Towing to Lake Havasu -- Report

[Barbariansuperdad]

I thought I would post this in case any Southern California lightning owners were curious. I just towed my boat to lake Havasu about 268 miles from northern San Diego county. The truck towed great.

I had a ram 3500 before this and it didn’t have this much torque when I hit the gas. But it had killer range and high cost of maintenance. I only tie a handful times a year and my wife has a suburban so I wasn’t worried about the towing factor. But the big question is really about the range with towing. At first it did great. I drove up through Hemet into Beaumont and still had 78% battery (started at 100%). I call that win considering the grade in Lambs canyon. I drive that way every day without a trailer and use almost 20% battery without the boat. By the way, I average 1.9 kWh every day and have for the last 7 months I’ve owned this truck. I can’t wait to see what ram has to offer. At this point I should mention I was towing a 2019 Yamaha AR240 full of fuel, luggage and food/drinks for the weekend. I’ll guess around 7000 pounds with the trailer. I disconnected and charged at a Tesla station in Beaumont to 93%.

I got on the road and drove at 58 mph on cruises control the whole way. I pulled into Chiraco summit with 57%. The navigation system said I didn’t need to charge here but I did anyway. I charged just while going to the bathroom and getting road snacks for my son and I . We charged to 70% in about 12 minutes and got back on the road to Blythe. Desert center was closed so we had to go out toward Blythe highway 95. This is where things got weird. The navigation said to charge from 35% to 47% at one station in Blythe then go 4 miles down the freeway to highway 95 and charge from 40% to 57%. I used an Electrify America station not knowing that a really nice trailer friendly Tesla station was on the opposite side of the freeway. Tesla doesn’t compute in fords navigation. So again we disconnected and charged and then reconnected. But, I didn’t listen to the navigation. I charged up to 72%.

We left Quartzite and made our way to Parker. But, that subtle grade killed my range. I went from 1.5 mi/kwh to .7 mi/kwh. I was shocked at how bad the range was. I was freaking out because there wasn’t another station until I got to the lake at our house. I pulled in with 1 mile to spare on the battery. But, now I know. If I charged to 100% at Beaumont, Chiraco and Quartzite, I can make it to the lake towing. And now anyone in the IE knows too.

On the way home, we didn’t have the boat. I charged at home to 100%, then at Tesla in Quartzite to 93%. We made it to Beaumont 162 miles and two hours later with 8 miles left. We charged again in Beaumont at Tesla while we ate to 35% and went home. So if you’re wondering the range sucks for towing. We got about 90 miles on a full charge if I had to guess. The navigation system sucks too. The way it calculates is very weird. It would be like saying go to this gas station and put a few bucks in, then go down the street and put a few bucks in from this other station. Why not just fill to 100%?

Also, Tesla stations are the way to go. The others were in crappy places with run down gas stations. Tesla was clean and working and quick. The electrify America that advertised up to 350 kWh was actual putting out 36kwh. But teslas that were 250kwh put out about 180 at least for the first 20 minutes that I was watching,

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[TaxmanHog]

Thanks for the tow report!!!
What was your overall MPK to the lake house, 1.0???

As far as charging to above 80/90% at DCFC stations, it should only be done if you need the extra energy to make the leap to the next available station, otherwise, pump up the battery to the amount you need to reach subsequent leaps and the end point of the journey.

As you described the situation about needing to unhook the trailer, it dawns on me why the truck might hold onto the mode of operation "TOWING MODE" while briefly disconnected, the truck needs to continue to know that condition for computing the exaggerated energy consumption for the remainder of the trip, IMHO continue charging to 80% for each leap, or higher only when warranted.

 

[Barbariansuperdad]

I don’t know the overall. I would guess about 1 MPK. Sometimes I was up around 4 MPK and allot of the time I was at 1 or lower.

As for charging to a point recommended by the computer, I have to disagree. The computer was very, very wrong on its calculation. That’s why I recommend charging to capacity or just below and try to space chargers out around 100 miles. At least for me, that seems more practical than the way the computer is trying to plan the route. The computer has you just getting by, but the range is wrong. So you actually come up short at each stop and eventually have to charge a lot to make it all up.

 

[RickLightning]

Had you setup the trailer in the truck?

Did you ensure the trailer was showing as connected? And, after you disconnected to charge and then reconnected, did it stay connected?

Were you in tow/haul mode?

The truck navigation should accurately predict the range if it has knowledge. If you setup the trailer, that is knowledge, as long as it shows connected, but then actually towing allows it to learn and adjust. It makes assumptions that are then proven wrong by the human being doing things differently, and it adjusts. I would expect that as you drove, it would have gotten more accurate.

 

[TheWoo]

I don’t know the overall. I would guess about 1 MPK. Sometimes I was up around 4 MPK and allot of the time I was at 1 or lower.

As for charging to a point recommended by the computer, I have to disagree. The computer was very, very wrong on its calculation. That’s why I recommend charging to capacity or just below and try to space chargers out around 100 miles. At least for me, that seems more practical than the way the computer is trying to plan the route. The computer has you just getting by, but the range is wrong. So you actually come up short at each stop and eventually have to charge a lot to make it all up.

I wouldn't trust (never do in fact) what the truck tells me to charge to, but the premise is sound. Charging slows so significantly once above 80% that it doesn't make sense to keep charging beyond that unless absolutely necessary. The key it appears in your trip would have been charging more than the recommendation each stop.

Now, having to unhook the boat each time factors into the most efficient way to handle charging as it adds a lot of "overhead" time to each charging stop. But I still wouldn't plan to charge above 80 unless absolutely necessary.

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