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Charging Etiquette - Be Kind to those Towing

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bonnie

I play a nice person on twitter.
Feb 6, 2011
16,429
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Columbia River Gorge
This never occurred to me before (sorry to admit), but after having towed a small camper on a roadtrip, I realized how absolutely nice it is when other Tesla owners leave the pull-in charger vacant. It allowed me to just pull straight in, instead of dropping and reconnecting the trailer. Admittedly, I did get pretty fast at dropping/reconnect, but leaving that spot free IF POSSIBLE would be very considerate if someone pulls in that is towing.

End of PSA.
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I've never seen a supercharger set up like the one pictured there, but seems like the whole point of that pull through charger is for Teslas pulling trailers. Otherwise why would it be set up different from the others? There should be a sign there saying it is reserved for Teslas pulling a trailer (or maybe if it is the only one left).

That's more than just etiquette to me. You are an actual a**hole if you use it when you don't need to and block Teslas with trailers from using it.
 
Never seen one of these. Perhaps I was adjacent and missed it? Now that I know, I will try to avoid these unless towing. But there really should be signs--many people would not think they were doing anything unkind.

In addition to being thoughtful, I would guess that the charge speed is slightly slower with the longer cable (but I'm no expert)
 
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I've seen this setup at a few locations such as Brush and Loveland, Colorado. I did use the pull-in stall in Loveland once since I'd just driven from Brush and needed a charge and all of the other stalls were full. Besides that one time, I've been able to use the other stalls. I treat them like the 'handicapped' stalls available at some Superchargers and try to leave them to those who need them unless there's no other choice.
 
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@bonnie and co.: Excellent points -- and quite a subtle one for those who do not (or will not) read this forum or thread. Can I suggest, that when possible, take Bonnie's picture, above, 1) print it, with legend THIS STALL FOR TRAILERS; 2) laminate it; 3) put it on your car's dashboard, and hope that occasional Tesla drivers notice it and adjust.

The choir is with you. You just need to reach the unwashed masses.
 
Many new installs have one of these or one per six or something. The new one in Grasonville MD has one per set of six if I recall from the pictures posted. An excellent idea in trailer country (on the way to the shore, or other trailer-prone areas! :D ).

If you watch some of Bjorn's videos, he frequently has to take three or more spots to avoid dropping the trailer, but he's in places with no Teslas often. Not recommended practice, I'd say!
 
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I've seen this setup at a few locations such as Brush and Loveland, Colorado. I did use the pull-in stall in Loveland once since I'd just driven from Brush and needed a charge and all of the other stalls were full. Besides that one time, I've been able to use the other stalls. I treat them like the 'handicapped' stalls available at some Superchargers and try to leave them to those who need them unless there's no other choice.
Intersting 'naming' concept. Wonder if they should be painted differently, with "trailer priority" like some seats on the Metro here have 'Elderly/Handicapped have priority for these seats'
 
Or one step further (from The Beginning of Another Airstream Adventure)

"Supercharging in Tarrytown, NY. Several Tesla owners moved to the far chargers to allow me to pull in this way. "

The beginning of Another Airstream Adventure!
I was able to also pull in parallel at quite a few superchargers. Each time I stayed with the car so I could move if I would have been blocking someone.
 
This never occurred to me before (sorry to admit), but after having towed a small camper on a roadtrip, I realized how absolutely nice it is when other Tesla owners leave the pull-in charger vacant. It allowed me to just pull straight in, instead of dropping and reconnecting the trailer. Admittedly, I did get pretty fast at dropping/reconnect, but leaving that spot free IF POSSIBLE would be very considerate if someone pulls in that is towing.

End of PSA.View attachment 243108
Bonnie, you going to write up anything on your Eclipse trip? Very curious how you did with the "Go" trailer.
 
Bonnie, you going to write up anything on your Eclipse trip? Very curious how you did with the "Go" trailer.
I will - just recovering from three back-to-back trips (literally got home around midnight on Tuesday, did laundry/unloaded coolers, and left for PDX to catch a flight in the morning for work stuff).

Here's a pic of some of the folks I was camping with & two GO trailers in the background, followed by another with my X along a Snake River tributary. Short story is that I had about a 20% hit towing a fully loaded GO, my cousin towed his with his Prius and saw around a 40% hit. I'll post data at some point.

I ran into MikeL at the Idaho Falls supercharger on Sunday and since we were closer than his intended destination (and much more fun), he & his son ended up joining us. That was a happy surprise.

Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 3.24.42 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 2.41.44 PM.png
 
This never occurred to me before (sorry to admit), but after having towed a small camper on a roadtrip, I realized how absolutely nice it is when other Tesla owners leave the pull-in charger vacant. It allowed me to just pull straight in, instead of dropping and reconnecting the trailer. Admittedly, I did get pretty fast at dropping/reconnect, but leaving that spot free IF POSSIBLE would be very considerate if someone pulls in that is towing.

Great PSA post— We have a bunch of these pull-in chargers in California, but I would have never thought about the value of them for those towing as I don’t have a trailer. Thank you for sharing.
 
Short story is that I had about a 20% hit towing a fully loaded GO, my cousin towed his with his Prius and saw around a 40% hit. I'll post data at some point.

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.
 
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I was able to also pull in parallel at quite a few superchargers. Each time I stayed with the car so I could move if I would have been blocking someone.

When I was able to pull into the first spots, I was able to only take up 2 spots. I left a note with my phone number if anyone needed me to unhook and free up the extra spot. I would have unhooked, but I was having trouble with an adapter to adapt my 4 flat pins on the trailer to the 7 blades on MX electrical connection. Has anyone else had this problem and come up with a solution beyond duct taping the connections together?
 
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.

Wow. That's quite a hit. I have a 2600 lb (dry weight) pop up camper that I currently tow with a minivan. I have been wondering what sort of range I would get towing it with an X. From your experience it seems like I might not even make it from one SC to another. Especially if I put bikes on the top of the camper like we usually do. I haven't paid much attention to the range hit in the minivan but I suspect it is somewhere between 25% and 30%.
 
I've never seen a supercharger set up like the one pictured there, but seems like the whole point of that pull through charger is for Teslas pulling trailers.
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.
I was able to also pull in parallel at quite a few superchargers. Each time I stayed with the car so I could move if I would have been blocking someone.
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.
 
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When I was able to pull into the first spots, I was able to only take up 2 spots. I left a note with my phone number if anyone needed me to unhook and free up the extra spot. I would have unhooked, but I was having trouble with an adapter to adapt my 4 flat pins on the trailer to the 7 blades on MX electrical connection. Has anyone else had this problem and come up with a solution beyond duct taping the connections together?
I haven't had any issues at all. I'll take some pics for you when I get a chance later today.