I did my first real towing with my Model 3 last weekend. The plan was to drive from my home in the Leamington Spa area to the gliding club at Bidford (about 30 miles), then collect my glider trailer from there and drive to the Black Mountains Gliding Club In Wales; a destination about 90 miles away and up some hills. Overall, it was a very smooth experience.
I charged up to 100% on Sat night so headed off with a full charge.
Since there was a bit of sun and I wasn't at all sure of consumption with the trailer on, I decided to turn off the heater and rely on the bum warmer only (which works remarkably well). Driving to the club at Bidford, I managed a very respectful 240Wh/mile meaning I arrived with 90% charge:
So, I hitched up the trailer and was very grateful for the AWD since the field was extremely boggy and I found one of the trailer wheels had siezed. Dragging it out far enough to the track where I could rock it to release the rust was a struggle - I could hear the motors fighting for grip. I'd never have done it with my old rear wheel drive BMW. Here's the combination - 950kg trailer, about 9m long:
I then set the destination on the sat nav to the gliding club in Wales and was surprised to see that the predicted arrival charge had been adjusted to allow for the trailer (the car auto-set trailer mode once I connected the electrics). You'll see it's 40% - without the trailer it would have been nearer 55%. Very nice:
Once en route, I found that the combination towed very well - completely stable with no snaking at all, even at 70mph. However, for the sake of consumption, I kept it to a max of 55mph during the vast majority of the journey. As I expected, the power of the car made light work of even a 1 tonne trailer. I hardly noticed it.
The roads were fairly quiet and mostly good dual carriageways with only the last 20 miles being on smaller roads. I was very happy with the consumption - about 340 Wh/mile on level roads; slightly beating the car's predicted usage:
On arrival, I had 45% battery remaining. That's pretty good - however, I was at 51 % just seven miles before the destination; but those last seven miles were all uphill, sometimes quite steeply so, and dragging a total of almost 3 tonnes uphill takes some energy.
So, I got there with a very large margin of reserve. Bssed on this experience, I'd be quite comfortable planning a trip to places farther away.
I charged up to 100% on Sat night so headed off with a full charge.
Since there was a bit of sun and I wasn't at all sure of consumption with the trailer on, I decided to turn off the heater and rely on the bum warmer only (which works remarkably well). Driving to the club at Bidford, I managed a very respectful 240Wh/mile meaning I arrived with 90% charge:
So, I hitched up the trailer and was very grateful for the AWD since the field was extremely boggy and I found one of the trailer wheels had siezed. Dragging it out far enough to the track where I could rock it to release the rust was a struggle - I could hear the motors fighting for grip. I'd never have done it with my old rear wheel drive BMW. Here's the combination - 950kg trailer, about 9m long:
I then set the destination on the sat nav to the gliding club in Wales and was surprised to see that the predicted arrival charge had been adjusted to allow for the trailer (the car auto-set trailer mode once I connected the electrics). You'll see it's 40% - without the trailer it would have been nearer 55%. Very nice:
Once en route, I found that the combination towed very well - completely stable with no snaking at all, even at 70mph. However, for the sake of consumption, I kept it to a max of 55mph during the vast majority of the journey. As I expected, the power of the car made light work of even a 1 tonne trailer. I hardly noticed it.
The roads were fairly quiet and mostly good dual carriageways with only the last 20 miles being on smaller roads. I was very happy with the consumption - about 340 Wh/mile on level roads; slightly beating the car's predicted usage:
On arrival, I had 45% battery remaining. That's pretty good - however, I was at 51 % just seven miles before the destination; but those last seven miles were all uphill, sometimes quite steeply so, and dragging a total of almost 3 tonnes uphill takes some energy.
So, I got there with a very large margin of reserve. Bssed on this experience, I'd be quite comfortable planning a trip to places farther away.
