Advice on taking a road trip in Ohio

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wtdedula

Active member
Joined
Sep 10, 2017
Messages
38
Hello All;
I am going to put my 2015 Leaf through its paces by taking a little road trip to my brothers this weekend (Cleveland to Columbus).

I am wondering for all of you who take the Leaf for an extended road trip on the highway, what sort of strategies/tips can you offer to assure you don't run out of power before getting to a Level 2 or 3 charger ?

How many highway miles can I realistically expect to get when driving on the highway without heater/A/C on ? I have all bars and only 20,000 miles on the car if that helps.

How many miles do you have remaining before you begin to look for a charging station ?

There doesn't seem to be any quickchargers between my route from Cleveland to Columbus but there are some level 2 chargers along the way, not a lot but a few.

Tim
 
* Drive for maximum economy (no more than 60MPH indicated, gentle acceleration) at the beginning and middle of the trip, only speeding up if desired when you are sure you'll have enough range near the end.

* Use the accurate range indicator (if you have an SV or SL and thus the Nav console) that is summoned by pressing the blue button on the steering wheel and then using the lower range estimate displayed.

* Inflate the tires to 42-44psi cold.

* Leave the windows up and use the ventilation fan, on whatever speed is comfortable. It draws very little power by itself.
 
LeftieBiker;
I have a "S" trim, not a SL or SV. Is the displayed miles remaining accurate ?

Tim
 
Your trip requires planning. If you have not already done so, take your car out on the highway after a full charge and run it down in your local area to get an idea of your highway range to your Low Battery Warning (LBW) which happens around 15 to 20 miles left on the Guess o Meter (GOM). I got about 80 miles when I did that. Go to plugshare.com, register if you have not already, go to the trip planner and for your Cleveland to Columbus route increase the search radius to something like 20 miles. Plug in your start and end address, find one or more places to charge along the route that leave some margin from your max range (for me about 70 miles max for a 1st leg). From the 1st charge, drop about 20 miles from your 1st leg max because at about 80% to 90% charged the charge rate slows down a lot. Find your 2nd and subsequent charge legs using the lower max limit until you get to your destination.

With the radius set to 20 there is a Nissan in Mansfield or a place in Wooster that make this trip possible. A conservative example I would consider:
1st stop: Whole Foods 365 in Akron
2nd: G & S Titanium, Wooster (Solar powered charge). 38 miles.
3rd: Nissan, Mansfield. 44 miles.
4th if needed: Tangier outlet, Columbus. 44 miles.

For your first go, charge to 80% at each stop. You should gain about 20 to 25 miles per hour of charge, assuming you have the 6.6KW charger, at a L2 EVSE. After you have a better idea of your range on this route, you could drop one of the middle stops if you are comfortable with it.
 
What part of Columbus will you be driving to?

On PlugShare it looks like there are QC in Medina. 71 miles @60mph is not very realistic, and the route is a few miles longer if you take rt 42. Then stop at an L2 in Ashville or Mansfield then hit the Tanger outlets off 71 as your last stop. It will be a long wait if you have to charge to 100% too.

Another good bet is to take secondary roads. QC in Medina, then head south on route 3 and have the option to stop at L2s in Wooster, Loudonville, and then take 36 to Centerburg.
 
wtdedula said:
LeftieBiker;
I have a "S" trim, not a SL or SV. Is the displayed miles remaining accurate ?

Tim

Not usually, although it tends to get more accurate as the end of the trip nears. Figure roughly 70% of the displayed range is real.
 
I have driven long distances and have the following pieces of experience....

1) Pre-plan your trip and make multiple large maps of each section of the trip. (I will explain below). You MUST plan your drive TO YOUR SELECTED CHARGER, not look for a charger when you are near empty.

2) The mile to empty gauge is worthless. Put tape over it. You should estimate your miles left by charging to 100% and estimate that each % of battery is the number of miles left before ZERO.

3) you should never go to ZERO, ever. (20-30% is a good low end). I would estimate that you stop to charge every 40-50 miles (get a charge when your battery is between 40-50%). Doing this is better for your battery, and if there are any problems that the charger does not work, you still have enough battery to get to an alternate charger.

4) Unless you use a QC (really fast) charger, you do not need to let the battery go all the way down. Letting the battery go down only increases the amount of time you need to wait at that charger. If there is nothing to do there, then you spend a lot of down time waiting. I would rather wait 1-1 /2 hours in 2 places than 3-4 hours in one place. (unless you find a place that has dinner and a movie! nearby).

5) Use the Chargepoint website/app on your computer or phone to find good places along your trip, and WRITE THEIR LOCATION ON THE LARGE MAPS YOU MADE IN STEP 1. (address and name of the place). You need to sign up to Chargepoint to get an electric card that will let you use the chargers. It is usually free to charge, but you will need to give a credit card number in case that some chargers have a fee.

