We have a small Pulmor enclosed trailer, made of fiberglass, 32 cu ft of interior space. It is 60" wide. On top of it, we have a large, 18 cu ft, roof carrier. The total height is just about or a tad below the tallest point of the MY roof. The trailer is just under 500lb empty and has never been more than 1,000 fully loaded including the stuff in the cargo carrier.
We have used it with our Subarus and 4Runner all over the west (we are in Phoenix) from San Diego to Jasper in Canada. It normally had minimal mpg impact.
I was very hopeful but nonetheless apprehensive after watching people tow small U-Haul trailers and get like 45% efficiency.
We drove 130 miles from our home to Quartzsite Supercharger and back. We drove 65 mph out and 70 mph in (more downhill this way). Air condition was at 72. I threw all the metal junk I could find in the garage in the trailer but still it would have been around 75% of actual travel weight. i did air up the tires to like 46-47 psi.
On the way out we averaged 375 wh/mile and on the way in we averaged 360 wh/mile. The simplest way to look at it is that we got more than 2 miles for every 1% of battery used.
And so, at 2.72 miles per kW we have over 160 miles range on a 80% charge and just north of 200 miles on a 100% charge.
This is plenty enough outside of mountainous terrain. I do offroad a lot in Colorado and Utah and I have my 4Runner for that.
Sure, fully loaded the trailer may cause a bit more efficiency loss, but even so it seems that the MY towing of a proper car trailer should be pretty stress free. We shall see in a couple weeks when we load it fully and go 1,450 miles to our next summer rental
These trailers have long been out of production for reasons I cannot fathom, but then again their marketing was always terrible. I am not sure why similar trailers are not more popular/ Bit the bottom line is, look for a trailer designed for car use: lower than the vehicle, narrower than the vehicle, truly light weight.
We have used it with our Subarus and 4Runner all over the west (we are in Phoenix) from San Diego to Jasper in Canada. It normally had minimal mpg impact.
I was very hopeful but nonetheless apprehensive after watching people tow small U-Haul trailers and get like 45% efficiency.
We drove 130 miles from our home to Quartzsite Supercharger and back. We drove 65 mph out and 70 mph in (more downhill this way). Air condition was at 72. I threw all the metal junk I could find in the garage in the trailer but still it would have been around 75% of actual travel weight. i did air up the tires to like 46-47 psi.
On the way out we averaged 375 wh/mile and on the way in we averaged 360 wh/mile. The simplest way to look at it is that we got more than 2 miles for every 1% of battery used.
And so, at 2.72 miles per kW we have over 160 miles range on a 80% charge and just north of 200 miles on a 100% charge.
This is plenty enough outside of mountainous terrain. I do offroad a lot in Colorado and Utah and I have my 4Runner for that.
Sure, fully loaded the trailer may cause a bit more efficiency loss, but even so it seems that the MY towing of a proper car trailer should be pretty stress free. We shall see in a couple weeks when we load it fully and go 1,450 miles to our next summer rental
These trailers have long been out of production for reasons I cannot fathom, but then again their marketing was always terrible. I am not sure why similar trailers are not more popular/ Bit the bottom line is, look for a trailer designed for car use: lower than the vehicle, narrower than the vehicle, truly light weight.
