Our 2024 Beaverton OR to Copperopolis CA (and back) Road Trip

[music_cities]

Nice write up. We're road tripping from Calgary to The Bay Area and back starting this weekend. Spending four days on the Oregon Coast the way down, and going through Bend on the way back. Got my A2Z adapter for the trip. I picked hotels with chargers (Spokane, Portland, Smith River, Klamath Falls, The Dallas, and Sandpoint), and I'm staying at a friends house in Winters who has a L2 charger. Another friend who I'm staying with doesn't have a charger, but I found a home charger at a neighbour of his on PlugShare that's a 20 minute walk away, so I'll probably take advantage of that overnight too. Most of my driving days are only about 6 hours including charging stops, as we're focusing on seeing sites that we normally fly over.

It alway surprises me that The Bay Area (and your destination at about the same latitude) is considered "Northern" California.

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[leehinde]

It alway surprises me that The Bay Area (and your destination at about the same latitude) is considered "Northern" California.

I've been here (Sacramento) for 50 years and I'm not clear what the cut-off is. Probably the grapevine. But it is the northern part of the state. It's useful geographically, but not socially, as both Redding, Bakersfield, San Francisco and Mendocino all qualify.

To the topic, for @Doug&Julie. I noticed new Tesla superchargers, with the black trim, going in at the Delta Shore shopping center in South Sacramento (Cosumnes River Exit). What's weird is that they're putting them in a back corner, behind the theaters and a Tilly's, pretty far from any other services. OTOH, I'm glad to see more option on I5.

 

[Doug&Julie]

...
It alway surprises me that The Bay Area (and your destination at about the same latitude) is considered "Northern" California.

Just like @leehinde says, I'm not really sure where the cutoff is either. But as a non-Californian, I always think of San Francisco / Sacramento as "northern" and Los Angeles et al as "southern".

Sounds like a wonderful trip you have planned! Julie and I are hoping to take trips like that when we retire. Surely by then the charging infrastructure will be even better.

 

[Doug&Julie]

...
To the topic, for @Doug&Julie. I noticed new Tesla superchargers, with the black trim, going in at the Delta Shore shopping center in South Sacramento (Cosumnes River Exit). What's weird is that they're putting them in a back corner, behind the theaters and a Tilly's, pretty far from any other services. OTOH, I'm glad to see more option on I5.

I think Tesla has something of a reputation of having chargers in odd locations. When preplanning our trip, I noticed more than a few that were in..."sub-optimal"...spots, including the 44 stall location we stopped at in Redding. But like you...overall the more the better.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Just like @leehinde says, I'm not really sure where the cutoff is either. But as a non-Californian, I always think of San Francisco / Sacramento as "northern" and Los Angeles et al as "southern".
<SNIP>

It’s funny too since when I was in high school on the SF Peninsula, the school athletics people said we were part of the Central Coast Section. ?‍?

To corroborate what @leehinde said, I have heard some people from Bakersfield refer to themselves as “Northern Californian.” ??

 

[PKrasAshland]

Well gang...another year, another "Portland to NorCal" road trip in the books. While it's a very long drive, this one went A LOT smoother than last year, pretty much all thanks to our access to the Tesla Supercharging network. Not only did it give us another 20+ options for stopping to charge, the amount of confidence we had in the network meant that we could go further with each leg if we really wanted to without panicking. While I of course still planned ahead, this was the first time it really felt like a "normal" road trip, where we could just get in and go, and easily make changes on the fly. What a difference...

FWIW on our way down we used the official Ford / Tesla adapter, but on the way back we used the Lectron. Both worked perfectly, but Julie and I think we like the Lectron better.

I also want to note the reason I did plan ahead was mostly because I wanted to find Tesla locations that had (12) or more chargers. We all know that we take up two spots at a Tesla charger (unless its a V4), so I wanted to reduce the risk of being "that guy"...and I figured the larger locations would be best.

For the TL;DR on the numbers...Beaverton to Copperopolis driveway to driveway is 668 miles, so with the return trip and another 96 miles driving around NorCal, overall we drove 1,430 miles in four days. Both long trips took about 13 hours with charging stops and "bio-breaks". We made (7) stops for fast charging, as well as (2) charges at my brother's house in Copper. (6) of the fast charging stops were Tesla superchargers, while (1) was an EA location. In the interest of "science", we tried not to repeat any locations, with the one exception being Sutherlin, OR (it's just too damn ideal for many reasons). Our fast charging stops ranged from 20 minutes to 49 minutes, with the average being 31 minutes. We spent $167.69 on fast charging, so an average of $27.95 per stop. I did not pay my brother for using his electricity...but to be fair he gets it free from the sun, so... ?

Once out of Portland, it's pretty much a straight shot down I-5 until you get to Stockton, then a short jaunt on 4 over to Copperopolis. Heading south, our first charging stop is Sutherlin, OR. We previously stopped there for an EA location right by a Dairy Queen (of all things), but those gave us a bit of a headache on our 2023 trip. Thankfully, there's a new(ish) Tesla super location, with 51 glorious V3 superchargers...all mostly empty. We pulled up, plugged in, and got charging right away. We saw 158kw peak and good numbers the rest of the way. We hit the Starbucks right next door for some breakfast, and enjoyed a nice conversation with a curious Model S owner who wanted to know more about our Mach-E. We were having such a nice conversation, we totally blew past 80% and ended up charging to 87% before taking off. That'll do...

