BC2BC Mexico to Canada via Electric Highway June 12-20, 2012

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GRA said:
North of Sacramento you've got plenty of options a least up to Red Bluff, taking 99/70, I-5 or Old 99 (per edatokrun's post). Are you trying to see how quickly you can make the trip, or are you willing to take more time to make it more scenic?

120 miles is a huge penalty to go the "coastal" route. San Ramon to Williams, CA is 109 miles. Via Sacramento is 145 miles. So, does somebody have a contact to use the Nissan DC charger in Sacramento?

I could conceivably hit two or three DC chargers going through SF Bay, however 120 less miles quickly makes the time still quicker on the grapevine to Sacto route.

Not sure what I'll do.
 
TonyWilliams said:
GRA said:
North of Sacramento you've got plenty of options a least up to Red Bluff, taking 99/70, I-5 or Old 99 (per edatokrun's post). Are you trying to see how quickly you can make the trip, or are you willing to take more time to make it more scenic?

120 miles is a huge penalty to go the "coastal" route. San Ramon to Williams, CA is 109 miles. Via Sacramento is 145 miles. So, does somebody have a contact to use the Nissan DC charger in Sacramento?
I make the total extra distance (assuming you bypass SAC and take 505) as 70 miles further via 101: 501-395 (S.R. 99) = 106 - 36 miles for avoiding SAC = 70, but you gain with the L3 in San Ramon assuming you spend the night about 1 hour south of it, somewhere around Gilroy or Morgan Hill.

TonyWilliams said:
I could conceivably hit two or three DC chargers going through SF Bay, however 120 less miles quickly makes the time still quicker on the grapevine to Sacto route.

Not sure what I'll do.
Absent L3, how far do you figure you can reasonably drive per day? 180-200?
 
The WA DOT/AVinc quick charge stations in Washington are starting to come on line. I got my first QC at the Bellingham location today :)

Hopefully they'll be all online by mid June. There aren't any QC locations between between Olympia and Burlington (about 130 miles) because the DOT expected EV Project to install Blink QC chargers in that area :(

If you haven't already done so, you might want to sign up for a key fob to activate the AVinc chargers
http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network/. As far as I know, it'll work on the OR and WA quick chargers.
 
davewill said:
TonyWilliams said:
... 120 miles is a huge penalty to go the "coastal" route. ...
If you've never driven that route, though, it is a must do.

I've driven it many, many times, and flown it in everything from Cessna to Turbojet. I would prefer that route, but it will really come down to a tactical decision at the time.
 
UhClem said:
The WA DOT/AVinc quick charge stations in Washington are starting to come on line. I got my first QC at the Bellingham location today :)

Hopefully they'll be all online by mid June. There aren't any QC locations between between Olympia and Burlington (about 130 miles) because the DOT expected EV Project to install Blink QC chargers in that area :(

If you haven't already done so, you might want to sign up for a key fob to activate the AVinc chargers
http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network/. As far as I know, it'll work on the OR and WA quick chargers.

Besides the Blink in my garage, there probably won't be many Blink charges. Good to hear that I only need to hyper mile 130 miles!
 
GRA said:
Absent L3, how far do you figure you can reasonably drive per day? 180-200?

Well, if I started at 7am and drove 50mph for two hours (9am), and could then charge up in 6.5 hours (3:30pm), then two more driving hours (5:30pm), then some half charge of 3.5 hours (9:00pm), then 50 miles (10pm).

I get 250 miles 9 hour break until 7am. Heck, this is airline duty regs legal.
 
planet4ever said:
I haven't checked out Rabobank in Salinas, but I'll try to run down there soon to verify it.
Well, I did drive down there this afternoon, but didn't learn much more than I could see on Google Earth. It's there; it's one EVSE; it works; it wasn't in use. Curiously, there was a pickup parked next to the EV slot that might have been the same vehicle I see from space in Google Earth. Perhaps it's always there (Rabobank employee?). If so, and the EV slot was ICEd, you would need that J1772 extension you were thinking about.

I didn't find much that I would like to do in that Westridge Shopping Center area, but your tastes might differ.

OT, but I drove 55 or less, Morgan Hill to Salinas and back, and got 4.2 m/kWh, which makes sense because my wife insisted on having the air conditioning on. (I did sneak the temperature up to 74, though.) What was not so good was that I went from 100% to LBW in 68.6 miles. I was driving 45-50 MPH for about 25 of those miles. I think I was close to VLBW when I got home at 74.7 miles.

Ray
 
What a cool adventure. I'm excited for you. Maybe when you swing by San Ramon or Stanford we can have a mini Leaf rally. I wouldn't try this drive yet myself without more dc chargers but I think it will be a good accomplishment and raise awareness about the incomplete EV highway on i5. Who would have thought that Oregon would be kicking Californias but on the EV fast charger front.

