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Range on the Coquihalla when towing.

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Hi all! First question here, from a 2021 Long range Y owner ready to travel again.

I am a SERIOUSLY addicted camper so I bought the tow package to tow a little 400 lb utility trailer and 2 heavy Hobie kayaks. That load would be about 800-900 pounds max with all related gear. However, if I add my glamping gear, my trailer gets full - it might add another 600 pounds. Dare I try to make it from Hope to Merritt (with AC on)? I have no idea what the empty consumption would be over that high terrain, let alone with extra weight and drag. I don’t know how to calculate any of this and I wish someone would write “EV Range for Towing Dummies”. We are fortunate to have a scale close to our home but what a lot of work to load the whole deal to get the accurate weight (I’m a 66 year old Nana with a permanent right hand injury), so my adventures are more carefully planned these days.

Given what I’m reading - that even flat towing of a (covered) utility trailer with kayaks on top would cut my range by more than half, I imagine adding that big mountain range, inevitable wind and AC would sure beat me up over mountains. I’m confessing that I have paid no attention to range because my trips have been SO local and I have at home level 2 charging.

I do have 520 km which is so great, but still, I cannot take any risks and I absolutely cannot get stranded in a bad situation.

Thoughts?
Kathryn
 

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I'm looking forward to any info that actual Tesla towers will provide.

But from my understanding, your rig will produce quite a lot of air drag and that will hit your range pretty hard. You probably don't want to buy another trailer, but something enclosed would likely be a great improvement.

You could try doing an out-and-back experiment to a known short turnaround in order to learn the consumption rate. While towing your specific rig.
 
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Hi all! First question here, from a 2021 Long range Y owner ready to travel again.

I am a SERIOUSLY addicted camper so I bought the tow package to tow a little 400 lb utility trailer and 2 heavy Hobie kayaks. That load would be about 800-900 pounds max with all related gear. However, if I add my glamping gear, my trailer gets full - it might add another 600 pounds. Dare I try to make it from Hope to Merritt (with AC on)? I have no idea what the empty consumption would be over that high terrain, let alone with extra weight and drag. I don’t know how to calculate any of this and I wish someone would write “EV Range for Towing Dummies”. We are fortunate to have a scale close to our home but what a lot of work to load the whole deal to get the accurate weight (I’m a 66 year old Nana with a permanent right hand injury), so my adventures are more carefully planned these days.

Given what I’m reading - that even flat towing of a (covered) utility trailer with kayaks on top would cut my range by more than half, I imagine adding that big mountain range, inevitable wind and AC would sure beat me up over mountains. I’m confessing that I have paid no attention to range because my trips have been SO local and I have at home level 2 charging.

I do have 520 km which is so great, but still, I cannot take any risks and I absolutely cannot get stranded in a bad situation.

Thoughts?
Kathryn
Hope to Merritt appears to be 120km, per my google maps. Even if you get 1/4th the rated 520km range you'll make it.

The exact weight of your trailer and equipment is not very important. Its the air resistance that's going to be reducing your range, the rolling resistance will not be a significant portion of the losses. That said, make sure the trailer tires are at their correct pressure.
 
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And still I haven’t made it to test the coquihalla but I so appreciate the feedback and tips!

And now I’m about to buy a new thing to tow. A 1550 pound, 10’ micro-bug “Happier Camper” fiberglass camper. I am thinking that the drag on this might be less than my kayaks on my open trailer. I can toodle around Vancouver Island and enjoy fabulous camping and face no risk. Lots of hills but lots of chargers. In September (or maybe before), I’ll face crossing some actual mountains with this…guesstimating 2000 pounds fully loaded. But everyone says aerodynamics is the principle factor. Can’t wait to get some data (to try to make sense of!)
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I can’t see hope to merrit being an issue at all. I drive Coquitlam to Kamloops no problem with 10% battery left. You can tuck in behind a truck and get some relief from the air drag if you want.
This has always intrigued me…how close do you have to drive behind a semi or big rig to be in their quiet zone/draft space? I’m imagining that if you don’t get that right, you’d get pummelled by the wind forces joining behind the truck?

Kathryn
 
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This has always intrigued me…how close do you have to drive behind a semi or big rig to be in their quiet zone/draft space? I’m imagining that if you don’t get that right, you’d get pummelled by the wind forces joining behind the truck?

Kathryn
Mythbusters Season 5 episode 12 covered Big Rig myths. IIRC, you could get better fuel economy by being stupidly close. Sadly I can't find that entire episode freely accessible on youtube.

Mythbusters: drafting 10 feet behind a big rig will improve mileage 39 percent - Autoblog shows the results from the episode

By the time you get to reasonable following distances, you'll probably get no gains nor losses at all.

If you try to get better range by drafting, can I have your stuff when you die? ;)
 
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Mythbusters Season 5 episode 12 covered Big Rig myths. IIRC, you could get better fuel economy by being stupidly close. Sadly I can't find that entire episode freely accessible on youtube.

Mythbusters: drafting 10 feet behind a big rig will improve mileage 39 percent - Autoblog shows the results from the episode

By the time you get to reasonable following distances, you'll probably get no gains nor losses at all.

If you try to get better range by drafting, can I have your stuff when you die? ;)
Lol! You’d have to be patient as there is already a long lineup for my gear. I like the idea of using big rigs as a dandy excuse to drive extra slow when towing. So I’ll stay in the slow lane, way back from the big boys and toodle along to gain the max range instead of dreaming about how drafting might help (or kill me).
 
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This might be interesting to OP:

 
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