Towing Report 3/29/24

[Celiboy]

I’ve wanted to do a towing report since I got my truck. My first time towing my bass boat was two days after taking delivery and didn’t have the mental energy to capture what I wanted with what I had going on that day.

Two days after taking delivery, I was headed to a local lake approximately 50 miles from my house. Not knowing what to expect, I charged the truck to 90% in anticipation of have to possibly use a supercharger about 17 miles away to get home. On the initial trip, without consideration of anything other than just getting there on time (got out a little later than planned), we went from 90% to approximately 40%. Later in the day we made the trip to the supercharger and back to the lake with approximately 73-75% just to make sure we were good. Made it home with approximately 50 some odd percent. Don’t put much thought into the above numbers, they are just general in that I had a million other things going on and was just trying to catch some data from the first trip.

Fast forward to today. My goal was to do a formal run to the same lake and back home with the goal of trying to see exactly what the truck would use. Extremely conservative driving was the plan. Of note, I forgot to inflate the tires to 65 psi per Tesla recommendation. I have never inflated tires to tow before so it’s not a part on my mental checklist yet. Tires were at standard 50 psi

Ok, some general info needed. We started at 100% SoC. Custom drive mode with chill acceleration, relaxed ride and handling, and low ride height. Bass boat weights approximately 4,500 pounds. The lake is 50 miles from my house and is at roughly 3,400 feet elevation. My city is at approximately 200 feet elevation. It’s an uphill climb starting at about 22 miles from my house. The air temperature during the trip ranged from 47-53 degrees. Cruising speed was between 55-65 mph and never exceeded 65. There were 4 checkpoints we worked to gather information on.
Distance, kWh used and average Wh/mi from…..

1. Home to the start of the uphill grade.
2. Uphill grade to the lake.
3. From the lake, back downhill to the flat land.
4. From the flat land checkpoint home.
5. Total trip information.

Captured data below corresponds to the above check points.

1. 22 miles, 17 kWh used, average of 774 Wh/mi. at this point.
2. 28 miles, 33 kWh used, average of 999 Wh/mi. at this point.
3. 28 miles, 8 kWh used, average of 748 Wh/mi. at this point.
4. 22 miles, 14 kWh used, average of 720 Wh/mi. End of trip.
5. 100 miles, 72 kWh used, average of 720 Wh/mi.

I hope this is useful information. Just trying to increase the amount of towing data we gather on our trucks so we can see how they work and hopefully improve over time.

General takeaways,

1. The Cybertruck is by far the best towing vehicle I’ve ever owned. My wife even commented on how nice of a trip it was compared to any of our previous trucks.
2. With my initial trip I didn’t consider the impact downhill regenerative braking would have on battery consumption. It was nice to watch the percentage of charge stay the same and even increase going home. I would have been able to make it home with 90% easy.
3. I believe, obviously, speed is probably one of the greatest factors when towing.
4. It’s harder than hell to stay below 65 towing with this truck. It’s like riding Secretariate and holding him in the back of the pack lol. It can go as fast as you want it to ALL the time. For those of you who can’t drive that slow while towing with this truck, I get it.
5. On my next trip to the same lake in the next week or two I’ll do the same but with the tire pressure increased to 65 psi to see the difference if any.
6. This was a good test as this lake is probably the furthest local lake my club fishes. Many of them are closer so I wouldn’t have to be this conservative and not have any issues with range or need to stop and charge. We do have a few lake we fish that are quite far so I’ll have some fun game planning the trip to those lakes in the upcoming months.

This is my setup. My wife took this picture during the trip two days after delivery.

I should also add that at the end of the trip I had approximately 33% left on the battery. We dropped the boat off and went Costco shopping.

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[FutureTruck]

My son has been trying to use his CT as a work truck for the past few weeks. Very doable if you are in town and going very short distances. When towing large loads plan on less than 100 miles of range total with any speed.
The power of the truck is undeniable Tesla just needs to roll out the refreshed version with a large battery pack and it will be a viable work truck.

 

[JPRIVER]

123kwh battery at 720 wh/mi = 171 miles. 80% = 137 miles between chargers if road tripping. I suppose your boat is pretty aerodynamic? Send a pic trailered up please. Inflate your trailer tires too please.

