ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: DonTom on May 19, 2021, 02:42:34 AM
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Anybody here ever run out of juice? Such as make it to a charge station that is not Energica compatible or just crapped out and don't have enough juice to get to any other? Or from conditions (headwind, cold, too much uphill, etc.) where you could not quite make the distance and is too far to walk with the bike?
If so, did you need to be towed to the next charge station or what did you do?
I will take a ride to Yerington on my Energica tomorrow. If any charge station doesn't work on the way, I will probably get stuck there and need a tow. I do have the towing service in my Spot Messenger for when out of cell range, which is easy to do in Nevada with any cell service. It will be a loop ride, coming back a different way.
I will take this route, in order of charge stations, there and back:
1. Fernley
2. Fallon
3. Schurz
4. Yerington
5. Silver Springs
6. USA Parkway
Yerington, will be a slow charge (3KW) as long as the Chevy dealer will let me charge there as I have lunch nearby. If not, I can make it to Silver Springs anyway as long as I do not speed.
USA Parkway (very close to the Tesla battery plant) is another slow charge, from a Tesla Destination charger. But I only need to add a few miles at those slow locations.
All other stops are CCS. Even in Schurz (who has heard of that town of less than 700 people--but with J-1772 and CCS!).
-Don- Reno, NV
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Best of luck, Don. I hope everything works out for you. :)
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That sounds like a good ride. Hope you make notes and post your conclusion to help us who have not yet ventured out like that. Good luck to you.
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That sounds like a good ride. Hope you make notes and post your conclusion to help us who have not yet ventured out like that. Good luck to you.
My notes will be on every charge stop on Plugshare, but perhaps not until tomorrow night. I normally do that stuff at night, but sometimes as I am charging. I always take photos so the pics of my bike will be at every charge location.
I also want to check out "Run Lite Automotive" in Yerington to see if the AC outlet is a 120 or 240 VAC. Plugshare never mentions which and that is very important so I mention it with my check-ins.
There is quite a bit of difference between a 2KW outlet and a 12KW outlet, yet Plugshare doesn't say. If it's a 12K, I will probably use it, but I will still check the Chevy dealer about the J-1772 there, to see if we can all use it.
-Don- Reno, NV
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I've never ran out of gas or energy before, and I plan on keeping it that way. Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep a 120V charger on hand just in case all other charging options are unavailable.
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I've never ran out of gas or energy before, and I plan on keeping it that way. Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep a 120V charger on hand just in case all other charging options are unavailable.
I do. If I can find AC, I can charge. From perhaps anything I will ever find on the road. But if I really need 120 VAC to charge, I can probably gett to the next charge station a lot faster by calling for a tow truck!
-Don- Reno, NV
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I ran my 13kw SS9 down to 0% (dead) while draining the battery after taking it out of long term storage mode so I could recharge it to 100%. I was about 3 miles from my house when the display dropped from 8% to 0%. I was able to limp about 2 miles before it died completely. I had a motorcycle towing service tow it the last mile to my house so I could plug it in.
The tow truck driver did mention that on their automotive tow trucks they're starting to install DC battery chargers due to the number of dead battery calls they've been getting for EVs. That way they can give them enough juice to get a few miles, hopefully to a real charger.
That's been the only time I've had any of my EVs (motorcycles or cars) completely die (*knocks on wood*). Since then, the bike has run fine and the SOC indicator has been accurate.
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I ran my 13kw SS9 down to 0% (dead) while draining the battery after taking it out of long term storage mode so I could recharge it to 100%. I was about 3 miles from my house when the display dropped from 8% to 0%. I was able to limp about 2 miles before it died completely. I had a motorcycle towing service tow it the last mile to my house so I could plug it in.
If mine died a mile from home, I think I'd walk home, get my truck and gas generator, and go back to give it 15 minutes of juice! It would be partly for fun, as that would be less work and more entertaining than loading it into the truck. :)
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The tow truck driver did mention that on their automotive tow trucks they're starting to install DC battery chargers due to the number of dead battery calls they've been getting for EVs. That way they can give them enough juice to get a few miles, hopefully to a real charger.
Do you know if it is CCS, CHAdeMO, Tesla or all three? I especially wonder how they do Tesla with DC as there is some type of communication between them. Such as how Superchargers read my VIN number and know who I am.
-Don- Reno, NV
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If mine died a mile from home, I think I'd walk home, get my truck and gas generator, and go back to give it 15 minutes of juice! It would be partly for fun, as that would be less work and more entertaining than loading it into the truck. :)
HFT now sells a great inverter generator (https://www.harborfreight.com/8750-watt-inverter-generator-with-co-secure-57480.html)to charge a Zero at 240VAC @ 30 amps (7,200 watts). Same as most J-1772 stations.
I have been thinking about buying one. But I want to first get rid of my NIB (never used) 120 VAC only Champion generator.
