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Charging Etiquette - Be Kind to those Towing

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Wow that is a huge decrease in range while towing, more than some TMC members report when towing a 22 ft Airstream. I think the explanation is that your Go Trailer in utility mode with a kayak on top creates far less aerodynamically efficient than an Airstream or similar trailer.
I just got back from a beach trip pulling a Go Trailer at 45 to 60 mph. I had closer to 70% hit, but my trailer was in utility mode (jacked up above MX roofline) with 4 bikes inside, a kayak on top, coolers, gear, etc. I should add that it was a .7 additional mile for every Tesla estimated mile. To know the actual decrease in efficiency, I would have had to do the same route in same conditions at same speeds without the trailer. At some point I intend to do a bunch of experiments with Go trailer over a shorter distance. My bottom line from my trip was with a MX90D I could get about 140 miles before needing to charge again with my trailer loaded the way it was.
@bonnie how much of a range decrease do you get in your X when towing your Go Trailer as shown in your photo?
 
Late one evening at the Ukiah Supercharger, I arrived with the Airstream and saw that the already difficult parking lot was full from a festival that was occurring.

There was one other owner charging and when she saw my weary and somewhat defeated looking face, she got out of the car, said "I feel you," and proceeded to move out of the way and aid in guiding me into a parallel spot. I was blocking a bit of the parking lot, but not enough that it was obstructing traffic. Since I'm generally averse to blocking ICE or EV traffic, I was about to unhitch. She told me to leave it and regaled me with stories of the ICEing that occurs at that location, among other things she has dealt with. She uses the charger very regularly on her way back and forth to Silicon Valley.

I left it in place, and she was right. Nobody cared. In general, I'm just more comfortable unhitching to charge. But there are times where it really is nice to stop and go without the routine. I haven't encountered heavy rain before, but I could see that being a situation where I'd be miserable unhitching.

The pull through spots should be left open if possible. Even though longer trailers will most often block the roadway, there are also deep bike racks/ski racks/cargo carriers which will not. Those owners will appreciate not having to disconnect all of that gear - I'm guessing that's just as difficult as unhitching my camper.
 
There are many Supercharger locations in California and elsewhere that have some pull-in and some back-in stalls. I don't think that Tesla did it that way to accomodate those towing trailers because in many of the pull-in stalls I have seen if the trailer is left hitched to the car it will block cars driving in the lane in front of the stalls.

In Petaluma California there are "pull-through" stalls but if a trailer is left hitched while charging it will block a charging stall.

To be fair to Tesla, they are leasing space in existing parking lots and most of the time the only way they could design charging stalls for people towing who didn't want to unhitch would be to significantly redesign the parking lot and take up a lot more space. Given that only a tiny fraction of all Tesla owners tow, I can see why Tesla didn't do that. As someone who will be towing a 17 ft trailer next year with my X I do wish such stalls existed, but they don't. I will have to unhitch.

Some time ago @ohmman started an entire thread about Superchargers where you don't have to unhitch to charge. There are a few such locations.

Yes I've seen posts by @ohmman where he did that as well and at Superchargers that are lightly used and have the space that is nice to be able to do.
Ogallala, NE is an example where someone with a trailer could pull through and charge from any of the unused Superchargers. This picture isn't the best but one could drive around to the left of the line of Superchargers.
ogallala.jpg


BTW, the picture above was taken shortly after the eclipse. I doubt it will see that much action again for years.
 
In Petaluma California there are "pull-through" stalls but if a trailer is left hitched while charging it will block a charging stall.
There are other setups similar to Petaluma where there are blocks of double chargers. Bandon, OR and Seaside, OR come to mind.

One note about this - you don't necessarily have to block a charging stall at this type of Supercharger. If the parking spaces adjacent to the block are open, and the necessary charger on the end pair is also open, you can parallel park on the outside of the chargers and just take up one charger. Others can then pull through in the actual charging "lane" and use the second charger. Does that make sense? You would face opposite the intended direction to do this.
 
Thanks for the timely (for me) post since I just begin to research long-form EV/travel trailer'ing.

My thinking is to trade in my classic MS for a CPO dual motor X with 20" wheels for towing something under 3K#. So far, liking the Airstream 16' Digital Sport and the Jayco Hummingbird. Delighted to hear pull-through superchargers are getting to be a thing.
 
Last month we towed a 5 x 8' U-Haul cargo trailer from the Bay Area to southern California. It was our first time towing with the Model X and it was fine. As expected we took longer to make the trip due to the slower driving speed and the extra charging. We were probably towing about 1200-1400 lbs. and could barely notice the trailer except for the reduced range. We stopped at Gustine, Harris Ranch, Buttonwillow, Tejon Ranch, and Burbank. We were able to stay hitched for all of them except Burbank which has only six stalls that are backin only with a tight parking lot. At Buttonwillow we took over three end stalls and stayed with the car the entire time and there were only one or two other cars charging the entire time we were there. The rest had pull-forward stalls that were free and the trailer was not blocking traffic.

Unhitching a rented U-Haul trailer is not convenient because they do not come with trailer jacks. I noticed that U-Haul has trailer jacks for sale in their stores and on their website. I asked about that and they said that they sell them for customers who want to install them on their own privately-owned trailers but they don't put them on U-Haul trailers because they don't want customers hitching and unhitching on their own. They want to unhitch and hitch for you because customers don't always do it right and that's how accidents occur. Since I figured I might have to unhitch and hitch at some point, I brought along a jack and a jack stand. So that's what I did at the Burbank supercharger. If I ever tow a U-Haul again, I will buy a trailer jack and temporarily mount it while towing and remove it before returning the trailer.

So after our first successful towing experience, whenever practical I try to reserve the pull-in stalls for those towing trailers and ask that others consider doing the same.
 
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