# Roadtripping Experiences



## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

PART I: My wife and I just returned from a four day, 1800 mile camping trip to south Florida. Thought the trip warranted a post about the experience.

We used @EVANNEX's cars and coffee event in Deerfield Beach as an excuse to drive. I mean, who wouldn't drive 1800 miles in their Stealth P3D to save $5 on a tire patch kit? After all, I get free supercharging!!

We left home in Athens, Ga on Thursday morning with the following itinerary.
Destinations:
1) Deland, Fla to drop our son at his old college roommate's for a visit. Arrival and departure Thursday afternoon.
2) Overnight stay at Blue Springs state park near Deland.
3) 2 Night stay at Koreshan state park in Estero, Fla.(Friday and Saturday)
4) Cars and Coffee at Evannex in Deerfield Beach on Sunday morning.
5) Pick up son in Deland on Sunday afternoon.
6) Athens, Ga(home) around midnight Sunday.

Superchargers(details courtesy of Teslafi)
1) Left home with a full charge, 308 miles. Car was still charging immediately before departure. I'm running 18" aero's. no caps.
2) Breakfast stop, Tifton Ga, added 61.5 kWh, 249 miles rated, in 55 minutes. Car ready before we finished breakfast. Note: I never charge to full at SC's. I park, plug, and calculate needs to achieve my next stop.
3) Lake City, Fl. Unplanned stop(wife had to deposit coffee!). Added: 6 kWh, 24 miles, 5 minutes.
4) St Augustine south. Pit stop. Added: 25.5 kWh, 101 miles, 14 minutes.
5) Blue Springs state park 50a charge. Overnight stay. Added: 59 kWh, 241 miles, 9 hr 51 min.
Friday
6) Brandon, Fl. Lunch stop. Added: 33.5 kWh, 128 miles, 38 min.
7) 2 night stay at Koreshan State park Campsite was advertised as a 30a site, but was in fact 15a. We were getting 4-5 mph of power, but using 2-6 
mph. Basically a/c used 2 mph, heat used 6 mph. Most of the time we netted a 2mph gain, but was expecting about 16 mph from 30a.
8) Ft. Myers south. Top-off. Added: 39 kWh, 154 miles, 25 min.
Saturday
9) Ft. Myers north. Top-off. Added: 18 kWh, 72 miles, 44 min.
Sunday
10) Port St Lucie. Added: 63 kWh, 257 miles, 58 min.
11) Jacksonville. Dinner stop. Added: 69 kWh, 276 miles, 60 min.
12) Tifton Ga. Added: 57 kWh, 233 miles, 47 min.
13) Macon Ga. Top-off. Added: 8 kWh, 32 miles, 6 min.
14) Arrived Athens, Ga with 34 miles range.

Camping experience:
Charging: With a 30a or 50a connection we have no issue having plenty of power to supply our needs and have enough to power us to our next 
intended SC. However, the 15a stay threw us a curveball and required top-offs. Luckily, there were chargers near-by and convenient. Always have a 
back-up plan.
Sleeping: We originally planned for my wife to sleep in the car on our 5"(38" x 73") Zinus gel foam mattress(Wal-Mart $75), while I slept in the tent. We
did this for the first night. Then my wife discovered that she was comfortable nested in the passenger seat while I slept in back. This worked great 
since we were both able to enjoy heat/ac and our audiobook(thanks to @MelindaV and my public libraries Libby app).
Overall: Both state parks were nice, clean, quiet, and comfortable. We were able to enjoy hot showers, accommodations, electric hook-up, and sight
seeing for about $30 per night. We saw hundreds of Manatees in crystal waters at Blue Springs, and we leisurely paddled the calm waters of the 
Estero river at Koreshan.

Destination:
We arrived dead on time at @EVANNEX in Deerfield. Bought a few things, enjoyed coffee and donuts, saw some cool cars and mods, and met many 
friends from M3OC. It's really nice to be able to put a face to a name, and I enjoyed meeting you all! Really want to give a special THANKS to
@EVANNEX for hosting the event.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

Part II: Driving

Like most every one else I'm on 50.6. I use EAP almost always, and NOA most of the time on unfamiliar roads. What follows are a few observations on the performance of the car during my road trip. When unusual things popped up I did a bug report when appropriate, then made a note to myself using Siri to remind myself for this post.

On NOA, the car never balked at a left to right lane change, but often refused to go right to left. Nothing to our left, engage left blinker, it just sits there blinking. Note: be sure to fully engage the blinker, a partial depress is inadequate.

Software suggestion: The navigation screen needs to have a scale attached. Oftentimes, on unfamiliar roads, the display will leave you wondering just how far away is that road, town, park, feature, or landmark. May not be a simple add since the scale often changes, but would be a handy reference tool.

