Tow trip report : Maryland to Florida

[PungoteagueDave]

Drove down to Delray Beach from Maryland yesterday. Happened to stop at a Cat Scale to determine actual weight and compare to the upcoming northbound trip towing 10,300 pounds. The trip planner was super-conservative, never suggested a leg over 75 miles, even though 150ish with this rig is doable.

It is truly amazing how much better the CT towing charger infrastructure has become in the six months since I last made this run on I-95, that time northbound. The trip planner even put up a notice saying optimizing for trailer-friendly chargers. I never had to unhook the trailer, which is about 40’ long. We did have to charge 14 times in 1,100 miles, average 35 minutes each, but one was 80 minutes. Again, the planners was too conservative so I over-rode it a couple times.

Next time the trailer will be 12’ tall, weigh 10,300 pounds (World Cat 265DCX on aluminum LoadRite Trailer), so towing is about to get very interesting.

The following scale report is with both my wife and me in the truck, so 300 pounds there, and a moderate amount of stuff in the back seat and bed, normal luggage - for gross weight ratings, necessary to include. Well within spec in this format, but a “light” trailer.

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[Sandybayes1]

Nice color on your CT!

 

[mongo]

Drove down to Delray Beach from Maryland yesterday. Happened to stop at a Cat Scale to determine actual weight and compare to the upcoming northbound trip towing 10,300 pounds. The trip planner was super-conservative, never suggested a leg over 75 miles, even though 150ish with this rig is doable.

It is truly amazing how much better the CT towing charger infrastructure has become in the six months since I last made this run on I-95, that time northbound. The trip planner even put up a notice saying optimizing for trailer-friendly chargers. I never had to unhook the trailer, which is about 40’ long. We did have to charge 14 times in 1,100 miles, average 35 minutes each, but one was 80 minutes. Again, the planners was too conservative so I over-rode it a couple times.

Next time the trailer will be 12’ tall, weigh 10,300 pounds (World Cat 265DCX on aluminum LoadRite Trailer), so towing is about to get very interesting.

The following scale report is with both my wife and me in the truck, so 300 pounds there, and a moderate amount of stuff in the back seat and bed, normal luggage - for gross weight ratings, necessary to include. Well within spec in this format, but a “light” trailer.

If those are the Tesla all season tires, your rear axle margin was 100 pounds. If all terrain, then 350 pounds. That may be an issue when you bump the trailer weight up roughly 6000 pounds which puts an extra 600 pounds on the hitch along with ~200 transfer from front axle. (Depending on the jet ski trailer's tongue weight)

 

[PungoteagueDave]

If those are the Tesla all season tires, your rear axle margin was 100 pounds. If all terrain, then 350 pounds. That may be an issue when you bump the trailer weight up roughly 6000 pounds which puts an extra 600 pounds on the hitch along with ~200 transfer from front axle. (Depending on the jet ski trailer's tongue weight)

I will be using a Weigh Safe weight distributing hitch, will be able to address the 1,000-pound tongue weight and push weight back and forth between all three axles and the hitch. I can also move the trailer’s center weight fore and aft by moving the bow rest stop post. It's a super tall boat on the trailer as the hulls are entirely above the trailer wheels. Taking delivery on Wednesday for local use in Florida so will have time to dial it in before heading north in the spring.

 

[mongo]

I will be using a Weigh Safe weight distributing hitch, will be able to address the 1,000-pound tongue weight and push weight back and forth between all three axles and the hitch. I can also move the trailer’s center weight fore and aft by moving the bow rest stop post. It's a super tall boat on the trailer as the hulls are entirely above the trailer wheels. Taking delivery on Wednesday for local use in Florida so will have time to dial it in before heading north in the spring.

Awesome!
I would love to have strain gauge on the hitch to see what the aero loading from the upper structure does to the tongue weight. Unfortunately, the one I got a quote on costs north of $20k

 

[PungoteagueDave]

Awesome!
I would love to have strain gauge on the hitch to see what the aero loading from the upper structure does to the tongue weight. Unfortunately, the one I got a quote on costs north of $20k

I'm thinking I can put a camera on the Weigh-Safe scale gauge to see what happens on acceleration and braking. But even then I wouldn't know what to do with the data. We know that tongue weight will be light (below 10% spec) on acceleration and heavy (above 1,200 lbs) on braking, but that range has to be considered in the OEM engineering specs.

The biggest unknown with my setup is the actual tongue weight limit because Tesla has lots of chart detail on towing/tongue weights, but nothing at all using weight distribution systems. The concern is that the ball is back further than their standard specs, and the CT hitch is sensitive to tongue loads being further back than the standard Tesla towing payload and trailer weight specs of ~7” are rated for.

Weight distribution theoretically eliminates the standard hitch ball fulcrum from the physics, but there’s still a bunch of stress being transmitted through the rear body casting and hitch receiver. I hesitated but decided to go with what I know to be a conservative approach based on lots of history with other pickup truck formats. I’ve been using weight distribution hitches to balance loads and axle weights for many years, something that is quite rare when towing boats, as it requires setting up the trailer with electric over hydraulic brakes in lieu of the surge brakes used on the vast majority of boat trailers. It means spending $20k on a boat trailer, but with these things I prefer better safe than sorry.

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