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I imagine the range loss has more to do with the aerodynamics of the trailer than the weight. I towed 1500lbs from Florida to Vermont behind my Honda Insight and averaged 57mpg at normal highway speeds - because I built the trailer to look like an airplane wing. Meanwhile towing a standard 4x8 cargo trailer, empty, is worse than that.
Towing and Payload Capacity
Rivian says that every R1T can tow more than 11,000 pounds and the pickup offers a payload capacity of 1760 pounds.
And Ford truck EV can tow a train.
But can any of them tow more than 11,000 pounds for much more than 100 miles? The 180 kWh R1T probably can do a bit over 100 but, yeah, it would really suck to take a longer road trip if you have to stop every 80-100 miles, unhitch the trailer, charge for an hour, hitch back up. That'd get old real quick.
UK likes their smaller caravans that are towable by most cars whereas everything is better if it's bigger here. Range is just going to suck with an 8,000 pound travel trailer.
I imagine the range loss has more to do with the aerodynamics of the trailer than the weight. I towed 1500lbs from Florida to Vermont behind my Honda Insight and averaged 57mpg at normal highway speeds - because I built the trailer to look like an airplane wing. Meanwhile towing a standard 4x8 cargo trailer, empty, is worse than that.
Yep, it's usually a lot more about the aerodynamics because at highway speeds, aerodynamic drag quickly goes past rolling resistance as the most important factor in energy drain and aerodynamic drag doesn't care how much mass you're moving.
It'll be interesting to see if trailer designs change to go with EVs such as a resurgence of more aerodynamic trailers or some kind of standardized signal/power protocol for trailers that either have battery packs and/or simple motors optimized for EV towing.
500+ miles on a single charge while towing 3,500 kg in zero degrees (Celsus? that's what I'm assuming as zero Fahrenheit is far colder) is going to be several years away. If that's a must have for you, then don't bother looking into it for the next few years, because there's almost no way the battery improvements will move to making that affordable within the next few years.
500+ miles on a single charge without towing in cold weather will start being available on high end cars this year or next year (I believe two standard deviations above the median price for the US is close to $90K USD). I'd expect that to be available for mid-range vehicles within the next few years. However, I wouldn't 500+ on a single charge while towing 3,500 kg in zero C weather to be available on the mass market for several years.
Sorry, yes, zero degrees Celsius. I work in construction and sometimes travel to Newcastle 60 miles away and then back towing a trailer with sometimes a digger or car in the trailer. This can use a 1/3 rd of a tank of diesel in the car and half a tank in the van.
Reading the thread, it's going to be some years off before a practical electric option will become available. As for an electric fan heater in an EV, I take it that's a no no, unless you're just popping down to the shops.
The good news is, I have 12 years till retirement and the UK are banning the sake of new ICE cars in 2030, so, I'll be buying a new diesel in 2029 and that should see me out.
Sorry, yes, zero degrees Celsius. I work in construction and sometimes travel to Newcastle 60 miles away and then back towing a trailer with sometimes a digger or car in the trailer. This can use a 1/3 rd of a tank of diesel in the car and half a tank in the van.
Reading the thread, it's going to be some years off before a practical electric option will become available. As for an electric fan heater in an EV, I take it that's a no no, unless you're just popping down to the shops.
The good news is, I have 12 years till retirement and the UK are banning the sake of new ICE cars in 2030, so, I'll be buying a new diesel in 2029 and that should see me out.
If your trip to Newcastle 60 miles away and back towing a trailer of 3,500 kg at zero Celsius is pretty close to what your normal use case is, then provided you actually have a place to charge when you're parked at home or whichever, then a 2029 purchase would probably land you pretty squarely into the EV being the better choice at that point given how rapidly batteries have been improving. Now or the next few years though, it's just not going to make sense for your use case to get an EV unless you're loaded with money and want a luxury vehicle anyways.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 02-07-2021 at 06:15 PM..
Hell, my 8.1 liter Suburban can't go 500 miles on a full tank even NOT towing anything. Put my 35ft, 9400 lb travel trailer back there and I have to stop every 200 miles and fuel up. I'm an EV fan and have an EV as my daily driver, but I don't see them replacing my truck anytime soon. OTOH, I barely put any miles on the truck as it gets such bad mileage that it's ONLY used to tow the travel trailer occasionally and sometimes make dump runs. The EV is just better for daily driving, and it's quickly getting better for road trips, too.
The Tesla Model X is rated to tow 5,000 pounds and even has a Trailer Mode that will automatically level the suspension and turn off rear proximity sensors (mostly) when towing a trailer.
Overall, the efficiency meter on the Model X showed between 600 and 1,200 watt-hours per mile along the trip, depending on the conditions.
It is insane all the rubbish one must go through, especially needing to sit and charge for an hour. Who has friggen time to do that?
Also, though I have never heard of it before, I'll bet these charging station depots will become robbery points, as many people who own such cars have money.
A criminal know they are going to be sitting on their expansive laptops, tablets, etc. and many will have cash jewelry, luggage and so on.
It is insane all the rubbish one must go through, especially needing to sit and charge for an hour. Who has friggen time to do that?
Most people with EVs currently charge at home while asleep. So it's only on the rare road trip you have to charge the car out and about. And if you plan your route properly, you're only topping off to get to the next station so the charge times are MUCH shorter.
With my Suburban and travel trailer, I'm stopping for about 10 minutes every 200 miles to fuel up and take a potty break for the wife and dogs. So it's not much different than road tripping in my Bolt, which takes a 20 minute stop every 150 miles (the range is actually closer to 300 miles, but you don't want to run it to empty, and then you don't need to fill it to full either...). In essence on a typical trip from here in Baltimore to my son's house in eastern CT, it takes an hour longer in the EV than in the gas truck, and at a 7 hour trip, adding an hour really doesn't matter. It's not like I'm trying to set a new Cannonball speed record when driving to my kid's house... lol But, 99.9% of the time, I'm well within my 300 mile range in daily driving, and really only plug in for an overnight charge once a week.
The issue with EV's isn't towing capacity (though that's really a bit of a misnomer for any vehicle; it's not how much it will pull but how much can it control what it's pulling). The issue with EVs is and will be for some time range. And it will be some time before the charging infrastructure is anywhere neat what it will need to be. It will have to be standardized for all vehicles and there will have to be a lot of them. Consider how many gas pumps are out there. And then consider a charge takes longer than a fill up. So there will need to be a lot of them to match the current flexibility.
The issue with EV's isn't towing capacity (though that's really a bit of a misnomer for any vehicle; it's not how much it will pull but how much can it control what it's pulling). The issue with EVs is and will be for some time range. And it will be some time before the charging infrastructure is anywhere neat what it will need to be. It will have to be standardized for all vehicles and there will have to be a lot of them. Consider how many gas pumps are out there. And then consider a charge takes longer than a fill up. So there will need to be a lot of them to match the current flexibility.
Again, you can't fill up your gas car at home. So you go someplace else to fill up. If you COULD fill up at home and have a full tank every morning, how much gas would you need to carry with you to do your normal driving? That's what us EV drivers are doing. Every morning I wake up to a "full tank" and 300 miles of range to use. That's from here in Baltimore to the middle of Connecticut. Not something I do on a daily basis. If I do that much driving, there are fast chargers all over that can top off the car in a few minutes. And there are a LOT more chargers coming on line as destination chargers. Even redneck Tennessee is putting in a few hundred new chargers all over so that you are never more than 50 miles from a charging station. If they can do it, any state can.
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