If we get just a few dc chargers between the Bay Area and Ashland OR, I'm making the drive to Oregon in my Leaf as well.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing about all the locations that you charge.
 
Head up to Berkeley and borrow Ingineer's super duper LEAF extender. Then you just have to fuel up with BBQ gas for the rest of the trip ! :D

Good luck! I'll be following this adventure daily!
 
occ said:
Head up to Berkeley and borrow Ingineer's super duper LEAF extender. Then you just have to fuel up with BBQ gas for the rest of the trip ! :D

Good luck! I'll be following this adventure daily!

I'm planning on taking my portable DC charger that will fit in the back of the car. No fossil fuels. No trailers. When I arrive at RV parks, I should be able to suck out 240v 40 amps (9.6kW).

With any luck, I'll bump into a couple three phase services somewhere.
 
EVDrive said:
What a cool adventure. I'm excited for you. Maybe when you swing by San Ramon or Stanford we can have a mini Leaf rally. I wouldn't try this drive yet myself without more dc chargers but I think it will be a good accomplishment and raise awareness about the incomplete EV highway on i5. Who would have thought that Oregon would be kicking Californias but on the EV fast charger front.

That would be great. Probably some lunch / dinner while the LEAF charges.
 
TonyWilliams said:
The last two challenges:

Olympia to Bellingham, WA

151 miles

Where is a quick charge between the two?
There's a coming QC in Burlington that's on the AV network, about 25 miles south of Bellingham. I was chatting with an AV installer a few days ago and he said the QC in Burlington is almost ready to go.

I saw an EcoTality press release on a new QC near Lake Union in Seattle, but I'd guess the chance of that being available is essentially 0.

I think your only option currently is an L2 charge in the Seattle area. I've made several trips from downtown Seattle to Burlington on a single charge but it was really tight.
 
TonyWilliams said:
occ said:
Head up to Berkeley and borrow Ingineer's super duper LEAF extender. Then you just have to fuel up with BBQ gas for the rest of the trip ! :D

Good luck! I'll be following this adventure daily!

I'm planning on taking my portable DC charger that will fit in the back of the car. No fossil fuels. No trailers. When I arrive at RV parks, I should be able to suck out 240v 40 amps (9.6kW).

With any luck, I'll bump into a couple three phase services somewhere.
Ah, that will help tremendously - I don't think I'd have the patience to do that trip at 3.3kW. Are you looking to overnight in nice places, or just wherever is the most convenient?

If the former and you decide to take 101 up to the Bay Area, you might just want to stay in Monterey instead of Salinas. You'd need to stop for a 1-2 hour charge between there and San Ramon or Palo Alto but there are plenty of L2s from San Jose north, and Monterey's a lot nicer (cooler, too).

Stopping overnight in Redding for a full charge would probably be necessary for the long leg between there and Mt. Shasta (~61 miles) on I-5, especially given the 3,000 ft. climb. Assuming you charge somewhere around Mt. Shasta, you can go almost all the way to Yreka on N. Old Stage Rd./Old 99 Hwy, and charging for a while there maybe 10-12 miles beyond it until you have to get onto I-5. I'm assuming that you'd probably want to stay in Ashland going and/or returning - might as well eat some good food, and maybe catch a play. After that you're good to go up to Portland or beyond.
 
GRA said:
Are you looking to overnight in nice places, or just wherever is the most convenient?

If the former and you decide to take 101 up to the Bay Area, you might just want to stay in Monterey instead of Salinas.

Stopping overnight in Redding for a full charge would probably be necessary for the long leg between there and Mt. Shasta (~61 miles) on I-5, especially given the 3,000 ft. climb. Assuming you charge somewhere around Mt. Shasta, you can go almost all the way to Yreka on N. Old

Well, before I launch, I intend to have a fairly detailed plan, with plenty of alternatives when things go wrong, as they will.

I'm very familiar with California, and lived in the east SF bay area for 10 years. Lived in Sacto for one winter. Lived in Ventura County, Orange County, and now San Diego (not necessarily in that order).

That climb at Mt Shasta, through Weed is going to be the single hardest part.
 
UhClem said:
I saw an EcoTality press release on a new QC near Lake Union in Seattle, but I'd guess the chance of that being available is essentially 0.

Maybe they'd like to sponsor my run? :mrgreen: I can't find an address for the current Bellingham DC charger. It's not on the AeroVironment site that I can find.
 
TonyWilliams said:
Maybe they'd like to sponsor my run? :mrgreen:
Heh :)
TonyWilliams said:
I can't find an address for the current Bellingham DC charger. It's not on the AeroVironment site that I can find.
The Bellingham QC location shows up on the AV portal for me, it lists the address as 222 36th Street.

The Burlington QC location doesn't show up on the AV portal but it's at the same physical location as a pair of ChargePoint L2 chargers. Their address is listed as 448 Fashion Way, Burlington, Washington 98233.
 
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