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Will I get a glider trailer into the supercharging areas?

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I've recently ordered M3 AWD LR + towbar. Very excited and thinking about various practicalities.

One of them is that I'm a glider pilot, and will be visiting other clubs around the country with my own glider, which is transported in a ~8m long trailer (this one, to be exact).

This will invariably involve supercharging en route.

From your experiences of the typical supercharging areas in the motorway services, what's going to be the crack with taking an 8m long trailer into the supercharging areas? It'll almost certainly be an unhitch job and move it around by hand to keep it out of people's way; but is there even space to do this, or will I need to leave it in some other part of the services?
 
Depends which you expect to visit.

Some of the motorway service stations have loads of room but some of the hotel based sites less so.

Google street view might give you an idea of the scope you have if you know which are likely.
 
You are probably going to have to unhitch and park it up before supercharging on most of the sites I have been in as the sites are pretty charging specific. Henry T's advice about a look on google street view is sound.

From where you live, Sutton Bank will be familiar. Have a google of Scotch Corner SC location and you will see what I mean! You may already know the site.

Teslas have to reverse into the stall to get the charge cable, so you are going to have to ditch the tow before you can get to the charger and all your neighbours at the SC are doing the same.
 
As Henry has said, try Street View to get an idea of layout, but from my own experience (just driving, no towing):

1. Avoid Hopwood Park services completely, unless you are prepared to leave the trailer in the lorry park section several hundred yards from the SuC (and loop out to the roundabout & back in to retrieve it). At peak times the place is as jammed as the f***ing M25 during a climate protest!
2. Avoid Sarn off the M4 in Wales - the access thru the car park really isn't designed for that length of trailer
3. Avoid East Midlands Designer Outlet near Mansfield - you have almost no chance of getting the trailer around there, and nowhere to leave it while charging.

As the charge cables at the SuC are only long enough to reach the charge port when you back in to them, there is no possibility of having the trailer attached at that point. Have a look at the "Do I smell?" thread to get some pics of several SuC sites, and the charger layout, but bear in mind these seem to be the quieter sites.
 
I've recently been on a trip towing my caravan, and I ended up unhitching it and leaving it in the car park (or caravan park), then going against the signage to get to where the chargers were. At Newport Pagnell services on the M1, the SC site is near the entrance whereas the caravan parking area is near the exit. I had to either go through a No Entry, or leave the services and do many M1 miles to get back to the entrance of the services. On the likely assumption that my caravan would have probably disappeared by the time I got back, I took the shorter route.
 
I've recently ordered M3 AWD LR + towbar. Very excited and thinking about various practicalities.

One of them is that I'm a glider pilot, and will be visiting other clubs around the country with my own glider, which is transported in a ~8m long trailer (this one, to be exact).

This will invariably involve supercharging en route.

From your experiences of the typical supercharging areas in the motorway services, what's going to be the crack with taking an 8m long trailer into the supercharging areas? It'll almost certainly be an unhitch job and move it around by hand to keep it out of people's way; but is there even space to do this, or will I need to leave it in some other part of the services?
Forget South Mimms. It's hard enough to get a car in there most times.
 
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Better chat with @pdk42
in case that comment was a bit cryptic for you Pdk42 is a regular contributor to the forum who drives an M3 with a glider trailer so probably has far more insight into this than the rest of us put together.


if he does not spot this thread and respond you could always DM him
 
I’ve had no problem finding somewhere to drop my glider trailer whilst charging at any Supercharger including Scotch Corner. I even found one where I could charge with the trailer coupled! My range is reduced by about 25-30% sticking to the 60mph limit but my Komet trailer is probably a bit more efficient than the OPs.
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Thanks all, the need to reverse up to the supercharger pretty much seems to mean finding somewhere safe & sensible for the trailer as a trip planning consideration, aside from what Andrew was able to do at Scotch corner.

It's good to see numerous other glider pilots owning Teslas too, given (as our club president puts it) "there's fewer of us than lesser-crested newts".
 
The picture is of Adderstone Services on the A1 north of Alnwick where there is a handy lorry park just behind the Superchargers as well as a decent cafe and loos.

Scotch Corner is no problem if you bear right on entry to drop the trailer in the main car park before going to the Superchargers which are to the left on entry. If you go left with a trailer you will probably have to uncouple and swing the trailer round in order to get out again! But it's certainly much less difficult than many of the fields I've been into, and farm gates on narrow lanes that I have negotiated, with a glider trailer!

Care needed on exit not to leave the trailer blocking the road if you are forced to stop by the traffic lights on the roundabout - but again, no more of a problem than the many other hazards presented to people hauling 10m long trailers.

Tobster - watch out for an article on towing with Teslas in the next S&G...
 
I've towed my glider trailer (Cobra single seater trailer - LS8t inside!) around a lot of the UK and also across France, Belgium, and Germany. I've yet to find a SuC that doesn't need me to unhitch. The closest I got to finding that difficult was in Belgium (just outside Brussels) that was situated in the rather small car park of a hotel. Thankfully, there was a good place on the access road to it that I could use to dump the trailer. In all other cases it's never been an issue to unhitch in the area where the SuC is.

Word of caution though - don't forget to release the trailer handbrake before you depart. I drove about 50km with the damned thing still on and ended up completely melting the brakes and bearings on both sides. Spent an extra day in Belgium getting that sorted - Cobra/Spindelberger were excellent!
 
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I’ve had no problem finding somewhere to drop my glider trailer whilst charging at any Supercharger including Scotch Corner. I even found one where I could charge with the trailer coupled! My range is reduced by about 25-30% sticking to the 60mph limit but my Komet trailer is probably a bit more efficient than the OPs. View attachment 720900
I'm yet to find a SuC where I can do that!

Agree entirely on the 25%-ish range hit. I recently returned from Lleweni Parc (North Wales) to Bidford with the trailer and then drove home to Leamington without needing to stop for a charge. Got back with 15% remaining.

Here's a pic of mine:

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