Journey down the Baja…to Cabo

[K6CCC]

Wow, I just looked at PlugShare.com A Tesla destination charger adapter is almost a must for that trip. Good luck without them.

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[Baja Lightning]

Wow, I just looked at PlugShare.com A Tesla destination charger adapter is almost a must for that trip. Good luck without them.

It seems the only holdup without a Tesla Destination Adapter is Guerrero Negro, from here we can get home with Nema 14-50’s in San Ignacio, Loreto, Insurgentes, and La Paz etc…. For now we’re in GN for maybe a day and a half…

 

[Baja Lightning]

That includes Tesla plugs, I hid them knowing you didn't have the adapter.

Yeah but it looks cool to see all those options, I kinda like the false sense of hope….

 

[Baja Lightning]

My take away thus far, FORD needs to sell an “expedition package” with all the adapters to take you anywhere. I would be happy to buy it first, Tesla Supercharger adapter, Tesla Tap, Nema 14-50….etc.
If I had the destination adapter I’d be home free….
(….and maybe the EPA needs to give their heads a shake, or maybe publish how my truck is able to reach their published numbers, I don’t know how this stuff works, but let’s say a dumba55 like say…..me! want to drive down the Baja and the window sticker says you’re good for 320 miles, and I can not get close to that at an average speed well below the speed limits….)

 

[abcut973]

It seems the only holdup without a Tesla Destination Adapter is Guerrero Negro, from here we can get home with Nema 14-50’s in San Ignacio, Loreto, Insurgentes, and La Paz etc…. For now we’re in GN for maybe a day and a half…

Is that camping spot? Just wondering how come these 120v plugs are equally spaced on that wall? Also free charging?

 

[Baja Lightning]

Is that camping spot? Just wondering how come these 120v plugs are equally spaced on that wall? Also free charging?

Yes, they are camping spots….and yes Free! Same as yesterday’s hotel.

 

[flypony53]

My take away thus far, FORD needs to sell an “expedition package” with all the adapters to take you anywhere. I would be happy to buy it first, Tesla Supercharger adapter, Tesla Tap, Nema 14-50….etc.
If I had the destination adapter I’d be home free….
(….and maybe the EPA needs to give their heads a shake, or maybe publish how my truck is able to reach their published numbers, I don’t know how this stuff works, but let’s say a dumba55 like say…..me! want to drive down the Baja and the window sticker says you’re good for 320 miles, and I can not get close to that at an average speed well below the speed limits….)

agree. Tesla sells a package for their mobile adapter that has all of the proper "wall" plug types. They also include the J-1722 to NACS adapter with the cars.

I keep the Level 1/2 NACS to J-1722 in my truck at all times. Only used 1-2 times in the last 3 years, but it is definitely needed.

I see so many folks on this and other forums that do not understand the Tesla Supercharger adapters do not work with destination chargers.

 

[johaanryberg]

Yes! With all the American retirees in trailer parks and RV resorts down there, I was thinking 50amp RV plugs / Nema 14-50 as your go to. Great option for those of us that have pop-up tents on our trucks. Those trailer parks are everywhere and you can just pay 50 or 60 bucks a night and get a full charge and a reasonable place to sleep.

Update:
Made it to Guerrero Negro no problem, 70km to spare..!
Qualification:
The grey Lightning is a U.S. plated Lariat extended range, the White Lightning is my wife’s B.C. Chinada plated Flash, 123kw.
I’m talking KMs cause we’re obviously driving the flashy truck.
We had 19% left after 394km and the Lariat had 22% left on arrival in GN…. I think the lady driving the Lariat was drafting…
The RV, unfortunately no usable generator.
Ambient temperature was 42 or 107f for you other folks. AC on and both in Sport Mode.
Yeah, so I found out the Ford supplied Tesla adapter works great with most Superchargers and that was amazing on the way down through the U.S. However I don’t have no fancy Tesla Tap or what ever you call that thing.
Mucho Gracias Señor “RickLightning”, I used your link to order two of those our two trucks.
In future I’m sure they’ll be great….
For now we are the proverbial F’d.
The destination chargers don’t work, neither did they work last night in San Filipe. The SF Marina Resort did have a generic non Tesla charger that gave us a whopping 6.4kw all night long, that got us to 100% at 3 am this morning.
Our friends stayed at Pete’s Camp with their RV and Pete’s had 50amp RV plugs , which I think is a Nema 14-50. Definitely a MUST HAVE…!
That’s our life saver…for tomorrow at Ricardo’s in San Ignacio.
Back to now, we are plugged into a wall at 12a and getting 1.4kw…till noon tomorrow when we should be OK to get to San Ignacio for a fill.
If you plan this trip and have a proven way with the Tesla tap adapter for destination chargers this trip should be a breeze, well kinda. Will take a couple days longer than a ICE car trip, but doable.
(Funny, none of the military checkpoints have discovered the Frunk…)
If you don’t have the fancy Tesla connection you will do well with a RV 50a plug.
Been an hour on the 12a and we added 2km…oh boy, bring me another tequila it’s going to be a long night….

