Big towing - update

[simonrh]

Over the last week I have been exhibiting with my employer at a tradeshow.

As part of this my car was needed to haul all the contents of our show stand as well as a large trailer initially to the show site then on to a customer to deliver the trailer to its owner immediately after the show.

We went to a public weighbridge before departure to double check we remained within the vehicle's Max gross train weight and came in at 3480kg which is manageable (and legal).

The trailer was 1250kg, A PHEV has a kerb weight of 1845kg. This means the load in the back and the occupants was around 400kg.

The car was completely full of kit and we then had to tow a total journey of 540 miles.

During this trip i was only able to charge as a i left home and then a single rapid on the return journey.

I have to say the car performed faultlessly as a distance coverer and as a "tug" at the show ground for moving several trailers about into the correct display area. Even doing the "tug" tasks on electric which is satisfying and peaceful.

Getting up some of the gradients on the M62 was noisy and not especially relaxing with the engine going flat out as we were doing 60mph the whole time.

Average economy (including an 80mph return journey without the trailer was 29MPG which cant be bad given the load, hills and speed.

In conclusion: very pleased.

He will be getting an easy weekend of light duties as a treat now.

 

[StevePHEV]

Good to know as I plan to use mine as a tow car for a 1300kg load.

 

[PHEVHappy]

I have just towed for the first time in my outlander and have a couple of questions. my trip was 125 miles from leeds to keswick. the first 50 miles were up the A1 and the remailder across the A66 towards keswick. I started with a full tank of petrol and a full charge. on the A1 i had adaptive cruise control set at 60mph and the 'save' button pressed. despite save being pressed i had run out of charge after approx. 30 miles. the car towed great up the A1 no problem. The A66 is very up and down in to the lakes and all was going well across the A66 until about 10 miles outside keswick. On a long pull the engine started revving even higher than normal the power dropped and i got a message flash up briefly on the dash saying i was in reduced power mode??? we got up the hill ok but it seemed quite a pull and on the other side i pressed the charge button and things returned to normal. I checked the manual when we got there and there was no mention of reduced power mode. I assume it was a case of the battery being completely flat so there was no electric power at all i was just running on the ICE, is this right?
I know that even when the save button is pressed the battery is used but i was surprised how quickly the battery drained, is this normal??
Also i noticed on the accelerator when i put my foot to the floor the pedal travels to approx. 20mm from the floor very smoothly then there is a point where it seems to catch before it goes the rest of the way, can anyone confirm if there accelerator pedal is the same please.
thank you for any advice on towing for my next trip in a few weeks.

 

[StevePHEV]

Also i noticed on the accelerator when i put my foot to the floor the pedal travels to approx. 20mm from the floor very smoothly then there is a point where it seems to catch before it goes the rest of the way, can anyone confirm if there accelerator pedal is the same please.

This is the kick down - not a true kick down on the phev as it cant drop a gear, more of a give me everything you've got button...

 

[PHEVHappy]

Also i noticed on the accelerator when i put my foot to the floor the pedal travels to approx. 20mm from the floor very smoothly then there is a point where it seems to catch before it goes the rest of the way, can anyone confirm if there accelerator pedal is the same please.

This is the kick down - not a true kick down on the phev as it cant drop a gear, more of a give me everything you've got button...

Thank you for the info, i obviously haven't felt the need to push my foot through the floor before, or just been that intent to go faster that i didn't notice!!!

 

[jaapv]

I have just towed for the first time in my outlander and have a couple of questions. my trip was 125 miles from leeds to keswick. the first 50 miles were up the A1 and the remailder across the A66 towards keswick. I started with a full tank of petrol and a full charge. on the A1 i had adaptive cruise control set at 60mph and the 'save' button pressed. despite save being pressed i had run out of charge after approx. 30 miles. the car towed great up the A1 no problem. The A66 is very up and down in to the lakes and all was going well across the A66 until about 10 miles outside keswick. On a long pull the engine started revving even higher than normal the power dropped and i got a message flash up briefly on the dash saying i was in reduced power mode??? we got up the hill ok but it seemed quite a pull and on the other side i pressed the charge button and things returned to normal. I checked the manual when we got there and there was no mention of reduced power mode. I assume it was a case of the battery being completely flat so there was no electric power at all i was just running on the ICE, is this right?
I know that even when the save button is pressed the battery is used but i was surprised how quickly the battery drained, is this normal??
Also i noticed on the accelerator when i put my foot to the floor the pedal travels to approx. 20mm from the floor very smoothly then there is a point where it seems to catch before it goes the rest of the way, can anyone confirm if there accelerator pedal is the same please.
thank you for any advice on towing for my next trip in a few weeks.

That was normal behaviour of the car. When you use more electricity than it can generate the battery level will drop to the point that it goes into an automatic Save mode around 27%, until the point is reached when it goes into a reduced power mode, to protect the battery. About 20% charge IIRC. It will warn a bit before actually reducing power. When it has charged up to a safe level it will resume normal operation. It does not occur often, but it can and does happen under extremely heavy load. Use Charge to get the battery level as high as possible if you have such a situation ahead.

 

[PHEVHappy]

Thank you Jaapv, I appreciate your reply, i did think that would be the case but i just wanted confirmation. I dont think i helped matters myself as i think i had put the regen to B0 when i left the A1 thinking it would have less resistance for pulling the caravan, not thinking that there would be no charging done at all... doh!!!
So for future ref. when towing set off with a full charge, keep in save mode until the battery is showing about a quarter full then hit charge???

 

[Albacore]

I always tow with the car in charge mode, once some of the battery has been depleted of course. Last week I was off with the caravan again (130 mile trip), and actually found that the battery seem to hold SOC for longer than the first trip out in June. I wondered if it was to do with it being more 'run in' now it has 6000 miles on the clock - first trip it had 1500 on clock - probably my imagination though. Or perhaps I'm just more used to driving the car now!

On the return journey we were stuck on the M5 for quite a while, either stopped or crawling, then sped up for a while, then back to crawling and so on. As I still had over 50% SOC I decided to turn charging off and run on battery whilst travelling below 45mph. It certainly makes it far less stressful being stuck on the motorway knowing that you're not burning £££. Anyhow, once home and filled up, I was very surprised to see I had managed the journey with 29.6mpg. Very impressed with that as my previous 3 towing trips I only got 22-25mpg and I even had the aircon on (which was a first!). Can't believe the 'battery only' stage on M5 made that much difference - I wouldn't have thought the actual distance was enough to influence it that much. If I can replicate that on my trip to France I will be very pleased.

 

[PHEVHappy]

I was always under the impression that Charge mode is a lot less economical than Save mode, which is why i opted for Save mode at the start of the journey to save fuel. I think were going to the cotswolds later in the summer so i will try out your method, however i do know for sure that the journey there will have alot less hill climbs than the journey to Keswick.

 

[jaapv]

There is not much in it, using save or charge, provided that you arrive with an empty battery. Basically they do the same, only the car will attempt to keep the level around 80% on charge, on 30% (shown as 0% on your display) when used without button, and anything in between at your choice when using save.
The save and charge buttons are meant to adapt the battery level to the expected use.
There are minor differences, for instance the battery is said to charge most efficiently at 50%, but that has little practical impact in my expereince.

 

[greendwarf]

I don't tow, but would have thought that at speed, the air resistance with a 'van is significant and enough to overcome any benefit you might get from coasting - whereas at lower speed (as described) the reverse would be true, hence the better consumption. :idea: