Erich's Krazy Karmax Adventure (i3 content)

HD dealer will take the i3 on trade.....

I think at that point I would have asked for a truck off there lot and them to rent a trailer and you take it home that way.  Let them sort out getting the truck back from your house and let them return the trailer.  Just make sure that you name is not on anything that makes you responsible for $$$$.

Protonic Blue is an excellent color. 

It's 11:00pm... The waiting for updates is killing me!

QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:

It's 11:00pm... The waiting for updates is killing me!

Lol. I imagine him acting like a GRM'r in the future an hacking his phone or laptop battery to give him the last remaining couple of miles to get it charged.  That's after pulling all the fuses of unneeded stuff to maximize the remaining power.

-Rob

I was.excited to come home tonight just to check this thread and updates

rob_lewis said:

QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:

It's 11:00pm... The waiting for updates is killing me!

Lol. I imagine him acting like a GRM'r in the future an hacking his phone or laptop battery to give him the last remaining couple of miles to get it charged.  That's after pulling all the fuses of unneeded stuff to maximize the remaining power.

-Rob

"Rerouting power from life support to propulsion!"

I've got nothing nice to say about the car as I just don't understand the appeal.

But...this story is wonderfully written and should be a GRM feature.

Agreed on this being a wonderful story.  I am eager for more.  

For a little defense of Ohio Rt 24.  In recent years (less than 10 years) they have made great improvements to Rt24.  It used to be a winding, 2 lane road road that followed the winding Maumee River.  In these recent years, they acquired surrounding farm field and have blazed through a proper interstate highway.  What this means is the now new exit ramps for the highway are nearly empty.  The typical gas stations (or charging stations...ha) and fast food that you normally find at an exit do not yet exist.  

In this screen shot you will notice two differrnt Rt24 roads.  The thin line, old 24 near the river and the yellow line, new 24 north of the river and in a former corn field.  

This new Rt24 has done a wonderful job of connecting Toledo and Fort Wayne.  The old Rt24 was a death trap road with far too many trucks on far too windy of a road.  However, I will agree that this new Rt24 is boring but it makes the connection between the cities much quicker and much safer.  

In Ann Arbor terms this would be similar to Jackson Rd, which is a blvd near the car dealerships, being made into a full blvd or even better a proper hyw all the way to Jackson Mi and beyond.  It could be argued that this did in fact happen in the past and that is I-94.  

This delay in storytelling is brought to you by: Bats! Did you know that when you sit down at a computer, and a 9 year old daughter is nearby, you might be called upon to google image search random things? Today's random thing is bats! I've been asked to search for images of the Eastern Tube-nosed Bat, which my daughter says is "cute." As I've had to see it, so shall you.  

Like she said, "cute." I'll spare you photos of the Wrinkle-faced Bat, which even she agreed was "not cute," which is to say it is horrifying to look upon, truly nightmare fuel.

But returning to the i3 purchase story as my kids stumble off to look through our many books about bats, you will remember I was driving to the Harley Dealership, and not to trade in my newly-purchased eelectric car in for a hog- my wife is patient, but her patience has limits. No, I was following one of the contingency plans I had developed for the inevitable screwups around the dealership. When I learned that they would be unable to charge up the car, I only had to call up the Chargepoint App on my phone, where I had already bookmarked the only two fast-charge stations in the Fort Wayne area.

One was at a Chevy dealership, but it was inside a service bay, and the notes said you had to ask a poor technician to open the bay and unlock the unit to charge. It hadn't been used in a few weeks according to the app. I wasn't about to try my luck relying upon dealership staff again after the Carm*x debacle. 

"Hey dad you have to see this! It's an Indian Flying Fox!" Ok, even I agree that's a cute one. Actually, it might be a good name for a motorcycle. 

The Harley-Davidson dealer had a newly installed charge station, and it was on the Chargepoint network, which means the app will show its current status. I had checked during my test drive, and it showed "in use," by a Chevy Bolt, which was actually a good thing - it meant that 1) the station was working and 2) nerdmobiles like the Chevy Bolt were ok charging there. I set the app to text me when it was no longer in use, getting a much-needed notification about 5 minutes before departing Carm*x. Perfect timing. I crossed all my fingers and toes as I exited the freeway and headed down the service drive to Fort Wayne Harley.

The single charge station was gleaming in the sun, empty, and ready for use. I pulled up next to a line of fully-dressed hogs, plugged in, and tapped my phone on the glassy black obelisk to start the session. Chargepoint requires you to use a smartphone app to start and stop your charge session so MAKE SURE your phone is charged up too! I had brought along a giant backup battery for my phone so I didn't need to waste any extra i3 electrons charging it up.

You might be wondering why, like I was, why a Harley dealership of all places seemed to be the only place with a fast charge station. Thankfully Harley has emblazoned "LiveWire" on the stations, which triggered a memory of a press release somewhere about H-D offering a new electric motorcycle. It looks like this, and I assume both cargo shorts and sandals are included with purchase:

I don't know if that thing would be any more welcome in a group of Road Kings than the i3 was. I sat in my i3, reading my book, trying to ignore the stares of the leather-clad men and women wondering why this bright blue dorky thing was sitting front and center in a sea of shining black and chrome machines that drip coolness. Seeing a group of Harleys and my i3 together made as much sense as Larry David hanging out with Krazee Eyez Killa, and yet here we were, fate having thrown us together. 

Half an hour later, the i3 was up to 85% (for free!), which another app told me should be enough to arrive in my next destination, Napoleon Ohio,  for a last charge to make it home. 

I snapped a quick pic to send home, unplugged the car, and headed east on US-24, retracing the route I had taken in. It was now 3pm. Time was going to be tight if I was going to make it home to pick up the kids.

My daughter likes your bats.

I like the story!

Great story, sorry you had to live it and thanks for sharing. Nothing like  going through some pain and suffering to really enjoy the end result. Waiting for the next installment....

Honestly, there's a lot to be said for any luxury goods store putting in a charging station. Having an electric car usually means you have some modicum of income and you become a captive audience while your vehicle charges. Road hogs may not have tons of overlap, but how many motorcycles need to be sold to pay for that charging station?

According to the ChargePoint app, if you'd been stranded at the HD dealership, you might have been able to beg a drive in a Taycan. 

I think the Indian flying fox would be better than a Harley.

With the open road before me and my journey home finally begun, I booted up the playlist I had made for this occasion. I was going to conserve as much electricity as possible on the way home, but one sacrifice I was unwilling to make was going without music. And so I engaged the dynamic cruise control behind a tractor trailer, the smooth ride of the BMW a pleasant foil to the frenzied arpeggios of Angus Young's guitar.

The semi was traveling at 65 mph, which was the perfect speed for the little BMW - I was averaging more than 4 miles per KWh on the freeway, much better than I had expected. Another EV app I had installed on my phone, A Better Route Planner, told me that at my present speed, I should expect to roll into Napoleon with 13% charge remaining. The Napoleon exit happened to be where all semi traffic seemed to be getting off for refueling, including the one I had skitched a ride on like a Remora on a Whale Shark (that analogy may not be technically accurate, and I'm sure my daughter would correct me about cleaner wrasses or something if she were reading over my shoulder, but alas she's outside doing some tie dye with a friend).

I pulled up to the next DC charge station with a whopping 34% charge remaining. 

No, that's not a re-post, the Napoleon fast charge station is at another Harley dealership. Just after I pulled in and started charging, a rider I recognized from earlier at Fort Wayne pulled up in front of the BMW and did a double-take. He was perplexed, but evidently not intrigued enough to stop and chat. I settled in for another 30 minutes wait while the blue BMW, which I've decided by this time to christen Li'l Sebastian, filled up at the well. 

I opened the book I had brought to pass the time, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss. It's a biographical look at famed French author Alexandre Dumas's now less-famed father, confusingly also named Alexandre Dumas. The elder Dumas led a fascinating life, rising from being sold into slavery in the Caribbean (by his own father no less) to fighting in the army of Revolutionary France, to leading said Army as a second-in-command under - you guessed it - Napoleon. Bonaparte, not Ohio. If you're at all interested in feats of bravery in the face of unbelievable odds, I'd highly recommend giving it a read.

I was at the point where General Dumas was confronting the enemy during Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Egypt.  He had earlier earned the moniker "the Black Devil" and also the wrath of Napoleon, whose short stature helped lead the enemy to assume the 6'2" tall and legendarily athletic Dumas was the real leader of the French forces. I mean, would you mess with this guy?

Unfortunately while the forces occupying Egypt were no match for Dumas, the July heat and stifling sand were a death trap for French forces. I couldn't help but reflect once again on the curse of King Tut as I read about Dumas and the Battle of the Pyramids. Hopefully today I would avoid paying the high cost borne by the French. But like I said, check the book out. 

But back to Napoleon (Ohio, not Bonaparte) - the i3 was at about 84% charge again and I had a choice to make. My route planning app said I should charge to 95%, but as charging speed slows exponentially the closer to 100% you get, that would put my home arrival time at an unacceptably late hour. I had children to rescue, and every minute past 1800 hours would cost me untold riches, as any daycare parent can attest. I decided that my steed had exceeded expectations thus far, and if I was able to find another semi to trail at a reasonable speed, perhaps I would be able to make it at 6pm with a little power to spare. 

I thought of the hard-charging French General, whose feats of bravery surprised and astounded the enemy. I unplugged at 85%, intending to throw caution to the wind and make it home, relying only on my mental and physical fortitude. Perhaps in the gambit I would earn for myself a nom de Guerre like Dumas, the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol.

I find both of those bats cute. Who knew?

This is great info. I am 100% onboard with the idea of electric transportation, but vehemently against smart phones. Your finer points on logistics are quite welcome.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

Chargepoint does have RFID cards you can buy in lieu of a smartphone to access the charge station network, and most EVs have navigation that will direct you to local charge stations. 

That said, I've found it almost essential to use a smartphone if you're traveling with an EV, if only to find out tips on locating stations, and finding out whether they're in use or broken. There are also marque-specific smartphone apps that allow the driver to pre-warm or cool the vehicle and manage charging times. 

While I'm really enjoying the tale of this epic journey, I'll admit that I've broken up with girls who have revealed more in less time. 

I'm curious if you paid for the Carwax warranty?   Read once they are good?

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I did - the purchase price of this i3 was low enough ($15k) and the warranty is long enough (5 years) that I think it will probably pay off in the long run.

With Napoleon (Ohio) in the rearview mirror and the misadventures of Napoleon (Bonaparte) safely stashed in the backseat, I resumed my journey home, nestling behind a tractor trailer at a slightly-too-fast 73 miles per hour. This leg of the journey would be 20 miles further than the last, and I was starting off at 85% charge. When I put in the beginning state of charge into "A Better Route Planner" app, it estimated I would have to limit myself to 65 mph to make it home with 11% remaining. 

I decided to chance it and remain at 73 miles per hour through Toledo, where I would re-evaluate and do some mental math. 

Anyone who has driven this section of Michigan freeways knows that two things happen when you hit the state line. 1) The pavement abruptly transitions into something resembling the surface of the moon. And 2) traffic immediately speeds up by a good 15 miles per hour, and the slow lane is usually a smooth 80 miles per hour. 

A few miles into Michigan the ABRP app alerted me I should probably go down to 45mph if I really wanted to make it home. However, the app thought I should only have 43% charge at this point and the BMW was a bit better than that, so I pushed on, figuring it was better to chance an empty battery than limit myself to 60 and risk being rear-ended by an F-350. I turned off the radio and daytime running lights just in case. I had of course not used the turn signals - it is a BMW after all.

As I whizzed past the smoldering remains of the hay trailer I had passed when it was ablaze a good 11 hours earlier, I realized that I was going to make it. I pulled into the daycare parking just in time to pick up the children without penalty, loaded them into their booster seats via the suicide doors, and from there drove slowly home on surface streets, pulling into our driveway with a single mile of range on li'l Sebastian's guess-o-meter. 

I plugged the i3 in, and was surprised to see a note on my mailbox that DTE had finally come out and inspected our rooftop solar array. My daughter, who pretty much bullied me into getting an EV, was extremely happy about that, as she reminded me it was Earth Day.

The sun was shining, our solar panels were converting photons into electrons, and we were all happily home. 

Thanks for reading along. It was a crazy day, and I'm honestly surprised it worked out as well as it did. So far I'm really impressed with the i3- it certainly wouldn't work for everyone's lifestyle, but it's a very rewarding drive compared to the other EVs I've driven. 

I would like to see a thread about your residential solar installation. 

In reply to John Welsh :

it may not surprise you that I've already written that up elsewhere. The city was slow to inspect it, and DTE was extremely slow on flipping the switch (the panels were installed in late January) so I don't have any personal experience yet on how it will affect my bill.

With two EVs - we also have a plug-in Pacifica - the Solar will be put to good use. 

Anybody interested in an 06 Accord V6 Manual Sedan? 

Next a stern letter to CarLAX corporate about your troubles and being lied too , 

the EV charger was never working "before the snow storm" etc

But glad you made it home on "fumes" 

are you going to carry a heavy duty extension cord "just because"

there was a Great old Top Gear where they did an EV trip and had to "beg" for power.