Crashnburn80's Tesla Model 3 Performance Longer Range Build

LOL! I saw this one the other day...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZBvIWFq-fGc

 

Yeah, I saw that. Nothing new about a post of a Tesla driver sleeping behind the wheel with autonomous driving.

As much as people might not want to hear it, Tesla's autonomous driving is statistically far safer than people driving, by a huge margin. Autonomous technology doesn't get tired, it doesn't get distracted, it doesn't have delayed reaction time, it is looking in 8+ directions all at once at all times vs your limited ability to look one. There are certainly still areas for improvement but data overwhelmingly supports autonomous driving.
https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport




To put that in perspective, 6 million miles per accident with autonomous driving divided by the pre-covid average of 15k miles driven per year means the average driver would experience an accident once every 400 years.

Reminds me of that scene from iRobot, where Will Smith disengages autonomous driving and afterwards he gets lectured on how dangerous manual driving is.


Don't get me wrong, I bought a Performance Tesla to drive it, not have it drive me. But there is no question on the safety improvements the autonomous technologies bring to the table.

 

What a crock of shit. This group never had a Super Bowl spot, never played an ad, much less an ad during the most expensive advertising slot in television. Credibility is lost falsely fronting an ad that would never happen on Super Bowl Sunday. I hope they suffer consequences of falsified promoting.

One of the best SB commercials, Premature Electrification:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iaUoJUdTk4

 

The Tesla took more major rocks to the windshield today. I'd almost suspect it was intentional based on the vehicle behavior ahead of me, but doubt the driver was actually that skilled. Multiple large rock strikes just above the wiper on the passenger side windshield causing coarse divots in the glass. The damage is not visible from inside the car, but it is certainly going to tear up the wipers and cause streaking.

 

I look forward to more autonomous vehicles on the road. I prefer one next to me over a distracted driver.

 

Why are my projects always like this? Step 1 of Tesla home charger install: Sawzall.

 

Lots of sawzall going on here too.

 

There can only be one crashnburn.

 

Tesla Wall Connector charger installed today.

I'm not even sure where to start.

First the breaker panel cannot be removed to access the internals required to add the new charge circuit because the panel is drywalled into place on one side. The panel is in a large 5'x10' storage closet. When I bought the house, the outer wall of the storage closet was unfinished and there was no lighting or electrical in the closet. I finished the outer wall and ran electrical off a line from the unfinished wall. So I thought to myself, I'm am idiot for drywalling this panel into place 13+ years ago. So I cut out the drywall thinking it would be a quick fix to access the panel screws and remove it. But it wasn't. It was framed into place as well with a stud blocking access to the panel screws. I did not frame the outer wall as it already had framing and insulation, so I didn't feel as bad about the situation, but now it was still more of a PITA. Ended up using a multi-tool to cut and chisel enough of the stud away to free the panel.



Ok, the panel is free.

Open it up and the first words out of the electricians mouth... "Holy Shit!"


While the 1972 house is copper wired, the panel used aluminum to go from the main with a 125A breaker to a sub-panel. Aluminum wiring does not do well with high heat, and expands and contracts more than copper. The aluminum sub-mains to the sub panel had expanded and contracted enough they were physically lose and had burned through the protective sheathing, burned though multiple strands causing the wires to separate and nearly arc the positive and negative wires on a 125A breaker, separated only by millimeters.


So the damaged breaker and wires were removed.


The fix is to cut off the damaged portion of the wire and put it into an aluminum to copper conversion coupler, the coupler then feeds copper into the breaker. Aluminum isn't as much of an issue with a very strong connection point, stronger than a breaker can provide. So by using a strong coupler and then having the coupler feed copper into the weaker breaker, the problem is eliminated. Shown with the 60A breaker installed, but not yet connected to the coupler copper feeds.


Panel buttoned up with 60A breaker installed. The L2 60A circuit is installed where my electric heat (unused basement baseboards) were previously installed. The 3 story house has a gas forced air furnace on the main floor, but doesn't do so well blowing heat to the basement where the baseboards are installed. The broken 2 25A switches for electric heat were replaced with a double 20A.


