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MY seen pulling a ~27ft Airstream yesterday - please don't

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Farmer

Farmer

Member
May 21, 2016
190
295
Walpole, MA and Littleton, ME
#1
No photo, but I saw a Y yesterday pulling a large travel trailer yesterday on Cape Cod. It was parked in a day-use lot at the Cape Cod National Seashore where I was biking so I swung by for a quick, closer look. It was an Airstream Globetrotter, which, even in the smallest floorplan model, grosses 7300lb according to the Airstream site. This one appeared to be the mid-sized, 27' floorplan, which has a GVWR of 7600lb, but I didn't look around at the manufacturer's rating plate. Vehicle plates were from another New England state that shall remain nameless, but suffice to say that this trailer came some distance and over the narrow, crazy, Cape Cod Canal bridges at that. The Y's rear end was sitting very low as well. I didn't think to notice if they were using a weight distributing hitch, but from the sag, I'm guessing not.

While it's impressive that a MY can pull such a monster at all, dealing with range, charging, etc., exceeding the towing capacity by over 200 percent can only and eventually lead to some kind of handling disaster. Please never attempt something like that. I can't imagine an RV dealer setting that up. Maybe it's normally towed with another vehicle - I hope.
 
#5
zag300zx said:
I don't like to be a snitch, but jeopardizing other people safety that grossly is worth a call to the local police station. That type of thing could get someone killed. Hopefully they just hooked it up to reposition it at the camp site and not for actual travel.
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I agree about the snitching thing. That's why I was somewhat short on details about the state plate and didn't include a photo. Unfortunately, they must have towed it some with the MY, as it was in a day use area when I saw it. The closest campground was about a mile or two away. I thought of calling the local police, but not knowing the exact GVWR of the trailer until I got home and got curious, I kind of thought the police had better things to do that holiday, but maybe I should have.

Towing at over 2X the rated tow weight is just downright dangerous to others. Anyone who knows how steep and narrow the travel lanes on the Bourne and Sagamore canal bridges are, how windy it can be up there, and what traffic is like on Labor Day weekend on those bridges - you just have to hope that you don't encounter such an overloaded tow rig up there yourself.
 
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#7
I would recommend looking at the following thread:

teslamotorsclub.com

Exceeding the 1000kg towing rating by 500kg

How bad is someone asking for trouble by towing with a Model 3 LR (with tow bar fitted from factory) a 400kg trailer with 1100kg car on it? I'm not talking about the obvious legal issue due to over-exceeding the 1000kg rating. I'm more interested if the the car can suffer major frame, motor...
teslamotorsclub.com teslamotorsclub.com

- In particular the thread #28 and #29 explaining how the tow bar get reinforced.

- And the thread #4 talking about how to adjust weight distribution.
 
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#9
My 25" travel trailer has GVWR 6485lb. Model Y Performance tows it like a little toy, no issues at all. Brake capacity in Performance trim is very good, same goes with torque. I think 0-60 acceleration is within 10 seconds - I launch from the traffic light way faster than most other cars can do even without the trailer.
Factory-installed tow hitch has a capacity of 3500lb based on 350lb tongue weight limit and 10% tongue/weight assumption. You can tow 7000lb with no issues if you don't exceed 350lb tongue weight limit, otherwise rear suspension squats to the limit and drive is terrible.
I use weight-distribution hitch that puts a lot of weight to the front of the Y and I distribute the carry inside the trailer to the back (don't fill water tanks, no cargo in the front luggage compartment etc.).

I don't tow long distances with Model Y because I have a dedicated truck for that. But going somewhere within ~30 mile radius from home - sure, why not. If I need to - I will think about installing brake controller (like people do on Model X) and installing different springs and shocks in the back.

photo_2023-09-05_15-50-08.jpg
 
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#11
ThomasD said:
Just because the vehicle can pull more than what it is rated for doesn't mean you should
Click to expand...
In other words - prevent the squat and do the math before towing. Towing is no joke and people lose control during towing on interstates every day.

Tongue weight limit on Model Y is 350lb, payload capacity is 1157lb. Move trailer battery and propane tank from trailer nose to the frunk, empty all water tanks, no cargo in the trunk, two adults in the car plus one kid in the back. Configure weight distribution hitch to put 40% of the weight to the front and now you can tow a trailer like Airstream 25FB and stay well within the limits. Maybe even 27FB with some weight reduction tricks.
 
