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Moab Trip in Two Weeks, Charging Options Look…Dismal

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Marchin_MTB

Marchin_MTB

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Some private RV parks/campgrounds are starting to not allow vehicle charging.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll try to call ahead if I’m planning any campsite parking. Have you experienced this firsthand?
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Thanks for the heads up. I’ll try to call ahead if I’m planning any campsite parking. Have you experienced this firsthand?
No, but the family's youtube I posted in the charging section was turned away by at least one KOA.
 

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No, but the family's youtube I posted in the charging section was turned away by at least one KOA.
That's interesting. I've heard this, but not usually if you are camping with actual camping equipment (and you just plug into your RV).
 

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That's interesting. I've heard this, but not usually if you are camping with actual camping equipment (and you just plug into your RV).
One possibility of the cause is current high electrical prices. The other is that the campground lacks electrical capacity to have a number of EVs doing high continuous draw.
 
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There is a fairly large County Park in Green River with full plug-ins. Stayed there last summer and it appeared that most folks just park overnight and sleep there.

You should be able to possibly get a site and then if you make that your base, you can charge overnight.

My life story, I had my 14-year-old with me and we did a 6 Mile mountain bike trail. Long story short he got heat stroke and had to be airlifted to Grand junction Colorado. It was a frightening and expensive trip...
So sorry to hear that.
 

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Call UC and see if you can tip them for a top off? Gotta believe their camp manager will be flexible.
I second this option. I stayed at Under Canvas in August. There was always a charger open and the place is staffed by a bunch of younger kids/young adults that I'm sure would like a little extra pocket change
 

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We stayed at ACT campground this weekend, they have 2 7 kW chargers available. That is a “non-RV” site option, you can do tent camping while charging. We set up a tent and also had a rooftop tent in the charging spot… not ideal spot for it but it worked. We were able to charge both nights so we had a full charge each day.
 
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Thank you all for the great suggestions. We were able to enjoy Moab with only some mild inconvenience and drive back across the mountains with charge to spare.

For those who are interested, here are the Chronicles of Charging Woes Foretold. For specifics, we left Louisville CO with 98%SOC, 21” wheels, two bikes thrown over tailgate, driving in conserve mode most of the time. Apologies for the rambling below, you were warned.

We drove down from Boulder on Friday and saw excellent efficiency after the Eisenhower tunnel since it is mostly downhill. We ended up getting 10-20% at an unplanned charging stop as the gas station we stopped at for snack and
Bathroom happened to have a ChargePoint DC charger tucked away in the corner. It was comically hidden behind and air and vac station.

The charging stop in Grand Junction wasn’t necessary to get us to Moab but we knew from PlugShare and other apps that public charging would be dicey once there, so we decided to go in with as much range as possible. This would end up being really pivotal to us enjoying Moab as the AirBnB did not have L2 (recall that we booked the trip prior to ever knowing that Rivian would deliver a truck to us). In future trips where we know we have charging at the destination, I believe it’s possible to avoid this stop. This EA station in Grand Junction is in the middle of a busy Sam’s club parking lot with cars zooming around fighting for close parking as you try to position/re-position for a charge. It’s also not that close to I70. Not a great setup. The station had 3/4 stalls working and was full. Luckily, we were able to park next to a Jag pulling some really fast rates (at least 250 kW at one point) and take over from them without re-parking within 20 minutes or so. The owner of the Jaguar was conscientious and waited in their car to make sure and unplug when he got what’s needed. Our faith in humanity restored and battery filled to 90%, we pressed on to Moab.

We took the scenic route connecting from I-70 to 191 as someone here recommended (thanks!) to save on range and it seems to have worked. It was also a beautiful drive. We arrived in Moab with over 50%.

As advertised, non-Tesla public charging in Moab is non-existent. Every station is for-hotel-residents-only or broken, or both. I plugged into a 120V outlet where we were staying via extension cord. We were not able to be power-positive on a daily basis this way but ended up adding back enough to drive on daily excursions over the weekend.

On Monday a kind motel proprietor let us use their free L2 station at 7kW and we biked up the canyon bike path to the Moab-brand MTB trailhead to have some fun, we then stopped for a long lunch before unplugging and drove off to hike in Arches.

next day it was time to get back and we started at over 50%. Truck claimed that it could make it to grand junction with 15 mi to spare but ABRP disagreed. I didn’t like that margin and drove to green river instead which is out of the way but, as it turns out, not much. After that, made a stop in Grand Junction again and then Frisco where one of the stalls was broken but there was no one else there so I stayed a little longer than necessary. Arrived home in Louisville with 50%.

