Driving my CPO Leaf 233 miles home

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BeckyinVT

Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2017
Messages
6
Location
Northern VT
Here's my "I tried the search, but didn't find anything, but if I missed a similar conversation please link me to it" disclaimer.

Ok, got that out of the way. Now here's my scenario: I just bought a certified-preowned 2013 SL with 17k miles and 12 bar capacity (bose sound system, 360 cameras, red (my favorite) - as far as I can tell this one has every option.) None of the dealers near me have any used Leafs of any kind - so while I am in VT my new car is over 200 miles away from me in MA.

I *think* I've got my route home planned out. But I'm looking for any good suggestions, things I should keep an eye on, concerns from more experienced drivers who have done road trips with multiple charge stops.

The sales guy I worked with drives these cars daily. He told me that between inexperience and cold temps I shouldn't plan on driving more than 50 miles between charges. My current route is 39 miles (non-interstate) to an L2 charge (a good lunch stop) and then 49 miles to my parents. There I'll have an overnight charge at a wall outlet. Next comes a 36 mile drive, an L2 at a B&B, Then a 52 mile jump to a stop that has a quick charger and an L2. This does include some time on the interstate, but I'm not afraid of going 50 or 55mph if that's what I've got to do to make it. The next run is another 50 miles and THAT is on an interstate that involves some hills (hilly Vermont, but no mountains).

Does that seem reasonable? Am I pushing my luck? There are no chargers on the 52 mile stretch at all. I'd have to go 20 miles off the interstate to find one. I can do that if I have to, but ugh.

Once I get the car home there are chargers everywhere. That and I only drive about 5-10 miles a day. The car will be perfect for me, assuming I can get it home...
 
Sounds like a plan and a nice trip !
You may want to hook up LeafSpy before you take off to know how much capacity a full battery has. 12 bars can be about 20 kWh when new, or as low as 17 kWh before the 1st capacity bar drops off.
Bring along warm clothes and gloves, and emergency stuff in case things go awry.
Find out how many Amps your L2 charge stations supply. Might be as low as 16 Amps, or as many as the LEAF can handle (30 ish)

At the parents: Be sure you are not sharing the circuit with any other appliances, and try to verify that the circuit is on a 15 Amp breaker. That way you can charge at 12 Amps. You may have to set the LEAF EVSE or the car for 12 Amps -- I am not sure

Another alternative is to check out the car trailers that U-haul rent out for a week if you have access to a car with a hitch. That was my plan had I ended up with a LEAF 250 miles from home.
 
It sounds doable, but be prepared to worry about range, and practice mental math all the way.. ALL new owners do so. As you get more experience, you will find it more comfortable.

I have a friend who drove his Leaf from Atlanta to Delaware.. He said he found dealerships were almost the perfect distance apart. (760 miles)

My suggestions:
Every week, I drive 42 miles, on flat ground, at 55-57 most of the miles on what compares to a freeway & 6 miles in a city. . I use 50-60% of the total battery capacity on that trip. I charge to at least 10 bars before heading back. I can make it home at 65 if I am fully charged, but that leaves little margin. I always plan my trips not to get into the last 2 bars, but many people do go that far.

Download, if you haven't, Plugshare, Chargepoint, and whatever chargers are common in you area. Plugshare is crowdsourced, and private folks may be on it, as well as L1 wall plugs.

Try and keep the speed in the interstate to 55.. I get about 3.8 miles /KWH in cold weather on flat ground at 55 with no headwind.

Also, I find I get better mileage with cruise control on.

Start each segment charged to 90%-100 %, it will make you feel better.

The heater may take 5 - 8 miles off range.

We don't have hills here, so I can't comment.. I have an app, Nissan Leaf Range Estimator, which does a good estimate, based on speed, elevation change (google map based) and temperature. My version is for the 24Kwh battery.

Have fun, and enjoy the quiet of the car.. THat is the best thing at 55.
 
Next comes a 36 mile drive, an L2 at a B&B, Then a 52 mile jump to a stop that has a quick charger and an L2. This does include some time on the interstate, but I'm not afraid of going 50 or 55mph if that's what I've got to do to make it. The next run is another 50 miles and THAT is on an interstate that involves some hills (hilly Vermont, but no mountains).

