Gone Camping

[jeffand]

Last summer I took my FFE on a camping trip. The only problem was that the camp ground was 80 miles away, or round trip of 160 miles. This meant I would have to charge the FFE at some point. Driving the FFE at 45 MPH should give you about 100 mile rang on flat ground, with climate control off. Since the last 20 miles of the trip had rolling hills I knew that this would reduce the driving range. With the camp ground programmed into the navigation system I made sure I maintained about a 20 miles of estimated spare range. This meant I stayed off the freeway, and stuck to the hyways and country road that had speed limit of 55 MPH or less.

Recharging at state camp ground using my level 2 charging station.

I constructed an adapter cord to plug the charging station into the 50 amp electric range socket.

The electrical sockets that were available at this campsite.
120 VAC 20 amps
120 VAC 30 amps
240 VAC 50 amps

 

[jmueller065]

Cool! We took ours camping last month:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2014/04/06/the-maiden-voyage/

I don't have a Level II to use at the campsites yet so I just used the Level 1 included with the car (click on the image in the blog post: you can see it sitting on the picnic table).

Those are the standard outlets available at most campsites (although in some campgrounds you have to pay extra to get the 50A connector).

At some point we may pickup an aluminum car trailer so we can take the FFE wherever we go camping--for me I think its the perfect car to take on camping trips.

 

[unplugged]

Here's my street parking in Pomona. A homeowner actually allowed EVs to use his curb 240v outlet. It's the closest I got to using a campground outlet. Note on the second photo as to how I secured the charging station. A very portable EMW Juicebox unit.


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[WattsUp]

Note on the second photo as to how I secured the charging station.

Nice (rubber?) handcuffs. But... it wouldn't work the simply lock the unit under the hood?

Also, why the curbside 240V outlet? A bit unusual. Is it there just for EV charging, or for something else?

 

[unplugged]

Note on the second photo as to how I secured the charging station.

Nice (rubber?) handcuffs. But... it wouldn't work the simply lock the unit under the hood?

I don't think it will work because my unit is future-proofed to handle 60 amps. The cables are really thick and stiff. Anyway, I thought this solution was more elegant. The "cuffs" are by Master Lock, and are pretty easy to handle. They are, in fact, covered with rubber/vinyl.

Also, why the curbside 240V outlet? A bit unusual. Is it there just for EV charging, or for something else?

I was stunned to see the guy was able to place the outlet on the city-owned median strip. Most any city would deny the permit on liability alone.

If you zoom in on the photo, you will see he placed a label on the outlet that says, "Plug-in Electric Cars" It was really nice of him. When I asked to pay for the power, he told me to make a donation, if I wanted, to http://adoptacharger.org , a non-profit that places free charging stations in state parks in California.