Took the angles camping and towed Taxa Cricket pop-up trailer w/ Cybertruck

[Bothwalien]

TL;DR Cybertruck averages 536 Wh/mile towing small pop-up trailer with average freeway speed of 65mph. 820 miles, $113 supercharger cost. 2%/night phantom drain while camping. A Better Route Planner is super helpful and accurate. Unhitching/hitching adds 7 minutes (total) per charge on 4/6 stops. Charging e-bike from Cybertruck is very inefficient.


So, rewind to the Cybertruck unveiling, Nov 2019. I’d been thinking about how great a little truck camper would be, and Tesla’s mock-up for the Cybertruck looked pretty nice. A couple years later I impatiently bought a Taxa Cricket pop-up trailer to tide me over. I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but I love this trailer. It is made by an ex-NASA habitat designer, no frills and highly functional. Fits my needs pretty perfectly. It’s not heavy (dry weight 1,800 lbs) but maybe slightly less aerodynamic than the Cybertuck – all angles, zero curves. Now that I actually have a Cybertruck, I don’t want to give up the Cricket. So, the question is, would my Cybertruck be able to reasonably tow my Cricket? Time for a test.

Pretesting:

I hooked up the trailer, no drama there, and towed it 25 miles on the freeway to a neighboring city for dinner (bonus date night!) If the Cybertruck draws attention alone, adding the Cricket somehow dials it up to 11. Drove it home. Averaged 585 Wh/mile keeping my max speed at 65 mph. I plugged 600 Wh/mile into A Better Route Planner and this looks totally doable. Three charging stops (starting at 90% SoC) two of them for about 30 minutes and the last one in Moab for over an hour (to 100%) so I can arrive at the Needles District of Canyonlands with as much charge as possible. There is no charging available of any sort out there.

Execution:

Added water (19 gallons) food, gear, mountain e-bike, etc. Maybe 300-400 lbs. Didn’t weigh. Stowed bike in the Cybertruck bed for maximum aero. I have transported it in the trailer on other stops but it’s nice to have the space in the trailer available at stops, and the bike is secure in the Cybertruck bed!

First leg – Home to Provo Supercharger (250Kw):

• 117 min 121 miles Avg 62 mph 507 Wh/mile Gain 1606/ Loss -1423, Total 184 ft 45 deg F
• 19 minutes charging 33-70%
• First time using Provo Supercharger, it’s a cramped dead end, mandatory unhitching. Slowest unhitch/hitch of the trip getting the hitch figured out for the season, and learning the Cybertrucks skills.

Second leg – Provo to Price Supercharger (150Kw):

• 73 min 73 miles Avg 60 mph 585 Wh/mile Gain 3247/Loss -2156 Total 1092 ft 52 deg F
• 17 minutes charging 32-63%
• Empty Supercharger, parked across two end stalls, did not unhitch

Third leg – Price to Moab Supercharger (250Kw):

• 115 min 115 miles Avg 59 mph 495 Wh/mile Gain 2032/Loss -3588 Total -1565 ft 57 deg F
• 25 minutes charging 13-66% then charger stopped with error message
• 40 minutes charging 66-100% (unplugged and replugged cable)
• Pushed speed to 70 for the first bit but Tesla’s in truck estimate started dropping (and wouldn’t stop). So I came back down to 65 mostly. Construction slowed last bit into Moab, down to one shared lane (for N & S) and slow traffic. Arrived with 13% but Truck was predicting 25%. Biggest miss for the Tesla’s prediction during the trip. Big gravel parking lot for unhitching. Excellent shawarma within walking distance, had to get takeout when charger failed.

Fourth leg – Moab to Creek Pasture BLM campground

• 92 min 64.3 miles Avg 45 mph 444 Wh/mile Gain 3475/Loss -2969 Total 507 ft (Data from TeslaFi, reporting 65% data capture – spotty cell service)
• Arrived with 72% SoC
• So many long-tailed mice making suicide runs across the road. Not pretty, even at low speed

Lost 2% overnight (turned off alarm, Sentry Mode, and Bluetooth on my phone). I found and reserved a camp site within the park, drove back and retrieved trailer. Pretty minimal driving around the park (it doesn’t have many roads). I had considered taking the Cybertruck on some of the high clearance 4WD roads, but in the end I took my mountain e-bike instead. Combination of not having any truck experience on technical 4WD roads and concerns over how much power I would consume. Great park for hiking!

Charged e-bike once. Super awesome to have the capability out there but the efficiency seems pretty bad. Adding ~50% charge to bike battery (maybe 350 Wh) used ~2% of 122.4 kWh Cybertruck battery.

Lost ~2% each of the next two nights. Morning of day four I pulled out with 48% remaining.

