What do you do when you have a lot of commuting to do and limited access to electricity? You ask your friends for a hand. In Australian mate ship tradition, I reached out and was offered a refill, but it didn’t work.
Tess was attending the Goomeri Off Grid Expo, and to save money I stayed with friends 100km away. Its goodyou think – reload, drive there, go back, it’s apples — only 200 km ago. Not that simple. We were riding in cold weather in the rain at highway speeds, so we arrived in Goomeri with 180km of range. Okyou say while sharpening your pencil — if the car uses the same amount of charge to return, it’s still fine. You will have a buffer of 50 km. However, I expected to allow people access to the car, and that uses a charge. Being a little anxious, I looked for a companion.
Paul drives a BYD T3 with charging vehicle technology, so we brought the two vehicles closer together and connected them. What a beautiful thing to be able to show people from the countryside. These cars can share the power! Unfortunately, it didn’t work. No charging from T3. Tess wouldn’t accept the accusation. But wait, we’re at an off-grid exhibit. Surely there are generators.
Geoff from Westinghouse very kindly offered to bring a generator and charge me. It would make a great troll photo op, I thought, charging a Tesla from a gasoline generator. We turned the genny on and plugged the car in. Again, it didn’t work. A bit frustrated, we reached out to the collective mind of the Tesla Owners Club on Facebook for help.
Charge the Tesla from a gasoline generator. Photo courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
Later that day, the answer came back: the generator must be grounded! I shared this info with Geoff and he said no problem, easy fix. Except he didn’t have the tools and parts with him. So no recharging from the Westinghouse generator. We had a backup plan – one of the locals said we could charge from his house on a 10 amp socket – but that would have meant spending the evening in Goomeri and returning in the dark.
Wet and soggy day in Goomeri. Photo courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
The story has a happy ending. Tess isn’t sitting in the mud at Goomeri’s campsite yet. Due to bad weather we kept the car closed and therefore did not use power during the day. Taking matters into our own hands, we arrived home with a small tampon and Tess had good power from a 15 amp outlet at my friend’s house while we relaxed with beers.