My experience at 500 miles and one month with my Dual motor Cyber Truck
Background: This is my 4th Tesla and 7th EV
In 2000 GM EV1 less than 1 month
2000 Toyota Rav4 EV until 2013, trading to
2013 Model S, my wife bought a Nissan Leaf traded both for
2018 2 model 3 Long Range
Bought a 2016 F350 and a 25’ Airstream in 2019
We live in Austin TX and have a second home in Madeira Park, British Columbia Canada, about 2 hours north of Vancouver on the pacific coast
We drive to our house in Canada each summer and typically 3 times a year
Also to California, Florida, Chicago and local state and national parks
Ordered the Cyber Truck to replace the F350 for towing the Airstream and a 12’ cargo trailer
Ordered the extra Extender Battery
First impressions of Cyber Truck:
It’s big and easy to drive, lots of power for towing, smoother and quicker than the F350 Lariat
Missing some expected features
1) parking ultrasonic sensors- completely caught me by surprise, like WTF? Parking a big truck with no beep beep sensors is not great, especially as you can’t see very well out of this truck. Yes the cameras help, but you can scrape up against the side if you’re not careful without any warning. All cars have these sensors
2) no cruse control- I understand waiting for the full self driving, but towing without cruse control is not good, and driving on long trips requires it. I guess I’m spoiled, and stuck.
3) incompatible with the “other” fast chargers / Adapter from Tesla. Why? Makes no sense
One of the reasons why we buy Tesla is because of the charging stations, but why reduce the option for the Cyber Truck when all the other Tesla vehicles work with Chamodo or whatever they are calling them now.
4) no way to know what Super Chargers have a Trailer spot in the navigation, list of Superchargers, etc for trip planning
My brother in law’s Rivian has more charging options than my Tesla?
The raising and lowering is problematic for towing and you can’t set it and make it stay at the correct height for the trailer, resulting in scraping the bottom of the Airstream when it decides to lower the suspension
The trailer brake controller and light test work well, hitching up the trailer is easy, the camera is nice.
My expectation regarding range while towing the Airstream was about 50% of the normal range when not towing, so I expected to get around 150 miles at 55-60 MPH on dry level highway travel.
We planned our route going out Interstate 10 to California and then up Interstate 5 to Canada, checking the distance between superchargers along the way, and we expected to not exceed 120 miles between each charge
Our first test was from our house to a HEB grocery store about 5 miles away. The round trip consumed 20 miles, so that was as expected.
The second test was to South Lanno River State Park, at 110 miles from our house. It was around 90 degrees last weekend when we did a full trip charge at home and departed around 10:AM we went out through Dripping Springs, then Johnson City taking the slower and direct route guided by the Tesla Navigation. We stopped in Johnson City for lunch, to Interstate 10 then to the park where we checked in and parked the Airstream in its site. We had warnings and 28 miles of range left.
No 50 A 220V power at our site, only 30A 110V, so I quickly departed to the supercharger in Junction and charged for 45 minutes to get to 200 miles of range- not a quick charger
We thought it would work, but it was close.
The next morning we hooked up the Airstream and headed back to the Junction Supercharger. It is nice that we didn’t have to disconnect the Airstream to charge, which would be a major pain, but there is no way to know what chargers have a special spot for vehicles with trailers.
One we had a full trip charge we headed back on Interstate 10 at 55-65 MPH (no cruse control), then 290
We closely watched the energy graph, plotting our range and distance, just like we did on the previous day.
When we got to Johnson City it was clear that we would not make it home, we needed to charge.
The difference was 50 MPH on the way out vs. 60-65 MPH on the way home.
We confirmed it when we arrived home, we can not on count on making it to the next supercharger on the Interstate 10 route, so the Cyber truck is not going to be able to be used for towing. There are gaps longer than 120 miles around New Mexico and Arizona
I was planning on bringing my generator in the bed of the truck for an unplanned charging issue, and supplementing Supercharging with overnight stops with 50A charging from the RV hookups, but I can’t see a way to make it work with the inability to get 150 miles with the Airstream. Not worth the risk and stress.
Maybe after we get the Range Extender battery.
So we will be staying in hotels and not bringing the Airstream for this trip.
