Last Tuesday my wife and I picked up a new 22 ft. long Airstream Bambi Sport trailer at Bay Area Airstream in Fairfield, CA. The GVWR (total weight) of this trailer is 4500 lbs. It is equipped with an equalizer hitch, and we towed it with our X 90D back to our home in Trinidad (far northern coastal) California over three days.
We spent the first night near the Airstream dealership (to check for any initial problems) at the Vineyard RV park in Vacaville, CA. Weather was very hot in the Bay Area (106-109 F) where we were driving. The trailer towed very well. Initially, the trailer brake lights did not work with the Tesla, but the technicians knew that a special adapter was needed to the 7 cord plug which would enable the Tesla to read the LED lighting resistance as being present, and activate the lighting. This was done at the Airstream dealer. They had previously installed a Tekonsha prodigy 2 brake controller in the car while we were doing our walkthrough of the trailer.
We had a problem with the water heater the first night. We brought the trailer back to the dealer's techs the next day, and they immediately found the problem (loose plug in the heater) and fixed it. We considered having a wireless back-up camera installed on the rear of the trailer with a screen on our Tesla's dash, but the service tech was not confident in wiring into the Tesla.
The following photos give a hint of the adventures. You can see some of the Tesla superchargers we visited (Napa, Ukiah, Eureka - not yet ready). We had to take up two spaces in Napa, three spaces in Ukiah, and probably would use two spaces in Eureka.
There are several screens showing energy usage. My major takeaway thus far is that speed kills. The slower we drive (we tried 45 mph, 50 mph, 55 mph) and our energy usage increased immensely with higher speed. This seems to bear out the numbers we have seen from the folks crossing Canada with their trailer (teslaxcanada.com)
We will be leaving soon for a 3 month trip around the western USA, and we will keep up our reporting. One thing we have also noted is that we are EV evangelists on a daily basis. We have talked to numbers of people at each RV park, Tesla supercharger, and casual stops. We are enjoying the interactions. More to come.
We spent the first night near the Airstream dealership (to check for any initial problems) at the Vineyard RV park in Vacaville, CA. Weather was very hot in the Bay Area (106-109 F) where we were driving. The trailer towed very well. Initially, the trailer brake lights did not work with the Tesla, but the technicians knew that a special adapter was needed to the 7 cord plug which would enable the Tesla to read the LED lighting resistance as being present, and activate the lighting. This was done at the Airstream dealer. They had previously installed a Tekonsha prodigy 2 brake controller in the car while we were doing our walkthrough of the trailer.
We had a problem with the water heater the first night. We brought the trailer back to the dealer's techs the next day, and they immediately found the problem (loose plug in the heater) and fixed it. We considered having a wireless back-up camera installed on the rear of the trailer with a screen on our Tesla's dash, but the service tech was not confident in wiring into the Tesla.
The following photos give a hint of the adventures. You can see some of the Tesla superchargers we visited (Napa, Ukiah, Eureka - not yet ready). We had to take up two spaces in Napa, three spaces in Ukiah, and probably would use two spaces in Eureka.
There are several screens showing energy usage. My major takeaway thus far is that speed kills. The slower we drive (we tried 45 mph, 50 mph, 55 mph) and our energy usage increased immensely with higher speed. This seems to bear out the numbers we have seen from the folks crossing Canada with their trailer (teslaxcanada.com)
We will be leaving soon for a 3 month trip around the western USA, and we will keep up our reporting. One thing we have also noted is that we are EV evangelists on a daily basis. We have talked to numbers of people at each RV park, Tesla supercharger, and casual stops. We are enjoying the interactions. More to come.
