Tow with Chevy Bolt?

colliehauler wrote:

ggardne2 wrote:
I suspect that the cooling system for the electrical components (inverter and motor and possibly the battery) on the Bolt are not sized for the amount of power that towing a trailer will put through the system. You could try to tow with your bolt, but it is highly likely that thermal protection algorithms will start to derate power output to protect the hardware.

Just curious are the batteries on the Bolt liquid cooled? I know the Nissan Leaf was not.

Yep

ggardne2 wrote:
I suspect that the cooling system for the electrical components (inverter and motor and possibly the battery) on the Bolt are not sized for the amount of power that towing a trailer will put through the system. You could try to tow with your bolt, but it is highly likely that thermal protection algorithms will start to derate power output to protect the hardware.

Just curious are the batteries on the Bolt liquid cooled? I know the Nissan Leaf was not.

In terms of load on the system, towing a small trailer on the flats should be easier on the system than driving up a long moderate grade without a trailer. (With a trailer, one really just has to get it up to speed. Keeping it there is light work outside of the mountains.) The system had better be up for normal mountain driving.

It's an interesting project and I look forward to hearing how it goes.

I suspect that the cooling system for the electrical components (inverter and motor and possibly the battery) on the Bolt are not sized for the amount of power that towing a trailer will put through the system. You could try to tow with your bolt, but it is highly likely that thermal protection algorithms will start to derate power output to protect the hardware.

I installed 2000 lb receivers on both my '03 VW Jetta and '15 Chevy Sonic. Due to lack of frame structure, they could not be used with a WDH and are limited to 200 lbs tongue weight. Both handle 1500 lbs well but were pushed around a little with the maximum 2000 lbs in tow without brakes.

camperfern wrote:

GeoBoy wrote:
But the Bolt owner's manual makes it pretty clear:

2019 Chevy Bolt Owner's Manual Page 235 wrote:

!Warning
Never tow a trailer with your vehicle. It was not designed or intended to tow a trailer.

Well it appears that your going to go ahead with this stupid idea of towing with a vehicle that isn’t designed for this. Keep in mind that if you are involved in an accident with this vehicle and someone is injured, lawyers are going to have a field day with you. Also if you damage this leased vehicle because of the towing, you will also be on the hook for the damages.:S

This reads pretty close to flaming, just sayin'. Information is welcome, personal attacks not.

Don’t let it get to you. There is a lot of that on this board and generally if you are not over 85 and pissed off at the world you don’t fit in to well here. You are however very welcome and new RVers with new ideas will hopefully bring this board back to the fun place it was years ago.

I checked and there are a few pics on the web of Bolts pulling various types of small trailers. I think they must be using that e-trailer hitch. There is also a device for the lights. I didn’t see an immediate solution for the brakes but I know some of my fellow Leaf drivers and certainly Tesla model 3 drivers are overcoming this. Let us know how it works out.

Cheers

It's likely that Chevy will list towing capacity as zero/not recommended and doing so could potentially void the warranty.

You'd also need to cut/modify the "belly pan" to fit a tow bar. Not a good idea, particularly if you lease the vehicle.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/towing-with-the-bolt.4466/#post-33634

GeoBoy wrote:
But the Bolt owner's manual makes it pretty clear:

2019 Chevy Bolt Owner's Manual Page 235 wrote:

!Warning
Never tow a trailer with your vehicle. It was not designed or intended to tow a trailer.

Well it appears that your going to go ahead with this stupid idea of towing with a vehicle that isn’t designed for this. Keep in mind that if you are involved in an accident with this vehicle and someone is injured, lawyers are going to have a field day with you. Also if you damage this leased vehicle because of the towing, you will also be on the hook for the damages.:S

This reads pretty close to flaming, just sayin'. Information is welcome, personal attacks not.

maddog348 wrote:
Just tear out Page 235 ~ problem solved.

JM2¢ ~~ YMMV

:B

Just tear out Page 235 ~ problem solved.

JM2¢ ~~ YMMV