Does that seem reasonable? Am I pushing my luck? There are no chargers on the 52 mile stretch at all. I'd have to go 20 miles off the interstate to find one. I can do that if I have to, but ugh.

* Make sure that the car has QC before planning on using a QC station. ;-) I think it was standard on the SL in 2013, but verify that.

* Keep in mind that to get back to 100% may take two hours at the QC station, because of tapering after 80%.

* Remember that if temps are below roughly 35F the heater will start to pull more juice. More still below 26F or so, and a horrendous amount below 15F or so. I'd bring a 12 volt electric blanket to wear so the heat can be lowered a lot if necessary.
 
Aside from the earlier excellent advice on getting and using LeafSpy and Plugshare, if you haven't already seen it, check out Tony Williams various range charts:

http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4295


The only other tip I'd mention is that when planning these sorts of extended trips, make sure to have an alternative "Plan B" charging stop available unless you are 100% certain of a spots reliability.

Good Luck!
 
BTW, I own the same 2013 SL in Ocean Blue, also with 17K miles.. Knowing my car, and given your planning, I think you are fine. I have done 150 miles in a day with 2 stops.

L2 chargers will deliver about 20 miles per hour of charging. With the tapering at 80%, it takes about 2.5 -3 hours to 100% from 50% initial charge.
 
Ah yes, plug-share!
I think they have a smartphone app

I offer L2 charging from my home to fellow EV'ers at up to 10 kW (thus 6.6 kW to your car), and with a bit of luck you can find people of a like mind along your route. You may want to drive on the weekend since home chargers are often by appointment
 
Thanks everyone for reviewing my plan!

My SL does have QC, so I'm good there. I have the PlugShare App, plus ChargePoint and SemaConnect as those seem to be the two in my area. The chargers I'm looking at using all have lots of positive reviews. Except for the B&B which is a bit out of the way, but they say to call first anyway so I'll do that for certain. I have plan B chargers at/near every stop except that B&B...

I will look into the leaf range estimator app. And warm blankets! I don't think I can get the LeafSpy dongle thing by Friday, so as much as that's probably good advice I'll be learning the finer points by experience on this trip!
 
Not mentioned, but I would add that your first stop should be to pump up all 4 tires to 44 psi cold before the trip. Tire pressure makes a big difference in range even with low rolling resistance tires.
 
webfootguy said:
Not mentioned, but I would add that your first stop should be to pump up all 4 tires to 44 psi cold before the trip. Tire pressure makes a big difference in range even with low rolling resistance tires.

Or if you may encounter bad roads, 40-42psi. If the car has Ecopia tires on it they will be slippery, especially at higher pressures.
 
Hi. Well, you have an adventurous spirit. Your trip is totally doable, but I'm wondering why not use more QC? There's a lot more nowadays.

IMG_6260.JPG

More info would be helpful. From where in MA to where in VT? I'll guess Milford Nissan, as your description sounds like Guy Bedard.

It's cold enough that you can QC hop without overheating the pack, and they're well spaced. Best to stay on the old highways.

The L1 that comes with the car only adds ~4 mph, but in an emergency, 120 outlets are everywhere, if people are kind enough to let you use them.

But QC is so much faster than L2, I really recommend you try to route with them.
 
Or if you may encounter bad roads

The thing about a mid-january drive through VT is that I'm pretty much guaranteed bad roads (and temps below freezing.)

I've seen the recommendation to up the tire pressure. I'll make that decision Sunday morning at my parents based on that day's weather forecast.

Luckily for me the MA dealer put mud&snow tires on the front. I mean, luckily for my traction, not my mileage...
 
More info would be helpful. From where in MA to where in VT?

DNAinaGoodWay: the car is at Country Nissan out in Western MA (Hadley, right near I91)

For the first day I'm headed through Keene NH (where there are 2 L2's but no QCs) because it's more direct than following I91 and we need a place to eat lunch anyway.

For the second day my big jump (and the one that makes me most nervous) is that vacant stretch of I89 between Manchester and White River Junction. It's a lot more than 50 miles between those two cities, and it's a charging desert. If you turn on L2's in your search you'll see a couple in Concord, the B&B in Henniker, and more in Lebanon.

So that's my problem. If I can't make it from Henniker to WRJ I can easily stop at an L2 in Lebanon, but there are no QCs out there, not even at Nissan dealerships.