I really want to make it work, I tell people all the time that we installed Solar and went EV in 2013 and haven’t paid for gas or oil changes since (except for the tow vehicle)
Cheers,
Walter
"First Cybertruck Sighting on the Street, Miami Florida 18 May 2024" by Phillip Pessar is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
Background: This is my 4th Tesla and 7th EV
In 2000 GM EV1 less than 1 month
2000 Toyota Rav4 EV until 2013, trading to
2013 Model S, my wife bought a Nissan Leaf traded both for
2018 2 model 3 Long Range
Bought a 2016 F350 and a 25’ Airstream in 2019
We live in Austin TX and have a second home in Madeira Park, British Columbia Canada, about 2 hours north of Vancouver on the pacific coast
We drive to our house in Canada each summer and typically 3 times a year
Also to California, Florida, Chicago and local state and national parks
Ordered the Cyber Truck to replace the F350 for towing the Airstream and a 12’ cargo trailer
Ordered the extra Extender Battery
First impressions of Cyber Truck:
It’s big and easy to drive, lots of power for towing, smoother and quicker than the F350 Lariat
Missing some expected features
1) parking ultrasonic sensors- completely caught me by surprise, like WTF? Parking a big truck with no beep beep sensors is not great, especially as you can’t see very well out of this truck. Yes the cameras help, but you can scrape up against the side if you’re not careful without any warning. All cars have these sensors
2) no cruse control- I understand waiting for the full self driving, but towing without cruse control is not good, and driving on long trips requires it. I guess I’m spoiled, and stuck.
3) incompatible with the “other” fast chargers / Adapter from Tesla. Why? Makes no sense
One of the reasons why we buy Tesla is because of the charging stations, but why reduce the option for the Cyber Truck when all the other Tesla vehicles work with Chamodo or whatever they are calling them now.
4) no way to know what Super Chargers have a Trailer spot in the navigation, list of Superchargers, etc for trip planning
My brother in law’s Rivian has more charging options than my Tesla?
The raising and lowering is problematic for towing and you can’t set it and make it stay at the correct height for the trailer, resulting in scraping the bottom of the Airstream when it decides to lower the suspension
The trailer brake controller and light test work well, hitching up the trailer is easy, the camera is nice.
My expectation regarding range while towing the Airstream was about 50% of the normal range when not towing, so I expected to get around 150 miles at 55-60 MPH on dry level highway travel.
We planned our route going out Interstate 10 to California and then up Interstate 5 to Canada, checking the distance between superchargers along the way, and we expected to not exceed 120 miles between each charge
Our first test was from our house to a HEB grocery store about 5 miles away. The round trip consumed 20 miles, so that was as expected.
The second test was to South Lanno River State Park, at 110 miles from our house. It was around 90 degrees last weekend when we did a full trip charge at home and departed around 10:AM we went out through Dripping Springs, then Johnson City taking the slower and direct route guided by the Tesla Navigation. We stopped in Johnson City for lunch, to Interstate 10 then to the park where we checked in and parked the Airstream in its site. We had warnings and 28 miles of range left.
No 50 A 220V power at our site, only 30A 110V, so I quickly departed to the supercharger in Junction and charged for 45 minutes to get to 200 miles of range- not a quick charger
We thought it would work, but it was close.
The next morning we hooked up the Airstream and headed back to the Junction Supercharger. It is nice that we didn’t have to disconnect the Airstream to charge, which would be a major pain, but there is no way to know what chargers have a special spot for vehicles with trailers.
One we had a full trip charge we headed back on Interstate 10 at 55-65 MPH (no cruse control), then 290
We closely watched the energy graph, plotting our range and distance, just like we did on the previous day.
When we got to Johnson City it was clear that we would not make it home, we needed to charge.
The difference was 50 MPH on the way out vs. 60-65 MPH on the way home.
We confirmed it when we arrived home, we can not on count on making it to the next supercharger on the Interstate 10 route, so the Cyber truck is not going to be able to be used for towing. There are gaps longer than 120 miles around New Mexico and Arizona
I was planning on bringing my generator in the bed of the truck for an unplanned charging issue, and supplementing Supercharging with overnight stops with 50A charging from the RV hookups, but I can’t see a way to make it work with the inability to get 150 miles with the Airstream. Not worth the risk and stress.
Maybe after we get the Range Extender battery.
So we will be staying in hotels and not bringing the Airstream for this trip.
I really want to make it work, I tell people all the time that we installed Solar and went EV in 2013 and haven’t paid for gas or oil changes since (except for the tow vehicle)
Cheers,
Walter
"First Cybertruck Sighting on the Street, Miami Florida 18 May 2024" by Phillip Pessar is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
