Will Your Next Tow Vehicle be Electric?

[obiwancanoli]

Trailer Life EV Article

Interesting article on EV's as a tow vehicle

[fj12ryder]

Reisender wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

Reisender wrote:
Well, you won’t go 500 miles towing in any current electric vehicle, or least not in a comparable time to ice towing. But just doing a 500 mile day in an EV is easy, and in the same time as an ice vehicle. Our longest routine travel days right now are exactly 476 Km from home to hotel. But we have done the return trip in one long 12 hour day including 2 hours of business at the opposite end. So whatever 952 km
is in miles. I hate long days like this. Autopilot makes the drive easier though. I prefer no more than 9 hours at a time on the road, and some where in there a lunch break and a couple of coffee/pee/chihuahua breaks.

Wow, 600 miles in 12 hours is bookin' it. Or were you referring to taking 12 hours for the return trip of 295 miles alone? That's not so hot: 295 miles in 12 hours pretty much sucks. A person should be able to cover 500 miles in around 10 hours, give or take.

Just not sure if I'm confused here. 🙂

No. It’s about 5 hours each direction with stops. But we generally have about 1 to 2 hours of business at the other end so it can be a 12 hour day. Too long for me. Like I say. If we are doing a multi day trip we try to keep it to a 9 hour travel day which for us seems to be around 800 km or so depending on speed limits etc. I swear to god I had a bigger bladder when I was younger. 🙂

Yeah, I know the feeling. 🙂

That is really impressive: 600 miles in 10 hours with stops. You must be averaging 65 mph.

[Reisender]

fj12ryder wrote:

Reisender wrote:
Well, you won’t go 500 miles towing in any current electric vehicle, or least not in a comparable time to ice towing. But just doing a 500 mile day in an EV is easy, and in the same time as an ice vehicle. Our longest routine travel days right now are exactly 476 Km from home to hotel. But we have done the return trip in one long 12 hour day including 2 hours of business at the opposite end. So whatever 952 km
is in miles. I hate long days like this. Autopilot makes the drive easier though. I prefer no more than 9 hours at a time on the road, and some where in there a lunch break and a couple of coffee/pee/chihuahua breaks.

Wow, 600 miles in 12 hours is bookin' it. Or were you referring to taking 12 hours for the return trip of 295 miles alone? That's not so hot: 295 miles in 12 hours pretty much sucks. A person should be able to cover 500 miles in around 10 hours, give or take.

Just not sure if I'm confused here. 🙂

No. It’s about 5 hours each direction with stops. But we generally have about 1 to 2 hours of business at the other end so it can be a 12 hour day. Too long for me. Like I say. If we are doing a multi day trip we try to keep it to a 9 hour travel day which for us seems to be around 800 km or so depending on speed limits etc. I swear to god I had a bigger bladder when I was younger. 🙂

[fj12ryder]

Reisender wrote:
Well, you won’t go 500 miles towing in any current electric vehicle, or least not in a comparable time to ice towing. But just doing a 500 mile day in an EV is easy, and in the same time as an ice vehicle. Our longest routine travel days right now are exactly 476 Km from home to hotel. But we have done the return trip in one long 12 hour day including 2 hours of business at the opposite end. So whatever 952 km
is in miles. I hate long days like this. Autopilot makes the drive easier though. I prefer no more than 9 hours at a time on the road, and some where in there a lunch break and a couple of coffee/pee/chihuahua breaks.

Wow, 600 miles in 12 hours is bookin' it. Or were you referring to taking 12 hours for the return trip of 295 miles alone? That's not so hot: 295 miles in 12 hours pretty much sucks. A person should be able to cover 500 miles in around 10 hours, give or take.

