Towing Small Caravan with Tesla M3?

[Wagonwheel555]

Hi

Looking to replace our Tow car and Tesla are offering some decent deals on PCP at the moment. We already have an EV so used to charging at home etc

I am almost sold other than the fact we need to tow a caravan 4-5 time a year for camping trips!

Caravan is small, empty is 900kg and it’s below 1000kg when we tow, most of the stuff we take is in the car.

Does anybody tow with a Tesla M3?

Thanks

[herebebeasties]

It's rated to 1000kg braked, I believe, so technically fine.

Your range will obviously suffer hugely, and charging up with a trailer is a pain, as you need to reverse into Tesla superchargers so will need to uncouple the rig. So depends how far you want to go.

Also of consideration is that if you are staying for any length of time you get a big of phantom power loss just parked up.

[fttm]

This thread makes me sad , have you given up on life OP ?

[Wagonwheel555]

fttm said:

This thread makes me sad , have you given up on life OP ?

Decided on the Model Y now as it has a bigger boot means we won t need the roof box.

How it makes you feel is irrelevant to me, quite frankly I couldn t care less.

How camping make my son feel?
The memories he will have?
The fact we can hitch up on a Friday evening and be back in time Sunday without taking any annual leave
The cheap weekend getaways

That I do care about.

If you think I am sacrificing anything, you are very wrong. We have already been abroad once this year and are due to go to Greece for 14 days in August.

The camping is just a little extra fun while my son is still young.

We all have different interests in life.

Some like Golf, I find it incredibly boring but ultimately, I don t care with others do

Edited by Wagonwheel555 on Monday 9th June 08:38

[JQ]

fttm said:

This thread makes me sad , have you given up on life OP ?

One person spends their time travelling the country with their family enjoying the great outdoors, the other spends their time picking arguments on the internet.

It s pretty clear which one s given up on life.

Hope it goes well OP. We tow quite a heavy camping trailer with our EV and it is a pain at times having to unhook for a charge but with a bit of careful planning it s not too bad. We lose around 20% range when towing, I would imagine a caravan being worse.

My kids are 15 and 17 now and still love going away, we re recently back from a half term week away and the memories we have made will last a lifetime. Model Y seems like an ideal choice, enjoy.

[a7x88]

I ve found weight less of an issue than frontal area. I ve towed a small 1300kg (MAM) / 900kg (unladen) single axle caravan a number of times with my LR AWD Model Y - about 150miles is doable. It tows very well range aside. As others have pointed out, charging can be a pain and often campsites in the middle of nowhere don t leave many charging options! Tesla also don t activate the accessory power wire on the tow bar electrics, so active stability systems / fridges etc won t work.

Towing regularly I would stick with ICE. I put up with it for the occasional use as it s cheap/free family car (company car).

[Wagonwheel555]

Thanks both

We rarely go more than 200 miles so we will likely only ever need to charge once on route both ways, once we get there I will just go and charge fully again if the campsite doesn't allow overnight granny charging.

Expecting a 40-50% loss which is fine.

Also aware about the unhitching, our van is 1000kg full so it can be pushed back easily and only being 5.5m, it fits nicely in a parking space so less concerned about this.

There is a website which also shows charging places you can drive through so no need to unhitch including the new Winchester Instavolt which has 4x caravan friendly chargers and is ideal for the 2-3 trips we do to the new forest or the jurassic coast each year.

[fttm]

Was a genuine post fella , car forum discussion about a Tesla and caravan makes me wonder what TF is life all about , no malice meant and enjoy your holiday.