Nerve-Racking 1st 200 Mile Tesla Camper Tow|| Model X Towing || Sn. 3, Ep. 30

We got tired of waiting for everything to open up to give the Tesla and our Apex Nano 194BHS their first real test, so we took our set up out for lunch! ⇟⇟⇟MORE BELOW⇟⇟⇟
With COVID-19 still making it difficult to get out and camp, we made our own adventure. We packed up a lunch, got a little water in the tanks, and hit the road. We traveled just under 100 miles to the next closest Tesla Supercharger in Grand Island, NE and back home again in one day.
How did she tow? It's a tail of 2 trips between our drive out to Grand Island and back. So, how many miles can we go in a single charge? That may still be a mystery to discover each time we travel!
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#Tesla #TowingWithaTesla #ModelX #EV

[@JeremyAkersInAustin]

Something to think about: Driving 53 mph into 22 mph headwinds = The same as driving 75 mph in still wind. The air speed across the front of the car and trailer is at 75 mph. On the drive over you had a tailwind, so you were driving 65 mph, but the 7mph tailwind made it so that the airflow over the vehicle or trailer would be decreased to 58 MPH. Drag increases at twice the rate of the Increase in airspeed, so an increase of speed (or headwind) by 10% increases drag by 20% Headwinds makes a *huge* difference when you think of it that way. I have the same issue when pulling in my diesel pickup. I've almost run out of fuel on trips when I've encountered unexpectedly strong headwinds.

[@AllElectricFamily]

It does make a huge difference. Thanks for the detailed breakdown! We may have to take a look at this specifically on a video!

[@RossYoungblood]

We nearly ran out of fuel with our Volvo towing had like 11 miles remaining in Eastern Oregon. Wish trailers were more aerodynamic, not everyone can afford sleek Airstreams, but it’s definitely on the radar. Just need one with a walk around bed under 5000#. I think to get a walk around bed in an Airstream you are at 6000-7000# or more exceeding Model X tow range.

[@monkeysuncle2816]

But I thought ONLY EVs lost fuel economy when towing or driving faster or uphill? 😆😆 Just kidding.

[@Five2Go]

We drove 60/65mph on every major highway in the country. You're being safe, people will pass, don't feel bad! Not only is it good for your mpg, it's also REALLY good for trailer tires. The RVs flying by you at 75-80 will be on the side of the road farther ahead with blowouts...

[@zachary456]

Hi Brian

[@AllElectricFamily]

Yes! I prefer to slow down when we're towing...but Steve is a get there fast kind of a guy. I'm secretly loving that the Tesla is going to slow him down a bit, because you're 100% right!

[@MrJcjet]

I tow thousands of miles a year at highway speeds. Never had a blowout. Trailer tires are normally rated for 75mph. Going 53mph on an 80mph posted road is not ideal. That's 30mph slower than other traffic. I'm assuming that road was slower posted speeds. So probably fine. In the western USA, you'd be making a lot of people pretty frustrated on two lane highways. And possibly getting pulled over - usually the law requires you to pull over if 4 or more cars are behind you. On a holiday weekend that might be every 5 miles you'd have to pull over to let people pass if you could only maintain 55mph. For local short trips - probably works great.

[@RossYoungblood]

@@AllElectricFamily my wife loves that too. The hardest thing about towing with the model X is staying under 75mph. The car says yeah you can pass that Porsche going 75mph going uphill on Mt Hood. The car doesn’t want to say ‘you will need to charge when you get to the top if you do that though’

[@justinprince9507]

Just fyi, most camper tires (especially on travel trailers) are only rated for 65 mph. Some travel trailers can be “E” rated which goes up to 75 mph but that is max. So you did good at keeping it at 60-65. Not saying you could intermittently and acutely speed past those speeds with the tires…..but long driving over the speed limits could over heat the tires and lead to a “blow out”.

[@AllElectricFamily]

Yes, those trailer tires aren't the best!

