Trip to Chicago next summer

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melklim

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I am planning a trip from LA to Chicago next summer with stops at Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Total mileage will be about 5,000. Plan to use HV most of the time and will not recharge battery during the trip except by HV charge when capacity gets down to zero. Is this method pretty much the standard for cross country trip?
 
You should need to use HV Charge very little, even on that long a trip unless you forget and stay in EV mode after you start again after a stop. I probably would use HV Charge whenever you get below 30% to build back up to 50%. You could even leave the car in HV Charge mode for a lot of the drive if you wanted. I just never let the charge level go to zero unless I am about to plug in to recharge at my destination.
 
melklim said:
I am planning a trip from LA to Chicago next summer with stops at Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Total mileage will be about 5,000. Plan to use HV most of the time and will not recharge battery during the trip except by HV charge when capacity gets down to zero. Is this method pretty much the standard for cross country trip?
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Bring your Honda charging cable, just in case you find an available plug. If you don't bring it you will see an available plug at every motel.
 
Per the Owners Manual: Do not use extension cords...

See pages 457-458. The wording is used twice, once under Safety Checklist, once as a Warning.
 
melklim said:
I am planning a trip from LA to Chicago next summer with stops at Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Total mileage will be about 5,000. Plan to use HV most of the time and will not recharge battery during the trip except by HV charge when capacity gets down to zero. Is this method pretty much the standard for cross country trip?
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If it was my trip I would go to Plugshare's web site and look for hotels on the route with EV charging stations. There are lots in the big city areas on your trip and even some around Yellowstone.

We went from Grand Rapids, MI to Lancaster, PA. We stopped in Altoona, PA the first night at an EV hotel and stayed at another one in Lancaster. We will be going to Harrisburg this spring and will stay at another EV hotel. We had plenty of EV so we never had to use HV charge. I wish I had known how many plugs the hotel in Altoona had - I thought they had 2 but they had 4. I would have used more EV on my way there.
 
I have found that most hotels on most of my road trips are happy to allow you to plug in overnight. And yes having an extension cord of appropriate gauge is smart and helpful.

Some newer hotels have free level 2 chargers too. But most don’t.

I’ve done many road trips of thousands of miles long. Never have used HV Charge mode for any reason period. I just leave in HV.
 
OEM charger pulls about 12 amps. So 14 gauge is enough. 12 gauge is better. 50 feet of 12 gauge is what I carry. I’d go no smaller than 12 gauge if someone feels the need for 100 ft cord.
 
just get the 12 gauge, it'll pay off in the long run. i use a 12 gauge extension all the time, if i'm doing a pathetic 110v charge.
 
It’s nice to have the pathetic 120V option, especially since you’re doing it all the time.

Why aren’t you using 240V more often?
 
Landshark said:
It’s nice to have the pathetic 120V option, especially since you’re doing it all the time.

Why aren’t you using 240V more often?
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I do now. when i first got the car, all I had was 110, ouch! what makes it pathetic it's an all night charge and it's gone within 40 minutes or so of driving. it's nice honda installed a 6.6kw charger and didn't go cheap like gm did with the volt at 3.3.
 
melklim said:
Plan to use HV most of the time and will not recharge battery during the trip except by HV charge when capacity gets down to zero.
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There is an efficiency loss to using HV charge, though members here have determined the hit is slight.

Probably the best bet is just to do the entire trip in HV mode. You'll see a very gradual loss in EV range - we lost about half of ours on a 1,600 mile trip. I'd say if yours ever drops down to maybe 10 miles EV remaining, only then use HV charge to bump it back up a bit, then repeat as necessary.
 
Phil_Meyers said:
I do now. when i first got the car, all I had was 110, ouch! what makes it pathetic it's an all night charge and it's gone within 40 minutes or so of driving. it's nice honda installed a 6.6kw charger and didn't go cheap like gm did with the volt at 3.3.
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I'm pretty sure the second gen of the Chevy Volt used a 6.6kw charger.
 
melklim said:
I am planning a trip from LA to Chicago next summer with stops at Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Total mileage will be about 5,000. Plan to use HV most of the time and will not recharge battery during the trip except by HV charge when capacity gets down to zero. Is this method pretty much the standard for cross country trip?
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Danks and Robert_Alabama gave good advice. I did a 3000 mile trip on old Route 66 this summer exactly as they advised. BTW, a Holiday Inn near St. Paul, MN has eight free chargers which I use whenever I go there. It is identified on the PlugShare app.
 
Phil_Meyers said:
I do now. when i first got the car, all I had was 110, ouch! what makes it pathetic it's an all night charge and it's gone within 40 minutes or so of driving. it's nice honda installed a 6.6kw charger and didn't go cheap like gm did with the volt at 3.3.
Click to expand...

Charging in a couple of hours doesn't increase battery range. If you're plugging in overnight 240 is overkill.
 
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