How to navigate to Tesla Chargers?

[RickLightning]

Thanks. So, my recollection is there is no positive indicator of whether preconditioning is active even when navigating to a regular charger through the Navigation app, aside from observing charging kW during cold weather. Is that still true, and if so, how do we know we're not preconditioning? Screenshots below show me selecting the Tesla Supercharger, then Navigation opens and it clearly knows we're going to a charger. Not doubting you, just asking how do you know?

Yes, there is no indicator.

OBD2 adapter and CarScanner app.

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[Tony Burgh]

It took me a minute, but are you referring to the song Stagger Lee? It has many renditions, by many artists. I'm a huge Nick Cave fan and yes, that's the inspiration for my profile name. I don't recognize the specific lyric you quoted - which singer / version? Or am I totally off-base?

Lloyd Price. 1957
I was standing’ on the corner
when a heard that bulldog bark
He was barkin at two men who were gambling
in the dark

I’ll go back to my dinosaur cage now.

 

[MyJoule]

We just completed a 1650 mile trip and used Charge assist to navigate to the Superchargers. It was the only way we could get the navigation to work for routing to Tesla. However, I do not believe that any preconditioning occurred.

 

[StaggerLee]

Lloyd Price. 1957
I was standing’ on the corner
when a heard that bulldog bark
He was barkin at two men who were gambling
in the dark

I’ll go back to my dinosaur cage now.

Sent me down a musical adventure rabbit hole this afternoon. Thank you!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagger_Lee

 

[Tony Burgh]

Sent me down a musical adventure rabbit hole this afternoon. Thank you!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagger_Lee

Thank you for that link. I never really knew the origin.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

I just received the A2Z adapter as the one from Ford won't be here until November-ish and I'll be making a trip in a couple weeks (and I'm ok with having a backup). As I'm in FL, how important is it to precondition? I do have the max tow package, so is this kind of the best way if it's *that* important? So far I've only charged once at an EA station, mostly just to test that it would work.

 

[invertedspear]

I just received the A2Z adapter as the one from Ford won't be here until November-ish and I'll be making a trip in a couple weeks (and I'm ok with having a backup). As I'm in FL, how important is it to precondition? I do have the max tow package, so is this kind of the best way if it's *that* important? So far I've only charged once at an EA station, mostly just to test that it would work.

Honestly, those of us in the hot states don't really need to worry about it. If it's already over 80F out, you're likely not going to see any benefit. It's never necessary, just helps keep the charge as fast as possible.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

Honestly, those of us in the hot states don't really need to worry about it. If it's already over 80F out, you're likely not going to see any benefit. It's never necessary, just helps keep the charge as fast as possible.

Oh nice, I thought this would also need to cool things down a little too. I know FL doesn't get as hot as AZ, but we try and compete. Thanks for clearing this up.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I just received the A2Z adapter as the one from Ford won't be here until November-ish and I'll be making a trip in a couple weeks (and I'm ok with having a backup). As I'm in FL, how important is it to precondition? I do have the max tow package, so is this kind of the best way if it's *that* important? So far I've only charged once at an EA station, mostly just to test that it would work.

In my experience the cold conditions of the north benefit from conditioning process warming the battery have greater impact on charging speeds while in transit to the charging station.

In hot environments, the chilling process is occurring intermittently as you use the truck, the frequency/intensity of cooling a hot pack improves when in tow/haul drive mode as some folks have pointed out, set this mode ~20 minutes away from the charging station.

That means you're ready to start pulling maximum KW's at the start of your session, and the cooling system will continue to moderate pack temps as the charging process proceeds.

I have no practical experiences in super hot conditions to confirm my suspicions.

 

[invertedspear]

I have no practical experiences in super hot conditions to confirm my suspicions.

When I rolled into El Centro at 115F I was still immediately drawing 160kW. This was after couple hundred miles of driving, so the battery had plenty of opportunity to regulate itself for driving. I didn't know about the tow/haul trick. I'll try that next year. We're pretty much of out of the extreme heat now, so it's a bit too late for me to make a well controlled experiment.

 

[htobin]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "preconditioning"

 

[csukoh78]

Hi all, yesterday I received my Ford NACS adapter (order placed on Feb 29) and went to the local Tesla store to try it out. It worked fine, no issues at all. Plug and charge worked right off the bat.

But if I wanted to precondition before charging, I don't understand how to locate or navigate to Tesla chargers. If it matters I have an 2023 XLT Lightning with the 12" display. I went to Nav - Where To - Explore - Chargers - Ultra Fast Chargers. I was presented with a long list of local charging spots but none were Tesla.

So how is this done? I understand I can manually enter the street address for a Tesla charger but that won't start preconditioning.

Thanks for any pointers,
Alan Rovner
Vancouver, Wash.

The solution is to Google a Tesla supercharger on your phone, and then use the Ford app to pick a Ford charger roughly the same mileage away. Because the Ford thinks you're going to a Ford charger, it will precondition the truck while you're driving. You then just ignore the navigation and use Google maps but the affect is the same. A preconditioned truck at a Tesla supercharger. It sounds tedious but it's honestly honestly not that bad

 

[TaxmanHog]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "preconditioning"

Bringing the battery temperature into an acceptable range for charging, it is much more critical in winter than summer, the battery chemistry is not so tolerant at and below freezing conditions.

 

[Ricks Lightning]

Download the Tesla app. It will show you the location and status Of their supercharger network and what’s available.

I did that before I had a real adapter. Couldn’t get the borrowed adapter to charge, but that might have been before the update.

problem was Tesla is at .70kwh and my house less than 1 mile away is .23 including taxes.

Still waiting for my free adapter to show up.

Rick

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