# Roadtrip: New England to the Southwest



## Nikola (Apr 4, 2016)

We're just wrapping up a roadtrip across the US, from Vermont to Arizona. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that the Model 3 is an excellent roadtrip car.

We mostly charged at Superchargers (17 in all), but occasionally got a charge on a 50-amp campground plug overnight, or at a friend's house.

Here's the stats:

Superchargers visited: 17
Total Supercharging cost: $99.48 (from Utica NY to Page AZ)
Total miles: 3,506 (we didn't go the shortest possible route)
Cost per mile: 2.8 cents

Total kWh used: 723
Wh/mile: 206

I'm particularly impressed with the low Wh/mile consumption. That comes out to full-charge range of 360+ miles, allowing us to charge to 80% or 90% and skip many Superchargers along the way.

The numbers don't show what a pleasure it was to drive the car, even on days when we covered more than 400 miles.

We used the TT30 adapter from EVSEadapters for campgrounds that didn't have 50-amp plugs, and it came in very handy. We used it as often as the 50-amp adapter that comes with the Mobile Connector. I highly recommend this adapter if you camp occasionally.

Stopping for a charge had little or no impact our travel time. For short stops we typically charged from 50% to 80%, which takes about as long as a bathroom stop and a quick walk to stretch the legs. Once a day we'd do a longer charge while we had lunch, for about 45 minutes. We never made more than 2 Supercharger stops a day.

Bottom line: it was easier and cheaper than I expected to drive the Model 3 across the country!


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## RichEV (Sep 21, 2017)

Nikola said:


> We used the TT30 adapter from EVSEadapters for campgrounds that didn't have 50-amp plugs, and it came in very handy. We used it as often as the 50-amp adapter that comes with the Mobile Connector. I highly recommend this adapter if you camp occasionally.


Thanks for the positive report. What sort of charge rate (mi/hr) did you get with the TT30 adapter?


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## Nikola (Apr 4, 2016)

The TT30 adapter gives a max of 11 miles per hour (using 24 amps @ 120 volts). On weak campground power where the voltage was more like 110-112 volts, it dropped to 10 miles per hour. Not fast but at least double what you'd get on a standard 15-amp outlet, and it was still enough to pick up 100 miles overnight.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Nikola said:


> The TT30 adapter gives a max of 11 miles per hour (using 24 amps @ 120 volts). On weak campground power where the voltage was more like 110-112 volts, it dropped to 10 miles per hour. Not fast but at least double what you'd get on a standard 15-amp outlet, and it was still enough to pick up 100 miles overnight.


Does that adapt to the 14-50? The car doesn't get upset that it is only seeing 120v on the 14-50 instead of 220?


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## Nikola (Apr 4, 2016)

No, it's a entirely separate Mobile Connector plug just like the ones Tesla sells. It plugs into the campground TT30 outlet. So the car expects 120v and automatically sets for 24 amps. See the link I provided in the first post for details.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

JWardell said:


> Does that adapt to the 14-50? The car doesn't get upset that it is only seeing 120v on the 14-50 instead of 220?


Even if one were to put 120v across a 14-50 outlet, I doubt the Mobile Connector would care. It should still happily pull 40 amps from it.

I base this on my (limited) understanding of how EVSEs in general work. I know the car will slow down charging if it detects a voltage drop, but I believe it's comparing the voltage at low-current to the voltage at high-current, rather than comparing against some idea of what it believes it's connected to.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Nikola said:


> No, it's a entirely separate Mobile Connector plug just like the ones Tesla sells. It plugs into the campground TT30 outlet. So the car expects 120v and automatically sets for 24 amps. See the link I provided in the first post for details.


Ah yes, so you are using one of these
https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30-adapter-for-tesla-model-s-x-3-gen-2

and I was thinking of one of these when wondering how the car would respond
https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30p-to-nema-14-50r-ev-adapter


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