Charging on longer towing trips

[Gordon Butterton]

Curious about availability of charging stations on longer trips I will be taking while towing a 10,000 lb. Trailer. Between Santa Cruz and Glamis & Santa Cruz and Coos Bay Oregon . Currently 12 hr trips via ICE !

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[HaulingAss]

Curious about availability of charging stations on longer trips I will be taking while towing a 10,000 lb. Trailer. Between Santa Cruz and Glamis & Santa Cruz and Coos Bay Oregon . Currently 12 hr trips via ICE !

If you tow large trailers more than 500 miles per day (most people don't) then you might be better served sticking with gas or diesel if the huge daily fuel bills are not a problem for you.

Towing a large house behind you, wherever you go is something popularized years ago in America by cheap gas and diesel and is, in my opion, pretty dumb. Every time the price of gas hits new peaks, everyone parks their trailers or keeps their trips short. When gas gets cheap, then people tow their houses on wheels all over the American West.

 

[Rutrow]

Curious about availability of charging stations on longer trips I will be taking while towing a 10,000 lb. Trailer. Between Santa Cruz and Glamis & Santa Cruz and Coos Bay Oregon . Currently 12 hr trips via ICE !

Is this a travel trailer? If so, you should obey the RVers 3-3-3 rule.

1. Travel no more than 300 miles
2. Arrive before 3:00
3. Stay at least 3 days

Make the travel part of the trip. Stop along the way and enjoy the locales between your destinations.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Curious about availability of charging stations on longer trips I will be taking while towing a 10,000 lb. Trailer. Between Santa Cruz and Glamis & Santa Cruz and Coos Bay Oregon . Currently 12 hr trips via ICE !

Jump in someone's Tesla and punch in a destination (and first set it to trailer mode) and see what navigate on autopilot tells you about charging. Try it for different routes and compare to your ICE stops. In fact I think that anyone considering a BEV perform this exercise. I know that it would have had an impact on me. Our first 2-hour trip with our Model 3 was intimidating for me. When we got the Model Y I at least knew that I could go 2 hours and we took a trip to Yosemite. That was 4 hours, but also driving in areas with a lot of elevation gain/loss and 'few' (but plenty) of superchargers. Then it was a trip to Los Angeles and back, then a trip to Denver in the winter. Each time we learned more things about BEVs and charging, and each time the NoAP feature was a boon. So get in a Tesla and punch in a destination...

 

[cvalue13]

Curious about availability of charging stations on longer trips I will be taking while towing a 10,000 lb. Trailer. Between Santa Cruz and Glamis & Santa Cruz and Coos Bay Oregon . Currently 12 hr trips via ICE !

Regarding the availability of superchargers, other’s comments above are spot on RE seeing where stations are between you and there.

Once you have those chargers destinations and distances, you can perform some rough maths around the following bigger-than-a-breadbox accuracy sorts of factors:

• the weight of your trailer will have comparatively little effect on your max range

• your max range towing will be effected primarily by your choice of cruising speed and it’s relationship to the drag profile of the trailer you’re towing

• if for example you’re towing an RV-parachute at 80mph consistent, you might back-of-napkin expect your max towing range to be 35%-40% of EPA-stated max range. So if hypothetically your CT has an EPA max range of 500mi, your parachute at 80mph may get more like 200mi max

• if instead you’re towing an extra-aerodynamic low-boy and are happy to set cruise at 55mph, you might get more like 50-60% of your EPA stated max range

• the above drag/speed estimates will inch either direction depending on factors related to drag conditions such as air temps (lower temps = lower range), humidity (drier air = lower range), headwinds (obvious), proper tire type and inflation (obvious), etc.

So, if you perform your exploration of charger locations and see that you have several 300mi gaps to make, you’ll be wanting to watch closely the CT’s ultimate EPA figures, and choosing your model, cruising speed, and trailer, wisely.

If instead you find only 100mi gaps, you’ll know you can make the distances, and instead your decisions will come down to how often you want to be stopping to charge. And since in the near term some or all of those charge stations may not have pull-through chargers, you may or may not be unhooking your trailer to charge. Which may bring you back to carefully considering model, speed, etc., so as to be stopping every 300mi rather than every 200, etc.

All that said, these effects of aerodynamics on range should not be too materially different from your current ICE (diesel?) truck, except for three key factors:

(1) intermittency of charge facilities; you prob don’t worry about range effects in your ICE in part because no matter what you know you’re not far from a station

(2) convenience of “refueling”; you prob don’t worry about range effects in your ICE in part because when you do stop, it’s a convenient pull through with your trailer and takes only ~15 mins to refill 0-100%

(3) finally, the size of BEV “tanks”; you prob don’t worry about range effects in your ICE in part because modern trucks have such massive fuel tanks, the BEV-equivalent of 500-600+ mile battery packs … which nobody makes in BEVs, yet

On this last point, the CT may offer a 500mi model that mitigates this 3rd factor. But my Lightning, for example, with a 320mi EPA max range has the “fuel tank” equivalent of an ICE F150 ecoBoost with only 13 gallons in the tank.

