Caravan Towing experience

Hired a caravan for the week last week to get some experience and see if we enjoyed it and also to try out the PHEV for towing.

I have to admit it wasn't the best experience from a towing point of view, admittedly we were at the limits of the claims for the PHEV, the caravan was 1475kg fully loaded, roof box on and 5 people in (although 2 were children)

The drive was all on relatively flat motorway and kept the charge button pressed all the time. The SOC gradually reduced through the journey, looking at what the car was doing it was swapping between running on Engine only and Engine and Battery feeding the wheels. Eventually the car got to the point when its SOC had reduced so far that the car moved to the mode where the engine feeds the battery and the battery feeds the wheels. All of the journey was at a steady 60mph with no traffic (surprisingly) so the car had no opportunity to recharge the battery in stationary or slow moving traffic.

The tortoise did appear at the end of my way there but didn't on the way back either because I set the speed to 56mph on the way back or we hit a bit of traffic at the end which recharged the battery. Fuel consumption was about 18mpg on the trip, less worried about this as its all company fuel.

Interested in other peoples towing experience to see if we decide to buy a caravan I am going to have to change the car.

Ian

It's interesting your results here especially when associated with other posts I've seen on this forum.

Basically I interpret this as that the capability of the engine to recharge the battery to an acceptable level starts to fail once a certain load is passed. It seems to affect situations where there is heavy load and resistance, as in your case, or just heavy resistance (high speed on autobhan with top box).

Ian,

Our caravan is 1500 kg loaded. We travel with two adults and two growing up kids. No roofbox. We have used the PHEV for 6 caravan trips now: From our home town in the middle of the Netherlands:
- to the Belgium coast (500 km in total)
- to the French Alps (2300 km in total)
- to our northern sea board (400 km in total)
- to a location in the Dutch province of Drente (300 km in total)
- to the island of Krk in Croatia (2900 km in total)
- to Paris (1000 km in total)

And last weekend I did a special testrun to and in the hills in Limburg (hillstart at 17% and such), during which I covered close to 500 km.

Although I was a bit nervous for the first vacation trip (or two), I have no regrets whatsoever. The cars performs more than adequate, IMHO. Next to that, I find it way more interesting (less boring) to travel with the PHEV than with any previous car I have owned. Okay, I am a bit addicted to the technology. That may help :mrgreen:

The first year, on our trip to the French Alps I have 'met the Turtle' twice (once going there, once returning home), both times on one of those long inclines in the Vosges in France. Indeed this happened because the car / I was not able to maintain sufficient SOC. Impact on the trip: virtually none. I may have proactively reduced my speed by 5 km/h for 10 minutes when it happened at the most. But that was all. I doubt if anything had changed if I hadn't.

Since then, I have learned how to maximise SOC during the trip and especially during coasting, which seems to make a difference. On our trip to Croatia, I had a cruising speed of 96 km/h (is that not 60 MPH?). Of course, most of the time, I lost some SOC but sometimes I actually gained some. Although it is a good habit to keep the engine running during fill-ups or short breaks, there were times I decided to turn it off when stopped, as I decided my SOC was high enough. Big mistake when I forgot to re-engage Charge mode when leaving the petrol station to start the motorway climb towards the Austrian Katzenberg tunnel. Lost all of the remaining SOC in 9 or 10 km. Nevertheless, I made it up there at a reasonable speed :mrgreen:

The pattern of engine only / engine supported by battery is rather common (Although engine only in reality is not engine only. They lie to us :? ). It will keep doing so until SOC goes down to about 22%. Then it will disengage parallel mode and engage serial mode, allowing the engine to produce more power than before. This is normally maintained until SOC is back up to 25%. Only when power demand is so high that a free running engine cannot work up the SOC from 22%, the turtle should appear. Returning from Croatia, getting close to home, I was making a somewhat higher pace (105 - 110 km/h) with a rather strong headwind. This went on for maybe 100 km. The engine constantly switched from serial to parallel mode, which was not to comfortable. But still, the car was able to stay out of the turtle zone.

I wonder how come you couldn't stay out of the turtle zone on the flat. I know roof boxes on a solo car are killing. Maybe the do quite some damage when towing too.

If you do not want to think about anything at all and drive the car like a normal car, then I guess it is better to get a normal car. But if you, in anyway, appreciate the technology that sits in our car, I think it is a great car for caravanning.

Hi Anko

Although it is a good habit to keep the engine running during fill-ups or short breaks

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In the UK this is certainly not a good habit, and can only be achieved if the keys are in the car. Also, running the engine to charge the car when stationary is probably the least effective method of gaining EV mileage. Either use a fast charger or use the charge button whilst running, surely?

Both TS and myself use Charge mode all the time, when towing. And yet SOC drops. Fortunately ( :? ) when towing a caravan, efficiency is not your biggest priority.

Out of curiosity, why is it not a good habit especially in the UK? Is it illegal?

