The Adventures of Gray Matter + Soufflé

[wreighven]

Hello everyone!

I’ll be chronicling our family’s adventures in our Tesla Model X (Gray Matter) and our Airstream BaseCamp 20X (Soufflé) In this thread.

I wanted to thank @ohmman and others for sharing their Model X towing adventures over the years. They’ve inspired me to follow in their footsteps. After getting the Draw-Tite installed in the X, I was ready for the next step…

Meet Souffle!

I lucked into her about 3 weeks ago (a dealer happened to let me know he had it on order and it wasn’t yet on their web site). Picked her up on Monday afternoon in my Tundra, as I didn’t want to be too overwhelmed with all there is to learn, plus worrying about range and getting back home.

Maiden Voyage

Flash forward to this morning, and it was time for the first trip behind the Tesla: Frisco, TX to Comfort, TX…

Headed out with no intention of going too fast on the journey. Literally kicked the tires a bit, buying a good tire pressure gauge and compressor, a jack, etc. The last odds and ends needed for the trip. First stop at the Waco (Bellmeade) Supercharger and got lucky with the last 4 stalls open, so didn’t have to unhitch (there were many open so I figured it was ok to take up a bit of the end). I seemed to get really good efficiency (around 500Wh/m at 65mph). Then things got interesting…

To Be Continued…

 

[ohmman]

What a fantastic name for that camper! Can’t wait to hear about your travels.

 

[Rice&Curry]

Waiting to hear about your travels and your insights in towing on MX.

 

[wreighven]

Waco to Austin / Kyle

This leg was a bit humbling. Given the “ease” of the trip from Frisco to Waco, and relatively good efficiency numbers, I stupidly decided to not fill up my battery to 90% and instead stopped at about 250 miles (since it was “only” 100 miles or so to the Research park Supercharger in Austin). About 30 miles into the drive to Austin I realized my error. With increasing Southern windspeed (and me going right into it), and the hilly roads, I was getting a terrible 675Wh/m at 65mph. Pretty quickly slowed down to 60mph. Made it to the Research park SC with THREE miles to spare. This time I had to unhitch. This is a 72 kW SC, and for some reason I was only getting about a 56kW charge rate. Once I had 85 miles of charge in my battery I decided to go to the new Kyle, TX v3 charger.

Made it to the Kyle SC with about 9 miles left on the battery, and found this new 16 stall v3 SC to be basically empty. So I didn’t have to unhitch (yay!).

Was able to grab dinner and caffeine at Panda Express, and waited until I had around 300 miles in the battery for the last 89 mile leg to Comfort. I learned my first really valuable lesson pulling the Airstream…

Take the miles you need to travel to hit the next SC, or your destination, and multiply it by 2, to account for less than ideal conditions. AND add some buffer to that number just in case.

Kyle to Comfort

I finally made it to my destination for the night, with a good 80 miles left on the battery.

Bonus pic of Soufflé (plugged in to 30A) charging Gray Matter!

 

[ngng]

I would suggest taking advantage of the Trip Consumption feature and switching to percentage, vs mileage.

 

[ohmman]

Sounds like an educational journey!

You should do your best to stay out of that bottom 10% of your battery if possible. With my 90D I was regularly forced to do what you did here, which is to cut it relatively close from time to time. The long term effect was that my battery health suffered significantly from it, and my battery degradation far outpaced similar vehicles in the TeslaFi fleet.

My other tip is to start slow, finish fast. It's best to get a slower start and gauge consumption as you go (watching the energy trip graph is helpful) and then decide when you can put on a little more speed.

Overall, glad it worked out and hope you enjoyed the pull.

 

[wreighven]

Thanks @ohmman! I did not know about the increased battery degradation from going below 10%. I take it that’s from doing it fairly often / routinely right? Do you also think it’s still a big issue even in the newest packs? Regardless, I will try to avoid going below 10%. Question though: if you’re staring at a leg where you think you will use most of your battery, which 10% would you rather breach? I.e. going above 90% or below 10%?

Thanks again.

 

[Rice&Curry]

I guess in case if it is necessary you can still charge up to 95%+ and go down to single digit SoC. Doing so in case of pure necessity will not do any damage to the battery, but doing it frequently most certainly will.

 

[Rice&Curry]

Just out of curiosity and knowledge for future use - what is the tare weight of the airstream and what is the loaded weight you are towing ?

