6600+ ft. of climbing / LEAF in the San Bernardino Mountains

[abasile]

6 battery temp bars at 50 F driving at slow speeds? is that due to regen braking ?

Our battery was still on the warm side from near-continuous driving and charging done earlier in the day, including:
- Charged to about 65% early in the morning
- Drove 42 miles, involving a 5000 foot mountain descent followed by gentle freeway driving
- Charged to almost "100%" (90% in gids)
- Drove the same 42 miles back home up the mountain, arriving with about 15%.
- Charged to 42%, then drove to Big Bear.

Also, while we were down the mountain, the ambient temperature was mostly in the 70s.

BTW, for the first time this season, I suspect we will hit four temperature bars tonight...

 

[dgpcolorado]

...BTW, for the first time this season, I suspect we will hit four temperature bars tonight...

You're going to beat me to four bars, given that you park outside. I've been at five for some time but the weather remains very mild here at 7670 feet—only two below freezing lows so far—and I haven't even turned on my house furnace yet (lots of south facing windows help).

 

[tbleakne]

Here is my spreadsheet output for the elevation profile posted on pg 12. I made assumptions about the downhill speeds, but I adjusted them to maximize regeneration based upon your comments. Your data gave me the best precision I have had so far for determination of rolling resistance.

Note that I came quite close to your 2 reported data points, 10% before last major downgrade and 13% when you reached home.

Ignore the "V From" column. It is for specifying speeds on the return leg of a 2-way trip, which is not relevant in this instance.

 

[abasile]

That's quite impressive, Tom! The very end of the route differed slightly in that I drove very slowly through the neighborhood, which is about 0.1 mile more direct, as opposed to remaining on the highway and going faster. Had I done the latter, I suspect the final charge would have been slightly lower, as you spreadsheet predicted.

 

[abasile]

Also, Tom's spreadsheet's prediction of 16.7% at the west end of Big Bear Lake seems quite close. I do recall hitting the Low Battery warning (17.7%) at least a mile or two before we reached the west end of the lake.

On another note, I am very encouraged by our church pastor's desire to support EVs. I have L1 charged at our church on a number of occasions. I have told the pastor that I only plug in when I need the charge, i.e., after having driven up the mountain just prior to an evening service. Today, he encouraged me to plug in whether I need the charge or not, as seeing an EV being charged stimulates others to think about their vehicle choices. This makes me think that eventually we should talk about installing L2, mainly for visitors.

If anyone visiting our mountain area would like a referral to an EV-friendly church, just send me a PM. In case anyone is curious, our church is certainly not considered "liberal". But I will say that we are more pro-science than many churches, and we desire to respect and care for the unbelievably well designed (yet temporary) home called Earth that we are blessed with. After all, even after we have moved on, our descendents will have to live with our choices.

 

[tbleakne]

This weekend I completed a 185 mile, 2-day trip to a friend's ranch near Idyllwild, CA, in the San Bernardino Mountains. The ranch is at 5K ft, and it is 53 miles and 3K ft above the last L2 I charged at, which was Raceway Nissan.

I have visited this location several times over the last few years, but this was my first time in my LEAF. Getting there and back successfully required a year of planning, because backup choices are poor and my LEAF is down 10% in usable battery capacity:

Picking a route that avoided unnecessary hills and provided L2 charging at almost 2K ft altitude at the Nissan dealership.
Having my friend verify that his 30A 240V dryer plug had power and would accept my NEMA adapter.
Calibrating my Leaf Range Spreadsheet, which has corrections for altitude, temperature, rolling resistance, battery losses, weight of occupants, etc.
Using way-points along the route to check my progress against my Gid meter readings, and adjust my speed accordingly.
Using speeds as slow as 30 mph on the mountain portions.

I reached the ranch at 21% Gids, within 1% of my spreadsheet's prediction. By the time I drove into charging position using dirt roads on the property, I was just below LBW.

On the return leg the next day, some route location confusion, a 4-mile detour to checkout a RV park, traffic pressure to maintain a speed somewhat higher than I had planned on one 2-lane stretch without turnouts, and a mild head-wind all resulted in my SOC dropping 8% below prediction near San Jacinto.

I had optional charging opportunities at both Raceway Nissan and Empire Ontario Nissan, but I decided I still had enough margin to forgo stopping at Raceway and driving a little slower. By the time I reached Ontario Nissan, I was down just 5% below prediction, and I had enough margin to get home with 10% Gids if necessary without stopping there either.

My plan had been to charge at Ontario Mills while having dinner at Outback. There had been reports on Recargo that one of the two chargers was broken, but when I reached them, both were free. I charged for an hour successfully during dinner, and when I returned, a Volt was charging on the other unit.

A few more pictures from the trip:

 

[ztanos]

CHEEEESSSEE!!!! :lol:

 

[abasile]

I reached the ranch at 21% Gids, within 1% of my spreadsheet's prediction. By the time I drove into charging position using dirt roads on the property, I was just below LBW.

That was very well executed, Tom! I am impressed that your gid usage tracked your predictions so closely and that you were able to complete the entire trip without even dipping significantly below LBW. I enjoyed your photos. Hopefully this was the first of multiple trips to that beautiful ranch in the LEAF. It appears that you had to charge at Raceway Nissan for more than two hours, but undoubtedly you arrived prepared with a way of passing the time.

