900 mile Christmas Marathon

[IraqiInvaderGnr]

Btw Co-pilot is enjoying it just as much as I. Since we stop so much we rented 4 movies to watch. It's worked pretty great and helps pass time. It's just a good thing both of us can withstand the cold. Doubt that we will ever do this again but sure makes us remember our first long adventure in the leaf where we drove to Des Moines from Treynor stopping in Elk Horn to charge. 80 some odd miles in longest stretch doing 45mph we made it with 20% I remember. This was done in May just a month after we got the car. This car has performed exceptionally well!

One can only dream of DCQC station at every rest area, can't they?

Don't see it happening any time soon here in Iowa though.

Yea I wish. I was talking to some congressman aids here in Jefferson City, Missouri about installing charging stations at rest areas but got the response modot is broken or you'll have to talk to modot about that. I think I'm going to call my state legislatures here in Iowa when the session reopens. I'm not picky I'd be happy with level 2 at rest areas even.

I talked to a head guy for IDOT in the area that I live and he said they don't have the power to do that because of a law that forbids commercial services along interstates. Rest area every 30 miles in Iowa makes it perfect. Who knows one day that might actually happen. DCQC can only get cheaper.

 

[IraqiInvaderGnr]

Trip from Jefferson City, MO to Humboldt, IA. Pretty good long trip. Trip took place December 25th-December 26th

Left Jefferson City, MO at 20:45 at 100% and arrived at Columbia, MO at 21:45 with 61% 36 miles.
Charged at Nissan dealership
Left Columbia at 23:30 at 100% and arrived at La Pata, MO in turtle mode after 77 miles. Charged to 100% (overslept)
Charged at Hotel
Left La Pata, MO at 06:45 at 100% and arrived at Ottumwa, IA with 13% after 84 miles at 09:30. Charged to 73% and left at 11:30.
Charged at RV dealership after the campground was closed (Had called a week before and the person that works there said they'd be open). They charged me $21.40 to charge there (they were trying to charge me $100 dollars.
Left Ottumwa, IA at 11:30 at 73% and arrived at Oskaloosa, IA with 40% after 30 miles at 12:00. Charged to 100% and left at 14:15.
Charged at Tesla Owner's home. Very nice guy by the way and very much appreciate him allowing us to wait inside his home.
Left Oskaloosa at 14:15 at 100% and arrived in Des Moines, IA at 16:00 with 13% after 73 miles. Left at 18:45 with 80% and arrived in Boxholm, IA with 18% at 20:30.
We attempted to charge at Don Williams State park nearby but it was closed. Called Nissan to have us towed to Humboldt. It wasn't until the next day that I realized we were within 10 miles of the Campground we are going to charge at on the way back. Big mistake but what can you do.
21:30 tow truck arrived and towed us to Humboldt where we arrived at around 22:30 or 23:00.

Overall it was a not so bad trip and learned alot. Pushed the leaf to go 84 miles on a charge by going 45mph top speed. Most of the trip top speed was limited to 50mph (other than coasting faster of course). Having said all of this I don't plan to do this type of marathon in a leaf ever again. Too time consuming. I would recommend against others trying to do this while relying on Level 2 charging. I also learned that not all level 2 chargers charge the same (knew this before but didn't realize it could be such extreme differences). Clipper Creek charging stations at Kum and Go charge very slowly...might be limited to 20amps. It took about 3 hours to charge to 73%. Aerovironment EVSE or Chargepoint charging stations would have had me 90-95% after 3 hours. Very disappointed in this but it's a lesson learned. Don't charge at Clipper Creek unless it's the only one around. I had a Chargepoint station less than a mile away that I could have used had I known this.

After doing these 2 long trips I've learned that I will be wanting to get a Tesla (Model E?) as soon as they are available. In a Tesla even with the smaller 60 KWH battery this would have been a piece of cake. I could have drove to Kansas City from Treynor, IA and sat for 30 mins while it charged at a supercharger. Then proceeded to Jefferson City, MO without any more stops. Then I could have drove from Jefferson City, MO to La Pata, MO and charged overnight. Then drove from La Pata, MO to Des Moines, IA. Stopped there for 30 mins at a supercharger. Then drove the rest of the way to Humboldt, IA. Needless to say unless Nissan changes things significantly in the next few years I can see alot of us owners jumping ship to a Tesla.

Edit: Added date

 

[ksnogas2112]

Glad it all worked out over all. Sorry for missing the 12/28 update. Very glad you finished before the deep freeze hit.

 

[finman100]

Jump ship? really? Sure, we'd all love to go the Tesla route...but the price to jump ship is not doable. at all. for a large number of people. glad that some can. but, really, it isn't easy to DOUBLE the price for an electric car and get the masses to jump ship to that expense. Thanks for doing this trip and documenting all of the details. Now i know i want a Leaf for my shorter trips. but i also have DCQC all up and down I-5 (and then some...). I see Tesla in my future only when the price falls back down to earth. pie in the sky is expensive! Leaf not perfect (range). neither is Tesla (price).