 

[wreighven]

The BaseCamp 20X is 3,500 lbs dry and currently 3,900ish with what I have in it (and 4,300 GVWR). 535 lb tongue weight (which is one of the reasons I upgraded to the Draw-Tite hitch receiver with the 750 lb tongue weight rating).

 

[Rice&Curry]

The BaseCamp 20X is 3,500 lbs dry and currently 3,900ish with what I have in it (and 4,300 GVWR). 535 lb tongue weight (which is one of the reasons I upgraded to the Draw-Tite hitch receiver with the 750 lb tongue weight rating).

Thanks for the info ... as far as I remember the Tesla supplied hitch cannot accommodate > 500 lbs tongue weight

 

[wreighven]

Thanks for the info ... as far as I remember the Tesla supplied hitch cannot accommodate > 500 lbs tongue weight

Correct, which is why I upgraded.

 

[dmurphy]

The BaseCamp 20X is 3,500 lbs dry and currently 3,900ish with what I have in it (and 4,300 GVWR). 535 lb tongue weight (which is one of the reasons I upgraded to the Draw-Tite hitch receiver with the 750 lb tongue weight rating).

Congratulations on Soufflé! What an awesome name. And she’s a stunner! I’ve always loved Airstreams. Always. My wife’s less convinced due to the lack of a slide out (and those extremely rare ones go for a hefty premium IF you find one!) but if I had my way, that’d 100% be my next.

I’m going to be tracking your adventures very closely …. We’re planning a road trip from NJ to FL next summer, so can use all the charging tips you have. I really need to plot that one out very carefully.

PS - as for names, our Model 3 & X are Timon & Pumbaa. So naturally, the camper is Simba. Guess we have a theme!

 

[Harvey Danger]

Question .. if you’re staring at a leg where you think you will use most of your battery, which 10% would you rather breach? I.e. going above 90% or below 10%?

I originally thought this was an easy question. Pack damage is more likely to occur at high SoC *if the pack is just sitting there not doing anything*. I guess the more nuanced question you are asking is, which is worse (high or low SoC) *if the battery is under heavy load*. Ohmman's anecdotal claim is low SoC is bad. Not sure it immediately follows high SoC is better (maybe both are bad?) but anyway I could see how low SoC might be worse: at low SoC the pack voltage is lower and you'll need to draw more amps to get the same power. Drawing huge amounts of amps might be harder on the pack. I'll have to go back to Battery University and read up I guess.

 

[ecarfan]

I seemed to get really good efficiency (around 500Wh/m at 65mph

Umm…that is astoundingly low energy usage at that speed. I hope you can find more opportunities to tow long level stretches of highway with no rain or headwinds/tailwinds and maintain a steady 65mph and then report again to confirm.

With increasing Southern windspeed (and me going right into it), and the hilly roads, I was getting a terrible 675Wh/m at 65mph. Pretty quickly slowed down to 60mph.

In a headwind at 65mph that is about what I would expect.

Regardless, congratulations on your new rig and as others have already noted, the name you chose for your trailer is perfect.

Question; your photo showing your X plugged into your trailer; what battery and inverter do you have in your trailer, how many amps did the car display show it was pulling and how much range were you able to add to your X when charging that way? I would be concerned about draining the trailer battery in no time or frying the trailer inverter.

 

[Rice&Curry]

Here is a video on MX pulling a 5000 lbs trailer - stats and experience - good info for future planning

 

[ecarfan]

I assume you have watched that video? If so can you summarize the conclusions so the rest of us do not have to watch 38 minutes of silly dramatics by the video presenters. Thank you.

 

[dmurphy]

I assume you have watched that video? If so can you summarize the conclusions so the rest of us do not have to watch 38 minutes of silly dramatics by the video presenters. Thank you.

Question: "How does it tow?"
Answer: "Very well."

And, uh, there ya go ;-)

(I wholly agree with you -- I can't stand all these dang youtube videos and their hysterics ....)

 

[dannycamps]

Here is a video on MX pulling a 5000 lbs trailer - stats and experience - good info for future planning

True but this would probably be worst case scenario as they were purposely pulling the trailer up and down a mountain without any regard for efficiency.

 

[ngng]

Aerodynamics is going to be your biggest enemy. You really don't want to be driving any faster than 55mph, where there is a huge drag penalty. I saw 450 Wh/mi towing a 5k open trailer load at 55mph.

Do you have side profile of the car and trailer? From the charging pic you posted it doesn't look like the trailer is level, but that may have just been how you were parked.