By the way, we visited Gilman Ranch in Banning last week. They let us charge at 120 V for a few hours, then we charged another couple of hours using one of the Blink L2 units at the Redlands Walmart, enough to get us home up the mountain a little below LBW. It occurred to me while we were in Banning that the bottom of State Highway 243, the road we have taken to Idyllwild in the past, is close by. It would be interesting to see if we could charge at an RV park in the area (there is no formal charging infrastructure whatsoever) and make the drive to Idyllwild via CA-243. We'd first have to pass through Pine Cove, above 6000'.

 

[Boomer23]

Lovely story and photos, Tom. Well done!

 

[hill]

This weekend I completed a 185 mile, 2-day trip to a friend's ranch near Idyllwild, CA, in the San Bernardino Mountains. The ranch is at 5K ft, and it is 53 miles and 3K ft above the last L2 I charged at, which was Raceway Nissan.

I have visited this location several times over the last few years, but this was my first time in my LEAF. Getting there and back successfully required a year of planning, because backup choices are poor and my LEAF is down 10% in usable battery capacity:

Picking a route that avoided unnecessary hills and provided L2 charging at almost 2K ft altitude at the Nissan dealership.
Having my friend verify that his 30A 240V dryer plug had power and would accept my NEMA adapter. . . . . . . . . snip

I carry a quick 220 for a greater chance of getting 240v out of 2 120v plugs/opposate phases. It's save me a couple times.

 

[GRA]

CHEEEESSSEE!!!! :lol:

Deer wear retainers? :shock:

 

[tbleakne]

CHEEEESSSEE!!!! :lol:

Deer wear retainers? :shock:

Most likely the deer was eating an apple because he is eating under some apple trees that had fruit.

 

[tbleakne]

I carry a quick 220 for a greater chance of getting 240v out of 2 120v plugs/opposate phases. It's save me a couple times.

I agree. I built my own Quick220, using the design on the forum, and I always carry it for backup.

 

[abasile]

Last week we purchased 50 bags of fuel (the quantity on one pallet) for our wood pellet stove, which on many days serves as the primary source of heat in our mountain home. (We have a relatively efficient natural gas heater as well.)

Each bag weighs 40 pounds, and all bags were transported 5000' up the mountain in the LEAF, in three trips on three different days.

On the last trip up, my wife, kids, and 18 bags of fuel shared the car. The Home Depot employee who helped me load the car could not believe how much stuff we were able to cram into the LEAF (an EV!), for a ride up the mountain no less. He had to admit that the car could handle it; the LEAF wasn't riding too low.

Eleven bags (440 pounds) occupied the hatch area, and the remaining seven bags were distributed around the passenger cabin in front of the seats and in the middle of the back seat. We also had a load of groceries. Including passengers, the LEAF was carrying over 1100 pounds, or over 4500 pounds including the weight of the car. Instead of consuming about 55% SOC (in gids) for the drive home, the consumption was more like 62%, and that was with the slowest speeds I could safely maintain. For the sake of the suspension, I don't do this regularly, but who needs a truck or SUV? :lol:

I guess I won't have to drive a Tesla S or RAV4 EV to experience a 4500 pound EV!

 

[dgpcolorado]

^ Well done! (And people wonder why some of us like hatchbacks. I never did understand the attractions of sedans or coupes.)

 

[GRA]

^ Well done! (And people wonder why some of us like hatchbacks. I never did understand the attractions of sedans or coupes.)

At least in the days before sedans got fold-down rear seats and hatchbacks got cargo covers, there was a security advantage re smash and grab thieves. There was also no problem keeping the rear window clean (before hatchbacks/wagons got air dams and/or rear wipers). But I'm with you.

 

[TomT]

Some of it has to do with the fact that some years ago hatchbacks were always the bottom of the food chain and the cheapest and entry level vehicles of a manufacturer's line. Thus they got a negative stigma attached to them...

^ Well done! (And people wonder why some of us like hatchbacks. I never did understand the attractions of sedans or coupes.)

 

[mwalsh]

I've always loved hatchbacks. They are invariably far better looking than sedan versions of the same car.

 

[GRA]

I've always loved hatchbacks. They are invariably far better looking than sedan versions of the same car.

I dispute that, but assuming for the sake of argument that it was true, let's all be glad they never built a sedan version of the Pacer! The mind boggles

 

[abasile]

We've had a colder than average winter so far. Our LEAF's battery temperature dropped to three bars last week, the lowest I can recall observing. We always park outside, and the car was not plugged in overnight.

Yes, the windshield is mostly covered with snow/ice. Thankfully, battery capacity reduction in the cold has proven to be pretty modest, as reflected in TonyWilliams' range chart. The biggest impact of the cold in my case is that regenerative braking is greatly reduced on long mountain descents, at least with the SOC above 50-60%. But for drives on the mountain (i.e., to Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear, or Crestline) with modest climate control use, the winter range remains respectable. Heavy climate control use is another story... I understand the 2013 LEAF is supposed to do better in the area of heater efficiency.

Here's a photo of the rear of our LEAF after a snowstorm last month. We had rain first, then snow. Apparently, ice/snow was gradually sliding off the rear of the car, then froze in place.

And this is what the forest just outside our neighborhood looked like. A backcountry skier's paradise!