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In progress: Model 3 pulling loaded 1,900lbs~ 5x8 utility trailer 1,700 miles

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Wilcox to Deming:
Made it with 3% left. Started at 95%. Not my lowest SoC (I’ve actually dipped into -2% before), but this was a situation where i did not want to be stranded. 136 miles @ 445 Wh/mi. 65 mph drafting 2 car lengths. 37°F-56°F ambient air, 12mph headwinds w/ strong gusts.

This was me the whole way: White knuckled. Cruise control set to 2 car lengths behind an 18-wheeler. No autopilot so I could offset my position in the lane by a foot or so to line up with his slipstream. Interestingly, I clearly saw his slipstream because of all of the sand and dust getting kicked up.

I figured my two choices were 1) drive into the strong headwind, alone, at 40mph~ or 2) draft the slowest semi I could find. I chose #2. He knew exactly what I was doing lol.

Next stop: only 90 miles to El Paso, TX and BBQ. Or Tacos. Or BBQ Tacos!
 
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View attachment 734426

Wilcox to Deming:
Made it with 3% left. Started at 95%. Not my lowest SoC (I’ve actually dipped into -2% before), but this was a situation where i did not want to be stranded. 136 miles @ 445 Wh/mi. 65 mph drafting 2 car lengths. 37°F-56°F ambient air, 12mph headwinds w/ strong gusts.

This was me the whole way: White knuckled. Cruise control set to 2 car lengths behind an 18-wheeler. No autopilot so I could offset my position in the lane by a foot or so to line up with his slipstream. Interestingly, I clearly saw his slipstream because of all of the sand and dust getting kicked up.

I figured my two choices were 1) drive into the strong headwind, alone, at 40mph~ or 2) draft the slowest semi I could find. I chose #2. He knew exactly what I was doing lol.

Next stop: only 90 miles to El Paso, TX and BBQ. Or Tacos. Or BBQ Tacos!
Glad you made it! Why does your battery meter at the top of the screen say 10%, when the battery icon looks to be full?
 
View attachment 734424

View attachment 734426

Wilcox to Deming:
Made it with 3% left. Started at 95%. Not my lowest SoC (I’ve actually dipped into -2% before), but this was a situation where i did not want to be stranded. 136 miles @ 445 Wh/mi. 65 mph drafting 2 car lengths. 37°F-56°F ambient air, 12mph headwinds w/ strong gusts.

This was me the whole way: White knuckled. Cruise control set to 2 car lengths behind an 18-wheeler. No autopilot so I could offset my position in the lane by a foot or so to line up with his slipstream. Interestingly, I clearly saw his slipstream because of all of the sand and dust getting kicked up.

I figured my two choices were 1) drive into the strong headwind, alone, at 40mph~ or 2) draft the slowest semi I could find. I chose #2. He knew exactly what I was doing lol.

Next stop: only 90 miles to El Paso, TX and BBQ. Or Tacos. Or BBQ Tacos!
See I called it. You get any wind, the efficiency will drop like a rock. :D
 
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When you say 5 to 7 car lengths, are you eyeballing that, or is that what you set on the TACC, cause 5 to 7 isn't actually car lengths, but some proportional measure of time, I believe, like 2.5 to 3.5 secs.

And, I would second the use of ABRP, and actually subscribe. They give you 14 days free, and then it's only $5 a month. I made a 4400 mile trip, and sub'd for that trip, and let it go past the 14 days, so the developer would get $5, before I cancelled. The reason being, it includes your wind data. My 4400 mile trip, was incredibly accurate, as it's measuring your efficiency and using that in its estimate, so it knows temps, wind, elevation change, the car's measured efficiency, etc. I highly recommend it for such a knife's-edge trip.
 
I think OP means he was just using TACC and not full AP. So one click down on the stalk to regulate speed relative to the semi in front, but not letting the car steer.
"No Autopilot" could mean my interpretation or yours, hopefully the OP will clear this up!

As a side note, I do wish I could turn TACC off when using CC since only non-Autopilot Model 3s can do this.
 
"No Autopilot" could mean my interpretation or yours, hopefully the OP will clear this up!

As a side note, I do wish I could turn TACC off when using CC since only non-Autopilot Model 3s can do this.
Ah, I definitely have autopilot and FSD, but when I enable it, the trailer sways uncomfortably. It works with a trailer since my hitch and wiring is aftermarket, but I drive manually with TACC 90% of the time. And yes, when I refer to cruise control, I mean TACC. Only had one bout of severe phantom braking when someone else was merging onto the highway and the system thought someone was coming into my lane.

I made it to El Paso! 440 Wh/mi. 69 mph average. Looks like 10+ mph headwinds for the rest of the way to San Antonio, but these next superchargers are spaced less than 100 miles apart and the weather is warmer, so hopefully no drama.

Got myself some BBQ! Rudy’s may be a boring old chain restaurant, but the price and convenience is right. This El Paso location is the only one i’ve been to that has smoked baked potatoes (and custom breakfast tacos using leftover meats): $9.99 for the potato:
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I wanted a towbar when I ordered my M3LR but was told there was a chip shortage so I should get it retrofitted (I’m not sure if that at all rings true?). But the problem is that it’s a lot of money to do but when you are purchasing the car it’s only a small percentage of the overall cost. So my problem is psychological 😱. But I have a very nice trailer that I bought ages ago for a house move. It just makes vacations so easy, no need to carefully pack just chuck the stuff in👍
I heard the tow hitches were backordered for the Model Y, too, so a chip shortage or other shortage would make sense. They have several aftermarket options. A compatible wiring harness would be an additional cost.

