# First road trip tomorrow



## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

I just got a 2017 X over the weekend. Tomorrow we take our first road trip. What are the best settings to get the longest range?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Don't run the heater - it's a big power-suck. If you get cold, see if you can get by using only the heated seats. OTOH, the air conditioning doesn't use too much electricity.

The *biggest* thing is to keep your speed down. Teslas get their best mileage at around 30-40 mph.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

Pre-plan your route on A Better Route Planner. Have backups to charging if needed.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

What's your origin and destination? Pleasure trip or in a hurry? Want to stick to interstates or travel surface roads? How fast do you want to travel relative to speed limit? With these answers, we can give better guidance.


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## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

garsh said:


> Don't run the heater - it's a big power-suck. If you get cold, see if you can get by using only the heated seats. OTOH, the air conditioning doesn't use too much electricity.
> 
> The *biggest* thing is to keep your speed down. Teslas get their best mileage at around 30-40 mph.


I am in Florida so, heat is not a problem


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

Congratulations @jjuday30! I also have a 2017 X and love it. I think the single most important thing is expectations. If you expect to be able to travel the rated range on the display you are likely to be disappointed. Although as soon as I say that, I have to say I was thrilled with my last trip last Wednesday; look at this summary from Teslafi, I got more actual miles than rated miles!! This is with mostly highway driving that I only go a few miles over the speed limit.








Do you have pretty good ideas about charging? Fire away with any specific road trip questions.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

Thinking again about the specific question of maximizing range.... yes, limit heater use (np in Florida), speed, and correct tire pressure are the big ones you can control. Your wheel size and condition of tires also plays into it. Wind is a factor you can’t control. The perfect efficiency trip I bragged about above was only 75% efficiency on the return trip. It was slightly colder and I used the heater a bit more, but I think the biggest factor was the wind. Rain doesn’t help either.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

Bigriver said:


> If you expect to be able to travel the rated range on the display you are likely to be disappointed.


I once encountered an older couple driving a ModelS at a supercharger in Nebraska. I asked how they were enjoying their car. They said they liked it except it didn't get the range they expected. In fact, they had to be towed 7 miles to the supercharger where we were; even though the range display when they set out showed they would make it with 30 miles to spare. I asked about their driving habits; they replied that they drive 95 mph on the interstates. I said driving faster requires more juice. Their reply? "No one ever told us that!"


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

Bigriver said:


> Thinking again about the specific question of maximizing range.... yes, limit heater use (np in Florida), speed, and correct tire pressure are the big ones you can control. Your wheel size and condition of tires also plays into it. Wind is a factor you can't control. The perfect efficiency trip I bragged about above was only 75% efficiency on the return trip. It was slightly colder and I used the heater a bit more, but I think the biggest factor was the wind. Rain doesn't help either.


Heavy rain is a HUGE factor. Elevation also kills, coming out of Fla, you're almost certainly traveling uphill.


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

As opposed to all the other responses, the answer is pretty simple. Make sure that you enter your destination in the NAV system and then listen to your car, It will tell you what you need to do.


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## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

FRC said:


> What's your origin and destination? Pleasure trip or in a hurry? Want to stick to interstates or travel surface roads? How fast do you want to travel relative to speed limit? With these answers, we can give better guidance.


We are in Florida going from Tampa to Miami. I have 3 appointments today In Miami. Then we go to Naples for 4 appointments tomorrow. We usually go 70-75 on I75. This is a normal routine. I am on tight schedules so, it's not a pleasure trip. We do make our own schedule. I am trying to find a site we can use on PC that will help plan routes better for the EV. ABRP is not so user-friendly. I wish google maps would get on board. Or Tesla would use the platform they have that would link to our account where it would know what we have and the stats on our cars. It doesn't seem like that would be hard for Tesla?


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## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

Bigriver said:


> Congratulations @jjuday30! I also have a 2017 X and love it. I think the single most important thing is expectations. If you expect to be able to travel the rated range on the display you are likely to be disappointed. Although as soon as I say that, I have to say I was thrilled with my last trip last Wednesday; look at this summary from Teslafi, I got more actual miles than rated miles!! This is with mostly highway driving that I only go a few miles over the speed limit.
> View attachment 37404
> 
> Do you have pretty good ideas about charging? Fire away with any specific road trip questions.


I did get TeslaFI. Not sure how to use it yet. I do not have any good ideas about charging. I have only charged at home. So far we love the car, It's only been a few days. We are about 50 miles into the trip right now. My wife is driving so I can work.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

jjuday30 said:


> We are in Florida going from Tampa to Miami. I have 3 appointments today In Miami. Then we go to Naples for 4 appointments tomorrow. We usually go 70-75 on I75. This is a normal routine. I am on tight schedules so, it's not a pleasure trip. We do make our own schedule. I am trying to find a site we can use on PC that will help plan routes better for the EV. ABRP is not so user-friendly. I wish google maps would get on board. Or Tesla would use the platform they have that would link to our account where it would know what we have and the stats on our cars. It doesn't seem like that would be hard for Tesla?


