Nervous about this trip, but locked into it..

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RevBrent

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Messages
64
Well, my travel plans today have me a little nervous, but I'm locked into this. Today I'm scheduled to go from San Diego to Oceanside and back...approximately 74 highway miles. I'm going on Eco, 60mph and no CC. I thought about going up early and charging at Mossy Nissan Oceanside, but it would take me out of my way by about 8 miles and I could only charge there for about an hour. So that seems like a wash because I would probably only make back about 8 miles during that hour.

I'll be in the Oceanside Pier area. Does anyone know of a parking lot or garage with access to a 120 outlet that I could trickle charge with?

I'm feeling nervous, but we'll see what happens. Hopefully this thread doesn't turn into a "I should have known better" story!
 
You can do it...As the Nissan Western Regional EV Manager Tom Miller told us at Fontana when we were picking up our Leafs and driving back to San Diego (111 miles), "it's all about wind resistance". He was right...And we made it....Picked up 18 miles of charge in Temecula and had 19 miles left on the range-o-meter when arriving at home.

You can always get off the freeway and slow down by taking the coastal route if you think it will be an issue...

Best of luck,

Randy
 
With a 100% charge, I did a 93 mile round trip of mostly freeway driving at 60 mph with hills. No climate control or radio but with headlights lights on the way back. I still had a bar left at the end. I find hills use up a lot of energy though.
 
91040 said:
With a 100% charge, I did a 93 mile round trip of mostly freeway driving at 60 mph with hills. No climate control or radio but with headlights lights on the way back. I still had a bar left at the end. I find hills use up a lot of energy though.

Woah. Alot of coasting I presume?
 
If you haven't made the trip yet, keep this in mind:

There are subtle altitude changes in San Diego that will give you better mileage heading north than when you're heading south....so don't get to Oceanside with extra juice and think you can squander that on the way back!! You will use less power heading north than you will heading south.

I know. I drive from Oceanside to Miramar every day. 5-6 bars getting to Miramar, 4 bars to get back to Oceanside. :geek:

Good luck!
 
cddub- The trip was from Mission Hills via the 210, the 2 (with that beautiful downhill), the 5 to the 110 to the 105, off at Hawthorne to Manhattan Beach Blvd to Aviation Blvd. Trip back was up Aviation to Rosecrans, onto the 405 to the 118, 210 ending in Sunland. (Don't you love LA!) I was driving very gently and smoothly. Yes, I was getting nervous towards the end.

RevBrent- A very strong second to what jimmydreams just posted. Being about a 1000' higher than LA proper, energy usage on the way home is much higher on the way back.
 
Jimmydreams said:
If you haven't made the trip yet, keep this in mind:

There are subtle altitude changes in San Diego that will give you better mileage heading north than when you're heading south....so don't get to Oceanside with extra juice and think you can squander that on the way back!! You will use less power heading north than you will heading south.

I know. I drive from Oceanside to Miramar every day. 5-6 bars getting to Miramar, 4 bars to get back to Oceanside. :geek:

Good luck!
There's a definite, consistent rise going east everywhere in SD, as you go from essentially sea level into the coastal foothills. That stretch of I-5 jogs east, and therefore climbs, around Cardiff, and again south of Del Mar, then I-805 takes you still further inland to Miramar, which is a huge, flat, mesa. That's why the air station is there. I-5, if you continue south crests in La Jolla, and reaches sea level again at Mission Bay. Of course, anyone going north-south has to keep going up and down through canyons as all the drainage also runs downhill, east to west.
 
Jimmydreams said:
If you haven't made the trip yet, keep this in mind:

There are subtle altitude changes in San Diego that will give you better mileage heading north than when you're heading south....so don't get to Oceanside with extra juice and think you can squander that on the way back!! You will use less power heading north than you will heading south.

I know. I drive from Oceanside to Miramar every day. 5-6 bars getting to Miramar, 4 bars to get back to Oceanside. :geek:

Good luck!

I know that drive well, I did it for about 4 years. Just out of curiosity, what speed are you going on this drive? I would think that it would take more than 5 - 6 bars if you were going at the same speed as everyone else, if there was no traffic delay.
 
AmarilloLeaf said:
Jimmydreams said:
If you haven't made the trip yet, keep this in mind:

There are subtle altitude changes in San Diego that will give you better mileage heading north than when you're heading south....so don't get to Oceanside with extra juice and think you can squander that on the way back!! You will use less power heading north than you will heading south.

I know. I drive from Oceanside to Miramar every day. 5-6 bars getting to Miramar, 4 bars to get back to Oceanside. :geek:

Good luck!

