In this video, we visit Banff, High River and then settle in at the Campground Calgary West for a few days. We meet with fellow Tesla owners Michael Subasic and Susan and Jim.

Yes guys, we made it onto the ‘Talking Tesla’ podcast. We highly recommend that you listen regularily to this funny show of news about everything Tesla by Mel, Tom and Robert.

Watch us, as we explain the reasons behind our trip and what we have experienced so far.

In this video, we travel from Jasper to Lake Louise; a 231km trip without any chance of charging. We travel the stunning Icefield Parkway through the National Parks of Jasper and Banff, climb over two 2000m+ passes and even have some fun with gas pump attendants.

In this video, we travel from Clearwater to Valemount and try new strategies to be more energy efficient. We stay for 3 days at Canoe River Campground in Northern BC. Kye meets a bear and a cougar…;-)

In this video, we travel from Kamloops to Clearwater establishing the average energy consumption at 80 km/h. At the campground, we deal with our first charging challenge, before we set off hiking to three waterfalls in Wells Gray Park. Finally, we discuss our options for the upcoming ‘nail-biter’ trip from Jasper to Lake Louise.

This is part 3 of our little 3 part series. In part 1, 100% Electric across Canada, I shared our plans on how to get across Canada without the extensive Supercharger network we’re used to from the US. In part 2, Solar Charging for Nerds, I provided tons of details on our solar panel and battery set up. To get the full scope of information, make sure you read  those two before reading this post.

Charging the Camping Trailer’s Batteries

The trailer came, as usual, with a lead-acid battery, which I replaced with a Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePo) battery. I disconnected the original battery charger as the LiFePo batteries will always be charged from the solar panels. At the campgrounds, we will plug in our car for charging, not the trailer. What an innovative concept ;-)…

Follow the thick blue line: The power comes from the 8 solar panels to the MPPT controller, which converts the roughly 80V of the panels to the battery voltage. From the MPPT controller, the power goes through the charge fuse the high-voltage solenoid and the battery main fuse to the battery. The programmable voltmeter reads the battery voltage and opens the high-voltage-solenoid to stop charging, once the maximum battery voltage is reached. You can still see the 110V charger next to the MPPT solar controller. We can connect it in a pinch should we need to ever charge the trailer battery from a power outlet.

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This is part 2 of a 3 part series about our plans on how to get across Canada with a 100% electric car towing a camping trailer. Part 1 was all about the charging plans for our trip. Since our solar panels are an important part of our trip, this blog post will give you tons more information!

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty! But first a warning: Do not read this post while operating machinery, side effects might be severe drowsiness. At least for some, like Silke, but not myself. 😉

I hope you all red my previous blog post “100% Electric across Canada”. So, you should now know all about our plans on how to NOT get stranded with our 100% electric car and camping trailer. Let’s get into some more details here.

The fun thing about this trip is that I get to experiment with ideas and play with technical toys. As an ex-engineer, my fingers are twitching to do this kind of stuff!  We settled on the Alto R1723 camping trailer by Safari Condo, Quebec, for three reasons: Continue reading →

I have a dream. Or make that a double! Silke and I both have two dreams:

1. To show to the world that long-range travel in a 100% electric car, even while towing a camping trailer, is doable and fun, and

2. To find out whether we will be able to charge our electric car from our camping trailer using the solar panels on the roof, in case we find ourselves stranded.

But First, a Little History…

We, that is my wife Silke and me, live in beautiful British Columbia, one of the most beautiful places on earth, just waiting to be explored by camping in the wilderness. The whole North American West coast from California, through Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska are one big paradise for outdoor adventures. About 15 years back, we purchased a used motor home that was just big enough to carry us, our daughter, a large dog and a fat cat on our adventures, but also small enough to get through small forest roads and dry creek beds (well, sometimes, we got stuck and had to jack it up and place wood or rocks under the tires…). It also carried hatches and small hand saws to cut through the occasional tree blocking the road.

But…. As the news of global warming got loud enough to sink into our thick skulls, we got more and more conscientious about the high fuel consumption of the large V10 engine in our motor home and its CO2 emissions. Once we got our Tesla Model S, the motor home just had to go. Were we left without the ability to go camping, because we committed to sustainable, 100% electric transportation?

The Dream Starts

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Many people ask us how we plan our long distance trips. I guess it is time to take the mystery out of long range electric car travel. We have been all the way from Victoria BC to Red Deer Alberta & back, and to San Francisco CA & back. But the longest road trip so far was our over 15,000 km (9,000 miles) trip from Victoria BC to Florida and back. We also have friends with Teslas that have gone from Victoria to Arizona, or, just recently, one friend and family went from Victoria to Virginia and back, in 10 days, travelling about 1,000 km each day!

Source: Ezilon