6) I have found that more reliable chargers than chargepoint is to search for all the dealers ( Nissan, VW, Ford, and Chevy dealers) you can find, and put them on your map (address and tel Number). Call up the dealers (service department) before you travel. Ask, "where is your outdoor parking lot electric car charging station?". If they ask why, only say " I want to know where it is if I need it". (Some dealers only want the chargers for THEIR customers.). ALWAYS ASK IF THEY HAVE A CHADEMO (fast) charger or level 2 (j1772 plug). The best time to travel to the dealers is during business hours... Then you can blend in with the people waiting for their cars to be fixed, watch their TV, and have free coffee, bagels, and WIFI for y our Ipad movies...

7) only do this trip if you can really get into traveling to enjoy the stops and adventures of new, unknown places where you charge. If you see it as a chore to wait for the car to charge, you will not be happy.

I hope you enjoy your trip.... I love doing this, just as much as I love going camping or taking a bicycle trip.... Going really far with very little... AND THE FUEL FOR THE TRIP IS ALL FREE!!
 
Akron has good, free L2 charging stations available. I've thought about what it would take to get to Columbus from Akron. Looks like the Nissan Dealer in Mansfield will be key half way there. I would call them first.
 
Hello All;
WOW Thanks for all of the extremely helpful advice. I will take all of your advice into consideration on Saturday. It will be really interesting. I would like to see a few quickchargers in between Cleveland and Columbus - maybe someday. They only have a Tesla supercharger in-between and it is my understanding that that won't do any Leaf owner any good. I also didn't realize some of the chargers are free. I kinda suspected the chargers at Whole Foods were free but figured you'd have to shop there to use one.

Tim
 
wtdedula said:
Hello All;
WOW Thanks for all of the extremely helpful advice. I will take all of your advice into consideration on Saturday. It will be really interesting. I would like to see a few quickchargers in between Cleveland and Columbus - maybe someday. They only have a Tesla supercharger in-between and it is my understanding that that won't do any Leaf owner any good. I also didn't realize some of the chargers are free. I kinda suspected the chargers at Whole Foods were free but figured you'd have to shop there to use one.

Tim

There at 4 free J1772 ChargePoint units at the Whole Foods 365 at 1745 W. Market St., in Akron. Just need a ChargePoint acct with the RFID card. About a half mile from that are 4 free J1772 ChargePoint units at First Energy.

All else fails swing by my house in the same area and use my ClipperCreek unit. :)
 
Hello All;
Well I took my road trip this past weekend and learned so much about the range of my 2015 Leaf "S" and also had one terrifying moment that ended up fine. So here's a description of my experiences ... Lots of learning and discoveries here for newbies ...

1. It took me a long time initially to figure out what charging stations I wanted to visit along the way betweek Cleveland, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio - about a distance of 125 miles. At the beginning, I was cautious so I started with about 50% charge and headed to a Nissan Dealer (In Medina, Ohio) about 18 miles away to pick up a full charge. The dealer was nice and let me charge there as there was one free spot (of two). They didn't ask for payment and there were no signs so I assumed it was free. Charging took quite a while - probably about 2-1/2 hrs. When fully charged, I headed to the midpoint of my journey, another Nissan Dealer in Mansfield, Ohio.

I drove 55 miles almost exclusively on the freeway and I used 75% of charge (25% was remaining) by the time I arrived at the Mansfield Nissan Dealer. It was pretty late by the time I arrived so this dealer was closed. I was disappointed to see that the charging station was being used but it appeared that Nissan was charging one of their own vehicles because that had those papers on the window telling about the car's specs. So I decided to remove the charger from their vehicle to charge mine with full intentions to put it back when i was finished. I even left a courtesy voice mail to the dealer letting them know what I was doing. I even left my phone number. I charged there for a few hours and then headed the rest of the way.

2. My remaining leg to Columbus took me from the Medina Nissan to Tangier in Columbus - A distance of about 44 miles. However, I never got there. Here's where things got scary. It was dark outside by the time I exited the freeway and with only about 15% charge left, I ended up going back on the freeway rather than turning Left onto a main road. I began to get so nervous because there were no exits coming up for what seemed like a long while. Finally found an exit and got off with about 8% battery left. I was in Columbus by now so I knew there would be a lot of charging stations here. But because I wasn't familiar with the area and didn't want to chance getting lost, I called my brother (Who I was visiting) to come and drive me to a charging station which he found at a IKEA store just a few miles (or less) away. So we got there OK but it was my first case of range anxiety. I arrived at my destination successfully - Yay !

3. For the trip back to Cleveland the next day, I decided to try an experiment. For the trip back, I decided to take the side screets and not the freeway and ended up having a much better experience.

I started with 100% charge at IKEA of Columbus. By the time I arrived at Nissan of Mansfield a distance of 56.8 miles, I still had 39% of charge left. At Nissan of Mansfield, I charged to 100% in probably 1-1/2 hrs. Then continued on my journey to Nissan of Medina.