I know that drive well, I did it for about 4 years. Just out of curiosity, what speed are you going on this drive? I would think that it would take more than 5 - 6 bars if you were going at the same speed as everyone else, if there was no traffic delay.

I drive between 60-65mph, with no charging ability at work. :cry:
 
Your "Plan B" (for greater comfort) would be to identify an available charging station or two down within about 10 or 20 miles of your house.

For your "first" (long trip), keep your speed under 60.

Have a good trip! :D
 
91040 said:
RevBrent- A very strong second to what jimmydreams just posted. Being about a 1000' higher than LA proper, energy usage on the way home is much higher on the way back.

What you and others posted certainly turned out to be true. I used barely 5 bars on the way to O'side and then 6 on the way home. I pulled into the driveway with one bar left, 9 miles listed on the guessometer, and no low battery warnings. I never really worried because it never looked like I wouldn't make it....it would just be close. I drove 60 both ways in Eco, but no Climate Control on the way home (it was night anyway.)

I'm very pleased with my results and my "real world" sense of the range of the car. My final thoughts were that it would be great somehow if the map in the car could somehow take elevation change into account when giving you the estimated range. Or is there a possibility it does that already?
 
RevBrent said:
91040 said:
RevBrent- A very strong second to what jimmydreams just posted. Being about a 1000' higher than LA proper, energy usage on the way home is much higher on the way back.

What you and others posted certainly turned out to be true. I used barely 5 bars on the way to O'side and then 6 on the way home. I pulled into the driveway with one bar left, 9 miles listed on the guessometer, and no low battery warnings. I never really worried because it never looked like I wouldn't make it....it would just be close. I drove 60 both ways in Eco, but no Climate Control on the way home (it was night anyway.)

I'm very pleased with my results and my "real world" sense of the range of the car. My final thoughts were that it would be great somehow if the map in the car could somehow take elevation change into account when giving you the estimated range. Or is there a possibility it does that already?

That's very encouraging for my attempt from Kerney Mesa (Or Poway) to my home in Tustin (87miles) when I take delivery...and I'd be going the "right" direction. When you took that leg from San Diego North on I-5 at 60mph, did you have any problems with faster traffic? Did you use cruise control or did you play up-hill/down-hill with varying (gas) pedal? How about wind at the time, anything noticeable? Thanks.

JimmyD offered me a charge at his residence (thanks Jimmy!) so I do have plan B, as well as several Nissan dealers along the way, but I'd really like to experience the range capability firsthand if I can.
 
occ said:
That's very encouraging for my attempt from Kerney Mesa (Or Poway) to my home in Tustin (87miles) when I take delivery...and I'd be going the "right" direction. When you took that leg from San Diego North on I-5 at 60mph, did you have any problems with faster traffic? Did you use cruise control or did you play up-hill/down-hill with varying (gas) pedal? How about wind at the time, anything noticeable? Thanks.

JimmyD offered me a charge at his residence (thanks Jimmy!) so I do have plan B, as well as several Nissan dealers along the way, but I'd really like to experience the range capability firsthand if I can.

The trip from SD to Oside was at 63 mph, cruise control, Eco, with climate control on. I just got in the slow lane and never really had a problem. At 63mph, I was pretty comfortable in the far right lane. Wind was the just the usual off the coast breeze. I'm thinking you will be just fine, but yes, it's good to have a Plan B!
 
RevBrent said:
Well, my travel plans today have me a little nervous, but I'm locked into this. Today I'm scheduled to go from San Diego to Oceanside and back...approximately 74 highway miles. I'm going on Eco, 60mph and no CC. I thought about going up early and charging at Mossy Nissan Oceanside, but it would take me out of my way by about 8 miles and I could only charge there for about an hour. So that seems like a wash because I would probably only make back about 8 miles during that hour.

I'll be in the Oceanside Pier area. Does anyone know of a parking lot or garage with access to a 120 outlet that I could trickle charge with?

I'm feeling nervous, but we'll see what happens. Hopefully this thread doesn't turn into a "I should have known better" story!


Well, did you make it? Or are you still walking? :?:
 
I drove from Miramar to Oceanside (76) round-trip twice now, and both times ended up back with 5mi on the flashing display.

This was "keeping pace with traffic" and no attempt to hug the right lane. :)
 
That's very encouraging for my attempt from Kerney Mesa (Or Poway) to my home in Tustin (87miles) when I take delivery

I got my car from Kerney Mesa, they moved the car to their Oceanside dealership and charged it fully there for me, 87 miles would be a very stressful first drive and trying to go slow on that part of the 5 is a challenge.
 
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