Towing Heavy - CT did great for 165-Mile Trip with 9,500-lb 12-ft High Boat

[PungoteagueDave]

Yesterday I did a test run from our farm in Pungoteague, VA to Kent Island, Maryland, where we are relocating. This was a bit of a test run for our twice-per-year migration to/from south Florida. Bottom line:

The truck with this big boat trailer uses 1,104 wh/mile taking it easy - 55 mph. It uses 1,325 wh/mile driving normally and maxing at 65 mph. We drove two segments - 97 miles, and 68 miles. For the first segment I started with 99% charge from our farm in Pungoteague, VA. It finished at 8% remaining range, using 107 kwh. I charged to 100% at a supercharger in Seaford DE and then drove a bit faster - and learned the limits.

What does this mean for towing the big boat to Florida? There is roughly 1,050 miles between my homes in Maryland & Florida. I think that the max range for this configuration is about 107 miles driving conservatively, never exceeding 55, despite much of the route having 65-70 mph limits. I will plan 80-mile intervals for charging, on average, so expect to need 13-15 charges. The charges will be 30-60 minutes each, so a bit longer than the strategy I used last week when pulling a 3,500-lb trailer 1,000 miles behind our new MY Juniper - that also required 14 charges and spent about 750 wh/mile, but with a much smaller battery. It was a fine trip, not a lot longer than using my farm's F-250 diesel, and way cheaper. I would expect my formerly 20-hour trip towing the big boat with a Super Duty truck will now require 26+ hours with the CT, driving straight through.

Some pics of yesterday's tow, followed by a few from last week's long distance run with a 3,300-lb trailer behind the new MY.

The next challenge will be getting my wife to drive the MY towing the jet skis/kayaks while I drive the CT towing the World Cat, caravaning 1,000 miles twice per year.... We are done for now, but when November 1 rolls around, we will be making that trip for the first time simultaneously with both rigs. I had to disconnect the trailer twice to charge on the way north with the MY last week, so not too bad - but it will be a bigger challenge to have two long rigs come in at one time to a single supercharger - we may need a leapfrog strategy for driving/charging.

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[Gigahorse]

Yesterday I did a test run from our farm in Pungoteague, VA to Kent Island, Maryland, where we are relocating. This was a bit of a test run for our twice-per-year migration to/from south Florida. Bottom line:

The truck with this big boat trailer uses 1,104 wh/mile taking it easy - 55 mph. It uses 1,325 wh/mile driving normally and maxing at 65 mph. We drove two segments - 97 miles, and 68 miles. For the first segment I started with 99% charge from our farm in Pungoteague, VA. It finished at 8% remaining range, using 107 kwh. I charged to 100% at a supercharger in Seaford DE and then drove a bit faster - and learned the limits.

What does this mean for towing the big boat to Florida? There is roughly 1,050 miles between my homes in Maryland & Florida. I think that the max range for this configuration is about 107 miles driving conservatively, never exceeding 55, despite much of the route having 65-70 mph limits. I will plan 80-mile intervals for charging, on average, so expect to need 13-15 charges. The charges will be 30-60 minutes each, so a bit longer than the strategy I used last week when pulling a 3,500-lb trailer 1,000 miles behind our new MY Juniper - that also required 14 charges and spent about 750 wh/mile, but with a much smaller battery. It was a fine trimp, not a lot longer thna using thmy farm's F-250 diesel, and way cheaper. I would expect my formerly 20-hour trip will now require 26 hours with the CT, driving straight through. Some pics of yesterday's tow, followed by a few from last week's long distance run with a 3,300-lb trailer behind the new MY.

The next challenge will be getting my wife to drive the MY towing the jet skis/kayaks while I drive the CT towing the World Cat, caravaning 1,000 miles twice per year.... We are done for now, but when November 1 rolls around, we will be making that trip for the first time simultaneously with both rigs. I had to disconnect the trailer twice to charge on the way north with the MY last week, so not too bad - but it will be a bigger challenge to have two long rigs come in at one time to a single supercharger - we may need a leapfrog strategy for driving/charging.
View attachment 93869

Nice write-up and some great pictures.
Your towing numbers match up with mine with similar loads.
I wish Tesla had put in a larger battery pack because going 55mph can be sketchy in some places here in the South.
100ish miles between superchargers is bearable, but Tesla REALLY needs to get the charging improved, get us our 500kw charging speeds and a better curve ASAP.
Sitting and charging for an hour multiple times a day is.....brutal.

Appreciate the report.

