Towing jet skis to North Lake Tahoe

[millertime]

This week my family took a vacation to Donner Lake in the North Lake Tahoe Area. We took our Model X and towed a pair of jet skis on a double trailer. I was very nervous about the climb up the hill and can report that the X did great. We have a P90D and the available towing power is amazing. When passing, one could easily forget that you have anything behind you. We live in Cupertino and made it to Rocklin supercharger on one charge from home. I set the cruise control to 55 initially and cheated some to 60 mph when my wife protested that the drive was taking FOREVER. We charged in Rocklin and headed up the hill to Donner pass. At the peak this is about a 7300 foot elevation change. We arrived at the Truckee supercharger with 75 miles to spare. Our trailer is about 2000 lbs with both skis and gear. We are a family of two adults and three kids, two cats, and a fully loaded car for a week vacation. I expected to run out of juice before the summit... I was pleasantly surprised. With the trailer and loaded car, we averaged about 550 wh/mile on flat land and 750 wh/mile on the climb up the hill. Hope this helps others making a similar journey. We also have made the trip carrying bikes and skis with a yakima full tilt hitch and ski adapter and was pleased with the performance of this accessory. It is the same as the Tesla branded version on the website, and I am very happy with how it worked. I'm not sure how the trip would go with a 5000 lb boat in tow, but with our two jet skis, it was a breeze.

 

[vangogh]

Great info ....Thanks

 

[jackbowers]

That's much better than I would have guessed (the elevation gain to the top of Donner would have required an extra 84 miles of range assuming total weight of 6500 lb). Were you following trucks to cut the wind drag during the uphill climb?

 

[Tree95]

FYI to those in California that may not know, the max speed for any vehicle towing a trailer in California is 55mph. And, like trucks, there are lane restrictions in California. 2-lane: right lane except to pass. 3 or more lanes: right lane except to pass, and then only in the next lane over. Trailers not allowed in fast lane of 3-lane highway, even to take advantage of the carpool lane. Some streches of road may have signs "trucks Ok center lane" or left lane, especially in urban areas where trucks in the right lane mess up with exiting or merging traffic, or before a split in the highway to allow those going left to move over in advance.

The Police appear not to enforce the speed or lane restrictions much for cars+trailers, but if you do something stupid to catch the eye of a cop, be aware you may be hit for several more violations than if driving just a car.

 

[millertime]

That's much better than I would have guessed (the elevation gain to the top of Donner would have required an extra 84 miles of range assuming total weight of 6500 lb). Were you following trucks to cut the wind drag during the uphill climb?

I think your calculations are pretty close. Rocklin to Truckee is about 80 miles, I arrived with about 75 miles of range remaining. The "extra 84 miles of range," is about right, but our total weight with the trailer was closer to 8500 lbs. I didn't follow trucks as I'm paranoid about cracking the windshield with flying rocks.