accurate. Location of the SC sometimes was challenging in congested areas, and used plug share to help with that.
Great trip, met many owners along the way, and may do it again in june when grandson graduates.


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