[@KiwiandPixel]

Please run some basic filters on your audio to remove the boomy bass from inside the car while you're driving and outside in the wind. The audio made this video less than pleasurable to watch. Overall, not a terrible video. I wonder how the Model Y will do with towing.

[@AllElectricFamily]

We will try to work on the audio. Thanks for watching even if it wasn’t the best!

[@KiwiandPixel]

@@AllElectricFamily Great! Also as a tip, take a look at your stats in terms of audience retention and average view time. 15 minutes may be long depending on those stats. I know for many content creators the goal is to create videos over 10 minutes so you can include mid-roll ads, but I don't know about your monetization status yet. Keep cranking out good work and your view/sub count will continue to climb!

[@danoberste8146]

There's a fix for SuperChargers that have that plastic grommet stuck in them. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n57VZ2minp2mecU kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmW2aKV-rc-ri6M I had to do it in Alabama once. You have to rap the plug onto the ground pretty hard to pop it out, I smack it like I'm trying to stab it into the asphalt. Now I check all the chargers while I'm charging, I've found three this way so far. The Tesla miles estimator is very conservative. I've driven 10 miles on 0%, in a cold rain (not towing though) Keep doing the videos, I'm full time RVing in 3 years when I retire, pulling a 5th wheel with my CyberTruck! :-)

[@AllElectricFamily]

Someone else just shared that video with us! Now we know!! I think I’m not going to share this info about the miles estimator with Steve so he doesn’t try to push it even further! 😂😂 thank you for watching!!

[@TheNorthwestTravelers]

Nice! Good luck with a long distance trip. looks like the wind is going to play a big part. Glad that you are doing this. It will help everyone understand the pro's and con's of the EV & towing. you do a good job with the content.

[@AllElectricFamily]

Thank you for the well wishes, I think we will need some positive vibes behind us! 😂 We appreciate you watching and hope we can get some helpful insight for people! Thanks for watching!!

[@HarveyPayne]

Any trailer is a big brick and wind plays a huge factor. If they were driving 53 MPH into a 23 MPH headwind, it is effectively the same as driving at 76 MPH which would be a huge drain on the battery towing that brick. Wind at times just cannot be avoided though. Keep speeds at 55 or less for best range.

[@charllectric4842]

And regardless if the stall are occupied or not, that's exactly how you should charge if you don'' t want to detach your trailer! (or if you want to detach it).

[@AllElectricFamily]

After a few months of towing we've found it's usually pretty easy to charge without unplugging--as long as no one is in that one spot you need!

[@RossYoungblood]

Glad you did this one! We just picked up our “Drogue Chute” trailer R-Pod 195 this week. Today I got the backup camera installed and we’re head out about 40 mi for a dry run. We still have the factory Bosal hitch, planning a swap to the Draw-Tite which arrived Wednesday. Not sure mr Draggy trailer will to as well to Yellowstone as our tiny White Water Retro 155 which is very aerodynamic but has a crawl over bed. The new Drogue Cute Trailer has a walk around queen...so I’ll be doing a bit-o-supercharging on road trips. I often question my sanity, my wife does, but it does tow so well. For Yellowstone we had a tow at 55mph or slower (45?), until the remaining State of charge % was less than miles remaining to our next stop. We planned 120-140 mile legs, thinking with our Mr Draggy, it will be more like 80-120 mile legs if we head to mountains in Yellowstone or Canada. Makes for slow traveling but you don’t get as tired driving 2 hrs napping/eating 1 hr. Plus we’re older than you two, so we need frequent potty breaks, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

[@AllElectricFamily]

Thanks. We have actually enjoyed the slower travel. Not normally Steve's speed but it does get us to slow down in life and that was one of the biggest reasons for camping in the first place so this adds to that. We want to plan both a Yellowstone and Canada trip. Mr. Draggy is a great name. We call our X Drama Queen;)

[@MarkAbele]

Hey guys! Excited to find your channel. We have a Model 3 right now but are looking to get a Model Y next year with an RV trailer shortly after that. Your channel will be super informative for our future adventures! BTW, lived almost half my life in Lincoln. One of the greatest cities in America. Truly miss it.