I have the Stealth Hitches version which may not be available internationally. I just realized that the 2” trailer ball attachment’s ground clearance is much better than the chunky 2” receiver hitch’s. I’m guessing it’s a whole 2” higher off of the ground which is significant in this car. The 2” receiver is a great option for cargo and bike racks, though.


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The good:
I’m almost to my destination! Only 1.5 hours for 99 miles remain!

The bad:
So far my efficiency is 433 Wh/mi over 1,604 miles. Lots of high-speed driving in TX and AZ so this isn’t unexpected.

The Ugly:
I really think a valve or a blower fan might be stuck. My charging rate is severely throttling itself at this last supercharger. Something may be going bad with the battery cooling system? I feel my car shudder during charging as if an Inductive motor is trying to start but can’t (i’m positive it is not the AC compressor start/stop vibration or noise). I also hear the battery pack “poping” and “oil canning” way more than normal. I also hear a lot more clicking and knocking/tapping from the front of the car that wasn’t there before. The main cooling fan has not turned on once yet which usually roars to life by now.

I tried three different charging stalls. My battery is 51°C which is plenty hot for DC fast charging. The charge curve is strange. It attempts to ramp up, stuttering heavily along the way. It hits 100~ kW for just a second and then falls down and fluctuates between 38kW and 48kW…

Some random possibilities:
I “ate” a tumbleweed back in arizona, but it disintegrated into a million pieces. I just checked my radiator grill and I see that I must have hit a small bird without realizing it pretty recently (I see its remains along with some feathers) . I have been smelling my AC evaporator coils for the last ~24 hours (the reason is because I sprayed an AC evaporator coil cleaner on them which has the exact same smell).

I’ll inspect the radiator area some more… I can probably make it to my destination alright, but supercharging is slow from what I think is a HOT battery. No fan has kicked on, still.

Very interesting…


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The good:
I’m almost to my destination! Only 1.5 hours for 99 miles remain!

The bad:
So far my efficiency is 433 Wh/mi over 1,604 miles. Lots of high-speed driving in TX and AZ so this isn’t unexpected.

The Ugly:
I really think a valve or a blower fan might be stuck. My charging rate is severely throttling itself at this last supercharger. Something may be going bad with the battery cooling system? I feel my car shudder during charging as if an Inductive motor is trying to start but can’t (i’m positive it is not the AC compressor start/stop vibration or noise). I also hear the battery pack “poping” and “oil canning” way more than normal. I also hear a lot more clicking and knocking/tapping from the front of the car that wasn’t there before. The main cooling fan has not turned on once yet which usually roars to life by now.

I tried three different charging stalls. My battery is 51°C which is plenty hot for DC fast charging. The charge curve is strange. It attempts to ramp up, stuttering heavily along the way. It hits 100~ kW for just a second and then falls down and fluctuates between 38kW and 48kW…

Some random possibilities:
I “ate” a tumbleweed back in arizona, but it disintegrated into a million pieces. I just checked my radiator grill and I see that I must have hit a small bird without realizing it pretty recently (I see its remains along with some feathers) . I have been smelling my AC evaporator coils for the last ~24 hours (the reason is because I sprayed an AC evaporator coil cleaner on them which has the exact same smell).

I’ll inspect the radiator area some more… I can probably make it to my destination alright, but supercharging is slow from what I think is a HOT battery. No fan has kicked on, still.

Very interesting…


View attachment 734689

Great info! Which apps allows you to get this info on your car?
 
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Damn, that's indeed ugly. We can see your max charging power at 91.7kW. That might be a bit low but I don'T know what your SOC was at that time. I think 91kW should happen around 60%SOC ?

What concerns me is that the battery inlet temperature is higher than the battery temperature. When the battery reaches high enough for full supercharger (e.g. when it stops heating it while supercharging), it immediately starts cooling it. I think that should happen at like 45C, or maybe closer to 50C but I'm pretty sure it should have happened over 50C. At least that's the impression I got from the few times I used a supercharger. I think that indicates that your car is failing to cool the battery.
 
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What concerns me is that the battery inlet temperature is higher than the battery temperature. When the battery reaches high enough for full supercharger (e.g. when it stops heating it while supercharging), it immediately starts cooling it. I think that should happen at like 45C, or maybe closer to 50C but I'm pretty sure it should have happened over 50C. At least that's the impression I got from the few times I used a supercharger. I think that indicates that your car is failing to cool the battery.

Bjorn Nyland has documented the heating/cooling of the pack during Supercharging really well on his YouTube channel. You can get specific numbers for what happens when from him.

In normal Supercharging when the car wants to help heat up the battery, the heating fluid would gain heat by passing through the motor which is generating heat in an inefficient mode just for that purpose. Bjorn calls it the Tesla 'after burner.' But specific to this question, that mode is the only one I can think of that would lead to the fluid being at higher temperature than the battery. The SMT app shows power to the motor.

My brief skim of the OP's adventure also made me wonder if the car has a problem but I could not pin it down immediately.