Cybertruck and Airstream: a Towing Trip Report

Square Cybertruck and rounded Airstream seem a perfect match?

Since I got my delivery I have been planning a trip, towing a trailer to a campsite. I have never towed anything before but I decided to give a try in the Memorial Day. Square CB and rounded airstream？ looks a perfect match！ Fortunately I rented an 22ft airstream from a generous owner in Outdoorsy and I grabbed last available site in a very popular campsite in Lake Chalen. Since it’s my first time towing a trailer and I was not quite sure about Cybertruck range, I decided to stop one night in Leavenworth.

Now sitting at home after a very smoothly 3-days trip, I would like to share you what I got from it.

I left home in Bellevue with battery showing 306miles.

When I arrived at Lake Stevens where the airstream locates, CB shows battery remaining 269miles after 38 miles drive at 344 wh/mi.

Lake Stevens to Stevens pass via US -2. It is a steep climb from 200+ft to 4000+ft. Battery shows 100 mi left from 269 mi after actually drove 66 miles at 915 wh/mi. So the actual range is almost 40pct of the battery usage.

Stevens Pass to Leavenworth. It is a pleasant journey as the battery is charging back even at -400 wh/mi. The battery shows 67mi left from 100mi which is just 33mi used while actual distance 36 miles.

Overall, it’s 140miles drive from home to Leavenworth over Steven Pass, using 85kwh, or 608 wh/mi. With this rate, CB can go as far as 200 miles, or conservatively, 170miles.

With the first day experience, I have much more confidence in the last 2 days going to Lake Chelan and back to Seattle today.

A few takeaways:

Charging in campsite connecting 50A is very good with wall connector, almost 17mi/h.

Supercharger in Winton. I didn’t want to unhook in Leavenworth on my way back and the supercharger there was super busy. I decided to charge 10 -15 minutes in Winton instead. I was so happy when I got there as there is pull-through stall. The site seems newly built with still some construction works left. It is not a full pull through as I need retrieve 10 feet or so and went on. It would save a lot of time without the need of unhooking.

Last, the driving experience is fantastic even towing a 5000-pounds trailer. I don’t feel like drive a pickup at all.


I definitely would do it again as long as I don’t drive 400miles a day.

Looks like a great trip. Going west on Hwy 2 can be a real hoot when everyone is coming back from weekend fun.

Great photos, looks like an awesome trip and an amazing combination!

I had someone in Stanwood mention they saw a CT towing an Airstream when they were in Leavenworth a few weeks ago and he said it looked absolutely insane!

We have a cabin outside of Leavenworth so we make it over that way often.

I think that Supercharger in Winton/Coles Corner opened late last year. When we were heading home in our Model X one day I didn’t realize there was a second Leavenworth Supercharger listed (I was wanting to pre-charge the battery) and was trying to figure out why it was routing us down Lake Wenatchee HWY before I realized that was a new charging location. This location would have prevented me from getting range anxiety for the first and only time hauling our enclosed cargo trailer a few years ago in late October with the MX. Should be quite useful for anyone losing more range than expected from goi up the pass. Temps in the mid 30’s had me losing range after passing the summit when I normally would have been regenerating on previous, warmer trips even in the 40’s with the trailer. Instead of going to our cabin, I headed into downtown Leavenworth and got to the edge of town at 0%, but fortunately made it to the Supercharger. I was watching my range the entire time and was contemplating leaving the trailer along the road until I could charge and go back for it. Our cargo trailer is almost like pulling a parachute with how much range it causes the MX to lose, especially cold weather through inclines like Stevens.

I’d really like to see at least one supercharger installed along the North Cascades Highway, especially for those who want to tow. Entiat to Sedro Woolley was a long trip through more elevation changes with our MX without towing.

Did you charge anywhere else besides Winton and the campground?

Fabville said:

Great photos, looks like an awesome trip and an amazing combination!

I had someone in Stanwood mention they saw a CT towing an Airstream when they were in Leavenworth a few weeks ago and he said it looked absolutely insane!

We have a cabin outside of Leavenworth so we make it over that way often.

I think that Supercharger in Winton/Coles Corner opened late last year. When we were heading home in our Model X one day I didn’t realize there was a second Leavenworth Supercharger listed (I was wanting to pre-charge the battery) and was trying to figure out why it was routing us down Lake Wenatchee HWY before I realized that was a new charging location. This location would have prevented me from getting range anxiety for the first and only time hauling our enclosed cargo trailer a few years ago in late October with the MX. Should be quite useful for anyone losing more range than expected from goi up the pass. Temps in the mid 30’s had me losing range after passing the summit when I normally would have been regenerating on previous, warmer trips even in the 40’s with the trailer. Instead of going to our cabin, I headed into downtown Leavenworth and got to the edge of town at 0%, but fortunately made it to the Supercharger. I was watching my range the entire time and was contemplating leaving the trailer along the road until I could charge and go back for it. Our cargo trailer is almost like pulling a parachute with how much range it causes the MX to lose, especially cold weather through inclines like Stevens.