[@AllElectricFamily]

Welcome aboard! We hope our Tesla fleet will be the Model X and a Cyber Truck one day! Thank you so much for watching and we're glad you learned some stuff. We hope we can share a lot more about towing with Tesla now that the campgrounds are reopening! Lincoln is a great town, we really love it. So much to offer with a small town feel! ❤️

[@jvasko17]

With wind and if it were hilly, do you think you could go 80 miles? Sounds like it could be drive 1.5hrs, stop for 1.5hrs considering unhitching and hooking up.

[@AllElectricFamily]

I would say you'd more than likely be able to make it 80 miles. We haven't experienced it yet personally, so we're not 100% certain, but from what we were experiencing we were making it close to 100 miles, so I think 80 wouldn't be a problem. As far as timing, we were there for 1.5 hours and that included the time we took messing around with the broken charger, unhooking/hooking up, eating, and getting our kids tablets set up on hot spot for the first time (which we messed with a bit after the car was done charging because we weren't in a rush that day). So, I would hope most of the time it will actually be a around an hour to an hour 15.

[@shawncell1247]

you are pulling a billboard , LOL

[@monkeysuncle2816]

With 7 open, unused charging spaces I would have just pulled in sideways, and then watched to see if someone pulled up and needed me to move. Love the channel, though!

[@TRYtoHELPyou]

Great work, I have a spark EV and towed a trailer about 24 miles the other day. nearly drained the whole battery in under 30 mins. Kept up with traffic no worries. The return trip was much different, half a battery and that was with an additional 800 lb spa loaded in the trailer. physics, am i right?!

[@AllElectricFamily]

It’s amazing how different it can be! Maybe we will get it down to a science eventually. Thanks for watching!

[@EvgeniyConstruction]

Hey guys. How about a extension cord to charge the supercharger. Thanks

[@1StrangeAdventure]

Very cool. How does it do when 18w pass? I remember our TT would get sucked towards them as they passed. Thanks for sharing and safe travels!

[@AllElectricFamily]

It does get sucked in a bit. We only installed sway control on one side, so we may add it to the other side and see if that helps keep it stable next to a semi. Over all it feels pretty solid though!

[@joshuafox1520]

Thanks for the video y’all. Only issue I’ve got with your post is that you don’t give any consumption numbers! Please talk about your actual consumption on these videos. I’m a model x owner and that would really help. Thanks!

[@AllElectricFamily]

Joshua, we will work on making sure our numbers are shared! Thanks for watching!

[@justinprince9507]

Wind makes a big difference. A 20 mph head wind can drop my mpg -3-5

[@AllElectricFamily]

Wind is huge! It still amazes us how much of an impact it can have.

[@axelhoogland9442]

So what was the range you got with what percentage of battery? Did I miss that part?

[@AllElectricFamily]

We will make sure we get more details on #s in future videos! Thanks for the feedback!

[@soucyno1]

Okay y'all. I live in Utah and we are taking a trip with a trailer about the same size. HERE WE COME WEST VIRGINIA! I will be posting a video similar to this and I will try to grab all of those numbers. I took have 3 kids and it would not be below me to disconnect to make it to the next charger and come back for the trailer. Please feel free to watch for that. I leave March 28. I will try to post before the first of April. :)

[@AllElectricFamily]

Sounds like an exciting trip! Enjoy the trip and someday they will have more pull through sites so us crazy electric towers don’t have to disconnect.

[@HarveyPayne]

For a time, Model 3s had a problem with their charge ports and those little plastic plugs are from them. Take that charge handle and bang it against the side of your foot a couple times and that plastic plug will come out and you'll be able to use that charger -- and you've fixed it for the next guy who might not know this trick.

[@AllElectricFamily]

We're glad we have this trick in our pocket now! We'll be ready the next time it happens! Thank you!

[@SolomonHomestead]

Catching up on your Videos. Towing with a Tesla, never gave it a thought. Pretty cool!

[@AllElectricFamily]

It’s been on our minds since they announced the Cybertruck. We love EVs and thought why wait to get started towing with one! Thanks for watching!!