I know that waypoints on nav are coming and I can't wait. When driving for pleasure we like to stay off the interstates, and this is very challenging with the current navigation iteration.

In 1800 miles I was placed in time out 3 times by NOA. Not too bad I don't think? It's very easy to miss the non-audible hands-on-wheel alert when you are enjoying the scenery. And the early audible is easily overshadowed by the radio volume. By the time the car yells at you(red screen and blaring noise you can't miss) it's generally too late to save it. I'd suggest a 2-3 second opportunity after the obnoxious noise to correct, so that you have time to s*** in your pants and then react! Time out is a *****!

In Florida(at least where I was), the HOV lane is denoted by dashed double white stripes with about 18" between the stripes. It's the same where I live except there is no significant gap between the stripes. That gap absolutely freaks NOA out when you request a lane change, so be aware!

The volume of the navigation system is generally a problem. You can adjust it based on your needs at the time, but if you increase your sound system's volume it doesn't adjust automatically. Also, it seems to reset to a minimal volume after every stop. And worst of all, it seems too randomly decrease in volume during drives for no reason that I can determine. I probably missed 5 or 6 turns due to the inadequate volume.

I run my headlights/foglights on auto. Neither come on automatically in fog. I'm not sure that this is unusual or unexpected behavior, I was just unaware of it.

I was unable to determine any rhyme or reason for the interval between hands-on-wheel warnings. I thought it might be a strict time interval(not true). Perhaps time relative to speed?(not true) Time/speed/traffic conditions?(hard to test) I'm not sure that the answer is terribly important, I'm just the curious type.

So we all know that the hands-on-wheel prompt has many overrides(in short use almost any control that is physically on the steering wheel), and my preferred method has morphed over time. On this long trip I determined that if I rested my elbow(left on door handle, or right on console), I could let my forefinger sit inside the wheel above the mid-line spoke(left or right) and allow my hand to hang there. This put just enough lateral torque on the wheel to continually override the warning while not disengaging NOA. I was able to ride this way for hours without a single prompt.

Apparently 50.6(or a previous iteration I didn't notice) made a change to the operation of the TACC scroll wheel. It used to be that a full scroll wheel roll(up or down) would adjust to the nearest 5mph interval, i.e., 49 to 45, or 46 to 50. Now that same scroll adjusts an actual 5MPH. 49 to 44, and 46 to 51.

Biggest gripe..The model3 has, absolutely, hands down, the worst defog/defrost system in any car anywhere that I have ever driven in my 61 years. I don't think this is news to many of you. I am a Teslafan and I absolutely love my car. BUT, this system needs a rework. It needs it badly, and it needs it now. This is NOT a just a convenience issue, it is a big safety issue. Constantly taking my eyes off the road to adjust from cool defrost to hot defrost, on/off, fan speed, recirc, vent position, etc. to simply keep visibility at optimum is patently unsafe. Also, why when the defrost is in the cool position, does it blow hot air into the backseats after a few minutes? Ridiculous.

That's all except for the one unintelligible note I made using Siri in the middle of the night. If anyone can decipher this, Let me know. My note through Siri says "In 0 a lane change our rooms". Huh?


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Thanks for sharing! Great info, and am sure a good warmup for your big roadtrip!


FRC said:


> I run my headlights/foglights on auto. Neither come on automatically in fog. I'm not sure that this is unusual or unexpected behavior, I was just unaware of it.


This last fall when it first started getting foggy here, I had this added to my list of things for the service center to look at. They determined they were working as expected and in heavy fog during the day, the brightness of the fog would override the light sensor and turn the headlights (and fogs) off.


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## crmatson (Mar 27, 2017)

It sounds like you had a great trip.

I agree about defog/defrost needing work.
If I switch to recirculate air, the windows quickly fog up.

One time I drove through freezing rain and turned on the defrost which could not keep up. The wipers and windshield washer fluid seemed to make it worse. I had to pull off and into a gas station to scrape/clean the windshield. It would be great if superchargers had canopies, windshield cleaners and air compressors. I was lucky to have a convenient exit just when I needed it. After I manually got the slight ice build-up off the windshield, the system was adequate at preventing further accumulation for the remaining 10 minutes it took to get home.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

crmatson said:


> It sounds like you had a great trip.
> 
> I agree about defog/defrost needing work.
> If I switch to recirculate air, the windows quickly fog up.
> ...


I didn't have to deal with ice thank goodness, just morning and evening fogginess.  But bad enough that we actually implemented a system where my son, in the passenger seat, controlled all defog functions while I concentrated on keeping us safe!


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