Towing a 19' R-POD with a 2022 Quad R1T, a sobering expereince

[kallisti5]

Picked up a 19' R-POD thinking it was a bit smaller and wouldn't cut into the range loss as much.

Trailer:
* 19' Length, kind of high
* ~ 2500 lbs
* Sway control bar attached, mid friction

Trip:
* 214 miles total
* 75F outside
* 70 mph freeway for most of the trip with ~400m elevation incline over the full length of the trip.
* clear weather, low wind.
* Left at 100% SoC

Range estimates:
* Range estimates seemed fairly accurate. They were pessimistic, but fairly accurate.

Untrailered Charging:
* Normally 1 DCFC stop. ($20)

Charging with trailer:
* 3 DCFC charging stops to 70-80%
* Overall cost: ~$60 (~$20 per session)
* Arrived home with 35% SoC.
* 1 hour added onto a normally 4 hour journey with all the extra charging.

The R1T pulled the trailer like a dream, however the charging stops started to get annoying. This wasn't a *long* journey, but the R1T sucked down energy pretty rapidly pulling something with height above the cab.


Overall:
The R1T pulled the trailer easily, but i feel like the wind resistance of the trailer being higher than the cab created some large / heavy range impacts. My hope getting into this trailer was the "rounded shape" would help. It didn't seem to

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[VandalSibs]

I think something that affects the aero of trailers more than expected is the lateral curvy-ness (side to side). Being able to have air flow around the sides of the front helps out a bit.

My trailer is like this.... But doesn't have a great flow over the top like yours does. In fact, I don't think there's really anything out there that fits that other than a few Airstreams and the Bowlus (which is way expensive!).

That 70mph also hurt you a lot - drop the speed 5mph and I think you'll get some nice gains!

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Looks a lot longer than 19”. And roundness doesn’t always equate to low drag. Teardrop profile is more efficient. Bowlus takes that into full consideration. Teardrop in 3D. Nature has many examples of naturally aerodynamic shapes. Sharks. Dolphins. Whales. A rounded toaster… not so much.

 

[VSG]

Picked up a 19" R-POD thinking it was a bit smaller and wouldn't cut into the range loss as much.

Towing that with your 1:20 scale model? A" bit" smaller is an understatement.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Towing that with your 1:20 scale model? A" bit" smaller is an understatement.

I don’t think even my cat could fit in a 19” camper.

 

[kallisti5]

Aw damnit, ok.. finally got the jokes lol. 19'

 

[VSG]

I don't understand why you had to DCFC four three times on a 214 mile trip, when your screen was showing you had a 198 mile range.

(EDIT: changed "four" to "three" - I made a mistake in my original post. See posts #8 and #9 below.)

The sway bar was unneeded and probably impacted your efficiency. 1.10 miles/kWh is a little low for that small trailer.

Specifically, speed has a huge impact on range, whether it's with an ICE vehicle or with a Rivian. At 70 mph, your aerodynamic drag is 62% more than it is at 55 mph.

 

[kallisti5]

I don't understand why you had to DCFC four times on a 214 mile trip, when your screen was showing you had a 198 mile range.

Three times. Each stop was around 30% to 80%. (Prescribed by the nav)

Could also be the 20" mud tires, or off road tires on trailer.

70mph around here is a requirement tbh.. at that I was getting passed by semi-trucks.

 

[VSG]

Three times. Each stop was around 30% to 80%

OK. I read it wrong. I thought I read it as 1 unhooked + 3 hooked up, but that's not what you said.

Still 3 times, I would have expected only 1. How far down did you run the battery? I usually plan to charge at about 10%, as charging is fastest when the battery is lower. Then I stop charging at 70%-80% when the charging rate drops below about 100kW. So the first leg would be 100% -> 10% or 180 miles, stop to charge 10%->70% then you would have 120 miles of range before you had to charge again, for a total of 300 miles driving on one DCFC. That should be sufficient, unless the available DCFC were inconveniently placed so you had to stop sooner.

But as I said, I think you should have gotten more like 1.5 mi/kWh with that trailer, which would have changed things. Search these forums for R-Pod and see what others have reported.

 

[CharonPDX]

kind of high

There's the cause.