 

[Solardude]

Did you have to keep unhooking and hooking back up to charge? I travel from Florida to Wisconsin for the summers and calculated doubling my days on road from two to four days if I have to unhook to charge. I pull a 31 foot rv weighing around 8500.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

Did you have to keep unhooking and hooking back up to charge? I travel from Florida to Wisconsin for the summers and calculated doubling my days on road from two to four days if I have to unhook to charge. I pull a 31 foot rv weighing around 8500.

No, out of 14 charges, I only had to un-hook two times. Most superchargers are sparsely used on the east coast. For the long trip from Florida to Maryland with the MY, I was towing over a Saturday & Sunday, Easter weekend, so the roads were busy. Even with fairly heavy supercharger use, I was able to use either the fairly-ubiquitous side-loaded pylon at some locations, or come in from the side, blocking a couple pylons in the process. I was prepared to move if the location became full, but that did not occur. There were three locations clearly designed for pull-through trailer charging. This picture is one example.

The bottom line is that it wasn’t a big deal. I am pretty quick at unhooking if necessary, but expect to do it only 10-20% of the time.

 

[SCTesla]

The trip to Florida would be cheaper and much faster with the F250. It's going to cost over $600 in charging each way for the truck, plus adding over 6.5 hours to the trip.

 

[Shaney84]

Dang, I love your wrap color. Nice write up as well.

 

[Lasttoy]

I towed 7500 Florida to north Iowa and back, 3500 miles. Got a little over 150 mile range out of 300 charge. 70 mph with AC on. It cost 384 going up 375 coming back. My F350 would have cost twice.
It really tows the weight up hill great in mountains. Impressed.

 

[mongo]

The trip to Florida would be cheaper and much faster with the F250. It's going to cost over $600 in charging each way for the truck, plus adding over 6.5 hours to the trip.

Seems under $500, but yeah slower.
1050 miles at 1,300Wh/mile = 1,365 kWh * 0.36 = $492
1050 * 1,104 = 1,159 kWh * $0.40 = $464

$492/3.18=155 gallons, 1050/155 = 6.8 MPG

 

[Zane Edwards]

Yesterday I did a test run from our farm in Pungoteague, VA to Kent Island, Maryland, where we are relocating. This was a bit of a test run for our twice-per-year migration to/from south Florida. Bottom line:

The truck with this big boat trailer uses 1,104 wh/mile taking it easy - 55 mph. It uses 1,325 wh/mile driving normally and maxing at 65 mph. We drove two segments - 97 miles, and 68 miles. For the first segment I started with 99% charge from our farm in Pungoteague, VA. It finished at 8% remaining range, using 107 kwh. I charged to 100% at a supercharger in Seaford DE and then drove a bit faster - and learned the limits.

What does this mean for towing the big boat to Florida? There is roughly 1,050 miles between my homes in Maryland & Florida. I think that the max range for this configuration is about 107 miles driving conservatively, never exceeding 55, despite much of the route having 65-70 mph limits. I will plan 80-mile intervals for charging, on average, so expect to need 13-15 charges. The charges will be 30-60 minutes each, so a bit longer than the strategy I used last week when pulling a 3,500-lb trailer 1,000 miles behind our new MY Juniper - that also required 14 charges and spent about 750 wh/mile, but with a much smaller battery. It was a fine trip, not a lot longer than using my farm's F-250 diesel, and way cheaper. I would expect my formerly 20-hour trip towing the big boat with a Super Duty truck will now require 26+ hours with the CT, driving straight through.

Some pics of yesterday's tow, followed by a few from last week's long distance run with a 3,300-lb trailer behind the new MY.

The next challenge will be getting my wife to drive the MY towing the jet skis/kayaks while I drive the CT towing the World Cat, caravaning 1,000 miles twice per year.... We are done for now, but when November 1 rolls around, we will be making that trip for the first time simultaneously with both rigs. I had to disconnect the trailer twice to charge on the way north with the MY last week, so not too bad - but it will be a bigger challenge to have two long rigs come in at one time to a single supercharger - we may need a leapfrog strategy for driving/charging.

Great pics.......the large boat behind the CT is awesome!!

 

[PungoteagueDave]

The trip to Florida would be cheaper and much faster with the F250. It's going to cost over $600 in charging each way for the truck, plus adding over 6.5 hours to the trip.

That is correct. However our gated-community FL HOA has banned any truck over 1/2-ton. I have an F-250 and an F-350 at my farm, but cannot take them to FL, so was using an F-150 PowerBoost. That truck gets 24 mpg when empty, 4.5 mpg when towing. Small turbo engines are a joke - a trick used by manufacturers to “boost” EPA MPG, while destroying efficiency when used for actiual truck things. My F-350 gets twice the mileage when towing. Interestingly, the range on the Powerboost F-150 also drops to below 150 miles when towing the big boat (32 gallon tank, 4.5 mpg).