I’d really like to see at least one supercharger installed along the North Cascades Highway, especially for those who want to tow. Entiat to Sedro Woolley was a long trip through more elevation changes with our MX without towing.

Did you charge anywhere else besides Winton and the campground?

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I also charged near Leavenworth the one you mentioned on the end of first day. But I realized I should have charged in my campsite that night. So in theory I should only need charge once in Winton for 10-20 minutes the whole trip from Seattle to Lake Chelan back and forth.

That’s quite impressive! Do you happen to know the weight of the Airstream you were hauling?

I’ve charged up in Monroe, sometimes to 90-95% in colder weather when towing that 12ft enclosed cargo trailer over with our MX to prevent a re-occurrence of my range anxiety trip.

Fabville said:

That’s quite impressive! Do you happen to know the weight of the Airstream you were hauling?

I’ve charged up in Monroe, sometimes to 90-95% in colder weather when towing that 12ft enclosed cargo trailer over with our MX to prevent a re-occurrence of my range anxiety trip.

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dry weight 5000lp, half water tank plus equipment maybe 300lp more.

A few more thoughts Tesla should improve:
the rear camera with trailer behind is useless when drive. Tesla should develop a wireless camera with magnetic function to put it on the rear of trailer.
The trailer has a camera and the owner offered me a monitor pad to watch when drive but it need a cigarette lighter to plug in and Tesla doesn’t have! Maybe I need buy a 12v cigarette lighter converter next time.
The wiper at auto mode still sucks.
There are a lot of accessories Tesla should develop but seems they are too busy to do it!

Bob-offroader said:

There are a lot of accessories Tesla should develop but seems they are too busy to do it!

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I remember seeing Tesla hired a dedicated team to design accessories, not sure if that team still exists. The aftermarket should catch up over the next several months too

Bob-offroader said:

Since I got my delivery I have been planning a trip, towing a trailer to a campsite. I have never towed anything before but I decided to give a try in the Memorial Day. Square CB and rounded airstream？ looks a perfect match！ Fortunately I rented an 22ft airstream from a generous owner in Outdoorsy and I grabbed last available site in a very popular campsite in Lake Chalen. Since it’s my first time towing a trailer and I was not quite sure about Cybertruck range, I decided to stop one night in Leavenworth.

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That was an epic adventure for your first time towing something. My hats off to you. What a treat for your family. I created this ABRP 1-way trip just for the route. A little is covered but I wanted to show the elevation chart.

scottf200 said:

That was an epic adventure for your first time towing something. My hats off to you. What a treat for your family. I created this ABRP 1-way trip just for the route. A little is covered but I wanted to show the elevation chart.

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Excellent! I find it important to always pay attention to the average battery efficiency all the time and using the battery charged power to divide it, roughly get the estimate range which you know how long you can drive..but always to add a bit buffer in case you stuck in traffic etc. I spent one hour in Gold Bar in traffic jam which cost quite a bit power.

Bob-offroader said:

I spent one hour in Gold Bar in traffic jam which cost quite a bit power.

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That comment makes very little sense to me I'm afraid. Propelling the vehicle is *many* times more energy-consuming than sitting still or traveling very slowly. It would have been very empirically telling to see this screen at that point I think.

Potentially a lot of stop and go with a trailer affected it.

NOTE: The example below is just for the energy screen available information and *nothing* to do with the numbers on it.

Nice report & pics! I hope to do the same someday. I did the North cascades loop in my CT a few weeks ago. Wonderful driving experience, only thing that was missing was the autosteer cruise control so that I could admire the scenery a bit longer. I was initially concerned about the lack of charging from Chelan through Washington Pass to Burlington, but I shouldn't have been. Went from 95% starting from the charger at Chelan City Hall to 30% ending at the Burlington supercharger.

Mapped out a whole bunch of level 2 chargers "just in case" along the way at Twisp, Winthrop, and Mazama but didn't need them.

I like to see people towing and camping with their Cybertrucks! I also have a 22' Airstream that I tow with.

I am confused about charging at camp grounds. I can’t get my mobile charger to even light up when I use a 50 amp extension cord from the wall plug to the charger.
Any ideas about that?
Can I use a 30 amp plug adapter to step up to a 50 amp plug on the mobile adaptor?

MeadowShade said:

I am confused about charging at camp grounds. I can’t get my mobile charger to even light up when I use a 50 amp extension cord from the wall plug to the charger.
Any ideas about that?
Can I use a 30 amp plug adapter to step up to a 50 amp plug on the mobile adaptor?

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I’ve had no issues with my 50A site. My 30-50 dogbone will not work with the mobile charger. Unfortunately Tesla doesn’t seem to sell a TT30 plug, only a NEMA 10-30.