First return leg Needles to Moab Supercharger (250kW):

• TeslaFi data pretty bad (still spotty cell service and I didn’t realize until I was home)
• 33 minutes charging 10-77%
• Lots of friendly people chatting & I decided I’d rather charge a little more and drive a little faster. I thought I’d have a lot more time to eat and nap during charging stops. That’s funny.

Second return leg Moab to Price Supercharger (150kW):

• 113 min 114 miles Avg 60 mph 607 Wh/mile Gain 3619/Loss -2075 Total 1544 63 deg F
• 23 minutes charging 16-56%
• Empty supercharger (again!) pulled across two end stalls, did not unhitch

Third return leg Price to Draper Supercharger (250kW):

• 111 min 100 miles Avg 54 mph 517 Wh/mile Gain 2674/Loss -3835 Total -1161 ft 62 deg F
• 23 minutes charging 13-66%
• Easily my least favorite charging stop. Busy shopping center on a Saturday evening, a little challenging to find a spot to drop the trailer. Heaviest traffic in parking lot. Took a nice heavy scratch to my calf closing the Cybertruck door while wearing shorts. Careful - sharp!

Fourth return leg Draper to home:

• 82 min 92 miles Avg 67 mph 630 Wh/mile Gain 888/Loss -970 Total -82 ft 70 deg F
• Arrived home with 15% SoC

If you somehow made it this far I’ll say that I am personally very happy with the performance of the Cybertruck and the Cricket. Yeah, I wish there were pull through charging stalls available, but for as often as I do this, it’s fine. Prior to this trip I was concerned I would need change to camping in the truck, or a more aerodynamic trailer. Now I’m very satisfied with my current arrangement. Honestly, it didn’t feel that different to road trips in my 2018 Model 3. I did feel like my average speed was higher than documented, but those times do include off freeway travel/stoplights/etc. I felt like my speed was near 65 mostly, minus the construction episode and my drive into Needles. Besides charging to 100% for that leg I also drove very conservatively into the park to try and maintain maximum SoC.

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[AlmostHuman]

Thank you for the details!! Love this post! We also want to get a small RV next year after the range extender is installed.

 

[tmeyer3]

I bring along a little solar generator when we camp with the model 3. It's nice for lots of things, but then I empty it into the car over night and it solves the phantom drain thing and adds a little extra each night. I bet it could just throw on a few panels on your trailer to do the same thing for pretty cheap.

Thanks for the great post! Looking forward to camping with the CT myself.

 

[SMWIII]

TL;DR Cybertruck averages 536 Wh/mile towing small pop-up trailer with average freeway speed of 65mph. 820 miles, $113 supercharger cost. 2%/night phantom drain while camping. A Better Route Planner is super helpful and accurate. Unhitching/hitching adds 7 minutes (total) per charge on 4/6 stops. Charging e-bike from Cybertruck is very inefficient.


So, rewind to the Cybertruck unveiling, Nov 2019. I’d been thinking about how great a little truck camper would be, and Tesla’s mock-up for the Cybertruck looked pretty nice. A couple years later I impatiently bought a Taxa Cricket pop-up trailer to tide me over. I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but I love this trailer. It is made by an ex-NASA habitat designer, no frills and highly functional. Fits my needs pretty perfectly. It’s not heavy (dry weight 1,800 lbs) but maybe slightly less aerodynamic than the Cybertuck – all angles, zero curves. Now that I actually have a Cybertruck, I don’t want to give up the Cricket. So, the question is, would my Cybertruck be able to reasonably tow my Cricket? Time for a test.

Pretesting:

I hooked up the trailer, no drama there, and towed it 25 miles on the freeway to a neighboring city for dinner (bonus date night!) If the Cybertruck draws attention alone, adding the Cricket somehow dials it up to 11. Drove it home. Averaged 585 Wh/mile keeping my max speed at 65 mph. I plugged 600 Wh/mile into A Better Route Planner and this looks totally doable. Three charging stops (starting at 90% SoC) two of them for about 30 minutes and the last one in Moab for over an hour (to 100%) so I can arrive at the Needles District of Canyonlands with as much charge as possible. There is no charging available of any sort out there.

Execution:

Added water (19 gallons) food, gear, mountain e-bike, etc. Maybe 300-400 lbs. Didn’t weigh. Stowed bike in the Cybertruck bed for maximum aero. I have transported it in the trailer on other stops but it’s nice to have the space in the trailer available at stops, and the bike is secure in the Cybertruck bed!