For a trip that simple I would plug the destination into the car, and do exactly as it instructs. One charging stop in Ft. Myers(maybe 20 minutes), easy, peasy!


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

jjuday30 said:


> ABRP is not so user-friendly.


Yep, it's got a learning curve, but it's tweakable to match your driving style. And it can correctly handle multiple stops, unlike Tesla's navigation.

I'll sit down and use ABRP ahead of time to plan out a trip. But when I'm actually driving, I do what @FRC and @Ed Woodrick suggest - just use the Tesla's built-in navigation. It will route you to a supercharger if you need to charge again before arriving at your next destination. But when you have that many stops to make during a trip, pre-planning is really helpful so that you don't end up going way out of your way to supercharge.


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## TrevP (Oct 20, 2015)

Model X has 2 heaters: one for the cabin and another for the battery each are 6kW for a total of 12kW running at full bore. Turning on "range mode" cuts power to those by half. Given you're in Florida you probably have nothing to worry about being warm and flat and all.
I'd say don't worry about it and trust the nav computer.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

jjuday30 said:


> This is a normal routine. I am on tight schedules so, it's not a pleasure trip.


Hoping you've given yourself a little slosh time for your maiden journey, then it will quickly fall into place if it is a routine route. I totally agree to trust the navigation estimates, but sometimes to coordinate your overall schedule it does need some pre-planning. Please report back the good, bad and the ugly from this first experience. Hopefully all in the good category. 😊


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

jjuday30 said:


> We are in Florida going from Tampa to Miami. I have 3 appointments today In Miami. Then we go to Naples for 4 appointments tomorrow. We usually go 70-75 on I75. This is a normal routine. I am on tight schedules so, it's not a pleasure trip. We do make our own schedule. I am trying to find a site we can use on PC that will help plan routes better for the EV. ABRP is not so user-friendly. I wish google maps would get on board. Or Tesla would use the platform they have that would link to our account where it would know what we have and the stats on our cars. It doesn't seem like that would be hard for Tesla?


That's an easy no-brainer trip. Just put it in the NAV and start driving.


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## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

Bigriver said:


> Thinking again about the specific question of maximizing range.... yes, limit heater use (np in Florida), speed, and correct tire pressure are the big ones you can control. Your wheel size and condition of tires also plays into it. Wind is a factor you can't control. The perfect efficiency trip I bragged about above was only 75% efficiency on the return trip. It was slightly colder and I used the heater a bit more, but I think the biggest factor was the wind. Rain doesn't help either.





Bigriver said:


> Hoping you've given yourself a little slosh time for your maiden journey, then it will quickly fall into place if it is a routine route. I totally agree to trust the navigation estimates, but sometimes to coordinate your overall schedule it does need some pre-planning. Please report back the good, bad and the ugly from this first experience. Hopefully all in the good category. 😊


Well, day one was a success. We stopped in Ft. Myers to charge around 9:00am and went to First Watch. We were all charged up. Then potty break on alligator alley with 10 minutes on the charger. Went to the first 2 appointments in Miami we were running 2 hours ahead of schedule so, we stopped at Wawa to charge up. Then off to Miami Gardens and then back to the DoubleTree in Naples where we sit charging. No problems at all yet. I did run into a guy that has a Tesla and loves it other than tires. he said he is blowing tires a lot. I hope that's just him. Tomorrow we will do 2 appts in Naples and probably charge in Ft. Myers for lunch. We could probably get to Tampa from Naples but why risk it. My wife has a lead foot. Somewhere in the 80s I caught her doing 100 at one point 

Next dumb question. I guess its car has two available upgrades. 1 on infotainment center and another on FSD computer. We have ESD with 2.0. It works pretty good but it does track back and forth slightly between the lines. Made me a little car sick. How much are the upgrades and are they worth it?

Also on the navigation, when getting close to your turn, my Ram and Ford will zoom in on the nav screen to make things more clear. This does not do that and I realize how much I miss that. I didn't see much for settings in the navigation. Does anyone know if this has a setting?

I am still going through the manual. Not sure if the energy gauge on the right of the instrument panel will ever mean anything to me. I have not idea what all that is.

My only real complaint is It keeps dropping Bluetooth on my phone when playing Pandora. I think it's my phone screen going dark is when it disconnects. Not sure how to fix that on android.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

Glad to hear that things went well!


jjuday30 said:


> Next dumb question. I guess its car has two available upgrades. 1 on infotainment center and another on FSD computer. We have ESD with 2.0. It works pretty good but it does track back and forth slightly between the lines. Made me a little car sick. How much are the upgrades and are they worth it?