Aerodynamics makes *FAR* more of a difference than anything else. And the key thing in aerodynamics is "frontal area." The width and height of the trailer. Shape (curved R-Pod design) can help a little, but you still have to get the air to move out of the way.

If you want to have a fun experiment, try taking it on a long road with a 45 MPH speed limit (or one that you can safely go 45 without causing a hazard to other traffic.) You'll probably get 1.7-1.9 mi/kWh. Because speed when combined with aerodynamics makes a *HUGE* impact.

My 18' NüCamp TAB 400 I thought would be similar, moving down from a conventional "slightly rounded nose box" 28' trailer. But no, because it's tall enough to stand up in, it still cause/s a huge hit to efficiency at highway speeds. But on one backroad 45 MPH stretch, I got 1.8 mi/kWh.

Although for you, even slowing down from 70 to 60 would probably get you .2-.3 mi/kWh more.

 

[kallisti5]

There's the cause.

Yup. After I hooked up I noticed the trailer sat kind of higher than I expected (it's an "off road" version, so has a bit of ground clearance).

I have a standard 2" drop hitch on it... i wonder if I change to a 1" drop it would improve things? It sits at a slight downward angle with the R1T at the "standard towing" height.


I need one of those cab "wind deflectors", except I think they might look crazy on the R1T

Maybe a roof rack deflector though

 

[CharonPDX]

Yup. After I hooked up I noticed the trailer sat kind of higher than I expected (it's an "off road" version, so has a bit of ground clearance).

I have a standard 2" drop hitch on it... i wonder if I change to a 1" drop it would improve things? It sits at a slight downward angle with the R1T at the "standard towing" height.

Probably not a significant amount. With the curved front, you were just changing the angle of the curve, not significantly changing the height of the roof.

 

[kallisti5]

Hmmmm. A bit more food for thought. I have the R1T quad motor. I generally run this trip in conserve to use only two motors.

When in tow mode, i'm forced to use all-purpose which is quad motor drive.

I wonder if people seeing better range are dual motor in tow mode (which i'm assuming is *still* dual motor)

 

[AlaskaPilot]

Picked up a 19' R-POD thinking it was a bit smaller and wouldn't cut into the range loss as much.

Trailer:
* 19' Length, kind of high
* ~ 2500 lbs
* Sway control bar attached, mid friction

Trip:
* 214 miles total
* 75F outside
* 70 mph freeway for most of the trip with ~400m elevation incline over the full length of the trip.
* clear weather, low wind.
* Left at 100% SoC

Range estimates:
* Range estimates seemed fairly accurate. They were pessimistic, but fairly accurate.

Untrailered Charging:
* Normally 1 DCFC stop. ($20)

Charging with trailer:
* 3 DCFC charging stops to 70-80%
* Overall cost: ~$60 (~$20 per session)
* Arrived home with 35% SoC.
* 1 hour added onto a normally 4 hour journey with all the extra charging.

The R1T pulled the trailer like a dream, however the charging stops started to get annoying. This wasn't a *long* journey, but the R1T sucked down energy pretty rapidly pulling something with height above the cab.


Overall:
The R1T pulled the trailer easily, but i feel like the wind resistance of the trailer being higher than the cab created some large / heavy range impacts. My hope getting into this trailer was the "rounded shape" would help. It didn't seem to

Thanks for posting. We also have a 19’ rpod although ours is the “Hood River” edition that has larger tires so will probably be slightly worse. We have’t had the chance to tow it yet and were wondering what the impact would be in the real world.
One question: Which battery pack do you have? (I.e. how many kwh in the tank).

 

[2kwik4u]

I wonder if people seeing better range are dual motor in tow mode (which i'm assuming is *still* dual motor)

I have a dual motor and tow a small/medium sized boat. Yamaha AR190. I see about 1.1-1.3 mi/kWh when towing.

The dual motor trucks also default back to all wheel drive when towing. So I don't think the consumption you had is based on that. My bet is on the speed.

My boat has a tower on it and I can notice a difference with and without the tower "Accessories" attached. Even with my old Q7, I would get a mpg better with the sound bar and bikini top removed and just the raw aluminum poking up in the air.

You can see the "accessories" attached in this shot. Rest of the boat is fairly "pointy", and relatively acceptable from an aero perspective. That tower sticking up there really drags down the effeciency.

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