[@OTUSPIKE]

Just found you guys the other day - We have a 2016 MX and will be picking up a Gulf Stream Vista Cruiser 19CSK later this year, so interested in following your experiences. BTW - Are you aware of the Tesla Towing Club Facebook page? Cheers and happy camping !!!

[@AllElectricFamily]

Welcome to the channel! We did not know about that page, we will have to check it out. I bet there are a lot of people there with info we need! Thank you for sharing!!

[@OTUSPIKE]

@@AllElectricFamily Thanks! The Tesla Towing Club FB page has been around for quite a while and has some GREAT info on it. I think you'll find it very worthwhile. Cheers from the Sierra Nevada Foothills between Sacramento & Lake Tahoe!

[@csh000]

Something like Dethleffs e.Home Coco would be an awesome trailer pulled by an electric vehicle. It has batteries and electric motors on the trailer to assist the tow vehicle.

[@AllElectricFamily]

We just heard about these, we will have to check them out!

[@Paul-Thomas-LifeCoach]

Hey Guys, so if I understoos you clearly, based on the data card, your EPA range is 347 miles but you were only able to do circa 100m towing a caravan! What was the weight of the caravan? I'm thinking of getting a Model X to replace my Merc E220 for towing but am now seriously concerned that it will make our 1600 mile round trip a pig.... cheers

[@AllElectricFamily]

Hi, Paul! We have learned a lot since this first tow. The biggest being that aerodynamics of your trailer is very important. More important than weight. When we towed an Airstream we got nearly 200 miles on a single charge. So, your range will vary significantly depending on how aerodynamic your trailer is. We took this trailer on a 1,200 mile round trip tow...the Airstream could have saved us almost 4 hours each way! 😳 Hopefully this helps, and if you have any other questions we’d love to help!

[@Paul-Thomas-LifeCoach]

@@AllElectricFamily thanks so much for that. Should be an interesting experiment!!

[@kenbraun_]

when purchasing your trailer did you consider the Keystone PREMIER 19FBPR?

[@AllElectricFamily]

We didn’t look at that one. Looks like a nice trailer. For simplicity reasons we only looked at single axel trailers. We were used to a bunk so we wanted those as well. We would like to try one without a bunk but will have to rent one if we do. Maybe we should trailer a smaller double axel like that one too. Thanks

[@cmalbertosub]

How much range did you start with and end with before recharging - just curious what you consumption was like. I would like to pull my jetskis

[@cmalbertosub]

Of course I typed this as I was watching...should have waited another minute.

[@AllElectricFamily]

We still can't believe the difference the wind made in our consumption. So, that's something to consider! Thanks for watching!

[@shawncell1247]

someone left a piece of plastic inside charge handle ?

[@carlscottamos6501]

What is the maximum towing rating for your Tesla?

[@AllElectricFamily]

The Tesla Model X with 20” wheels can tow 5000lbs. It drops with the 22” wheels. Thanks for watching.

[@WANDERER0070]

More AERODYNAMIC trailer such as Airstream would be good investment if one was towing long distance no doubt

[@AllElectricFamily]

It would be more ideal to find something a bit more aerodynamic. It was difficult to find something that fit a family of 5 under 5,000lbs that was much different than this. Maybe one day we can get our hands on an airstream to test out!

[@RossYoungblood]

We Know that an Airstream would match what our last trailers consumption was, but my wife fell in love with the walk around bed. 80-90% of our trips are

[@davidfreeman8251]

I'd love to get your thoughts: Since this video was nearly two years ago, would you say the availability of chargers has increased enough to make range anxiety go away on a trip like this? Thanks in advance!

[@AllElectricFamily]

This is a great question! It's getting better, but the range anxiety is definitely still there. We also think it varies greatly depending on which charging network you're using. Tesla still takes the cake for charging networks. 🤞🏻 It continues to grow quickly.

[@buggscarrot9557]

That is defiantly, not for towing !!

