IssacZachary
Well-known member
Hi there fellow Leaf owners!
Allow me to introduce myself, since I'm new to this forum.
I go by Isaac on the web (kind of a pseudonym). My wife and I live in a town called Gunnison in the state of Colorado, USA. It's cold and snowy in the winter with mild summers. There are lots of mountains around here. I'm at 7,700ft/2,300m above sea level, with mountain passes that go up to as much as 11,500ft/3,500m every which way out of town and then back down to 5,000ft/1,500m or lower. We are close to the Black Canyon and both Crested Butte and Monarch ski areas. We work around town mostly. So far the most I've driven in a day and on a single charge has been about 75miles/120km. But with the cold and snow I have had to charge the Leaf during lunch just to make sure I wouldn't run out of battery power.
We don't have the best public EV charging infrastructure, but at least there is an infrastructure of the sort. There is a public charging station in town that's free, and since I drive mainly in town, I stop by there when I go for a cup of coffee. I'm about 60 miles away from the nearest level 2 charging stations both West (Montrose) and East (Salida). To the North there's one only 30 miles away in Crested Butte, but that's a dead end during the winter and 74 miles from Carbondale during the summer over a dirt road and two mountain passes. And to the South of here there's not much to charge from either. So far I've only driven to Crested Butte and back. I know I won't make it to the other towns with the steep mountain passes we have unless I do something to get a bit more range.
We bought our Leaf last November (2016). As far as I know I'm one of only two Leaf owners in the area. I don't even know of anyone else that even owns an EV, except for one guy 60 miles away in Salida that has a converted classic VW Beetle. I had owned over 20 vehicles in my life and just never could find something that provided the three main things that are most important to us: reliability, comfort and economy, until we found out about used Leafs (or is it Leaves?). We still own two other cars, a 1972 VW Super Beetle and a 1985 VW Golf diesel. I guess I've always been attracted to what most people would consider odd or different. Most people think I'm insane for owning an electric car in this part of the world. (They think the same about the air cooled car and the diesel car.)
So far we absolutely love our Leaf. I haven't even driven another vehicle since we got it, except once when we went to see the in-laws. We've been living through what the newspaper calls "Snowmaggedon." I've got stuck in the snow a few times in the Leaf, even with tire chains on, but nothing too hard to get out of. We've also had some cold, but not as much as usual. We awoke to -33°F/-36°C a couple Saturday's ago, but that's been about the coldest so far in the Leaf. I ended up jumping two other cars that day with my Leaf. :shock:
Questions and problems thus far
Allow me to introduce myself, since I'm new to this forum.
I go by Isaac on the web (kind of a pseudonym). My wife and I live in a town called Gunnison in the state of Colorado, USA. It's cold and snowy in the winter with mild summers. There are lots of mountains around here. I'm at 7,700ft/2,300m above sea level, with mountain passes that go up to as much as 11,500ft/3,500m every which way out of town and then back down to 5,000ft/1,500m or lower. We are close to the Black Canyon and both Crested Butte and Monarch ski areas. We work around town mostly. So far the most I've driven in a day and on a single charge has been about 75miles/120km. But with the cold and snow I have had to charge the Leaf during lunch just to make sure I wouldn't run out of battery power.
We don't have the best public EV charging infrastructure, but at least there is an infrastructure of the sort. There is a public charging station in town that's free, and since I drive mainly in town, I stop by there when I go for a cup of coffee. I'm about 60 miles away from the nearest level 2 charging stations both West (Montrose) and East (Salida). To the North there's one only 30 miles away in Crested Butte, but that's a dead end during the winter and 74 miles from Carbondale during the summer over a dirt road and two mountain passes. And to the South of here there's not much to charge from either. So far I've only driven to Crested Butte and back. I know I won't make it to the other towns with the steep mountain passes we have unless I do something to get a bit more range.
We bought our Leaf last November (2016). As far as I know I'm one of only two Leaf owners in the area. I don't even know of anyone else that even owns an EV, except for one guy 60 miles away in Salida that has a converted classic VW Beetle. I had owned over 20 vehicles in my life and just never could find something that provided the three main things that are most important to us: reliability, comfort and economy, until we found out about used Leafs (or is it Leaves?). We still own two other cars, a 1972 VW Super Beetle and a 1985 VW Golf diesel. I guess I've always been attracted to what most people would consider odd or different. Most people think I'm insane for owning an electric car in this part of the world. (They think the same about the air cooled car and the diesel car.)
So far we absolutely love our Leaf. I haven't even driven another vehicle since we got it, except once when we went to see the in-laws. We've been living through what the newspaper calls "Snowmaggedon." I've got stuck in the snow a few times in the Leaf, even with tire chains on, but nothing too hard to get out of. We've also had some cold, but not as much as usual. We awoke to -33°F/-36°C a couple Saturday's ago, but that's been about the coldest so far in the Leaf. I ended up jumping two other cars that day with my Leaf. :shock:
Questions and problems thus far
- How do I get the headlights and taillights to stop frosting over and getting covered in snow?
- I can no longer preheat my Leaf via NissanConnectEV (CarWings). From what I understand this is due to AT&T decommissioning their 2G service. What can I do about this seeing how I want to be able to preheat the Leaf more than once per day and at odd times using charging power?
- I'd like to eventually make this our only car. I can rent for those time or two a month we need to go somewhere out of town. But any range extending ideas, enough to make it in the Leaf to the next public charging station 60 or 70 miles away, would be appreciated. For an example, if I made it to Salida, there are probably enough level 2 charging stations from there on for me to make it to Denver in a day.