Vancouver to Banff

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

tantousha

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
20
Hey guys,

With the L3 in Revelstoke coming online, has anyone attempted a trip to Banff?

It's looking pretty spartan between Revelstoke and Banff, but I wonder if anyone has attempted it?
 
tantousha said:
Hey guys,

With the L3 in Revelstoke coming online, has anyone attempted a trip to Banff?

It's looking pretty spartan between Revelstoke and Banff, but I wonder if anyone has attempted it?
I will .... when I get my 2017 :D
 
Sounds like what I thought... I'm guessing there is no problem getting from Vancouver to Kelowna with the trail of quick chargers along the way...
 
Reddy said:
Revelstoke to Golden is 148 Km.

Yes, and there are several potential places to charge. Kinabasket Lake Resort, for example. At worst, could rent an RV site for a day.

Still a bit scary with 103kim and almost 1000 meters of climb. (Wrong. About twice that climb)
 
WetEV said:
Reddy said:
Revelstoke to Golden is 148 Km.

Yes, and there are several potential places to charge. Kinabasket Lake Resort, for example. At worst, could rent an RV site for a day.

Still a bit scary with 103kim and almost 1000 meters of climb.

Actually it is a bit worse than that even! I used my trip planner spreadsheet (you can find on my website) and did some checking:

- Even with a brand new 24 kWh Leaf, you need to stop twice between Revy and Golden; once at Canyon Hot Springs Resort, and again on the other side of the pass at Kinbasket Lake Resort
- Each place only has 120V/30A outlets (that I can find), so if you have an EVSE capable of drawing 120V/24A (not many can), you have about 6+ hours of en-route charging
- With a new 30 kWh Leaf, you could probably go straight to Kinbasket lake and skip Canyon Hot Springs, thereby shaving about 3 hours of charging off your trip
- stats are 1750m climbing, 1425m descending, 161km travelled (you have to go a distance off the highway to Kinbasket LR)

I like taking my EV on far-out trips (check my blog), but I think even I will pass on this one :)

Having said that, you can go through the Highway 3 route to the East Kootenays, then head north to Golden, then over to Banff that way I think (a few spots that are a bit tricky: getting from Grand Forks to Rossland/Trail, Trail to Creston [until they install a charger in Salmo, then it will be easy, and the village has told me that they are this year], and Cranbrook to Invermere, maybe even Invermere to Golden! All of these legs are easily done with a 30 kWh Leaf in the summer however.)

Or if they get around to adding an L2 charger at Roger's Pass. I heard a rumour early last year that they were going to install one, but haven't heard anything since.
 
achewt said:
WetEV said:
Still a bit scary with 103kim and almost 1000 meters of climb. (wrong, twice that)

Actually it is a bit worse than that even! I used my trip planner spreadsheet (you can find on my website) and did some checking:

- Even with a brand new 24 kWh Leaf, you need to stop twice between Revy and Golden; once at Canyon Hot Springs Resort, and again on the other side of the pass at Kinbasket Lake Resort

Canyon Hot Springs Resort doesn't help much, will be at 66% or so there. Revelstoke to Kinbasket Lake Resort, with no stop in Canyon Hot Springs Resort:

evtripplanner.com says you make it, using 78 out of 80 "rated miles" at 90% of traffic speed. A bit scary. Can't easily put a waypoint at the high point right before the end, which is probably negative.

http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/ says 3% left at 90km/hr, and slightly negative before the decent into Kinbasket Lake Resort. . A bit scary. Somewhat more, 18% left at the "auto speed setting". I don't trust the auto speed setting. (Oh, and set the Leaf battery size to 21kWh for a new Leaf)

My personal spreadsheet predicts a final charge of 3%, but negative 4% before starting the decent into Kinbasket Lake Resort. 90km/hr on BC-1, 30km/hr on secondary roads. A bit scary. (Based on my 2014 Leaf's battery being down to 20kWh)

If I was going to take the trip, I'd probably charge at Canyon Hot Springs, I'd have an abort percentage to turn around at a pre-calculated point before reaching the summit if charge was too low, and plans for a dinner and a L1 charge at Heather Mountain Lodge. I'd probably just plan on an overnight at KLR.

achewt said:
- Each place only has 120V/30A outlets (that I can find), so if you have an EVSE capable of drawing 120V/24A (not many can), you have about 6+ hours of en-route charging

I think you are correct, and I've never seen an EVSE capable of 120V/24A. Most current I've seen in a L1 is 120V/20A:

http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/acs-25-20-amp-ev-charging-station-25-ft-cable/

Perhaps then add a NEMA TT-30, but at least the early 2011 and 2012 Leafs couldn't charge at this current. Can later Leafs charge at 120V above 12A on 120V?

achewt said:
I like taking my EV on far-out trips (check my blog), but I think even I will pass on this one

Yea, me too, and me too. But I'd like to. Maybe with a 60kWh next gen Leaf.
 
