I am a long time lurker here, first time posting. I noticed some people post about their towing experiences so thought I'd do the same. I recently bought a Riverside Retro 165 travel trailer from an out of state dealership (I live in Kansas, and the dealer was in Minnesota). I decided to tow the Retro with my Model Y Performance as a sort of "proof of concept" experiment. The Retro is about either 2600 or 2875 pounds "dry" weight, depending on where you look. The Model Y tows 3500, so I figured no bigs towing. I have experience with towing but only with a truck. This is my report:
Handling:
The drive from MN to Kansas is relatively flat, but not literally flat, so that was in my favor. Handling was fantastic. Very smooth drive. No power loss when accelerating at all, despite the extra weight. I didn't punch it a lot but on one occasion because I was forced to speed up quickly and it was no big deal at all. No significant sway with highway driving and some noticeable wind and the fact the Retro might as well be a small parachute attached to a frame. I did have an electric brake controller but it didn't get much use because the Tesla handled so well. Note: I went with a hitch ball attachment that had stabilizing bars, which may have helped or might be unnecessary - I am not sure. Next time I tow I'm going to use a regular hitch ball without stabilizing bars and see what happens. I'm thinking Tesla's self stabilizing brakes is probably more than adequate.
Generally, the highway driving experience was better than towing with a big truck rated to tow 10,000 pounds. The Tesla felt more stable than towing with a truck and handles way better.
Capacity:
I was expecting about 45% battery capacity because that one dude that towed his 3,000 pound boat had reported about 45%. I figured I'd shoot for 125-135 miles max between charges. That didnt happen. The nav estimator was constantly way off. I didnt trust it, so I didnt drive more than around 100 miles between charges. I could have skipped a few charging opportunities but did not have the guts. Fortunately the supercharging network is everywhere. I think the longest I had to go was 105 miles between West Des Moines, IA and Bethany, MO. I drove between 55-60 mph all the way, but on one stretch I occasionally did kick it up a bit to around 65 for 5-10 minutes at a time to see how quickly I lost charge, which was significant. I think this part of my test gave me the best data. I wouldn't drive faster than 60 towing the trailer with an F-250 gas guzzler. Frankly, one should not drive over 55-60 mph when towing anything with any kind of vehicle but the majority of the drivers towing something on the road seem to have a different safety tolerance.
Charging:
I solely used superchargers. There were "pull through" stations at most of the superchargers, but they arent really realistic to use with a trailer. Only one was situated in a way that actually allowed it to be used as a pull through. As a result, I had to drop the trailer in a nearby spot before backing up to the chargers. I thought that would annoy me, but it was no big deal. The Retro has an electric jack, so I was winning the trailer drop game.
I'd say that overall my charging experience sucked for two reasons: Reason 1: Two of the five superchargers I stopped at on the way back, for whatever reason, were running VERY slow that day. PlugShare users reported pretty typical charging at these stops pretty regular, so I think what happened to me was an anomaly. On the way back from MN, on at least two stops, charging averaged like 40kw, and peaked out at 70kW. On the plus side, I made use of the theater app more and got caught up on Ahsoka and Loki. Reason 2: Because I didn't trust the nav computer's range estimates, I charged to 97-100% each stop, which added significant charging time at already slow charging stations. The slow down in the last 15-20% charging really adds up. I spent almost 2 hours charging at one stop. It was so sloooowwwwww. I had expected to be charging longer than normal, but not that friggen long ... The trip home took more than 15 hours.
Anyway, this weekend I'm towing the trailer about 200 miles. I suspect charging will be faster, but we'll see.
One cool thing is that I met some nice people. People would come up to me and talk about how they were impressed I could tow a travel trailer with the Model Y. They were all very friendly and very curious. Attached are some pics. All were at night so they are a bit fuzzy.
Attached are some pics of the Retro and Model Y together. I think they look good together.
Handling:
The drive from MN to Kansas is relatively flat, but not literally flat, so that was in my favor. Handling was fantastic. Very smooth drive. No power loss when accelerating at all, despite the extra weight. I didn't punch it a lot but on one occasion because I was forced to speed up quickly and it was no big deal at all. No significant sway with highway driving and some noticeable wind and the fact the Retro might as well be a small parachute attached to a frame. I did have an electric brake controller but it didn't get much use because the Tesla handled so well. Note: I went with a hitch ball attachment that had stabilizing bars, which may have helped or might be unnecessary - I am not sure. Next time I tow I'm going to use a regular hitch ball without stabilizing bars and see what happens. I'm thinking Tesla's self stabilizing brakes is probably more than adequate.
Generally, the highway driving experience was better than towing with a big truck rated to tow 10,000 pounds. The Tesla felt more stable than towing with a truck and handles way better.
Capacity:
I was expecting about 45% battery capacity because that one dude that towed his 3,000 pound boat had reported about 45%. I figured I'd shoot for 125-135 miles max between charges. That didnt happen. The nav estimator was constantly way off. I didnt trust it, so I didnt drive more than around 100 miles between charges. I could have skipped a few charging opportunities but did not have the guts. Fortunately the supercharging network is everywhere. I think the longest I had to go was 105 miles between West Des Moines, IA and Bethany, MO. I drove between 55-60 mph all the way, but on one stretch I occasionally did kick it up a bit to around 65 for 5-10 minutes at a time to see how quickly I lost charge, which was significant. I think this part of my test gave me the best data. I wouldn't drive faster than 60 towing the trailer with an F-250 gas guzzler. Frankly, one should not drive over 55-60 mph when towing anything with any kind of vehicle but the majority of the drivers towing something on the road seem to have a different safety tolerance.
Charging:
I solely used superchargers. There were "pull through" stations at most of the superchargers, but they arent really realistic to use with a trailer. Only one was situated in a way that actually allowed it to be used as a pull through. As a result, I had to drop the trailer in a nearby spot before backing up to the chargers. I thought that would annoy me, but it was no big deal. The Retro has an electric jack, so I was winning the trailer drop game.
I'd say that overall my charging experience sucked for two reasons: Reason 1: Two of the five superchargers I stopped at on the way back, for whatever reason, were running VERY slow that day. PlugShare users reported pretty typical charging at these stops pretty regular, so I think what happened to me was an anomaly. On the way back from MN, on at least two stops, charging averaged like 40kw, and peaked out at 70kW. On the plus side, I made use of the theater app more and got caught up on Ahsoka and Loki. Reason 2: Because I didn't trust the nav computer's range estimates, I charged to 97-100% each stop, which added significant charging time at already slow charging stations. The slow down in the last 15-20% charging really adds up. I spent almost 2 hours charging at one stop. It was so sloooowwwwww. I had expected to be charging longer than normal, but not that friggen long ... The trip home took more than 15 hours.
Anyway, this weekend I'm towing the trailer about 200 miles. I suspect charging will be faster, but we'll see.
One cool thing is that I met some nice people. People would come up to me and talk about how they were impressed I could tow a travel trailer with the Model Y. They were all very friendly and very curious. Attached are some pics. All were at night so they are a bit fuzzy.