Just not sure if I'm confused here. 🙂

[Moderator]

moved from ATC

[Cloud_Dancer]

NOPE

[Reisender]

Well, you won’t go 500 miles towing in any current electric vehicle, or least not in a comparable time to ice towing. But just doing a 500 mile day in an EV is easy, and in the same time as an ice vehicle. Our longest routine travel days right now are exactly 476 Km from home to hotel. But we have done the return trip in one long 12 hour day including 2 hours of business at the opposite end. So whatever 952 km
is in miles. I hate long days like this. Autopilot makes the drive easier though. I prefer no more than 9 hours at a time on the road, and some where in there a lunch break and a couple of coffee/pee/chihuahua breaks.

[azdryheat]

2oldman wrote:

azdryheat wrote:
I like the idea of an electric truck but until I can do a 500 mile day I'm not interested.

I am never interested in 500 miles in one day!

I hope we see it. I would so love to pass up a gas station.

I'm not a fan of it either but we recently did Tucson to Tampa in 4x500 mile days. Wife did do some of the driving since the time frame was her idea.

[Reisender]

wildmanbaker wrote:
WOW! This is a very funny post.....

Which one?

[wildmanbaker]

WOW! This is a very funny post.....

[Reisender]

eheading wrote:
I met a guy in South Carolina last year who was towing about a 20' trailer with a Tesla. I spoke with him, and he said the Tesla worked just great. He traveled back and forth between Montreal and Florida. He new where the charging stations were along the way, and traveled 100 to 150 miles a day and had no problems. He thought it was the only way to go.

Ed Headington

And the reality is with any Tesla you don’t need to know where the nearest charging facilities are. The car is all voice command controlled. Simply ask the car where the nearest charging is. It will provide a list of choices. Just pick one and tell it to go there. It will plot it and navigate there. And as long as you are on the freeway it will make all the turns necessary including off ramps and on ramps and take you there. It will tell you how busy the charger is, what speed it is etc so you can choose accordingly. Works pretty slick. We are still getting used to the voice commands but we have yet to confuse it. You can give your car a name and call it by name. Wife named hers Jarvis. :). Truly no buttons required for most functions.

[TechWriter]

Congrats OP!

I think this thread set a record . . . it stayed on topic for a whole 4 posts !!!

[eheading]

I met a guy in South Carolina last year who was towing about a 20' trailer with a Tesla. I spoke with him, and he said the Tesla worked just great. He traveled back and forth between Montreal and Florida. He new where the charging stations were along the way, and traveled 100 to 150 miles a day and had no problems. He thought it was the only way to go.

Ed Headington

[valhalla360]

Blaster Man wrote:
It will be a cold day when an electric motor is small enough to carry in a MH and strong enough to push/pull it all day long.

You can have a smaller electric motor now that will blow away any diesel/gas engine you can find.

Problem lies in a battery bank that can feed said electric motor.

[valhalla360]

robatthelake wrote:
Maybe build highways featuring touch less Induction charging lanes along every on ramp or at 50 Mile intervals! Just drive and charge at the same time!

Just thinking Trolley Buses and Slot Cars combined with current Induction charging pads! Possibly installed along Toll Roads would be the proper way to go!

Not likely in my lifetime!

There are actually some testing going on now using overhead cables.

Wireless is horribly inefficient but direct contact works fine.

The problem is to outfit thousands and thousands of lane miles or roads...is incredibly expensive both initial installation and ongoing maintenance.

For reference, most power utilities are gradually moving toward underground power because of the cost of upkeep on overhead lines.

[Reisender]

That’s actually a good analogy. Some routes will probably see drops in traffic as more EV’s are sold and drivers have to change from their favourite routes because of lack of infrastructure. We use to travel south and north using 93 from twin falls Idaho towards the south. So thru Jackpot, Alamo, Vegas etc. That’s over now. Now would we take the Salt lake route or the I5 route or the coastal route from north to south or vice versa. I guess my point is little communities need to get on it if they don’t want to see traffic disappear thru their towns.

DC fast charging growth has really taken off in this province in the last 5 years. Right now the gas station chains are adding DC fast chargers pretty regularly.

Times are a changing.