[snip]

achewt said:
- Each place only has 120V/30A outlets (that I can find), so if you have an EVSE capable of drawing 120V/24A (not many can), you have about 6+ hours of en-route charging

I think you are correct, and I've never seen an EVSE capable of 120V/24A. Most current I've seen in a L1 is 120V/20A:

http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/acs-25-20-amp-ev-charging-station-25-ft-cable/

Perhaps then add a NEMA TT-30, but at least the early 2011 and 2012 Leafs couldn't charge at this current. Can later Leafs charge at 120V above 12A on 120V?

Scroll down to the Charging Equipment section (http://kootenayevfamily.ca/ev-basics/resources/) and click on BSA Electronics - this guy builds high - quality Open EVSE products. I bought one last year and have used it several times now, and can confirm that it will charge at at least 20A on a 120V TT-30 outlet. I've actually never tried 24A, because I was camping overnight anyways and didn't need maximum juice. I should have a chance to try it during a road trip at the end of April and will report back.

And oh yeah, 3% is wayyyy too close for comfort :) If my sheet says anything less than 10%, I either slow down or go a different route. Some routes it is incredibly unsafe to slow down on, and I would count this as one of those routes.
 
[snip...]

WetEV said:
achewt said:
- Each place only has 120V/30A outlets (that I can find), so if you have an EVSE capable of drawing 120V/24A (not many can), you have about 6+ hours of en-route charging

I think you are correct, and I've never seen an EVSE capable of 120V/24A. Most current I've seen in a L1 is 120V/20A:

http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/acs-25-20-amp-ev-charging-station-25-ft-cable/

Perhaps then add a NEMA TT-30, but at least the early 2011 and 2012 Leafs couldn't charge at this current. Can later Leafs charge at 120V above 12A on 120V?

Scroll down to the Charging Equipment section (http://kootenayevfamily.ca/ev-basics/resources/) and click on BSA Electronics - this guy builds high - quality Open EVSE products. I bought one last year and have used it several times now, and can confirm that it will charge at at least 20A on a 120V TT-30 outlet. I've actually never tried 24A, because I was camping overnight anyways and didn't need maximum juice. I should have a chance to try it during a road trip at the end of April and will report back.

And oh yeah, 3% is wayyyy too close for comfort :) If my sheet says anything less than 10%, I either slow down or go a different route. Some routes it is incredibly unsafe to slow down on, and I would count this as one of those routes.
 
achewt said:
[snip...]

WetEV said:
achewt said:
- Each place only has 120V/30A outlets (that I can find), so if you have an EVSE capable of drawing 120V/24A (not many can), you have about 6+ hours of en-route charging

I think you are correct, and I've never seen an EVSE capable of 120V/24A. Most current I've seen in a L1 is 120V/20A:

http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/acs-25-20-amp-ev-charging-station-25-ft-cable/

Perhaps then add a NEMA TT-30, but at least the early 2011 and 2012 Leafs couldn't charge at this current. Can later Leafs charge at 120V above 12A on 120V?

Scroll down to the Charging Equipment section (http://kootenayevfamily.ca/ev-basics/resources/) and click on BSA Electronics - this guy builds high - quality Open EVSE products. I bought one last year and have used it several times now, and can confirm that it will charge at at least 20A on a 120V TT-30 outlet. I've actually never tried 24A, because I was camping overnight anyways and didn't need maximum juice. I should have a chance to try it during a road trip at the end of April and will report back.

And oh yeah, 3% is wayyyy too close for comfort :) If my sheet says anything less than 10%, I either slow down or go a different route. Some routes it is incredibly unsafe to slow down on, and I would count this as one of those routes.

Update on using my Open EVSE on 120V/30A TT-30 outlet for charging: I did get a chance to use it twice on my trip last week.

First time I charged overnight from almost flat and had about 9 - 10 hours, so I set it at 18A and the car accepted that power with no quibble.

The next day I set the unit to 24A. After 45 minutes, I had not recuperated as much energy as I expected (based on Leaf Spy, dash SOC, etc) - in fact I had only been averaging about 1.7 kW into the battery, despite Leaf Spy showing 2.6 - 2.8 kW. After that though, it picked up dramatically and charged at the displayed rate in Leaf Spy. Not sure why that happened. Delayed me by about a 1/2 hour, which wasn't too bad.
 
Back
Top