If you hit the road in an ICE F150 ecoBoost with only 13 gallons in the tank, and you knew the next station was 200mi away, you’d be driving at 55mph and drafting behind a semi - despite having a gasoline engine.

Just like the good-ole-days, when a carbonated V8 truck had only an 18 gallon tank - you carefully planned your route, speed, and contingency plans.

Viewed one way, a 500mi CT with a relatively extensive charging network basically brings BEV trucks up to the level of late 1980’s / early 1990’s trucks and infrastructure when it comes to towing range considerations. (The Lightning’s 13 gallon equivalent and worse charge network is may a mid-1970’s era towing calculation.)

Folks still did plenty of “real” towing back then, even if they had to know how to read a paper map, and didn’t “get” to do 80mph the whole way.

If instead you require a BEV truck for towing that matches the infrastructure convenience and tank size of modern diesel trucks, you’ve got prob a little while to wait.

A CT with 500mi range would get you much closer than anything else available, but not quite into the 2020’s equivalent

 

[CyberTW]

Well I do know Coos Bay (my hometown growing up) is getting a supercharger in Q3! So I am stoked! Doesn’t really answer your question though

 

[Crissa]

Well I do know Coos Bay (my hometown growing up) is getting a supercharger in Q3! So I am stoked! Doesn’t really answer your question though

It was the closest mall when I was a kid! (Gold Beach)

There's a mall in Crescent City that's come and gone since (and the current outlet mall has a Supercharger). Edit: Oh, wait, no, that's Eureka, the one in Crescent City is near the lighthouse park.

At any rate, what chargers are available today isn't what'll be available a year from now. You can find them on Google Earth. Most of the sites along the way have one charger you can stop at while only half-blocking the drive or another charger.

It's not the weight of the trailer you'll need to worry about: It's the aero and the length.

At least these paths will be driven at a reasonable speed.

-Crissa

PPS, I also drive this annually, I really love it. Seeing the SUperchargers first be full hops and now they're about to be half-hops from each other... Except for trailer-friendly, they're really getting there. I wouldn't worry about it. All of them seem to be somewhere near where semis drop their trailers, so there's a place to park even a long one. At least for the coast route.

 

[CyberTW]

It was the closest mall when I was a kid! (Gold Beach)

There's a mall in Crescent City that's come and gone since (and the current outlet mall has a Supercharger). Edit: Oh, wait, no, that's Eureka, the one in Crescent City is near the lighthouse park.

At any rate, what chargers are available today isn't what'll be available a year from now. You can find them on Google Earth. Most of the sites along the way have one charger you can stop at while only half-blocking the drive or another charger.


Gold Beach! Fellow Southern Oregon coastie. Cheers
It's not the weight of the trailer you'll need to worry about: It's the aero and the length.

At least these paths will be driven at a reasonable speed.

-Crissa

PPS, I also drive this annually, I really love it. Seeing the SUperchargers first be full hops and now they're about to be half-hops from each other... Except for trailer-friendly, they're really getting there. I wouldn't worry about it. All of them seem to be somewhere near where semis drop their trailers, so there's a place to park even a long one. At least for the coast route.

 

[Gurule92]

Old thread but has some listed.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/trailer-friendly-supercharger-locations.61389/

 

[Space monkey]

I think you’re going to be really disappointed with towing performance. We have a model Y and towing even a small trailer reduces range dramatically. Even if the CT gets 500 miles of range, that is going to really heavily on aerodynamics. If the Ford lightning gets range halved when towing, the CT will loose even more due to reliance on efficiency rather than big battery.
I’m not saying that it can’t be done, just saying that you will need to be incredibly patient.

 

[Bluechip506]

Check out A Better Route Planner.

 

[kbolt]

If you have 500 miles of range and towing cuts range in half then you'll have about as much range as a model 3 or Y. So probably not much to worry about other than unhitching to charge.

 

[charliemagpie]

Check out A Better Route Planner.

Rivian just bought it. It may remain as an app, dont know.

 

[Gurule92]

I think you’re going to be really disappointed with towing performance. We have a model Y and towing even a small trailer reduces range dramatically. Even if the CT gets 500 miles of range, that is going to really heavily on aerodynamics. If the Ford lightning gets range halved when towing, the CT will loose even more due to reliance on efficiency rather than big battery.
I’m not saying that it can’t be done, just saying that you will need to be incredibly patient.

Efficiency still matters when towing lol.

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