Our next stop was in Medford, OR. We could have gone a lot further, but since our first stop included breakfast and coffee, we needed a restroom stop anyway, so we hit a Fred Meyer (grocery store) that had new EA chargers. All were in working order, with (3) spots open when we pulled up. Plug-n-charge worked perfectly, and again we peaked over 150kw. Restroom and a stretch and we were quickly back on the road.

For our next stop we targeted Redding, CA. I picked this one because it had 44 chargers, although it was a little light on amenities as it was behind a hotel. At least we could use their restrooms...and air conditioning as it was 100 degrees there! Because of the heat, we didn't go all the way to 80% and bugged out around 70%...enough to get us to our final stop. Fun facts...there was only (1) other Tesla charging here, but (3) ICE vehicles parked in charging spots...

Our final stop on the way down was Dunnigan, CA. Here, I broke my "12 chargers or more" rule because a) it was a perfect distance to Copperopolis, meaning an 80% charge would be plenty of range to get us the rest of the way, but also b) it was just north of Sacramento, meaning we could have a restroom break and a good stretch before the highly populous / busy traffic leg of the trip. At this location everything went mostly well, although we tried backing into a very tight spot (not easy), only to have to shew away a Model 3 owner who was about to take "our" charger once we finally got in place. We were very tired, easily irritated, and for a minute I thought there was going to be a rumble! But it all worked out. The charge went well, but again with the heat we stopped on the low 70% range as that was plenty to get us "home".

Side note about Dunnigan, CA...and reason number c) for wanting to stop here...I was hoping these would be up and running for us, but alas they weren't. Maybe next time...

So after a couple of days in and around Copperopolis, we headed home on a Wednesday morning. Interestingly, looking at ABRP it suggested we could make the trip in (2) stops (!!!!), but we thought better and planned out (3). With a 100% charge leaving my brother's, we easily made it to stop number one in Williams, CA. Here again, the (12) V3 cabinet location was practically empty, so we just picked a spot in some shade and got to charging. We stopped at a Starbucks to grab some breakfast on our way in, so we enjoyed the perfect morning weather with croissants and coffee. While there a Lightning owner happened by (not to charge) and stopped to ask how we could charge there. It turns out he has an L2 adapter, so I showed him our CCS adapters and explained the process. He seemed appreciative. But here again the friendly conversation distracted us from our target, so we ended up charging to 83% before taking off. We're okay with this...

For our next stop we were going to stretch it a bit...we arrived in Weed, CA with only 10% on the battery. But not only did this location have 16 chargers, they were all V4s, so we didn't have to worry about taking up too many spots! And if by some bizarre reason these didn't work or were all full, there was a new CCS option just one block away. But once again these were nearly empty, but for a couple of Teslas and another Mach-E! So we had a nice conversation with the other Mach-E owner...who is also a Tesla owner, but decided to take her small battery Select on her trip from Seattle to SoCal (!!!). She had a lot of questions as well, so we were able to share some knowledge (including my list of 12+ charge locations along the I-5 from PDX to SAC). The restrooms at the nearby gas stations were "for paying customers only", so we bought some snacks and drinks that we didn't really need. But other than that, the V4s are awesome, gave us good speed, and you gotta love a longer cable.

Our final stop was a repeat visit to Sutherlin, OR. Here again, it's a great location because with an 80% charge, we knew we could make it all the way home. Getting to Sutherlin, however, gave us a few tense moments. There are a number of "ups and downs" with significant elevation changes between Weed and Sutherlin. It makes for a beautiful drive, but can cause the Mach-E to panic a bit. Twice we saw the estimated range drop below the number of miles to go while climbing up these mountains. We considered bailing out early (we had options, remember), but pressed on with...confidence? We ended up arriving with 14% on the battery...no sweat! Since it was almost dinner time we hit the Dairy Queen...logically. Then we met a man who just bought a Toyota RAV4 Prime and was wondering if he could charge there. So we "shared some more knowledge" and helped him on his way. And once again our conversation meant we overshot our target, but just a little...we left with 82% on the battery.

Right about 7:00 PM we backed into our garage...thoroughly exhausted. Don't get me wrong, the Mach-E is a great road tripper and we love these trips. But man...13 hours in any car is too much for us. Still, for my family I'd do anything...and it was great to get away.

I'll just reiterate here that the difference in comfort level (confidence) with having the Tesla network available to us is a game changer, at least for us. Your milage may vary...as they say...but I believe things will only get better from here.

I shot a lot of video, so whenever I can find the time I'm hoping to post up another "Mach-E Files" episode on this trip. I'll check back in here if I do.

In the meantime...happy motoring!

?

Thanks for your write up. We do some of the drive, going from Ashland to Portland. It is very doable with EA, but…looking forward to getting the Tesla adapter!

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Nice write up. We're road tripping from Calgary to The Bay Area and back starting this weekend. Spending four days on the Oregon Coast the way down, and going through Bend on the way back. Got my A2Z adapter for the trip. I picked hotels with chargers (Spokane, Portland, Smith River, Klamath Falls, The Dallas, and Sandpoint), and I'm staying at a friends house in Winters who has a L2 charger. Another friend who I'm staying with doesn't have a charger, but I found a home charger at a neighbour of his on PlugShare that's a 20 minute walk away, so I'll probably take advantage of that overnight too. Most of my driving days are only about 6 hours including charging stops, as we're focusing on seeing sites that we normally fly over.

It alway surprises me that The Bay Area (and your destination at about the same latitude) is considered "Northern" California.

We hope you have an awesome road trip! We'd love to see some pics!

 

[Doug&Julie]

So here's the video version of this road trip. Kinda long...most of the deets are covered in the first half, but the second half is worth watching if you're bored...

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