First leg – Home to Provo Supercharger (250Kw):

• 117 min 121 miles Avg 62 mph 507 Wh/mile Gain 1606/ Loss -1423, Total 184 ft 45 deg F
• 19 minutes charging 33-70%
• First time using Provo Supercharger, it’s a cramped dead end, mandatory unhitching. Slowest unhitch/hitch of the trip getting the hitch figured out for the season, and learning the Cybertrucks skills.

Second leg – Provo to Price Supercharger (150Kw):

• 73 min 73 miles Avg 60 mph 585 Wh/mile Gain 3247/Loss -2156 Total 1092 ft 52 deg F
• 17 minutes charging 32-63%
• Empty Supercharger, parked across two end stalls, did not unhitch

Third leg – Price to Moab Supercharger (250Kw):

• 115 min 115 miles Avg 59 mph 495 Wh/mile Gain 2032/Loss -3588 Total -1565 ft 57 deg F
• 25 minutes charging 13-66% then charger stopped with error message
• 40 minutes charging 66-100% (unplugged and replugged cable)
• Pushed speed to 70 for the first bit but Tesla’s in truck estimate started dropping (and wouldn’t stop). So I came back down to 65 mostly. Construction slowed last bit into Moab, down to one shared lane (for N & S) and slow traffic. Arrived with 13% but Truck was predicting 25%. Biggest miss for the Tesla’s prediction during the trip. Big gravel parking lot for unhitching. Excellent shawarma within walking distance, had to get takeout when charger failed.

Fourth leg – Moab to Creek Pasture BLM campground

• 92 min 64.3 miles Avg 45 mph 444 Wh/mile Gain 3475/Loss -2969 Total 507 ft (Data from TeslaFi, reporting 65% data capture – spotty cell service)
• Arrived with 72% SoC
• So many long-tailed mice making suicide runs across the road. Not pretty, even at low speed

Lost 2% overnight (turned off alarm, Sentry Mode, and Bluetooth on my phone). I found and reserved a camp site within the park, drove back and retrieved trailer. Pretty minimal driving around the park (it doesn’t have many roads). I had considered taking the Cybertruck on some of the high clearance 4WD roads, but in the end I took my mountain e-bike instead. Combination of not having any truck experience on technical 4WD roads and concerns over how much power I would consume. Great park for hiking!

Charged e-bike once. Super awesome to have the capability out there but the efficiency seems pretty bad. Adding ~50% charge to bike battery (maybe 350 Wh) used ~2% of 122.4 kWh Cybertruck battery.

Lost ~2% each of the next two nights. Morning of day four I pulled out with 48% remaining.

First return leg Needles to Moab Supercharger (250kW):

• TeslaFi data pretty bad (still spotty cell service and I didn’t realize until I was home)
• 33 minutes charging 10-77%
• Lots of friendly people chatting & I decided I’d rather charge a little more and drive a little faster. I thought I’d have a lot more time to eat and nap during charging stops. That’s funny.

Second return leg Moab to Price Supercharger (150kW):

• 113 min 114 miles Avg 60 mph 607 Wh/mile Gain 3619/Loss -2075 Total 1544 63 deg F
• 23 minutes charging 16-56%
• Empty supercharger (again!) pulled across two end stalls, did not unhitch

Third return leg Price to Draper Supercharger (250kW):

• 111 min 100 miles Avg 54 mph 517 Wh/mile Gain 2674/Loss -3835 Total -1161 ft 62 deg F
• 23 minutes charging 13-66%
• Easily my least favorite charging stop. Busy shopping center on a Saturday evening, a little challenging to find a spot to drop the trailer. Heaviest traffic in parking lot. Took a nice heavy scratch to my calf closing the Cybertruck door while wearing shorts. Careful - sharp!

Fourth return leg Draper to home:

• 82 min 92 miles Avg 67 mph 630 Wh/mile Gain 888/Loss -970 Total -82 ft 70 deg F
• Arrived home with 15% SoC

If you somehow made it this far I’ll say that I am personally very happy with the performance of the Cybertruck and the Cricket. Yeah, I wish there were pull through charging stalls available, but for as often as I do this, it’s fine. Prior to this trip I was concerned I would need change to camping in the truck, or a more aerodynamic trailer. Now I’m very satisfied with my current arrangement. Honestly, it didn’t feel that different to road trips in my 2018 Model 3. I did feel like my average speed was higher than documented, but those times do include off freeway travel/stoplights/etc. I felt like my speed was near 65 mostly, minus the construction episode and my drive into Needles. Besides charging to 100% for that leg I also drove very conservatively into the park to try and maintain maximum SoC.

So, how much range did you lose towing the camper? Around 50%?

 

[canyoncarver]

I appreciate the OP providing these details, the amount of time stopping/disconnecting and charging the vehicle would absolutely not be acceptable to someone who is used to pulling a small RV with an ICE truck that has a 23-26 gallon fuel tank, which can go 200+ miles at 70+ mph on the highway and can be refueled in under 5 minutes.

