Charger suggestion

[okohll]

I might be doing a long trip from Bristol to Hartlepool in a while, it's 280 miles so we'll need a charge at some point along the way.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a pleasant place to stop? E.g. a park or lake to stretch the legs, or nice cafe or something? Ideally somewhere between Birmingham and Leeds would be a good place battery-wise I suppose. Needs at least a rapid charger obviously. Not cost conscious as it's a one-off.

In other battery news, left the car at 55% when going on holiday for about two and a half weeks recently, and when back it was... still 55% exactly, which seems good, it obviously hadn't needed to continuously refresh the 12V.

 

[Gomev]

If going direct you are basically motorway all the way so no real nice places like Tebay or anything as far as I know (maybe someone will know of somewhere off the way). Just pick a service area and aim for it.

 

[Anon70]

I use the Telsa chargers at a garden centre in Harrogate post code is HG3 1EW, handy as they have an on site cafe

 

[okohll]

Great thanks, there's a nature reserve there too I see

 

[okohll]

222 miles, should just about make it in running on fumes, but might make a quick tea stop at some services also on the way if it looks hairy

 

[Gomev]

I use the Telsa chargers at a garden centre in Harrogate post code is HG3 1EW, handy as they have an on site cafe

I'm not sure it's worth the 40 minute diversion off the A1M (c20 mins each way) to use these. I would just use the Wetherby Moto services that have 38 Gridserve chargers. Yep it's a services and pretty dull but one of the better ones and has all you need, good food options etc. and is directly off the A1M The price difference isn't too bad, Tesla Harrogate 52p without subs and Gridserve 75p using their app. (They have a discount at the moment until endish September).

Oh and as general guide try and avoid lunchtime to stop for lunch at any chargers as that's when the chargers get full. Might not be an issue at Wetherby with so many chargers though but it does still get very busy there lunchtimes.

 

[okohll]

Well thanks for the thoughts both, I'll let you know how I get on and post some photos if there's anything worth seeing up North ;-)

 

[Gomev]

Well thanks for the thoughts both, I'll let you know how I get on and post some photos if there's anything worth seeing up North ;-)

Oh there's plenty worth seeing up north, even in Hartlepool

 

[GaryMG4]

I'm not sure it's worth the 40 minute diversion off the A1M (c20 mins each way) to use these. I would just use the Wetherby Moto services that have 38 Gridserve chargers.

I used Wetherby in both directions, on my Scotland trip, not cheap but plenty available and my car was refuelled before I was. Typical motorway services not the best, but not the worst either.

 

[okohll]

Well in the end I'm afraid the above was ignored, we stopped at a random service station sooner, due to the need for lunch and a loo break.

During all the driving around up there, round and about and on the way back, I tried using the paid version of ABRP. The idea seems really good to let it do all the work of finding the best chargers, reading the battery level direct from the car via the ODB dongle. However in practice it's not really up to scratch as a map app:

The voice directions aren't as good as Google or Apple's - if you were relying on those alone you'd never get there. That one's not a dealbreaker, I mostly look at the screen and turn them off anyway.

Around 10% it routed to a broken charger - BP pulse natch. I know they have bad reputations, should have seen that and ignored it.

As a replacement it then routed to a Tesla charger which was in a car park closed for the night. Then I gave up and used Google Maps to search for chargers near instead, which is a lot better about knowing that sort of thing.

The 'link to car' functionality is really fiddly to get working, not intuitive at all.

Finally I'm not certain about it's ability to direct round traffic jams, we got caught in a few. It does have the option but I suspect Google is better - not a scientific test though. Going forward I might still use ABRP to get a general idea of the best place to charge before setting off but will actually navigate there using Google.

So a learning experience but in general a lovely trip. Posted a couple of pics to the post a pic thread Post a Pic

 

[Gomev]

Well in the end I'm afraid the above was ignored, we stopped at a random service station sooner, due to the need for lunch and a loo break.

During all the driving around up there, round and about and on the way back, I tried using the paid version of ABRP. The idea seems really good to let it do all the work of finding the best chargers, reading the battery level direct from the car via the ODB dongle. However in practice it's not really up to scratch as a map app:

The voice directions aren't as good as Google or Apple's - if you were relying on those alone you'd never get there. That one's not a dealbreaker, I mostly look at the screen and turn them off anyway.

Around 10% it routed to a broken charger - BP pulse natch. I know they have bad reputations, should have seen that and ignored it.

As a replacement it then routed to a Tesla charger which was in a car park closed for the night. Then I gave up and used Google Maps to search for chargers near instead, which is a lot better about knowing that sort of thing.

The 'link to car' functionality is really fiddly to get working, not intuitive at all.

Finally I'm not certain about it's ability to direct round traffic jams, we got caught in a few. It does have the option but I suspect Google is better - not a scientific test though. Going forward I might still use ABRP to get a general idea of the best place to charge before setting off but will actually navigate there using Google.

So a learning experience but in general a lovely trip. Posted a couple of pics to the post a pic thread Post a Pic

Quite agree re ABRP, I think it's an unnecessary waste of money for the paid version and the free one is done better elsewhere. Use the freebie zapmap or Electroverse or chargefinder etc. etc. apps for finding chargers and Google maps to get there. Simples as they say.
Try WattsUp, one of favourites for finding clusters of chargers en-route.