4. When I arrived at Nissan of Medina, I noticed I didn't record my power level but I recall I probably had about 40% charge left at least. And this was good because both charging stations at the Medina Nissan were being used. I was only about 20 miles from home at this point so I felt confident that I could make it home with 40% of charge remaining. But rathe r than going home, I decided to go a little further and stop near a Walmart with a quickcharger near my home and charged up to 82 %. Then went home.

So here's what I learned on my trip -

1. I definitely got much better mileage per charge by taking back roads than by taking the freeway. The difference was quite amazing, actually. This means that I will probably always take back roads to Columbus when visiting my brother from now on. This does add about an hour to the total drive but in my opinion, the drive is more relaxing and scenic.

2. The next time I travel, I'll leave early in the morning so as to arrive well before sunset. Now that I know which power stations are available and reliable, this should be possible.

3. I feel quite confident that I will be able to make it from my home to my brother's home with only one charge at the Mansfield Nissan but only if taking the back roads and not the freeway. Cleveland to my brother's house is about 125 miles and I discovered that when taking the back roads, I actually get at least 80 miles on a charge with a 2015 Leaf model "S" with all 12 bars remaining. This is likely not possible if taking the freeway. I do want to note that it was a nice but cool day so I didn't use either my heater or my air conditioner during my entire trip coming or going.

4. I learned on this forum to monitor (and trust) the % charge display more than the miles remaining display. So coming and going, I monitored the % charge display. Plus, I don't think the time to full charge display is that accurate. I think the charging time was actually less. I don't think I spent as much time at the Nissan Dealers as the display said I would.

Tim
 
I am glad that you had a good adventure. I disagree with you, however, that you will take side roads on such a long trip. I think that maybe you were going fast on the highway, that you got low mileage. You will get the same, and even better mileage on the highway if you keep the speed at about 55. Do not care "what will the other drivers think"... You have the right to travel the speed that you want. ALso, most highways have a minimum speed of 40... so 55 is very reasonable.

forget about the time estimator for charging on the dashboard.... You should start your trip at 100%, and expect to charge at about 25-30 % of charge PER HOUR of waiting.

Finally, if you are going to travel long distance regularly, I would highly recommend an J1772 EXTENSION CABLE so that you can charge even it there is another car blocking you from the charger. I got mine from emotorwerks, and I know that Jlong also makes a very good one, but it is a big expensive.

good luck
 
Nice write up. Thanks for sharing the adventure. Though, if I make any trips to Cleveland anytime soon, it will be in the wife's ICE Focus. Cinci, on the other hand, with a stop at the Jeffersonville Outlets might make a good trip.
 
powersurge said:
I am glad that you had a good adventure. I disagree with you, however, that you will take side roads on such a long trip. I think that maybe you were going fast on the highway, that you got low mileage. You will get the same, and even better mileage on the highway if you keep the speed at about 55. Do not care "what will the other drivers think"... You have the right to travel the speed that you want. ALso, most highways have a minimum speed of 40... so 55 is very reasonable.

forget about the time estimator for charging on the dashboard.... You should start your trip at 100%, and expect to charge at about 25-30 % of charge PER HOUR of waiting.

Finally, if you are going to travel long distance regularly, I would highly recommend an J1772 EXTENSION CABLE so that you can charge even it there is another car blocking you from the charger. I got mine from emotorwerks, and I know that Jlong also makes a very good one, but it is a big expensive.

good luck

I will have to experiment some more but it appeared when I didn't travel on the freeway, I had more battery percentage left than if I did. It seemed to be pretty dramatic to me. I probably traveled about 60 MPH on the highway. Even the side streets were pretty fast, averaging around 50 MPH. There were a few cities I went through where I had to slow down.

Even though traveling on the side streets took longer by perhaps an hour, I feel I made up that time due to less charging time required.

I will plan to make this trip in a few weeks but this time starting much earlier in the day so I arrive in Columbus well before dark. I'll again report on how many miles per charge I am able to get.

Tim
 
I was going to suggest that the difference in range on the two days could be due to wind, but looking at the wind history for the Mansfield airport on Weather Underground, it looks like the wind was dead out of the north on Saturday and south to southeasterly on Sunday, so both days seem pretty favorable, or maybe even more directly behind you on Saturday.

But the devil is really in the details there! Terrain can alter wind direction quite a bit and the wind was light at Mansfield on Saturday afternoon. If you had a more effective tailwind component on Sunday, that would seem like a possible explanation.

By "side streets" do you mean US highway 42? (A Douglas Adams fan club should get an Adopt a Highway sign put up on that road. ;) ) Although there doesn't appear to be much terrain along most of that route, could the freeway be a bit hillier?

Did you use cruise control? My only little freeway trip so far (about 20 miles each way) gave me surprisingly good mileage by setting the cruise control just over 50 and keeping my fool feet off the controls.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMFD/2017/9/30/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Mansfield&req_state=OH&req_statename=Ohio&reqdb.zip=44901&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999&MR=1

https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMFD/2017/10/1/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Mansfield&req_state=OH&req_statename=Ohio&reqdb.zip=44901&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999
 
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