Maybe when truck has a native 500 mile range this will become less of a problem for those who are going to use it for towing.

 

[RoboTaxi]

I bring along a little solar generator when we camp with the model 3. It's nice for lots of things, but then I empty it into the car over night and it solves the phantom drain thing and adds a little extra each night. I bet it could just throw on a few panels on your trailer to do the same thing for pretty cheap.

Thanks for the great post! Looking forward to camping with the CT myself.

How do you empty a little solar generator into the car?

 

[CyberGus]

...ICE truck that has a 23-26 gallon fuel tank, which can go 200+ miles at 70+ mph on the highway and can be refueled in under 5 minutes.

No EV will ever be able to do that.

 

[tmeyer3]

How do you empty a little solar generator into the car?

? "Empty" is probably the wrong word. On the model 3 you can change the charge rate even if there's more available, right? So we have our Anker solar generator and will just set up camp, put out our solar panels, and plug in the car with a reduced current. That way the battery isn't hitting 100% from the solar and still has more than enough to use while camping. At night, I just let it keep going. By morning the generator is completely empty, well as empty as the built in charge controller allows it to get, and the car has MORE THAN (not much) it did yesterday, but certainly makes up for phantom drain.

We do a week at the beach twice a year and I typically leave with 20% more than I arrived with while also powering lights, single unit induction stove, camp fridge, and many many people's phone charges etc.

Once we have more room with the CT, planning on getting an instant water heater and pop-up shower too!

I get a lot of envious looks from my "gas only" redneck extended family since most beach campgrounds ban gas generators and the spots with power costs a ton.

 

[RoboTaxi]

? "Empty" is probably the wrong word. On the model 3 you can change the charge rate even if there's more available, right? So we have our Anker solar generator and will just set up camp, put out our solar panels, and plug in the car with a reduced current. That way the battery isn't hitting 100% from the solar and still has more than enough to use while camping. At night, I just let it keep going. By morning the generator is completely empty, well as empty as the built in charge controller allows it to get, and the car has MORE THAN (not much) it did yesterday, but certainly makes up for phantom drain.

We do a week at the beach twice a year and I typically leave with 20% more than I arrived with while also powering lights, single unit induction stove, camp fridge, and many many people's phone charges etc.

Once we have more room with the CT, planning on getting an instant water heater and pop-up shower too!

I get a lot of envious looks from my "gas only" redneck extended family since most beach campgrounds ban gas generators and the spots with power costs a ton.

Thanks for all the info. I was full-time boondockimg in a camper van for 20 months. I lived off 200watts of solar and a 200ah AGM battery. I’m new to Tesla and learning the ways. I hadn’t thought about using my bluetti ac180 to trickle charge the Tesla via the mobile connector. Being able to cover the parasitic draw would be helpful.

 

[ldiebel]

Thanks for the detailed post. Very informative and interesting.

 

[canyoncarver]

No EV will ever be able to do that.

Never say never. It might someday be possible with future capacitor tech.

 

[CyberGus]

Never say never. It might someday be possible with future capacitor tech.

 

[Bothwalien]

So, how much range did you lose towing the camper? Around 50%?

Our freeway speed limit is 80 in my area, so unless I’m worried about range I don’t usually drive 65mph (without the trailer). But, for science I will try it.

Meanwhile, A Better Route Planner uses 439 Wh/mile for reference consumption @ 65mph.

So my quick scratch math: if I was averaging 536 Wh/mile that yields about a 20% range reduction.

 

[Bothwalien]

I appreciate the OP providing these details, the amount of time stopping/disconnecting and charging the vehicle would absolutely not be acceptable to someone who is used to pulling a small RV with an ICE truck that has a 23-26 gallon fuel tank, which can go 200+ miles at 70+ mph on the highway and can be refueled in under 5 minutes.

Maybe when truck has a native 500 mile range this will become less of a problem for those who are going to use it for towing.

Yeah, I hear you. That was the exact scenario I was coming from with my old truck. But I love driving the Cybertruck vs any other vehicle I’ve driven. Even without FSD on this road trip. If I was really pressed for time I might pick a different tow vehicle, but the extra time required for doing this trip was totally worth it to me.

 

[Fleetwood75]

Finally somebody towing a small pop-up! I have a more traditional pop-up-camper and have yet to do a range test, but all of the other towing videos are for big trailers with big wind profiles so it's been hard to predict the range loss for my own camper. I'm still planning to get the Range Extender when it comes out though because I'll be towing from sea level to 7,000 feet over a distance of 100 miles and I'm skeptical as to how it'll do with that.

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