From what I read, fast chargers are quite common in the UK. Not so much on the main land. We have quite a few in the Netherlands, but these are very expensive and next to that, I do not have an SOC issue in the Netherlands. To small. :mrgreen:

anko said:

Both TS and myself use Charge mode all the time, when towing. And yet SOC drops. Fortunately ( :? ) when towing a caravan, efficiency is not your biggest priority.

Out of curiosity, why is it not a good habit especially in the UK? Is it illegal?

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And me. I've learnt from experience that Charge mode when towing a Caravan is THE way to go

And yes, in the UK the driver is not allowed to leave their vehicle in the public highway with the engine running. Which is why you could, on a cold morning if you've left it in the road outside your house with the engine running to defrost the windows, be ticketed. Thank goodness for battery defrost

Thanks for all this information, I am following this with interest as I am thinking of the moving from a Discovery 3 to PHEV, I do some occasional towing of a boat, its about 1470kg so not much room left before I hit the limit.

Steve,

I wouldn't worry about the boat especially if its occasional use, the boat will have a lot less wind resistance than a caravan. The car coped Ok and the turtle only came on after 160miles for a short period but the car continued.

Anko,

Thanks for your comment, I was concerned that I was doing something that was causing the SOC to drop, it appears a bit more management and potentially dropping the speed slightly may make a difference. How did the car perform in turtle mode, it lasted too sort a period for me to make any observations.

Ian

I tow this about and others like it, again I think the wind resistance is lower even if the weight isn't.

I have yet to "Turtle" myself.

Is that for cable laying?

Titan said:

anko said:

Both TS and myself use Charge mode all the time, when towing. And yet SOC drops. Fortunately ( :? ) when towing a caravan, efficiency is not your biggest priority.

Out of curiosity, why is it not a good habit especially in the UK? Is it illegal?

Click to expand...

And me. I've learnt from experience that Charge mode when towing a Caravan is THE way to go

And yes, in the UK the driver is not allowed to leave their vehicle in the public highway with the engine running. Which is why you could, on a cold morning if you've left it in the road outside your house with the engine running to defrost the windows, be ticketed. Thank goodness for battery defrost

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It is also potentially very dangerous when "filling-up" as the petrol fumes could more easily ignite - see Zoolander :lol:

simonrh said:

I tow this about and others like it, again I think the wind resistance is lower even if the weight isn't.

I have yet to "Turtle" myself.

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Thats a very long charge cable...

It is for installing overhead power lines, self-loading drum trailer. Dispenses 3 phases at the same time. 710kg spool each phase

simonrh said:

It is for installing overhead power lines, self-loading drum trailer. Dispenses 3 phases at the same time. 710kg spool each phase

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Does that mean you are a "real" off roader. Cool rig!

Real off roader? Sort of but not really. We make the trailers and deliver them but we dont use them, the PHEV is OK, it got its wheels dirty a couple of times. Many moons ago I had an LR Discovery though and anything else is just a pale imitation.

Thats my worry, I am coming from a LR Disco 3 - and I even had that stuck a few times...

Just completed my first tow with a caravan of 1495kgs attached. Once you get used to the engine running at higher revs on hills then its just like towing with any normal engined vehicle . Having towed for 8 years and running at almost 100% towing limit was pleasantly surprised. Used the car in normal mode/ battery save mode and you can see that the car intelligently uses a combination of petrol and battery motors. Depleted battery on return journey and still towed at 60 mph along M40 M42. As long as you are prepared for slower acceleration than say with its diesel stablemate vehicle then go for it. Got 22mpg on this trip which is on a par with other cars i have towed with, stable when passing lorries and being passed by larger white vans. Charged the car via caravan electrics on 3 consecutive nights without any issue .

Gh4x 2016 spec

StevePHEV said:

Thats my worry, I am coming from a LR Disco 3 - and I even had that stuck a few times...

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My Disco 2B had a winch on it for the truly stuck situations, not sure i would want to take the PHEV to all those places!!

I can't work out if it is the exhaust or the mud flaps that touch down first but it doesn't "straddle" stuff too well but it will go places a normal car wont.

Simon, just in case you haven't seen it there's a post / thread somewhere on the subject of fitting of tow bars and that in some cases the silencer, which has to be removed to fit the tow bar, has been refitted slightly misorientated (made up word according to my spielchicker) and consequently reducing ground clearance.

JimB

I have a jayco flamingo camper trailer that i have just started towing with it has a GVM of 1400kg and towball weight of 140kgs. Driving in charge mode on relatively flat highway and speed of 80_90km/hr the engine cannot maintain or increase the SOC. It just keeps dropping.
Is this normal? Its not much use if you know there are some large hills coming up and you have no batt to assist.
Also experiencing significant sag in the rear of phev when hitched. Have measured ball weight and redistributed stuff in van and car to eliviate without much change. Has anybody had success with WDH (weight distribution hitches) or leaf spring additions like
http://www.ironman4x4.com/category-products/suspension/load-plus
Think i need a bigger tow now but dont want to part with the phev as i love it..