#14
Farmer said:
No photo, but I saw a Y yesterday pulling a large travel trailer yesterday on Cape Cod. It was parked in a day-use lot at the Cape Cod National Seashore where I was biking so I swung by for a quick, closer look. It was an Airstream Globetrotter, which, even in the smallest floorplan model, grosses 7300lb according to the Airstream site. This one appeared to be the mid-sized, 27' floorplan, which has a GVWR of 7600lb, but I didn't look around at the manufacturer's rating plate. Vehicle plates were from another New England state that shall remain nameless, but suffice to say that this trailer came some distance and over the narrow, crazy, Cape Cod Canal bridges at that. The Y's rear end was sitting very low as well. I didn't think to notice if they were using a weight distributing hitch,
Click to expand...
It was probably lucky they didn't. After having towed with my own Teslas, studied the design and discussed with an automotive engineer, I can say that the Y was not designed with weight distributing hitch (WDH) as the main priority. There is no provision for withstanding WDH torque, since the structural hitch to body connection is solely the rearmost ends of the rear crash struts. Largely a one point connection seen from the side side of the car. One might be fooled into thinking that the box shape of the unibody will stiffen this connection, but the rear wall around the hitch is flat enough that the strut connection will take almost all WDH torque if it were applied. At the same time the connection looks very strong in all vector directions, just not twisting.

I just wanted to mention this when I saw people started talking about WDH and heavy trailers. If you must tow heavy with a Tesla, it's probably better to instead adjust the trailer's real COG until you achieve a reasonable tongue weight.
From Model Y service manual:
1694012894074.png


That other Airstream towing thread shows a Model 3 + Airstream with WDH, but that is not the stock tow, but a custom Model 3 specifically built for that.
Farmer said:
While it's impressive that a MY can pull such a monster at all, dealing with range, charging, etc., exceeding the towing capacity by over 200 percent can only and eventually lead to some kind of handling disaster. Please never attempt something like that. I can't imagine an RV dealer setting that up. Maybe it's normally towed with another vehicle - I hope.
Click to expand...
Agreed, this seems a bit dangerous, at least at higher speeds.
 
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#16
Kairide said:
That’s one hell of a dense trailer.
Click to expand...
The dry weight is actually just slightly more than 4000lb. It is off-the-grid trailer, so water tanks are big for its tiny size and plenty of storage room, resulting in almost 2500lb of cargo capacity and GVWR 6485lb. I wouldn't even think about pulling this thing with Model Y with full tanks of water and filled with cargo for my typical 2-week long trips.
 
#17
Olle said:
It was probably lucky they didn't. After having towed with my own Teslas, studied the design and discussed with an automotive engineer, I can say that the Y was not designed with weight distributing hitch (WDH) as the main priority. There is no provision for withstanding WDH torque, since the structural hitch to body connection is solely the rearmost ends of the rear crash struts. Largely a one point connection seen from the side side of the car. One might be fooled into thinking that the box shape of the unibody will stiffen this connection, but the rear wall around the hitch is flat enough that the strut connection will take almost all WDH torque if it were applied. At the same time the connection looks very strong in all vector directions, just not twisting.

I just wanted to mention this when I saw people started talking about WDH and heavy trailers. If you must tow heavy with a Tesla, it's probably better to instead adjust the trailer's real COG until you achieve a reasonable tongue weight.
From Model Y service manual: View attachment 971482

That other Airstream towing thread shows a Model 3 + Airstream with WDH, but that is not the stock tow, but a custom Model 3 specifically built for that.

Agreed, this seems a bit dangerous, at least at higher speeds.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. I'm taking my words back about using WDH in 60/40 configuration. I would say no WDH at all of very mild 80/20 config, so twisted forces are limited.
 
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#18
KirillK said:
The dry weight is actually just slightly more than 4000lb. It is off-the-grid trailer, so water tanks are big for its tiny size and plenty of storage room, resulting in almost 2500lb of cargo capacity and GVWR 6485lb. I wouldn't even think about pulling this thing with Model Y with full tanks of water and filled with cargo for my typical 2-week long trips.
Click to expand...
DF74C38F-E865-4EDA-8559-9D720695DD62.gif
 
#20
KirillK said:
My 25" travel trailer has GVWR 6485lb. Model Y Performance tows it like a little toy, no issues at all. Brake capacity in Performance trim is very good, same goes with torque. I think 0-60 acceleration is within 10 seconds - I launch from the traffic light way faster than most other cars can do even without the trailer.
Factory-installed tow hitch has a capacity of 3500lb based on 350lb tongue weight limit and 10% tongue/weight assumption. You can tow 7000lb with no issues if you don't exceed 350lb tongue weight limit, otherwise rear suspension squats to the limit and drive is terrible.

I use weight-distribution hitch that puts a lot of weight to the front of the Y and I distribute the carry inside the trailer to the back (don't fill water tanks, no cargo in the front luggage compartment etc.).

I don't tow long distances with Model Y because I have a dedicated truck for that. But going somewhere within ~30 mile radius from home - sure, why not. If I need to - I will think about installing brake controller (like people do on Model X) and installing different springs and shocks in the back.
Click to expand...

I wonder how many people would take the precautions you did? I have a F250 diesel and even if I was going a short distance why would I even attempt to use my Model Y? In fact I didn't buy a tow hitch for my Model Y just so I would never be tempted. I'm wondering if the Y even has the ability to tie into the electric brakes on a trailer?

I bought my truck so that I would rarely run into a situation where I worried I couldn't tow something.
 
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