BTW, yesterday was the closest I ever came to running out of juice. Less than a mile left, but never got to limp mode (Energica).
-Don- Reno, NV
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Do you know if it is CCS, CHAdeMO, Tesla or all three? I especially wonder how they do Tesla with DC as there is some type of communication between them. Such as how Superchargers read my VIN number and know who I am.
A friend of mine runs a tow truck service, and uses a Roadie: https://www.sparkcharge.io/roadie with a chademo connector and chademo->tesla adapter to rescue stranded Teslas.
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The one time I ran out of juice I just walked it home. It was a beast pushing up hill, it was stuck in regen mode.
-Crissa
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The one time I ran out of juice I just walked it home. It was a beast pushing up hill, it was stuck in regen mode.
-Crissa
You walked way too fast! ;) Regen starts at 10 MPH!
-Don- Reno, NV
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You walked way too fast! ;) Regen starts at 10 MPH!
The drag from regen doesn't stop just because you've dropped below 15mph.
-Crissa
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Best of luck, Don. I hope everything works out for you. :)
Yeah, it worked out, but barely. I went all the way down to Hawthorne, past Walker Lake. And came back a different way through Yerington.
From Yerington on, I could only slow charge.
The CCS at Silver Springs looked like they were okay, but neither could work. But the J-1772 there was okay.
But I now realize how I screwed up. I should have slow charged just enough to get to the CCS chargers in Fernley. A little out of the way, but I would have been home much sooner and it still would have still been light. My last few miles were in the dark. I also had to slow charge at USA Parkway as well as at Western Village in Sparks. Those last two slow charges could have been avoided by going back to Fernley instead of up USA Parkway.
OTOH, I wanted to test out a small Tesla-Tap on the Tesla Destination stations at USA Parkway by the Tesla Battery plant. It worked perfectly there, on my Energica, where I have had trouble with other Tesla -Taps on my Zeros, where the Tesla stations would shut down every ten minutes. I will have to use this Tesla-Tap on my Zeros next time to see what happens.
They all work perfectly at home with my 12 KW Tesla Wall Connectors. I only have trouble with the much older higher power units, like the 16KW units at USA Parkway.
-Don- Reno, NV
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The drag from regen doesn't stop just because you've dropped below 15mph.
-Crissa
The drag is there at any speed on a Zero, even if Regen is turned off (to zero percent). But there is no regen at all below 10 MPH. There is some at 15 MPH, unless your older bike is different. Zeros do not coast well at all, regardless of no regen.
BTW, Energica coasts very well with regen off, unlike with Zeros. But you're not going to walk it up a hill anyway. Too heavy.
-Don- Reno, NV
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The drag can vary on a Zero, and whatever drag it had will remain when it powerfaults.
That drag is from the magnetic fields interacting. Aka, regen. Below a certain speed and mass, this doesn't produce enough current to charge the battery.
-Crissa
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Anybody here ever run out of juice? Such as make it to a charge station that is not Energica compatible or just crapped out and don't have enough juice to get to any other? Or from conditions (headwind, cold, too much uphill, etc.) where you could not quite make the distance and is too far to walk with the bike?
Fortunately not. Last time was quite close, where I arrived with 7% on the first charger that was occupied (with a freshly plugged in EQS), 5% on the second one that was closed and 3% at a free charger in front of a Lidl supermarket that finally worked. I was already going through my options there in my mind...
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CCS doesn't half seem unreliable... a quick google on the subject is quite telling.
Cas :)
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The drag can vary on a Zero, and whatever drag it had will remain when it powerfaults.
That drag is from the magnetic fields interacting. Aka, regen. Below a certain speed and mass, this doesn't produce enough current to charge the battery.
-Crissa
IOW, you're saying you have regen when there is no regeneration at all to the battery. IOW, regen can be no regen at all :) .
-Don- Reno, NV
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CCS doesn't half seem unreliable... a quick google on the subject is quite telling.
Cas :)
Based on my own experience, I would say CCS is somewhat unreliable. J-1772 is MUCH more reliable because it's simple. A 14-50R outlet is even more reliable because it is more simple than J-1772.
But some CCS charge stations are more reliable than others. I find CCS ChargePoints to be the most reliable, which includes those at the HD dealers. I have yet to see a Changepoint NOT work. The CCS that did not work in Silver Springs, NV were EV-Connect. The ones that I could not get to work in Elk Grove, CA were Electrify America and GreenLots.
-Don- Reno. NV
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I think the biggest problem with the big DC non-Tesla stations is that they all feature some kind of touchscreen and payment system. IMO this is very prone to errors.
Tesla SuC has no display and just recognises the vehicle...
Well I have seen SuC be out of service but that is always just a few stalls. The other 8-16 stalls or more work so most are never bothered. The other brand DC chargers often stand alone with maximum 2 outlets. When this is out of service it affect many!