While the Moab part of the trip turned out well in the end, we did have to rely on the kindness of strangers at one point which is no basis for a sustainable fueling infrastructure. I contacted both ChargePoint and SemaConnect about their broken stations asking how it is that they can be offline for months. Their responses were somewhat similar and might point towards an accountability problem. In a nutshell, they wrote that they sell the hardware and services but it’s the owners job to make sure the station is serviced and online. I don’t think all DC charging providers operate this way but it had not occurred to me that some do. Food for thought.
 

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Thank you all for the great suggestions. We were able to enjoy Moab with only some mild inconvenience and drive back across the mountains with charge to spare.

For those who are interested, here are the Chronicles of Charging Woes Foretold. For specifics, we left Louisville CO with 98%SOC, 21” wheels, two bikes thrown over tailgate, driving in conserve mode most of the time. Apologies for the rambling below, you were warned.

We drove down from Boulder on Friday and saw excellent efficiency after the Eisenhower tunnel since it is mostly downhill. We ended up getting 10-20% at an unplanned charging stop as the gas station we stopped at for snack and
Bathroom happened to have a ChargePoint DC charger tucked away in the corner. It was comically hidden behind and air and vac station.

The charging stop in Grand Junction wasn’t necessary to get us to Moab but we knew from PlugShare and other apps that public charging would be dicey once there, so we decided to go in with as much range as possible. This would end up being really pivotal to us enjoying Moab as the AirBnB did not have L2 (recall that we booked the trip prior to ever knowing that Rivian would deliver a truck to us). In future trips where we know we have charging at the destination, I believe it’s possible to avoid this stop. This EA station in Grand Junction is in the middle of a busy Sam’s club parking lot with cars zooming around fighting for close parking as you try to position/re-position for a charge. It’s also not that close to I70. Not a great setup. The station had 3/4 stalls working and was full. Luckily, we were able to park next to a Jag pulling some really fast rates (at least 250 kW at one point) and take over from them without re-parking within 20 minutes or so. The owner of the Jaguar was conscientious and waited in their car to make sure and unplug when he got what’s needed. Our faith in humanity restored and battery filled to 90%, we pressed on to Moab.

We took the scenic route connecting from I-70 to 191 as someone here recommended (thanks!) to save on range and it seems to have worked. It was also a beautiful drive. We arrived in Moab with over 50%.

As advertised, non-Tesla public charging in Moab is non-existent. Every station is for-hotel-residents-only or broken, or both. I plugged into a 120V outlet where we were staying via extension cord. We were not able to be power-positive on a daily basis this way but ended up adding back enough to drive on daily excursions over the weekend.

On Monday a kind motel proprietor let us use their free L2 station at 7kW and we biked up the canyon bike path to the Moab-brand MTB trailhead to have some fun, we then stopped for a long lunch before unplugging and drove off to hike in Arches.

next day it was time to get back and we started at over 50%. Truck claimed that it could make it to grand junction with 15 mi to spare but ABRP disagreed. I didn’t like that margin and drove to green river instead which is out of the way but, as it turns out, not much. After that, made a stop in Grand Junction again and then Frisco where one of the stalls was broken but there was no one else there so I stayed a little longer than necessary. Arrived home in Louisville with 50%.

While the Moab part of the trip turned out well in the end, we did have to rely on the kindness of strangers at one point which is no basis for a sustainable fueling infrastructure. I contacted both ChargePoint and SemaConnect about their broken stations asking how it is that they can be offline for months. Their responses were somewhat similar and might point towards an accountability problem. In a nutshell, they wrote that they sell the hardware and services but it’s the owners job to make sure the station is serviced and online. I don’t think all DC charging providers operate this way but it had not occurred to me that some do. Food for thought.
I live in Moab. ChargePoint and SemaConnect have nothing to do with those stations being down. Rocky Mtn Power is either tired of people charging for free or is upgrading. That station has seen a substantial bump in activity in the past year. Even the Hummer testing crew mooched off them when they frequently visited so I’m guessing Rocky Mtn Power wants to change that setup/cost sharing arrangement as the arrival of Rivian owners may have pushed them over the edge.