 

[flyhigh123]

Great info! I plan to use a cybertruck to tow my Freeman catamaran... haha.... love the world cat

 

[Ljhughes8]

Yesterday I did a test run from our farm in Pungoteague, VA to Kent Island, Maryland, where we are relocating. This was a bit of a test run for our twice-per-year migration to/from south Florida. Bottom line:

The truck with this big boat trailer uses 1,104 wh/mile taking it easy - 55 mph. It uses 1,325 wh/mile driving normally and maxing at 65 mph. We drove two segments - 97 miles, and 68 miles. For the first segment I started with 99% charge from our farm in Pungoteague, VA. It finished at 8% remaining range, using 107 kwh. I charged to 100% at a supercharger in Seaford DE and then drove a bit faster - and learned the limits.

What does this mean for towing the big boat to Florida? There is roughly 1,050 miles between my homes in Maryland & Florida. I think that the max range for this configuration is about 107 miles driving conservatively, never exceeding 55, despite much of the route having 65-70 mph limits. I will plan 80-mile intervals for charging, on average, so expect to need 13-15 charges. The charges will be 30-60 minutes each, so a bit longer than the strategy I used last week when pulling a 3,500-lb trailer 1,000 miles behind our new MY Juniper - that also required 14 charges and spent about 750 wh/mile, but with a much smaller battery. It was a fine trip, not a lot longer than using my farm's F-250 diesel, and way cheaper. I would expect my formerly 20-hour trip towing the big boat with a Super Duty truck will now require 26+ hours with the CT, driving straight through.

Some pics of yesterday's tow, followed by a few from last week's long distance run with a 3,300-lb trailer behind the new MY.

The next challenge will be getting my wife to drive the MY towing the jet skis/kayaks while I drive the CT towing the World Cat, caravaning 1,000 miles twice per year.... We are done for now, but when November 1 rolls around, we will be making that trip for the first time simultaneously with both rigs. I had to disconnect the trailer twice to charge on the way north with the MY last week, so not too bad - but it will be a bigger challenge to have two long rigs come in at one time to a single supercharger - we may need a leapfrog strategy for driving/charging.

You truck looks like my truck. You are doing thing they say a cybertruck can't due. Should people it not as bad as they think. The rest of the year you save son much in diesel and ice maintenance .my truck is dragon blood Tesla alli express roll

 

[KRTRW]

Yesterday I did a test run from our farm in Pungoteague, VA to Kent Island, Maryland, where we are relocating. This was a bit of a test run for our twice-per-year migration to/from south Florida. Bottom line:

The truck with this big boat trailer uses 1,104 wh/mile taking it easy - 55 mph. It uses 1,325 wh/mile driving normally and maxing at 65 mph. We drove two segments - 97 miles, and 68 miles. For the first segment I started with 99% charge from our farm in Pungoteague, VA. It finished at 8% remaining range, using 107 kwh. I charged to 100% at a supercharger in Seaford DE and then drove a bit faster - and learned the limits.

What does this mean for towing the big boat to Florida? There is roughly 1,050 miles between my homes in Maryland & Florida. I think that the max range for this configuration is about 107 miles driving conservatively, never exceeding 55, despite much of the route having 65-70 mph limits. I will plan 80-mile intervals for charging, on average, so expect to need 13-15 charges. The charges will be 30-60 minutes each, so a bit longer than the strategy I used last week when pulling a 3,500-lb trailer 1,000 miles behind our new MY Juniper - that also required 14 charges and spent about 750 wh/mile, but with a much smaller battery. It was a fine trip, not a lot longer than using my farm's F-250 diesel, and way cheaper. I would expect my formerly 20-hour trip towing the big boat with a Super Duty truck will now require 26+ hours with the CT, driving straight through.

Some pics of yesterday's tow, followed by a few from last week's long distance run with a 3,300-lb trailer behind the new MY.

The next challenge will be getting my wife to drive the MY towing the jet skis/kayaks while I drive the CT towing the World Cat, caravaning 1,000 miles twice per year.... We are done for now, but when November 1 rolls around, we will be making that trip for the first time simultaneously with both rigs. I had to disconnect the trailer twice to charge on the way north with the MY last week, so not too bad - but it will be a bigger challenge to have two long rigs come in at one time to a single supercharger - we may need a leapfrog strategy for driving/charging.

Thank you for sharing the information and pictures!

 

[jimbobb23]

Telsa needs some really long cords for CT and trailers.

 

[nevetsyad]

Love the write up, but want to bring up wind. If it was against you at just 5 or 10MPH, it would ruin your day. Or, if those numbers were with it at your back, it was like you were driving 45 or 50, based on wind resistance alone, which was a huge factor with that windage.

You could treat it like sailing and look for a weather window where the wind is at your back for the day.

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