 

[electricAK]

Very helpful data. Thanks so much for compiling and sharing. Excited to see the numbers at 65psi.

 

[gregg@sierranevada]

I’ve wanted to do a towing report since I got my truck. My first time towing my bass boat was two days after taking delivery and didn’t have the mental energy to capture what I wanted with what I had going on that day.

Two days after taking delivery, I was headed to a local lake approximately 50 miles from my house. Not knowing what to expect, I charged the truck to 90% in anticipation of have to possibly use a supercharger about 17 miles away to get home. On the initial trip, without consideration of anything other than just getting there on time (got out a little later than planned), we went from 90% to approximately 40%. Later in the day we made the trip to the supercharger and back to the lake with approximately 73-75% just to make sure we were good. Made it home with approximately 50 some odd percent. Don’t put much thought into the above numbers, they are just general in that I had a million other things going on and was just trying to catch some data from the first trip.

Fast forward to today. My goal was to do a formal run to the same lake and back home with the goal of trying to see exactly what the truck would use. Extremely conservative driving was the plan. Of note, I forgot to inflate the tires to 65 psi per Tesla recommendation. I have never inflated tires to tow before so it’s not a part on my mental checklist yet. Tires were at standard 50 psi

Ok, some general info needed. We started at 100% SoC. Custom drive mode with chill acceleration, relaxed ride and handling, and low ride height. Bass boat weights approximately 4,500 pounds. The lake is 50 miles from my house and is at roughly 3,400 feet elevation. My city is at approximately 200 feet elevation. It’s an uphill climb starting at about 22 miles from my house. The air temperature during the trip ranged from 47-53 degrees. Cruising speed was between 55-65 mph and never exceeded 65. There were 4 checkpoints we worked to gather information on.
Distance, kWh used and average Wh/mi from…..

1. Home to the start of the uphill grade.
2. Uphill grade to the lake.
3. From the lake, back downhill to the flat land.
4. From the flat land checkpoint home.
5. Total trip information.

Captured data below corresponds to the above check points.

1. 22 miles, 17 kWh used, average of 774 Wh/mi. at this point.
2. 28 miles, 33 kWh used, average of 999 Wh/mi. at this point.
3. 28 miles, 8 kWh used, average of 748 Wh/mi. at this point.
4. 22 miles, 14 kWh used, average of 720 Wh/mi. End of trip.
5. 100 miles, 72 kWh used, average of 720 Wh/mi.

I hope this is useful information. Just trying to increase the amount of towing data we gather on our trucks so we can see how they work and hopefully improve over time.

General takeaways,

1. The Cybertruck is by far the best towing vehicle I’ve ever owned. My wife even commented on how nice of a trip it was compared to any of our previous trucks.
2. With my initial trip I didn’t consider the impact downhill regenerative braking would have on battery consumption. It was nice to watch the percentage of charge stay the same and even increase going home. I would have been able to make it home with 90% easy.
3. I believe, obviously, speed is probably one of the greatest factors when towing.
4. It’s harder than hell to stay below 65 towing with this truck. It’s like riding Secretariate and holding him in the back of the pack lol. It can go as fast as you want it to ALL the time. For those of you who can’t drive that slow while towing with this truck, I get it.
5. On my next trip to the same lake in the next week or two I’ll do the same but with the tire pressure increased to 65 psi to see the difference if any.
6. This was a good test as this lake is probably the furthest local lake my club fishes. Many of them are closer so I wouldn’t have to be this conservative and not have any issues with range or need to stop and charge. We do have a few lake we fish that are quite far so I’ll have some fun game planning the trip to those lakes in the upcoming months.

This is my setup. My wife took this picture during the trip two days after delivery.

I should also add that at the end of the trip I had approximately 33% left on the battery. We dropped the boat off and went Costco shopping.

Thanks for your great post! It exemplifies the kind of information-rich post that can help everyone towing with a BEV. My wife and I have been towing a teardrop trailer made by Bean.Co with our 2018 Model X 100D every summer since about 2019. Like you, I did several round trip dry runs over elevation changes of 3K + feet here in the Eastern Sierra Nevada to get a sense of what to expect. When I get the Beast (still awaiting the VIN) I will try to be as methodical as you and post my results here. Thanks also for the tip about inflating the tires to 65 PSI. I had not seen that suggestion before. Thanks again!

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