Using an Electric Vehicle as a Toad (on a trailer)

[John___Angela]

Noticed a 2016 leaf on a trailer behind a Monaco Signature the other day. Curious how many others are thinking of going this route. We are towing Angelas Smart Electric down south this year (as opposed to my diesel smart) but it was easy for us as we already had the trailer for the other smart. We'll bring both our 120 volt and 240 volt EVSE's for convenience on our lot. I would have like to talk to the fellow in the Monaco but by the time we got back to the mall he was gone. IT looked like a nice combo, matching rims on the trailer, similar colours on the motorhome. Wonder if he signed up for the Model 3 Tesla. 🙂 We didn't as we will probably replace our old diesel burner smart with the Gen 4 electric smart as we want to stay with a two seater convertible and we don't need any more than a couple hundred kilometers of range...and its cheaper. 🙂 Any one else going to tow their EV?

[John___Angela]

WayneLee wrote:
Regarding the issue raised about towing a hybrid 4 wheels down: All of the Ford car line are towable 4 down, hybrids and non-hybrids. Personally, I have a Ford Fusion iEnergy (plug in hybrid) that gets about 20 miles from a 7.5 KWH battery and also has a small 4 cylinder gasoline engine. Overall, I am averaging 50 to 60 MPG. But, alas, mine is a company car, and a leased one at that, so I cannot set it up for towing.

Interesting info though. Thanks for sharing. I think Hybrids will have their market more in North America than europe which will probably be straight electric. Hybrids have theor niche especially in one vehicle families that occasionally need to go longer distances. i would suspect the industry analysts are right in that within a decade most north American two car households will have one fully electric and one hybrid within a decade. I think the hybrid market overseas will fade away over the next decade. Distances are shorter, there are NO pickups and no one wants to be bothered with the oil changes and maintenance that still come with a hybrid. It will be interesting to watch how the revolution unfolds over the next 10 to 20 years.

[WayneLee]

Regarding the issue raised about towing a hybrid 4 wheels down: All of the Ford car line are towable 4 down, hybrids and non-hybrids. Personally, I have a Ford Fusion iEnergy (plug in hybrid) that gets about 20 miles from a 7.5 KWH battery and also has a small 4 cylinder gasoline engine. Overall, I am averaging 50 to 60 MPG. But, alas, mine is a company car, and a leased one at that, so I cannot set it up for towing.

[John___Angela]

Y-Guy wrote:
Thanks J&A! I appreciate the reply, sounds like you're pretty reasonable in your expectations!

No worries. I think most EV drivers are. There is an etiquette, most follow it, some don't. Those of us with driveways or garages with power can charge at home. Those who live in apartments need to rely on public/commercial locations so the etiquette is to generally not use those stations unless you really need them...which is rarely. On this side of the pond there will be gas and diesel vehicles for awhile yet as the commuter vehicle ranges of 150KM don't work for those who need to travel longer distances and of course pickup owners. In europe things are changing rapidly. Holland is the first of many countries that have just outlawed gas or diesel vehicle sales past 2025. Although there is no real infrastructure crisis they will have to add a significant amount of stations to keep up with the demand as there are many apartment dwellers in countries like Holland. In Norway this year 1/3 of all vehicles sold this year will be electric. It will be an interesting 10 years.

[Y-Guy]

Thanks J&A! I appreciate the reply, sounds like you're pretty reasonable in your expectations!

[John___Angela]

Y-Guy wrote:

JimHB wrote:
There is another problem with the theory though - as far as I know, the hybrids typically don't recharge the main battery while driving them around.

Question for you, one guy said most private campgrounds don't allow to charge your vehicle through the campground power unless it was metered. What have you run into?

Well, ours is full electric and we carry it on a small trailer. Honestly it hasn't come up yet. It has about 150 KM of range and so far we haven't needed to charge specifically in a campground except for our own site where I pay the power. I think if (and when) it comes up I'll approach the owner manager and offer an appropriate amount and maybe even double it just for the courtesy of letting me charge. Typically if it was an empty battery (which is never the case) it would be less than two bucks to completely charge it at least at 11 cents a kilowatt and that is a roughly 20 KW battery. All any of them need to charge is a 15 amp 110 plug although they charge a lot faster with a 220 plug 50 amp plug. The reality is there are lots of charging stations out there and most of us have a swipe card we can use for the commercial level 2 and 3 chargers at malls or Walgreens or wherever. Honestly though, it is very rare that I charge anywhere other than my own place. I would probably offer a campground guy five bucks to charge over night if and when it ever comes up.

