Hybrid Towing with Adaptive Cruise on hills

[daemonic3]

Hello team!

I did some more testing on a quick weekend trip dry camping. I live at sea level and campground was roughly 45m away at 3500 feet. So a lot of grades on the way. There was too much traffic on Friday evening to test out the cruise heading up the hill, but I got to do some downhill testing!

I used to have a 2017 EB with this same trailer (roughly ~7500# loaded) and I never tried cruise to lock in the downhill speed. I didn't trust it and thought it may keep a steady amount of friction brakes and would overheat the brakes. Rather, I like to use downshifting and occasional harder presses to slow down, then let it coast again, hard press to slow, repeat. I may be wrong, but it just always felt like it made more sense to let the brakes get some air in between heavy friction periods.

So based on testing of the adaptive cruise on the Powerboost and watching it work in stop and go freeway traffic, the computer algorithm is HIGHLY optimized to get the most out of regenerative braking and downshifting to stay off the friction brakes. It just automatically maximizes the brakes in the "green" zone without going "white" (friction) if you watch the EV Coach screen. I wanted to determine - how would the computer do when towing downhill and using regen with downshifting? Will it stay off the friction brakes to keep speed?

The answer appears to be YES! I kept it around 55 or 58 depending on speed limits and the truck never let it go more than +2 above my setting, and would quickly get it back to my locked in speed - NICE. I watched the EV Coach the whole way back to sea level, and that computer algorithm is poetry in motion, simply incredible. I think I only saw it enter friction braking zone TWICE in the the 35 minutes of descent.

Going *to* the campsite I got ~6.5 MPG's (yuck!) but heading home my This Trip was 13.9 MPG's (yay!).


CAVEAT: I *completely* forgot and am now kicking myself, but I should have flipped over to the Trailer Status information screen while the cruise was controlling my descent. It could change my conclusion if while the truck is 100% regenerative braking, if the gain meter on the trailer brakes was being applied. I will definitely check this on my trip to Reno from sea level next weekend and report back. My trailer brakes were definitely not smoking or smelling so I think they were not applied but I need to double check!

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[Longhorngary]

Hello team!

I did some more testing on a quick weekend trip dry camping. I live at sea level and campground was roughly 45m away at 3500 feet. So a lot of grades on the way. There was too much traffic on Friday evening to test out the cruise heading up the hill, but I got to do some downhill testing!

I used to have a 2017 EB with this same trailer (roughly ~7500# loaded) and I never tried cruise to lock in the downhill speed. I didn't trust it and thought it may keep a steady amount of friction brakes and would overheat the brakes. Rather, I like to use downshifting and occasional harder presses to slow down, then let it coast again, hard press to slow, repeat. I may be wrong, but it just always felt like it made more sense to let the brakes get some air in between heavy friction periods.

So based on testing of the adaptive cruise on the Powerboost and watching it work in stop and go freeway traffic, the computer algorithm is HIGHLY optimized to get the most out of regenerative braking and downshifting to stay off the friction brakes. It just automatically maximizes the brakes in the "green" zone without going "white" (friction) if you watch the EV Coach screen. I wanted to determine - how would the computer do when towing downhill and using regen with downshifting? Will it stay off the friction brakes to keep speed?

The answer appears to be YES! I kept it around 55 or 58 depending on speed limits and the truck never let it go more than +2 above my setting, and would quickly get it back to my locked in speed - NICE. I watched the EV Coach the whole way back to sea level, and that computer algorithm is poetry in motion, simply incredible. I think I only saw it enter friction braking zone TWICE in the the 35 minutes of descent.

Going *to* the campsite I got ~6.5 MPG's (yuck!) but heading home my This Trip was 13.9 MPG's (yay!).


CAVEAT: I *completely* forgot and am now kicking myself, but I should have flipped over to the Trailer Status information screen while the cruise was controlling my descent. It could change my conclusion if while the truck is 100% regenerative braking, if the gain meter on the trailer brakes was being applied. I will definitely check this on my trip to Reno from sea level next weekend and report back. My trailer brakes were definitely not smoking or smelling so I think they were not applied but I need to double check!

great, I'd be curious to see your results as I tow our wakeboard boat frequently that's roughly the same weight.