The infotainment upgrade is $1500 and I wholeheartedly suggest it. It gives more features, makes the screen more responsive, and my car's electronics were just quite buggy before I had the upgrade. If you care about having a radio, it costs a bit more to keep that. So many good streaming options I haven't tuned into a radio for years, so I didn't care about that.

ESD? EAP perhaps? Enhanced autopilot? It shouldn't be swaying between the lines if autopilot is engaged. It sounds like it may need some calibration. There might be a calibration you can start from the menu or it might take a service appointment.

The FSD computer (HW3) has been reported to actually get included with the infotainment upgrade. Tesla doesn't list that as one of the changes, but some have confirmed they got it although they had not paid for FSD. Theoretically HW3 is not needed for autopilot, but I think it future-proofs the car a bit. If you have EAP, it is a great option with all the features currently released for FSD. It remains to be seen if FSD is worth it.



jjuday30 said:


> Ram and Ford will zoom in on the nav screen to make things more clear. This does not do that


In the upper right corner you should be able to toggle between different views that include options to be more zoomed in. You can obviously just pinch on the screen to zoom in and out too (although that might be annoyingly sluggish without the infotainment upgrade). And then you have the option for the screen behind the steering wheel to have the close-up navigation.

It took me a long time to understand the energy circle available on the screen behind the steering wheel. I rarely choose it to be displayed. I think the energy graphs available on the center display are more helpful and easier to understand.


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## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

The car I bought had free supercharging on the window sticker. I was told it would not transfer. However, I have not been asked to pay anything and I don't recall giving my credit card. How would I know if I am getting it free?


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

jjuday30 said:


> The car I bought had free supercharging on the window sticker. I was told it would not transfer. However, I have not been asked to pay anything and I don't recall giving my credit card. How would I know if I am getting it free?


Your Tesla account will show if you're getting charged.

And yes, your account probably has your credit card data.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

I did a 475 mile trip yesterday from my home to Dallas and back. I've done this trip probably about 10 times now, in the summer and winter. In the rain and the blazing sun. In other words, I generally know what to expect battery wise. 

Typically I head out, charge an hour South of Dallas at the Corsicana charger, drive up to Dallas, do my thing, drive back to Corsicana, charge up and head home. I normally leave the house with 95% SOC and arrive at Corsicana with between 18% and 22% SOC. Yesterday I arrived with 21%. It was low 60's, cloudy. 

I was running ABRP to check and see how much I needed to charge to get to my destinations (I had a few more than usual) and get back to Corsicana in a window where I wouldn't have to charge more than 25-30 minutes. I ended up arriving with 9%, which got me a nice long run of 100 plus kW charging speeds. Here's where it starts to get interesting. 

The Tesla nav was saying I could leave with 80% SOC to make it home. I know that puts me a little lower than I'd like so I typically charge to around 85%. It's usually hotter in the afternoon and although I only used 74% on the way up, typically my average consumption on the way home is a little higher. Plus I like to have a buffer and try not to run it down under 10%. So I kept charging. I had decent speed...I was still getting 80 kW at 70%, 60kW at 80% and didn't drop below 50 kW until 84%. I let it coast up to 88% (45kW) and left. Temp was low 70's, still cloudy. I've done this run at 105 degrees and 40's and rainy. No sweat I thought. 

I'm an hour and a half in, and all of a sudden I get a warning "maintain speed under 75 MPH to reach your destination". I have NEVER gotten this warning before. I look down and see my consumption since last charge was just over 380 wH/mile! I hadn't been paying any attention since in my history, 88% SOC at departure should have put me at home with somewhere over 10% battery. Now it was saying I wasn't going to make it! While on Autopilot, I checked in to TeslaFi to see if I had been imagining things, or if my app had mis-informed me about the SOC I got to. Nope, I did get to 88%. But I noticed one other thing....it was indicating wind was 17.5 MPH! Shortly thereafter I drove by a flag and noticed it was really whipping and blowing right at me. I was driving straight into a 17 MPH headwind, and I had just completed a long uphill section (in general, Houston to Dallas gains about 300 feet of elevation, but that's net. It's rolling and the average gain / loss is around 3000 feet up and 2700 feet down through the trip headed North). So the car's computer had freaked out. 

When I leveled out and apparently gotten out of the wind, the computer became less pessimistic and reverted back to having me arrive home without stopping. But it kept vacillating between 7 and 9% SOC upon arrival. I wasn't sure how much headwind awaited me so I bailed out at the Huntsville supercharger and added a little charge (11% in 6 minutes!). 

Moral of the story is, it's easy to become complacent and forget how much environmental factors can hammer your range if you get outside the normal zone. I spoke to a buddy of mine in CA who said he once had something similar happen. The run between Supercharger and home would normally put him home with about 5% SOC. He would pass over an intermediate supercharger. On this day, he was ruuning into a 20 MPH headwind and barely made the intermediate supercharger!

