Truffle
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Truffle
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2023
- Threads
- 4
- Messages
- 71
- Reaction score
- 104
- Location
- North America
- Vehicles
- 2023 R1T Forest Green // 2015 Porsche 911 C4 GTS
- Occupation
- Forager
- Thread starter
- #1
Well, being it's my first post here - let me begin with stating that this is by far and away my own error. With that said, there's a few worthy lessons and data points to share here so I figured I better post while certainly take some heat on. 
April.15.2023
- Departed Whistler,BC with 100% charge on my 2023 R1T w/20" A/T and an empty 2018 6x12 Continental Tailwind trailer hooked up. Towing mode on.
- Total weight of R1T + Trailer [I drove it onto a scale] = 9,500lbs / 4313kg
- Destination Vancouver, BC = 130km's / 80 Miles [weather was above freezing and grew milder to 12degrees C in vancouver]
- Reading ~480km range estimated w/ Tow Mode [knew this would change once in motion]
- Arrive Vancouver with 260km estimated range [towing trailer impacted range by ~2X]
- Pickup a new Fridge [+265lbs] + Girlfriend + Dog + Items [200lbs] = 465lbs
- Drive back to Whistler; navigation says nope you will need a charge.
- Stop in Squamish, BC and plug into a 50kw mini fast charger for about 30mins and decide to leave with approximately 110km estimated in Tow Mode
- We had to sit parked for 40mins waiting to get on charger because an inconsiderate person stayed on it for 125minutes and left their car.
- Distance remaining to my house in Whistler = 60km s and we had 110KM Estimated Range in Tow Mode showing on the dash.
Believing I had now set myself up with a bit of battery buffer, we depart. The road from squamish to whistler is full of up hills and is a mountainous pass on a beautiful perfectly smooth highway. It did start to rain decently hard and my driving style was very grandma the whole way knowing I was aiming to conserve battery. Temps above freezing. We had normal A/C and heated seats w/music going to start...
Then it got interesting as we were climbing hills roughly halfway there the battery started dropping very quick and with roughly 40kms destination range on the journey the "you need to plug in because you will not make it" message displayed. Now the anxiety really sets in because there is no turning back and the nearest plug is beyond estimated range. A/C goes off and music heightening anxiety. We make it another short distance and I say f*ck it to the trailer - dropped it on the side of the road in record speed and aim for the nearest charger which is still beyond estimated distance.
With ~10kms distance to Whistler (google maps via phone) the "you must pull over battery is done sign" clicks on and speed is reduced [= about 60km/h] so we continue on and the battery gets to 0% and we hold our breath and keep pressing. We make it into Whistler Village Creekside and there is a very mild incline that the truck literally goes down to maybe 5km/h speed and we inch our way up this thing to enter a parkade which is supposed to have 3 chargers available. Someone was watching out for us because this truck pulled into the middle stall doing 1km/h snail crawl and it was open with two vehicles charging either side. The truck was basically shutting itself down as I plugged it in with the tightest butthole in town.
- So, we have well establish that beyond 2X distance reduction is expected especially with hills involved while towing a medium weight trailer.
- You can expect to see roughly 10kms of distance beyond 0% in an "emergency" scenario.
- I'm an idiot and should have stayed plugged into the squamish charger for an extra 15mins (so much for my etiquette and courteous course of action)
- I should/could have dropped the trailer sooner on the side of the road and perhaps made it to that charger.
- Once plugged in, it took 35-40minutes for the first 1KM of charge to transfer/register on the App (yikes)
Alas, we plugged her in for few hours on the 6.6kw charger... walked the dog, ate some good food. Then drove 10mins to a different 50kw fast charger and plugged in another 2 hours (ate more good food) then finally drove back down the highway 30mins and got the trailer and arrived home safely way later than expected with a few new grey hairs.
Hope you enjoyed this miss-hap that one can only blame themselves for - cheers.
April.15.2023
- Departed Whistler,BC with 100% charge on my 2023 R1T w/20" A/T and an empty 2018 6x12 Continental Tailwind trailer hooked up. Towing mode on.
- Total weight of R1T + Trailer [I drove it onto a scale] = 9,500lbs / 4313kg
- Destination Vancouver, BC = 130km's / 80 Miles [weather was above freezing and grew milder to 12degrees C in vancouver]
- Reading ~480km range estimated w/ Tow Mode [knew this would change once in motion]
- Arrive Vancouver with 260km estimated range [towing trailer impacted range by ~2X]
- Pickup a new Fridge [+265lbs] + Girlfriend + Dog + Items [200lbs] = 465lbs
- Drive back to Whistler; navigation says nope you will need a charge.
- Stop in Squamish, BC and plug into a 50kw mini fast charger for about 30mins and decide to leave with approximately 110km estimated in Tow Mode
- We had to sit parked for 40mins waiting to get on charger because an inconsiderate person stayed on it for 125minutes and left their car.
- Distance remaining to my house in Whistler = 60km s and we had 110KM Estimated Range in Tow Mode showing on the dash.
Believing I had now set myself up with a bit of battery buffer, we depart. The road from squamish to whistler is full of up hills and is a mountainous pass on a beautiful perfectly smooth highway. It did start to rain decently hard and my driving style was very grandma the whole way knowing I was aiming to conserve battery. Temps above freezing. We had normal A/C and heated seats w/music going to start...
Then it got interesting as we were climbing hills roughly halfway there the battery started dropping very quick and with roughly 40kms destination range on the journey the "you need to plug in because you will not make it" message displayed. Now the anxiety really sets in because there is no turning back and the nearest plug is beyond estimated range. A/C goes off and music heightening anxiety. We make it another short distance and I say f*ck it to the trailer - dropped it on the side of the road in record speed and aim for the nearest charger which is still beyond estimated distance.
With ~10kms distance to Whistler (google maps via phone) the "you must pull over battery is done sign" clicks on and speed is reduced [= about 60km/h] so we continue on and the battery gets to 0% and we hold our breath and keep pressing. We make it into Whistler Village Creekside and there is a very mild incline that the truck literally goes down to maybe 5km/h speed and we inch our way up this thing to enter a parkade which is supposed to have 3 chargers available. Someone was watching out for us because this truck pulled into the middle stall doing 1km/h snail crawl and it was open with two vehicles charging either side. The truck was basically shutting itself down as I plugged it in with the tightest butthole in town.
- So, we have well establish that beyond 2X distance reduction is expected especially with hills involved while towing a medium weight trailer.
- You can expect to see roughly 10kms of distance beyond 0% in an "emergency" scenario.
- I'm an idiot and should have stayed plugged into the squamish charger for an extra 15mins (so much for my etiquette and courteous course of action)
- I should/could have dropped the trailer sooner on the side of the road and perhaps made it to that charger.
- Once plugged in, it took 35-40minutes for the first 1KM of charge to transfer/register on the App (yikes)
Alas, we plugged her in for few hours on the 6.6kw charger... walked the dog, ate some good food. Then drove 10mins to a different 50kw fast charger and plugged in another 2 hours (ate more good food) then finally drove back down the highway 30mins and got the trailer and arrived home safely way later than expected with a few new grey hairs.
Hope you enjoyed this miss-hap that one can only blame themselves for - cheers.
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