[@AllElectricFamily]

It’s rated at 5,000lbs, so we are just making sure to stay below its limits. Thanks for watching!

[@RossYoungblood]

Well, we’ve been towing with our Model X all over the West Coast. Over Mt Hood, to Yellowstone, to Universal Studios Hollywood, Phoenix. It DOES require planning and a different drive style. Instead of drive 4 hrs straight, you have to stop every 2 hours to charge. The Model X is like having a Diesel Engine with 518HO/487Lb-ft of Torque but only a 8 gallon tank. When battery technology gets a bit better this will change to say a 16 Gal tank. So 1 charge every 4 hours instead of every 2 hours.

[@Scott-sm9nm]

This free website may help. You would need to put in 1000 Wh/mi. As well probably 5% arrivals SOC. abetterrouteplanner.com/ -- You probably need to drive 55 mph unless you draft a semi-truck even at following TACC units of 7. Then you probably could go 60 (maybe 65). This is easy to see because you can watch your Wh/mi change (drop) on the 'consumption' screen. Over a 500 mile to/from trip I saw a difference of 60 Wh/mi (275 vs 335). Maybe worth a test.

[@AllElectricFamily]

That website is great. Thanks. I ran some different destinations through it we had been looking at and it found some routes to places I didn’t think we could get to. I think I’m going to have to test all you ideas out. Thanks

[@MyplayLists4Y2Y]

Why so pessimistic from the start?

[@AllElectricFamily]

We were more nervous than pessimistic--we were hoping we didn't just waste a lot of money on a set up that didn't work!

[@RossYoungblood]

@@AllElectricFamily yeah I totally understand. I wanted a Volvo XC60 badly so bought used and it was an awesome tow rig. The model X with our prior trailer was a good fit, but we’ve popped into a trailer with nearly the same drag profile as yours. I’m planning to look at ways to streamline it long term. If I can get maybe 3-5% reduction in drag it would be awesome.

[@hobby_dude_]

How annoying. Tesla definitely very poor choice for tow vehicle, especially with having to dump trailer. If you already bought one, then stuck with it I guess. I'm a Tesla m3 owner and have the cyber truck on order, hopefully this is resolved then. U guys convinced me not to buy the X.

[@GadgetMan777]

Why would you be in the market for an X if you have an M3 and a CT on order? Comment smells fishy bro

[@AllElectricFamily]

We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy tow vehicle. We previously had an F350, if we wanted easy we would have stuck with it. Instead we wanted to test out what it was like to tow with an electric vehicle. Thanks for watching!

[@GadgetMan777]

@@AllElectricFamily I think it's cool. Wife and I went from a diesel to a Model 3. Of course we had to get an older farm truck for our trailers as well, for now. We're definitely getting a Cybertruck when comes out. It will be our sole vehicle!

[@AllElectricFamily]

@GadgetMan777 Thank you for the kind words! It's a big change going from a diesel to an EV! When I'm in the truck now I always think something is wrong with it because it's so noisy! 😂 We are excited for the Cybertruck...we think it will be far better at towing and will surprise a lot of people!

[@hobby_dude_]

@@GadgetMan777 no fish here. Here is my boat tow vehicle ;) photos.app.goo.gl/EGZwuarbBYxwr33H6 . A few years I was debating buying model x, but due to no real world comparisons out there to glean info from, I really didn't know how well it would tow. This is a big problem for Tesla now. You will loose basically 2/3 range at even 65 mph. Choose to keep up with traffic, then you are really hosed. Having to wait over an hour to charge is another nail for X. We were about to trade in explorer for X this summer, but I still haven't seen a real trailer being pulled by X until now... Thanks for helping me on decision. Btw, if cyber truck comes with 250 kWh battery I think it would solve the towing range issue.

[@MrTimbo1997]

How about the electric brakes I didn’t see surge brakes on trailer every above 2999 is required buy federal law how are you stopping that trailer not pushing you if use pick up I can see it not size of you model x

[@AllElectricFamily]

Regen braking and the brake controller works well together. Vehicle weighs 5600lbs and doesn’t push it around very much.