My First Clarity Road Trip - DEN - SEA

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AlanSqB

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Hello all,

I've been a little scarce lately due to preparing for a cross country move. The time for me to head out has nearly arrived. I'm moving from Colorado to the Puget Sound and I'll be driving out in my Clarity starting early Friday (6/22) and plan to be there by Saturday evening.

I'm going to make every attempt to keep track of what's going on with range, fill-ups and general behavior. We will see if I can keep up with postings on the road, but at least I will be able to send the info after the fact. Please let me know if anyone has any particular things they'd like met to track/look for.

I'm an amateur radio licensee (W7YNP), but I don't have any radios in the car (yet) but I want to be able to do some chatting while I'm driving to keep alert so I'm going to have Zello and Echolink going. I did recently learn about Network Radio and because of that, it seems Zello is on a bit of a comeback. I've had a Zello account for about 100 years but have never really used it. I've created a Zello channel for Honda Clarity chat at zello.com/ClarityOwners if you are a Zello user and are interested. I'll be monitoring it on the way out.

Anyway, wish me luck. I'm actually really looking forward to a nice and comfortable road trip in my beautiful car. I know it's going to be way more fun than when I have to fly back next month and repeat the drive in a moving truck :-(.
 
Alan - you know my callsign but we also have K2PBO (John) on the forum as @Johngalt6146 .

I'm going to be travelling part of that time also but will try to check it out Friday.

Safe travels,

geo
 
Could you track the HV range and tell us your mpg at different speeds if you have long enough stretches?
Might want to check oil level and air pressure in tires.
And Mom says wear your seatbelts, keep the doors locked, and don’t take candy from strangers.
Bon Voyage!
 
upload_2018-6-21_11-42-12.webp

You should be able to find a place to mount one of these!

geo
 
Filled all 4 up to 40 PSI with my proprietary mix of 78% Nitrogen / 21% Oxygen / 1% Secret Ingredient (hint, rhymes with far gone).

I only know one speed...ludicrous speed. However, I'll do my best. I may put an APRS app on my phone for the trip, that should allow me to get snapshots of speed every few minutes.

Pretty snazzy bug catcher there geo. I have to admit to being a "no-code tech" so the really big gear is wasted on me. I got into the hobby for ARES/Emcomm type stuff and stayed for the rag chewing. I haven't been on the radio in about 8 years and I only have a dual band and a DMR HT now, which I really don't use. I don't know if I'll bother putting any gear on the Clarity in the future, depends on how the ham scene is out there. It's pretty quiet around these parts.
 
It looks like you will have several parts of your trip at high altitude. It will be interesting to see if you get the same results as I did traveling from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. At 75 to 80 mph above 5500 feet the little 1500 cc engine could not pull the car without disengaging the clutch, running the engine at very high rpm and providing additional energy from the battery. At those altitudes in HV mode the battery was slowly decreasing in miles. I did the entire 800 mile trip without charging the battery. I started the trip with 64 miles showing in the EV display and ended with 17.
 
bpratt said:
It looks like you will have several parts of your trip at high altitude. It will be interesting to see if you get the same results as I did traveling from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. At 75 to 80 mph above 5500 feet the little 1500 cc engine could not pull the car without disengaging the clutch, running the engine at very high rpm and providing additional energy from the battery. At those altitudes in HV mode the battery was slowly decreasing in miles. I did the entire 800 mile trip without charging the battery. I started the trip with 64 miles showing in the EV display and ended with 17.
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That's exactly why the car drives so poorly when the battery is depleted. Even with 2 bars, I suspect the system is avoiding using any battery power unless absolutely needed to keep that level in reserve. As such, all the power is coming from the little engine which causes it to rev at very high rpms (it's able to do that safely though). If there is a significant charge, the system with take power from both more modestly to avoid revving up the ICE. I found that the battery can be depleted quite a bit in HV mode under tough conditions and then it automatically recharges when the conditions become favorable. With a charged battery, I typically get 45 - 52 mpg in HV mode without reducing the battery charge at the end. With a depleted battery, the system will rely on the ICE under most conditions, which is less efficient.
 
Try driving an i3 REx with a dead battery, instead of 103 hp it has 34 hp ;)

I am driving back to Wyoming, hit one 9000 foot pass so should get to test it out. Will try to remember to use HV Charge from Cheyenne west.
 
Viking79 said:
Try driving an i3 REx with a dead battery, instead of 103 hp it has 34 hp ;)

I am driving back to Wyoming, hit one 9000 foot pass so should get to test it out. Will try to remember to use HV Charge from Cheyenne west.
Click to expand...
So it actually has a lawn mower engine?
 
O 6041
E 26.2
H 615
T 68F
Wamsutter,WY

O 6247
E 8.7
H 457
T 77F
Henefer, UT

O 6463
E 6.8
H 377
T 89F
Jerome, ID

O 6638
E 24.3
H 311
T 88F

I don’t have the time right now to figure out what these numbers mean. I also don’t have a computer with me to put them into a spreadsheet. However I do know that I drove that car over 800 miles yesterday and I have to say I am highly impressed. That’s the farthest I’ve ever driven without feeling completely worn out at the end of the day. The adaptive cruise control and the lane keeping assistance really do help with the workload and reduce the stress and anxiety of driving. Honestly my main criticism at this point is the 7 gallon gas tank. Stopping for gas every 200 miles does get a little bit tedious especially for someone who drove an electric car for the past four years. I don’t think I’ve been at a gas station that many times altogether in these last four years.
 
The weather should be ideal here in Puget Sound when you get here. There was some rain early in the a.m. but forecast is sunny and low 70s later in the day. Welcome to the evergreen state!
 
AlanSqB said:
Stopping for gas every 200 miles does get a little bit tedious especially for someone who drove an electric car for the past four years. I don’t think I’ve been at a gas station that many times altogether in these last four years.
Click to expand...

My wife's reaction to your report: "Doesn't he ever have to pee?" I thoughtfully withheld a reply to her question.

What do you think about the idea of saving your battery for use as an emergency "range extender" so you could push your gas tank closer to 300 miles? Calculating 40 mpg x 7 gallons = 280 miles available in the tank on the highway--if you use it all up.
 
I would be ok with it, maybe hold the ev until you get the Low Fuel warning, then switch to ev and when that is gone then find a gas station with the remaining fuel. That gives you a 20 mile buffer or so to find a suitable gas station.
 
I'm mainly interested in how the car drives on a depleted battery. Is there much strain on the engine, high RPM revving and noise from these two factors?
 
Depending on terrain and stuff, yes, you do hear the engine straining at times, but not really any more than my Prius did under the same circumstances. I was pleasantly surprised with my 48mpg I got on the tank of gas that was run totally with no battery power through West Virginia.
 
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