And yeah, there are lots of QCs in Northern VT! There are both L2's and QCs at my final stop before home. But it's only 14 miles from there to my house, so I'll probably pick my charge speed based on cost and how much juice I really need at that point.

(and I'm not just driving up 91 to home because this is my one big chance to show off my new EV to my parents who are EV curious but have never seen one in person. So yeah, there's a little of that built into my trip, too)
 
Ah, I see! Hadley to Northern VT by way of Manchester NH. That's a route less taken. But still doable. There's a comment in Lebanon that it was 67 miles from Concord and I'll bet you could do that without even going to Henniker. 50 miles is safe, but you'll probably find you can get 60-70 miles with no problem. Should be in the 40s Friday and still 30s over the weekend so you'll mostly be on the heat pump when you use it. In winter clothes you'll find the seat heater is plenty most of the day. Without LeafSpy, a good rule of thumb is ~ 7-8 miles from LBW to VLBW, then about 4 miles to turtle, and I'll bet you get 60 miles at least from full to LBW. But stopping at every EVSE you can never hurts if you have the time, and you're only making this trip once, so the cost is just part of your adventure. Take your time, you'll get a feel for it. Soon, you'll instinctively know how many miles away any destination is.
 
On second look, Henniker is worth the $10, but I would skip 89 and go through Bradford, Newbury, and Sunapee, then use Rt. 10 that follows 89.

IMG_6262.JPG

There's not even a home Plugshare around there, but that way is under 50 miles and avoids highway speeds. One of the beauties of EV travel is using the old roads and seeing places you'd fly by on a highway.
 
Luckily for me the MA dealer put mud&snow tires on the front. I mean, luckily for my traction, not my mileage...

Snow tires on the front only is fairly common, and I've done it. However, it's much more dangerous than it seems. On slippery roads the front will keep its grip, but the all-seasons (or worse) in the rear will sometimes lose theirs. The result is the car's tail trying to pass its nose, and the car going sideways or even into a spin. It's insidious because you can avoid it for years, and then get nailed by it. I had it happen on my old Camry: good snows on the front, good all-seasons on the rear, but the highway was slick, and I got a strong West wind hitting the car almost directly sideways. It tried to spin several different times in the course of about a mile. Each time I fought it straight again, thinking it was a fluke, and...it happened again. White knuckle city! From then on it was snows on all four wheels, or none at all.

If you have Ecopias or anything other than all-season tires that look exactly like snow tires on the rear, be very, very careful.
 
skip 89 and go through Bradford, Newbury, and Sunapee, then use Rt. 10 that follows 89

DNAinaGoodWay: Thank you for this is excellent route advice! And also for this:

a good rule of thumb is ~ 7-8 miles from LBW to VLBW

I'm thinking that if I get to Lebanon and haven't seen the LBW yet that I can safely push through to the QC in White River Junction - it's only 6 miles between them. I'm hoping not to run past the VLBW though!

LeftieBiker:
The result is the car's tail trying to pass its nose, and the car going sideways or even into a spin.

Yup. Vermont is notoriously bad at clearing the back roads in snowstorms and since I often move the old tires to the back wheels and buy new tires for my front wheels I have experienced this. Honestly even the mud & snows on the front aren't great winter tires. I think once we get the car home we'll probably put THEM on the rear wheels and better snow tires on the front. I just gotta get it here first...
 
DNAinaGoodWay said:
Hi. Well, you have an adventurous spirit. Your trip is totally doable, but I'm wondering why not use more QC? There's a lot more nowadays.



More info would be helpful. From where in MA to where in VT? I'll guess Milford Nissan, as your description sounds like Guy Bedard.

It's cold enough that you can QC hop without overheating the pack, and they're well spaced. Best to stay on the old highways.

The L1 that comes with the car only adds ~4 mph, but in an emergency, 120 outlets are everywhere, if people are kind enough to let you use them.

But QC is so much faster than L2, I really recommend you try to route with them.

Wow you have a lot of fast chargers!
 
And those are just CHAdeMOs, filtered out the stand alone CSS and Tesla.

I'm trying to get Plugshare to add a filter for Stations by rating. You know, their 0-10 system. I'd like to filter out the ones that are problematic.
 
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