Now I've got a fun weekend day of drywalling ahead of me.


The panel is on the back side of the garage wall, making for a pretty short wiring run.

I did not feel the wifi setup was as straight forward as it should have been. You connect your phone wifi to the charger (disconnecting your actual wifi from the phone) then access the chargers IP and finish the setup. It worked but took several tries and isn't that elegant. I expected better.

48A charge speed at 11kW+ is incredible compared to the 1-2kW 110v mobile charger. There is a fixed base overhead in heating the battery for charging, so while the 48A charge is 3x of my 16A mobile charge you end up with substantially quicker and more efficient charging at the higher charge rates.


While I certainly felt some minor home charging pain points using standard 110v outlets and having to think ahead for charging and use needs (which were completely manageable), these charge speeds are downright comical for home use. In total I paid $700 for install from a licensed electrician via family connection, as a cash side-gig. The charger was $400 ordered in 9/22. The install was supposed to be simpler, but ended up being more complex with panel repairs replacing unplanned parts.

 

Not presently, wasn't much point on the 20 year old Tacoma, but will be adding it to the M3P.

 

Crash we too got a gnarly spider crack. Right in the line of sight for the driver. Haven’t replaced it yet. Going to wait for warmer temps to cross that bridge.

That sub-panel is WILD! Thankfully you got the homie hookup with the pricing, I can only imagine how much it would have been otherwise.

6/2 Romex to the WC? Garage install looks clean.

EDIT:
Commissioning the WC…what a PITA. That was the hardest part of my install!

 

It is actually 4/3 to the wall charger. 4 adds a nice buffer in capacity well over the max of the 60A circuit breaker, even though the Tesla charger will peak at 48A. It was wired with 3 pole, even though the Tesla charger only requires 2 pole, as future proofing. Other EV chargers like Ford's require 3 pole, or if it were desired to be changed out to a NEMA 14-50 240v plug in the future it would require a 3 pole. I of course do not plan on these things, but the electrician said he always likes to do his installs to allow for flexibility in the future vs people having to do lots of electrical rework. Good for resale I suppose as it can handle any EV charger now vs possibly just Tesla if installed with 2 pole. I appreciate the approach as I didn't specify any of these things.

Agreed on the contractor commissioning. This was actually my 4th one. First 2 never showed, I text pictures of the panel and what not. One gave me a $1700 quote without seeing it in person. One contractor came and looked, then basically said a ball park figure I should expect to pay but the job was small and he didn't have the time to do it. As much as I am a DIYer and have run electrical off existing circuits in the past, I'll admit this was over my head. Definitely fortunate for the family friend hook-up with how things ended up playing out, very happy with the results.

 

4/3 is *the* way from all the posts I’ve read. Smart move.

 

I’m curious what the model 3 update will be like with a big focus on cost reduction. Apparently interior wood is out in favor of fabric.
https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/1...brf8vN_5sCp1bGTAQETwoZhTzdAsHvRtYJOSKwazKqh8s

 

Just finished my panel swap. Sawzall was used. It’s not fully done but house is operational again. 6/3 for oven is mostly run. 6/3 for heat pump still needs to get redone cause the stuff in the stud bay is weak. 6/3 is what I would use for a charger if I had an EV. It’s beefy. 4/3 could be killer but man it’s hard to move thick cable. At least panels in the garage make life easier.

 

An oven or heat pump doesn't pull what an EV charger can. 6/3 would work, but 4/3 is better. My electrician moved 4/3 like it was soft butter saying it's his preference for EV chargers. If I'd done it, it might be another story, but I think it took him 10 min to tap the breaker, drill out several studs and run the 4/3 line from the breaker through the studs to the WC mount point and tie it to the WC. Massive experience and productivity difference from a seasoned electrician professional vs a DIY amateur.

 

I had a guy with 10 years experience helping me today. Learned a lot. Sort of like wrenching trucks only different. Always more fun to do stuff together rather than solo.