Winter towing PNW to SoCal any advice or suggestions

[HaveBlue]

Yea that's a heck of a hill coming down from Medford to CA towing in icy conditions. Big Bear got snow as well but is melting a bit. The high desert below can get icy but not that will impede you.

Sponsored

 

[hgpayne]

I do have the adapter, but I’m going to try for 50 amp spots. I will always try and have a fast charger within range for backup in case the campground says NO.

I always try to call any potential campground ahead of time to confirm they will let me charge my EV. Avoid KOAs. They have a strict policy against it unless they have dedicated J1772 chargers at the campground and most do not. Some campgrounds welcome EVs. Some will charge an extra fee. Just confirm.

My current campground just meters the power and charges 15¢/kwh for all power. They have no problem with me charging the truck. I have it turned down to 22 amps so the post won’t be overwhelmed when sharing with the trailer.

Our trailer has solar and batteries too so we have left the trailer unplugged while just plugging in our tow vehicle. The big power suck for the trailer is when we need AC. We need shore power for that. Right now we are cold camping so we like some shore power to supplement the propane heat.

 

[av8or]

I always try to call any potential campground ahead of time to confirm they will let me charge my EV. Avoid KOAs. They have a strict policy against it unless they have dedicated J1772 chargers at the campground and most do not. Some campgrounds welcome EVs. Some will charge an extra fee. Just confirm.

My current campground just meters the power and charges 15¢/kwh for all power. They have no problem with me charging the truck. I have it turned down to 22 amps so the post won’t be overwhelmed when sharing with the trailer.

Our trailer has solar and batteries too so we have left the trailer unplugged while just plugging in our tow vehicle. The big power suck for the trailer is when we need AC. We need shore power for that. Right now we are cold camping so we like some shore power to supplement the propane heat.

Thanks. I’m with you, I need it more fore the truck than the trailer. I like that trailer. How’s your efficiency with that. I’m lucky to 1.1-1.2 at 60mph in the summer with mine.

 

[av8or]

Well day one didn’t go so well! We had a small window of opportunity to escape Oregon, but Mother Nature said no.
Everything was fine until we got just north of Eugene. We hit some patches of ice and then full on ice. We got plugged in at EA in Eugene, but only manage to pull a max of 74kW, so that charge stop went from a half hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. With it being in the middle of and ice storm and power outages all over the place, I was glad I got what I got. While waiting for the charge to complete in 24F temperature we checked weather radar and watched as the rain forecast for 2:00 pm arrived at 11:30 am. Since south was our direction of travel and it was worse in that direction, as soon as we had enough to get home we high tailed it. The ice storm chased us all the way home and by morning was a frozen wonderland.

Going to try again tomorrow or the next day.

 

[av8or]

Now for the winter efficiency compared to summer, really pretty good. I’ve done this trip 2 other times in summer at the same speed and would get around 1.13-1.17 m/kWh.
This actually ended up being a really good cold weather loop style test.
This trip started at 19F and ended at 28F, we never tried to conserve other than going 60 mph which has always been my towing speed, and we ran climate on auto at 71F, both front seat heaters on medium, and the steering wheel heat on. I covered 195 miles, charged once and got 1.05 m/kWH. I’d say overall it’s a pretty good result.

 

[hgpayne]

Thanks. I’m with you, I need it more fore the truck than the trailer. I like that trailer. How’s your efficiency with that. I’m lucky to 1.1-1.2 at 60mph in the summer with mine.

We get around 1.5 m/kWh but I would be willing to bet it will be much worse in that cold and ice you experienced.

We have visited Oregon with our trailer several times but I've yet to pull over the Siskiyou pass. We have either gone up the coast through the redwoods (beautiful drive), or via Klamath Falls / Bend route. We've also pulled across Hwy 20 through Burns / Ontario. All those times have been during the summer. I've gone to Oregon many times in the winter as well but never towing the camper. I have a lot of family in the Willamette Valley area we visit often. That's where I was born and grew up.

Sponsored