 

[Baja Lightning]

Yes! With all the American retirees in trailer parks and RV resorts down there, I was thinking 50amp RV plugs / Nema 14-50 as your go to. Great option for those of us that have pop-up tents on our trucks. Those trailer parks are everywhere and you can just pay 50 or 60 bucks a night and get a full charge and a reasonable place to sleep.

100%
The Baja sun makes EVs a no brainer. We live full time in Baja and our house is 100% off grid. At 10 in the morning my batteries are full and that’s after running 3 AC’s all night….the rest of the day I have a 55kw inverter and 47kw of solar basically sitting idle….ave trip for us to town is 80km once a week….and 60km to Church on Sunday.

 

[Baja Lightning]

Update:
8am this morning we are at 33% and an indicated range of 128km available…..…

Let’s get into the math a bit because I think this is where there’s confusion:
Our 128kw battery should be able to do 480km according to the smart people. 33% of that is 160km. If I use the overall trip (3,709km to date) ave consumption to date (@3.8km/kwh) then 33% represents 155km. Sy WHY? Mr Ford am I getting a reading of 33% charged and only 128km ???
What are the km ranges based on?

I need 143km to get to a Nema 14-50 outlet in San Ignacio…. Should I unplug and go and use the 33% as my guide or wait till the 128km gets up to 150 range?
What am I missing?
What say thee intellectuals out there?

 

[Baja Lightning]

Update three:
So we made it to the planned 143km we were hoping for….WITH 41 km to spare!!!
I want to continue where I left off in my previous rant. We couldn’t handle charging at 1.4kw anymore…we reached 36% and 143km range in the app and obviously the truck. We left the hotel with 143 to go on the navigation door to door exactly. After 10km we gained 3km, range was 3km more than destination, that theme continued 3km/10km covered,

If you know what it means to ride the high point you’ll know it takes a lot out of one. No AC, luckily Guerrero has the most miserable weather in all of Baja. So we didn’t really mis the AC. Driver window cracked open 2”. No Starlink, no power draws like cell phones charging etc.

I managed to ave 80km/h at 4.7km/kw…
I thought it was pretty good. I recon besides a dyno with a tail wind this is probably the only way to beat the EPA numbers.
Got here to the RV park and we are plugged in on a Nema 14-50 which in Mexico translates to 30a and 6.4kw.

Which brings up a sensitive point, don’t travel as a group with EVs down the Baja, it’s not about them, it’s about availability of resources. The infrastructure is not here.

We are hoping to be fully charged by 10am tomorrow and then push 395km to a hotel with 2 (useless to us) Tesla destinations chargers but also one generic J1772. If we can fill up tomorrow evening in Insurgentes we are home free the last stretch.
Conclusion to date, the KM range your truck shows as range means nothing, nada, f-all. It has not happened and your truck has no clue how you will drive and what the conditions will be like.
Trust the % charge. That’s a known factor. (Hopefully)
Calculate how many KW that represents and multiply by what you think you can achieve. For our Flash we know worst case is about 3km/kw and best is well over 4 if we want to, we also know that the average the truck returned from new to date is 3.8km/kw.

Doesn’t matter how complicated the trucks are in the end it boils down to you knowing your truck, your calculator, and your right foot control.
All in all we’ve really enjoyed the truck, handles the Baja roads like a trophy truck. We enjoy the stares and interest from passers by.

The military checkpoints still has not asked us to open the Frunk. They look everywhere but not up front despite us pulling up in stealth mode.

(PS. The RV park keeps tripping the breaker every couple hours, they say we can’t charge two EVs on their 100amp service. Unfortunately they are the only guys in town with a 220v 30a service mascarading as a 50amp)

 

[bmwhitetx]

Conclusion to date, the KM range your truck shows as range means nothing, nada, f-all. It has not happened and your truck has no clue how you will drive and what the conditions will be like.
Trust the % charge. That’s a known factor. (Hopefully)

Glad you finally got to that conclusion on your own. We sometimes have to argue with folks for days before they realize that. Your rant is very common here.

Learn your miles/kWh (or km/kWh in your case) for various driving conditions (speed and temp, etc.) and go from there.

We call it a GOM- Guess-o-meter - for a reason.

 

[Baja Lightning]

Update 3 B….
Turns out we fried the hotels 100a service with the two Lightnings….!
Now we are back on the 1.2Kw rapid service, 110v I need 35km to get to the next town with …? (Don’t know what they have but it’s not here)
So it goes,

 

[Baja Lightning]

I found the cure to charging woes….

 

[bmwhitetx]

I found the cure to charging woes….

Like dynamite, there are few problems that a suitable amount of that concoction can’t solve.

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