Preparing trailer range test with and without a wind deflector....

[hemiarch]

For those of you guys who tow trailers which I have zero experience with. Do you use FSD?
There is basically no cruise control in this thing without FSD right?

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[dalton108]

For those of you guys who tow trailers which I have zero experience with. Do you use FSD?
There is basically no cruise control in this thing without FSD right?

Traffic aware cruise control, which means you have to disable FSD. You cannot use FSD while in trailer mode and you cannot turn trailer mode off without decoupling your trailer from the 4/7 pin connector. You can’t enter off-road mode while you’re connected either. It’s pretty locked down.

FSD I understand. I don’t like TACC, so that doesn’t matter to me, but, I had a full on hissy-fit when I learned that I couldn’t go into off-road mode while towing.

 

[hemiarch]

Traffic aware cruise control, which means you have to disable FSD. You cannot use FSD while in trailer mode and you cannot turn trailer mode off without decoupling your trailer from the 4/7 pin connector. You can’t enter off-road mode while you’re connected either. It’s pretty locked down.

FSD I understand. I don’t like TACC, so that doesn’t matter to me, but, I had a full on hissy-fit when I learned that I couldn’t go into off-road mode while towing.

Oh…to be a fly on the wall for that one.

 

[dalton108]

Oh…to be a fly on the wall for that one.

1. Where did you get this picture!??!! This is an invasion of privacy!

2. Oh, I had it publicly here on the forum. No need to become a fly.

https://www.cybertruckownersclub.co...xa-tigermoth-travel-trailer-cyberbeast.23987/



All stages of loss are there. Eventually settled on decoupling the trailer, but you don’t get brake assist or brake lights once you do that so not ideal. There is a workaround I discovered.

 

[mongo]

Traffic aware cruise control, which means you have to disable FSD. You cannot use FSD while in trailer mode and you cannot turn trailer mode off without decoupling your trailer from the 4/7 pin connector. You can’t enter off-road mode while you’re connected either. It’s pretty locked down.

FSD I understand. I don’t like TACC, so that doesn’t matter to me, but, I had a full on hissy-fit when I learned that I couldn’t go into off-road mode while towing.

I thought you could turn off trailer mode in settings and that would re-enable FSD/ off-road? Has that changed, or is it setup specific?

You can manually turn off trailer mode. This will allow off road mode. I use the trucks air suspension opposed to trailer Jack.

 

[BornToFly]

Reading the aerodynamics article that was posted on the first page, I wish I could easily round the corners on the back of my wind deflector. Maybe if it works, I'll spend more time on improving it by adding vortex generators as well.

 

[BornToFly]

At 4am I was trying to sleep, but thinking about my wind deflector. I need to make another run to Home Depot to get harder would for the 8 blocks attached to the truck to make sure that isn't a failure point. I also want to strengthen the supports running front to back under the plastic sheets so they don't bend under pressure. I made the mistake of putting them flat instead of vertical because I wanted more area supporting the plastic, but obviously the wood is more flexible that way.

 

[FL370]

FSD I understand. I don’t like TACC, so that doesn’t matter to me, but, I had a full on hissy-fit when I learned that I couldn’t go into off-road mode while towing.

This is so annoying. We use a aussie style offroad camper with more clearance than the CT, with independent suspension but can't really benefit since the truck won't let us.

 

[CyberGus]

You should tack a bunch of strings onto the exterior to map the airflow.

 

[BornToFly]

So this morning I bit the bullet and took the roof panels off, and moved the transverse supports to vertical as well as the longitudinal ones for the panels. Thanks God I did, because even after having done that, the light 3/4X 1.5 inch pine pieces were flexing on the highway. My wife was driving and I was sitting in the bed. Then two of them broke where the wood had a knot. I held up the roof with my hands as my wife drove home. I'm guessing maybe 40 lbs of downforce.

After I got back to the garage, I basically double up every piece of wood using scraps that I had. Looks even more ghetto now than before, but should be strong enough for another test.

The great news is that the really light weight corrugated plastic sheets I bought worked great!

 

[hemiarch]

I feel like I’m watching history happen here. This is the coolest shit ever man.

 

[BornToFly]

I’d let you use my Oliver camper for testing, similar in size/shape to the Basecamp, with a more rounded profile. But you’d still be able to get consumption readings with/without your aero fairing.

I live in SLC, only issue is I’ll be gone Thursday, home late Sat night, so maybe Sunday testing? Sunday would have less traffic on the roads…but still plenty of smartphones to make you famous!

I may take you up on your offer. We are flying out Sunday afternoon now, but I may be busy in the morning, so it would have to be end of next week. I haven't heard back from the people that rent the Bambi if I can rent it for a few hours. On Outdoorsy you have to rent it for at least 2 days, and I've already spent too much money and time on this experiment.

If this works, I would be tempted to make this out of aluminum square tubing if that would still allow it to be light enough to remove with two average people. It would be great if I knew how to weld Aluminum, so I wouldn't have to bolt everything together with flat metal plates.

 

[BornToFly]

Whoah!!!! They make all sorts of connectors for square tubing! https://www.eztube.com/product-cate...BpjF2ImCbI8T2gxSg3nqa8jKZRbjySjtcz-iXHQOXAriY

 

[mongo]

Whoah!!!! They make all sorts of connectors for square tubing! https://www.eztube.com/product-cate...BpjF2ImCbI8T2gxSg3nqa8jKZRbjySjtcz-iXHQOXAriY

Or use 80-20 due to non-right angles ($$$ though)

 

[BornToFly]

Good news!

Repeat highway test after reinforcing all the load areas was a success. No breakage.

My Energy usage on a 10 mile out and back at 65 mph was 448 Wh/mi. Not too bad considering I was displacing that much air. My energy usage for the last 3,000 miles this summer, averaging 70-80 mph, and almost all highway, has been 377 Wh/mi. (stock AT tires, 4,500 elevation and higher).

Now I just need to borrow an Airstream type trailer in the SLC area to test....

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