ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Richard230 on April 20, 2012, 04:50:55 AM
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Today I went hiking at a county park. The place was deserted, as it usually is during a weekday. While hiking around I was also looking for active wall outlets to be used for guerrilla charging when I ride my Zero down there. I found a few at vacant picnic shelters and one in a bathroom. I used an old glow nightlight to check for active outlets. Attached is a photo of one of the shelters. The corner to the left of the photo is perfect for parking my bike while it is charging and completely hides it from the view of anyone passing by. The electrical outlet is on the wall to the far right of the photo and is close enough to get to with a 15-foot extension cord, plus the Zero's power cord.
Looking for random public electrical outlets is like looking for Easter eggs. ;D
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Score, he he :) Though I haven't ridden far enough to need charging at my destination yet, I do find myself looking for available outlets. I'm still trying to decide how much extension cord I'd need to carry -- maybe 25 feet from what I've seen.
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Today I went hiking at a county park. The place was deserted, as it usually is during a weekday. While hiking around I was also looking for active wall outlets to be used for guerrilla charging when I ride my Zero down there. I found a few at vacant picnic shelters and one in a bathroom. I used an old glow nightlight to check for active outlets. Attached is a photo of one of the shelters. The corner to the left of the photo is perfect for parking my bike while it is charging and completely hides it from the view of anyone passing by. The electrical outlet is on the wall to the far right of the photo and is close enough to get to with a 15-foot extension cord, plus the Zero's power cord.
Looking for random public electrical outlets is like looking for Easter eggs. ;D
Stealing electricity is like siphoning gasoline. ...just saying.
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Score, he he :) Though I haven't ridden far enough to need charging at my destination yet, I do find myself looking for available outlets. I'm still trying to decide how much extension cord I'd need to carry -- maybe 25 feet from what I've seen.
If you're going to carry a cord that long, make sure it is 12AWG or better. I don't know if 14AWG would be sufficient at that length.
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Also, you better hope the outlet can support at least 15Amps. When I was visiting my Mom in the hospital, I noticed some outlets in the underground parking garage, so I figured "What the hell?" I parked by one, plugged in, and promptly blew a circuit breaker...
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LOL, 9 years old post. :)
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I spent a lot of time last year on my loops looking for 110v outlets, and there are plenty of easily accessible ones !
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When I posted my original thread, my 2012 Zero needed a charge to get me back home from that county park. But when I bought my 2014 S with PT, I no longer needed that boost. In any case, at the time I asked permission from the rangers and they said it would be OK to hook up to one of the group site outlets for a few hours while I was hiking when they weren't being used. Plus, I added $5 to my entrance fee self-registration envelope just to make me feel better about using a few kWh worth of electricity. However, I have no idea what the rules are now for visitors using an outlet if they did not reserve a group area site. ::) I wouldn't be surprised if they are more restrictive now that EVs are more mainstream.
So far I have yet to see a local state or county park or public campground that has installed L2 charging facilities. In fact, all of the ones that I have been to locally don't even have WiFi access. :(
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Belmont Lake State Park here in New York has a couple of EV Connect L2 stations in the parking lot.
https://goo.gl/maps/6RkxEM1dxnPgeHdCA