If you want an answer figure out who is in charge at Rocky Mtn Power and ask them what’s up because they publicly announced large investments in EV charging infrastructure but there’s no obvious plan for Moab.

The state of Utah many years ago invested in fast charging infrastructure, but their chargers are notably absent in Moab. Maybe it’s political because Grand County and Moab lean to the left and tend to butt heads with the state on many issues and this might result in burned bridges when it comes to parceling out projects.

It’s the same deal with the city’s SemaConnect chargers. They’re probably looking at an alternative solution or nobody is in charge of this and they decided to just pull the plug due to the rising usage. Commercial power rates are not the same as residential so the seasonality in Moab can mean very expensive power rates due to demand charges.
 

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I just tweeted to RJ to see if he can help with RAN priorities. Also sent a note to Rocky Mountain power since I am a customer.
Rivian R1T R1S Moab Trip in Two Weeks, Charging Options Look…Dismal 8BE7DF80-9B47-4B40-8DE1-5DFC03228783
 

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I live in Moab. ChargePoint and SemaConnect have nothing to do with those stations being down. Rocky Mtn Power is either tired of people charging for free or is upgrading. That station has seen a substantial bump in activity in the past year. Even the Hummer testing crew mooched off them when they frequently visited so I’m guessing Rocky Mtn Power wants to change that setup/cost sharing arrangement as the arrival of Rivian owners may have pushed them over the edge.

If you want an answer figure out who is in charge at Rocky Mtn Power and ask them what’s up because they publicly announced large investments in EV charging infrastructure but there’s no obvious plan for Moab.

The state of Utah many years ago invested in fast charging infrastructure, but their chargers are notably absent in Moab. Maybe it’s political because Grand County and Moab lean to the left and tend to butt heads with the state on many issues and this might result in burned bridges when it comes to parceling out projects.

It’s the same deal with the city’s SemaConnect chargers. They’re probably looking at an alternative solution or nobody is in charge of this and they decided to just pull the plug due to the rising usage. Commercial power rates are not the same as residential so the seasonality in Moab can mean very expensive power rates due to demand charges.
I definitely see what you’re saying now. I would be more than happy to pay for a fast, or even L2 charger in town. I hope RM power will upgrade and charge for the service , that may actually sustain the service.
 

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I definitely see what you’re saying now. I would be more than happy to pay for a fast, or even L2 charger in town. I hope RM power will upgrade and charge for the service , that may actually sustain the service.
I just got a message back from Rocky mountain power and here is what they said.

“We do know that the equipment has been ordered but there is no timeline place as of right now.

We are dedicated to making sure all of your concerns are heard and addressed. Please know your feedback regarding the EV charging station in Moab have been forwarded to the appropriate personnel.”

hopefully we see progress soon along 191. Moab would be a great start but Monticello and Mexican hat chargers are only 62kw and only one charger each so would be nice to get more/faster options to explore monument valley, canyonlands, etc.
 
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I just got a message back from Rocky mountain power and here is what they said.

“We do know that the equipment has been ordered but there is no timeline place as of right now.

We are dedicated to making sure all of your concerns are heard and addressed. Please know your feedback regarding the EV charging station in Moab have been forwarded to the appropriate personnel.”

hopefully we see progress soon along 191. Moab would be a great start but Monticello and Mexican hat chargers are only 62kw and only one charger each so would be nice to get more/faster options to explore monument valley, canyonlands, etc.
Thank you for digging into it and reporting back.
 

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Thank you all for the great suggestions. We were able to enjoy Moab with only some mild inconvenience and drive back across the mountains with charge to spare.
We just got back from a great Moab trip this past weekend so likely just missed you out there. Glad you made it ok as well.

We planned our trip around three known good charging stations: Green River (350kW,) Monticello (62kW) and Rivian L2 (11kW) at Under Canvas Moab. The Green River location let us get to the Great Gallery in Canyonlands, the Monticello station let us do the Needles of Canyonlands and the Rivian L2, despite being at an expensive place, let us do the whole White Rim Trail in Canyonlands for our anniversary and biking at the Moab Brands trails as well.
 

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FWIW, we found the following kit to be handy if you are considering the camp site and/or RV park route in the future. Combine it with a TeslaTap and you'll have most of you bases covered.
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