For those towing with Teslas. Super charger tips. Thanks

My 5.3 towing a 6k dry, 7-7.5k loaded trailer has averaged 8.5mpg overall. Best tank was 10.1, worst 7.1. The 7.1 was towing 68mph through WV, learned I need to slow down with the full sized trailer, my previous 7' wide, 3,600 pound and shorter trailer I got 11.1 average at 68 even in the mountains.

Found a "real world" EV truck towing comparison test..

Featuring F150 lightning (EV) towing vs GMC Sierra (Gas) towing

HERE

The video is a good real world comparison but does have several shameless plugs for their youtube channel sponsors you can forward through.

Cliffs notes version of the video for those that don't wish to spend 24 minutes watching the video..

Setup-

Both towing exact same 6K lb trailer at the same time on same route, speeds and conditions.

Both battery and fuel tank are filled to 100%

GMC has 24 gallon tank

Lightning 282 miles non towing range with full charge, display estimated 160 miles towing the trailer selected with full charge.

Ultimately had to cut trip severely short due to less range than originally estimated and no charging stations close enough on their route that they could make it to and had to turn around and backtrack to the nearest charger they could find.

Vehicle power (acceleration performance) dropped to 90% at 9% battery left. Drove only 85.9 miles from 100% to 9% battery.

Took 45 minutes to recharge from 9% to 75% or so battery charge (but hey, they guy did get to eat a takeout “chicken dinner”in their F150 Lightning).. :R

GMC drove 155.8 mile 65 miles remaining using $5.39 Premium fuel per gallon took 17.371 gallons at $93.79, total fill up took only a few minutes. 8.9 MPG was the GMCs trip mileage and was able to complete the full trip without needing to refill (wow, that thing is a fuel hog for a ½ ton, I just averaged 10.1 MPG overall on a 1600 mile round trip towing a TT loaded to 6500 lbs with my 2020 F250 with 6.2 engine).

Lightning charge cost $27 for the first charge, had to stop on the way back to recharge again since they did not wait for a 100% charge. They did not disclose total electric cost at the end of the video, but since they had to stop and recharge on the way back one can assume they spent close to another $27 for a total trip cost of $72.90 and spent a whopping 1.5 hrs sitting around waiting for the battery to charge.

Ran across an interesting video which helps explain some of the differences in EV vs ICE when it comes to distance and why EV isn't quite there for hard core heavy towing.

HERE (note: does have some shameless "commercial plugs" for some hair growth products you can FF over).

As of right now, Fords Lightning F150 EPA range without towing is 230 miles with standard battery and 300 miles with extended range battery. Those numbers come from EPA testing, do not include towing but do include 1,000 lbs "payload". Top speed during the testing is 60 MPH and combines with a lot of low speed stop and go traffic until the vehicle can no longer move (not exactly realistic expectation as one would hope drivers are smarter than allowing themselves to run out of charge in the middle of no where).

Towing a standard 7K lb or 10K lb trailer I suspect it would be very doubtful you would get even 100 miles per full charge with standard battery and maybe stretch it to 125 miles with extended range battery with the F150 Lightning..

The mathematical numbers in the video shows the main problem with EV is still the battery energy storage density and weight is not as good as liquid fuels and that is where there still needs a lot of improvement.

Even though ICE is technically less energy efficient, the biggest plus is the energy density of liquid fuels is very high per pound and size compared to Lithium batteries. Refueling liquid fuels to a 100% full tank is very quick (full range restored) compared to recharging a battery to 80%-90% (at a reduced range) takes more time to complete.

Batteries have improved and for general use can be useful but for myself, just not there yet.

spoon059 wrote:

Reisender wrote:
And in answer to your question, a typical supercharger stop for us is 15 minutes.

Safe travels.

John

That is impressive! 15 minutes gives you a full charge? That is slower than fueling up, but assuming you don't have to wait in line for other poeple to fill up, I would say 15 minutes is pretty reasonable when towing.

Yah it’s fine. But we never arrive empty so that’s not a full charge. I tend to drive on the top 3/4 of my “tank”. I have never charged from empty so not sure how long that would take. And most EVers don’t charge the last 5 or so percent of the battery because it’s slow. We do that when charging overnight or sometimes during a lunch stop. The length And frequency of our charge stop is more dictated by when we need to pee or when the chihuahua needs a walk. Usually every couple hours or so, wether we are charging or not. It’s just how we roll.

Reisender wrote:
And in answer to your question, a typical supercharger stop for us is 15 minutes.

Safe travels.

John

That is impressive! 15 minutes gives you a full charge? That is slower than fueling up, but assuming you don't have to wait in line for other poeple to fill up, I would say 15 minutes is pretty reasonable when towing.

spoon059 wrote:
OP, how long does it take you to go from empty to full charge? On our last trip we drove 605 miles home in one day. The beauty of diesel fuel is it only took one fill up to get home, which took a total of 15 minutes to get off the highway, fuel up, let the kids go to the bathroom, walk the dogs, make some sandwiches and get back on the highway.

Getting 150 miles per full charge would require starting full and then at least 3 stops. Driving up I95 on the east coast, you go through lots of rural areas and I can't image there are too many Tesla charging docks between larger towns.

Yah for sure. Diesel rules in situation like that. We drove a diesel for years. If you need to do that kind of distance then diesel will be king for a long time.

Sorry I’m not familiar with charging infrastructure in that part of the continent. We are in BC and infrastructure is pretty good.

A long day on the road for us is 4 hours and most days are shorter. We are usually on the road by 11 and off by 1 or 2 in the afternoon. And in answer to your question, a typical supercharger stop for us is 15 minutes.

Safe travels.

John

OP, how long does it take you to go from empty to full charge? On our last trip we drove 605 miles home in one day. The beauty of diesel fuel is it only took one fill up to get home, which took a total of 15 minutes to get off the highway, fuel up, let the kids go to the bathroom, walk the dogs, make some sandwiches and get back on the highway.

Getting 150 miles per full charge would require starting full and then at least 3 stops. Driving up I95 on the east coast, you go through lots of rural areas and I can't image there are too many Tesla charging docks between larger towns.

JRscooby wrote:
I think if I owned the charge station I would set up a drive so you could park parallel on the other side so a trailer did not need to block. Even if parked on gravel.

For sure. I don't want to give the impression that they are all like this. But there are still many like this and with the push for more stations I think a lot of these will stay the way they are.

Here are a few pics of other stations both Tesla and public that are more compatible with trailer towing.

This is a trailer slot. The charger has been repositioned so that the Tesla drives in nose first. These are getting reasonably common. Usually one at each end of the line or sometimes just one.



These drivethru's still end up using two spots but that happens at gas pumps too.



Another version of the drive thru.



These are ideal. This is a public station. We have used this one. And there is enough space to the next charger for about a 25 foot trailer.



Another pull thru.



Unfortunately this is common where we are.



Anyway. You get the idea. Us early adapters have to figure it out. But with all the EV half tons hitting the street I think the planners are starting to take notice as we are noticing things improving...slowly. We can only hope. :)

Safe travels

I think if I owned the charge station I would set up a drive so you could park parallel on the other side so a trailer did not need to block. Even if parked on gravel.

@Caveman.

So, the answer is yes. Tesla allows for a 14 foot extension . They don’t sell them but another company does. We have bought from them before. I seem to recall they are around 400 bucks. Built to handle 250 amps 400 volts etc. Tesla actually uses them when charging semi prototypes at Superchargers.

It’s not something we would buy right now as some Superchargers have one or two trailer spots and some have pull thrus. We’ll see how it goes for the summer and decide from there.

Safe travels.