I'm a new leaf owner. Just took a 800 mile road trip with it

[johnrhansen]

Just introducing myself. I have a Black 2013 Leaf S with charging package. Washington license "BEGREEN" Have a permanent charger at home (AeroVironment) that I installed myself. Had my Nissan charger uprgraded at EVSE upgrade. Bought all the adapters. Also Have a Bosch Power max 7.2 KW charger I mounted on a board with a power cord and a NEMA L6-30P twist lock plug for the aforementioned adapters. It's nice to have a full power charger available for portable charging. I LOVE my car, but am beginning to acknowledge it's limitations for long road trips. I use it for everyday commuting, but kept my ICE truck for longer trips (and it's capabilities as a truck) Still, I haven't put more than 15 gallons in it since I bought my leaf. I took both portable chargers and all my adapters plus all kinds of other cords and tools on a 800 mile road trip between Seattle, Washington and Priest lake idaho last weekend. I only had commercial charge support half the distance. The other half I had to charge at RV parks, city parks, and individual's homes and businesses along the way. I arranged stops 30 miles apart just in case someone couldn't let me charge or didn't have the plug I could use. I'm an electrician, so I can make whatever hookups I need, but most people don't want you rewiring their homes or shops! It was a very long, arduous trip because of the long times waiting for my car to charge. 22 hours to priest lake, and 4 hours from priest lake to Spokane, and then 12 hours home from spokane after staying overnight. The only place I had trouble with was at my Sister's in spokane. I had to make a temporary NEMA 10-30 receptacle hookup directly to the panel. But everyone else either used a NEMA 14-50 (RV) plug or a NEMA 6-50 welder plug. At priest lake I used 120 volt charging, since I was there for 2 days. That's the only time I used the Nissan charger. The rest were full power L2 charges with the Power Max. I learned a lot about my leaf on this trip. The most important thing is to never charge above 90 percent with the L3 charger. I drove home the last 100 miles with 10 temp bars. The other thing I learned is to take my truck the next time. I'd do the leaf again, but only if they installed L3 chargers all the way at 50 mile intervals Or sooner if there is a big hill. Never again with L2 chargers unless I need to stay at that spot while it charges for other reasons. Once is fine because of the novelty of going boldly where no leaf has gone before, but never again will I wait 3 hours in the middle of the desert when I could be driving through it.

 

[derkraut]

Nice report John; and realistic also. Thanks for sharing.
This is why (as many other posters have stated) the present Leaf is NOT a cross country vehicle. But, it's really suited only for local commuting/short trips no more than 30-40 miles one-way. I use mine solely that way, and I LOVE it.

 

[derkraut]

Oh----I forgot to add: Welcome to the forums, John!

 

[TonyWilliams]

Great story...thanks for sharing. We had two LEAFs this year in our BC2BC rally (Canada to Mexico) rally; one with the 3.3kW charger, and one with the 6.6kW your car has. Both cars did great through Washington and Oregon, with DC charging on the West Coast Electric Highway. I did it last year in a 3.3kW LEAF, in reverse, Mexico to Canada.

But, slow charging at 3.3/6.6kW is just painful, but you'll love DC charging. Have you tried it yet?

 

[DaveEV]

But, slow charging at 3.3/6.6kW is just painful, but you'll love DC charging. Have you tried it yet?

He did, see his quote below:

The most important thing is to never charge above 90 percent with the L3 charger. I drove home the last 100 miles with 10 temp bars.

Personally I couldn't recommend more than 2 QCs day unless you can space them out or you start out with a very cool battery - the battery just gets too hot. Each QC (from 1-2 bars to 9-10) seems to raise battery temp by about 10F. ~110F or 8 temp bars would be my limit for occasional trips.

 

[johnrhansen]

I read that the battery gets hottest when you charge/discharge it outside the range of 20-80 percent. Apparently the resistance is higher there? What got me was I skipped the fast charge station in Wenatchee and ran into Leavenworth on fumes (oops I guess that doesn't apply here I'm driving an electric car! LOL) I had 7 percent remaining, and charged on the quick charger up to 95 percent because I had to drive over a large hill for my next leg. The previous leg into Leavenworth was also a very long leg because my charging stop in Waterville wasn't available on the way back because the shop owner there was on his way to Sturgis. So I had to charge to from 20 percent to 95 percent in coulee city on the Level 2 charger. That'e what started getting my battery hot, and the large charge I took in Leavenworth really pushed it over the top! I used fast chargers on the way over and my battery never went over 6 bars because I charged more often. That's my big lesson. Pick up charge wherever you can, don't charge too high, and don't discharge too low and your battery will stay way cooler. I really love how comfortable my car is, and I really wish I could take it on long trips. This might sound like sacrilege to some EV owners/drivers, but I'm thinking of installing a removable 20 HP gasoline engine to the back bumper area driving a motorcycle wheel through a cam drive belt. I figure this will drive my electrical economy to 10 miles per KWH or more, so I can make those long stretches without chargers available.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I read that the battery gets hottest when you charge/discharge it outside the range of 20-80 percent. Apparently the resistance is higher there? What got me was I skipped the fast charge station in Wenatchee and ran into Leavenworth on fumes (oops I guess that doesn't apply here I'm driving an electric car! LOL) I had 7 percent remaining, and charged on the quick charger up to 95 percent because I had to drive over a large hill for my next leg.