So, always have a backup plan!


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Needsdecaf said:


> I'm an hour and a half in, and all of a sudden I get a warning "maintain speed under 75 MPH to reach your destination". I have NEVER gotten this warning before.


The car's navigation is a bit conservative. It wants you to reach your destination with about 5% charge remaining. If you keep your speed under the recommended level, then you will arrive with 5% battery.

I've often ignored these warnings when I'm purposefully trying to arrive at the next supercharger with an almost empty battery. Because I'm kind of insane. 

But it's nice that the car can tell you how to adjust your driving when conditions change.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

garsh said:


> The car's navigation is a bit conservative. It wants you to reach your destination with about 5% charge remaining. If you keep your speed under the recommended level, then you will arrive with 5% battery.
> 
> I've often ignored these warnings when I'm purposefully trying to arrive at the next supercharger with an almost empty battery. Because I'm kind of insane.
> 
> But it's nice that the car can tell you how to adjust your driving when conditions change.


Understood. I was just shocked because I think maybe one time prior, I had gotten home with less than 10%. And that was probably only charging to like 83% before I left.


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## android04 (Sep 20, 2017)

jjuday30 said:


> Also on the navigation, when getting close to your turn, my Ram and Ford will zoom in on the nav screen to make things more clear. This does not do that and I realize how much I miss that. I didn't see much for settings in the navigation. Does anyone know if this has a setting?


There is a certain map mode that will zoom in close to turns, it's the one that always has the car pointing up and the map rotates around it. At least that's how it is on my Model 3. I have always preferred the North up map views, but use the "Car pointing up always" view because it zooms in on turns and North up doesn't.


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## jjuday30 (Mar 7, 2021)

android04 said:


> There is a certain map mode that will zoom in close to turns, it's the one that always has the car pointing up and the map rotates around it. At least that's how it is on my Model 3. I have always preferred the North up map views, but use the "Car pointing up always" view because it zooms in on turns and North up doesn't.


That's how I have mine set. but it doesn't zoom in when coming to a turn. IDK if that would be in the upgrade or not.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

jjuday30 said:


> The car I bought had free supercharging on the window sticker. I was told it would not transfer. However, I have not been asked to pay anything and I don't recall giving my credit card. How would I know if I am getting it free?


Yes, most 2017 model x's had free supercharging but for ones sold after January 2017 it is not suppose to transfer with the car. There are times that it does tho. If the lower right hand corner of the charge screen on the car shows $0.00, then it is free, at least for now. (Tesla could take it back away if they happen to realize it.) I have free supercharging and the Tesla app never asked for my credit card either. 


jjuday30 said:


> That's how I have mine set. but it doesn't zoom in when coming to a turn. IDK if that would be in the upgrade or not.


No, the infotainment upgrade won't change anything about the command/display options for navigation. How zoomed in are you wanting it? Here is what I see if I have the "heading up" display option:









But I usually keep the center navigation with a more overall view, and look at the other display for the turn details. You can get this view by selecting Nav with a long press of the left scroll wheel.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Needsdecaf said:


> I did a 475 mile trip yesterday from my home to Dallas and back. I've done this trip probably about 10 times now, in the summer and winter. In the rain and the blazing sun. In other words, I generally know what to expect battery wise.
> 
> Typically I head out, charge an hour South of Dallas at the Corsicana charger, drive up to Dallas, do my thing, drive back to Corsicana, charge up and head home. I normally leave the house with 95% SOC and arrive at Corsicana with between 18% and 22% SOC. Yesterday I arrived with 21%. It was low 60's, cloudy.
> 
> ...


Sorry for the thread interruption, but you have to give a shout out to those Superchargers in Corsicana - they are at at Collin Street Bakery. The Superchargers are subsidized/paid for by the Bakery. You charge free and the bakery is known world wide for their - - wait for it - fruit cake !!


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

GDN said:


> Sorry for the thread interruption, but you have to give a shout out to those Superchargers in Corsicana - they are at at Collin Street Bakery. The Superchargers are subsidized/paid for by the Bakery. You charge free and the bakery is known world wide for their - - wait for it - fruit cake !!


1. The superchargers are no longer free! I got charged this trip for, I think, the first time ever. 
2. CSB has gone way downhill since the pandemic. Really running on a skeleton crew, hours chopped back, limited menu and quality has gone down. It's sad. I go enough that the morning cashier recognized me on Tuesday, lol. I didn't even try to get my free-for-Tesla-drivers beverage since I want to be supportive but she gave it to me anyway (I gave her extra tip). 
3. Their fruitcake....I think I'm not a fruitcake fan. Or got spoiled by German fruitcake. Because even my wife, who spent time in Germany growing up and confesses to like fruitcake, says it's not good.


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