I think 10 years down the road some campgrounds will add facilities to attract business as Electric vehicles become more the norm. It would probably influence my decision on where to stay if I was planning on staying for awhile but less so if I was just passing through.

Interestingly, we noticed that a local campground close to Winfield has added a single level 2 charge station. There is an APP that helps us EV drivers to find charge stations. The TESLA folks have their own network which is quite extensive. I doubt they would ever need a campground hookup.

[Y-Guy]

JimHB wrote:
There is another problem with the theory though - as far as I know, the hybrids typically don't recharge the main battery while driving them around.

Question for you, one guy said most private campgrounds don't allow to charge your vehicle through the campground power unless it was metered. What have you run into?

[JimHB]

lryrob9301 wrote:

Rbertalotto wrote:
I always though an Hybrid electric vehicle, with it's huge LI battery pack, and having its wheels on the ground, using regenerative braking to charge the battery would be a great toad. Once at the camp site, plug the RV into the toad and have enought battery power to run the AC all night. While sight seeing the next day in the toad, the battery could be recharging for the next night. Brilliant!

The only problem with this theory is there are no 4-down towable Hybrid vehicles made.

We have a 2015 Ford C-Max Hybrid that we tow 4-down. Approx 20 mile electric-only range.

There is another problem with the theory though - as far as I know, the hybrids typically don't recharge the main battery while driving them around.

[GordonThree]

Be easier to build regen into the bus instead. More and more solar electric busses around, wonder what an RV conversion would look like...

[rjstractor]

GordonThree wrote:
The drag regen braking would put on the tow will cost more than running the hybrid engine or a generator. Kinda like attaching a wind turbine to the RV so you can recharge batteries while driving.

What would be magic is to get the regen braking to only kick in when you actually wanted braking. This would require the toad to actually be engineered as a toad- with factory engineered baseplate brackets and an integrated braking system, using regenerative braking to charge the batteries. I don't see this happening any time soon though.....

[John___Angela]

dicknellen wrote:

lryrob9301 wrote:

Rbertalotto wrote:
I always though an Hybrid electric vehicle, with it's huge LI battery pack, and having its wheels on the ground, using regenerative braking to charge the battery would be a great toad. Once at the camp site, plug the RV into the toad and have enought battery power to run the AC all night. While sight seeing the next day in the toad, the battery could be recharging for the next night. Brilliant!

The only problem with this theory is there are no 4-down towable Hybrid vehicles made.

No true see the Ford 2016 Rv & towing guide, at least 4 Hybrids available for 4 down towing from Ford & Lincoln. Dick

Interesting. I don't see any full Electrics though. I kinda doubt we will. I didn't see the BMW listed though. Definetly a no on the leaf and the smart.

[dicknellen]

lryrob9301 wrote:

Rbertalotto wrote:
I always though an Hybrid electric vehicle, with it's huge LI battery pack, and having its wheels on the ground, using regenerative braking to charge the battery would be a great toad. Once at the camp site, plug the RV into the toad and have enought battery power to run the AC all night. While sight seeing the next day in the toad, the battery could be recharging for the next night. Brilliant!

The only problem with this theory is there are no 4-down towable Hybrid vehicles made.

No true see the Ford 2016 Rv & towing guide, at least 4 Hybrids available for 4 down towing from Ford & Lincoln. Dick

[GordonThree]

The drag regen braking would put on the tow will cost more than running the hybrid engine or a generator. Kinda like attaching a wind turbine to the RV so you can recharge batteries while driving.

[Rbertalotto]

I wasn't suggesting that it exists. But someone should develop such a vehicle.

[lryrob9301]

Rbertalotto wrote:
I always though an Hybrid electric vehicle, with it's huge LI battery pack, and having its wheels on the ground, using regenerative braking to charge the battery would be a great toad. Once at the camp site, plug the RV into the toad and have enought battery power to run the AC all night. While sight seeing the next day in the toad, the battery could be recharging for the next night. Brilliant!

The only problem with this theory is there are no 4-down towable Hybrid vehicles made.