Charging on DC at 120 amps starts to heat up the battery, and charging above 80% heats it up even more.

So I had to charge to from 20 percent to 95 percent in coulee city on the Level 2 charger. That'e what started getting my battery hot, and the large charge I took in Leavenworth really pushed it over the top!

Level 2 charging didn't get the battery hot.

don't charge too high, and don't discharge too low and your battery will stay way cooler.

Charging (or discharging) from a low battery will not appreciably heat it up.

I really love how comfortable my car is, and I really wish I could take it on long trips. This might sound like sacrilege to some EV owners/drivers, but I'm thinking of installing a removable 20 HP gasoline engine to the back bumper area driving a motorcycle wheel through a cam drive belt. I figure this will drive my electrical economy to 10 miles per KWH or more, so I can make those long stretches without chargers available.

Good luck with that!

 

[Stanton]

This might sound like sacrilege to some EV owners/drivers, but I'm thinking of installing a removable 20 HP gasoline engine to the back bumper area driving a motorcycle wheel through a cam drive belt. I figure this will drive my electrical economy to 10 miles per KWH or more, so I can make those long stretches without chargers available.

If you're serious about doing that, I'm afraid you bought the wrong car.
As pointed out, L3 charging heats up the battery, not L2 (which is why I didn't even get a DCQC port).
Thanks for sharing your trip report.

 

[sub3marathonman]

I'm not a new LEAF owner, I've had mine for 16 months, but I was going to try a 550 mile (1100 mile round trip) from Bartow Florida to Birmingham Alabama. I had the route all worked out, I even was able to switch routes a bit when I read a negative Google review about a Nissan dealer along the way. There was even a quick charger in Ocala and Birmingham. It would have been close a few places, I think one stretch was about 90 miles, so I'm not 100% sure I wouldn't have had to have a backup plan.

But what wrecked everything was that no Nissan dealership in Alabama along my route would be open on Sunday, and I couldn't spend a day waiting for them to open. So I ended up not going, although other factors were also involved too.

Since then I see there is another DCQC along the route, which would have been a huge benifit too.

 

[davewill]

... Also Have a Bosch Power max 7.2 KW charger I mounted on a board with a power cord and a NEMA L6-30P twist lock plug for the aforementioned adapters. It's nice to have a full power charger available for portable charging. ...

It will probably be OK, but a 30a plug/circuit is not technically adequate for the Bosch. It should have a minimum 40a plug and circuit.

 

[johnrhansen]

I thought about the cord size on the Bosch Charger. My Aerovironment charger in my garage is wired on a 40 amp circuit with 8 gauge wire like you specified as it is a permanent installation and runs unattended. The Bosch will never run at it's full capacity because the current draw will never be at it's maximum 7.2 KW capacity since my Leaf only has a 6.3 KW charger. Still it's slightly more current than it should be, so therefore I will never let it run indoors unattended. My adapters are NEMA L6-30, and I had 125 feet of so 10 gauge cable laying around. I kept the cable short, and I make sure it's never coiled when it's in operation. I'll be OK. Thanks.

 

[Assaf]

John, hi and welcome!

Wow, what an entrance. It's so nice to be in Washington state, surrounded by all these EV heroes.

Few would argue with your practical conclusion ("next time I'm taking my ICE truck") - but hey, let's not miss the #1 result: you made it!!!
To Idaho and back, most of the trip over EV-virgin territory. Driving a <100 mile range, standard consumer EV. And yet you made it both directions, no getting stranded and towed.

The place-name mentions in your post bring back memories from a camping trip we made to the Grand Coulee area last summer; little did we know at the the time that in 2 months we'll get ourselves an EV. For non-Northwest readers: "Coulee City" is a teeny dusty town with maybe 50 families in the middle of the desert on US-2, with some ancient and mostly deserted shops and restaurants. I'm sure they'll be talking about your charging pit-stop there for years to come

The furthest we took our Leaf so far was Snoqualmie town, after the Plug-in Day Snoqualmie falls meet last September, and Camp Sealth on southwest tip of Vashon Island, when I chaperoned my son's school trip in June (we got little extra range by riding the ferry onto the island).

On a more practical level, I wonder if you can retrace your steps and charging-stops, and say at what EV range the trip becomes humanly pleasant given the current infrastructure. 100 miles? 120 miles? 150 miles? I have my guesses, but it's best to hear from someone who actually did it.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story!

Assaf

 

[Reddy]

Welcome to the forum. See my signature for my 800+ mi trip across WA. I'd do it again it I had the 2013 with 6.6 KW+QC and it would be easy. Sorry, with my L1 cord and 3.3 KW+QC, it's just too long on this side of the mountains. Maybe next year they will extend the DCQC network to us desert rats.

 

[mrdcmills]

You are the man! My wife laughed when I was talking of a trip to Atlanta as a stunt. (About 500 miles)

 

[csluyuan]

It should have a minimum 40a plug and circuit.







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