Towing in hilly areas

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The trouble is you can't cheat "the system" - I did something similar, trying to tow a broken down Montego through the Sarf Lundun Alps with a hired Micra, as I didn't want to pay for a tow truck.

Burnt out the clutch and although I didn't tell them how it happened - so no cost to me - I still had to pay for the tow but also, as punishment, whilst parked waiting for it, the car was broken into and tools and a room carpet were stolen.

"G-d moves in mysterious ways" :lol:
 
greendwarf said:
The trouble is you can't cheat "the system" - I did something similar, trying to tow a broken down Montego through the Sarf Lundun Alps with a hired Micra, as I didn't want to pay for a tow truck.

Burnt out the clutch and although I didn't tell them how it happened - so no cost to me - I still had to pay for the tow but also, as punishment, whilst parked waiting for it, the car was broken into and tools and a room carpet were stolen.

"G-d moves in mysterious ways" :lol:

Wow, crazy stealing a carpet lol!

I appreciate the anecdote, but feel like Micra with manual transmission is not comparable to electric drivetrain as explained in the mechanical stackexchage I linked..
 
If you note, the article you reference, refers to moving on the flat where the only barrier is rolling resistance. As I have repeatedly pointed out here, I can easily push my car several feet but I can't lift it more than few millimetres. This is because you need a lot of energy to overcome gravity. On a slipway you are lifting the mass as well as moving it forward - simples! :cool:
 
Here is an update on my recent towing experience (last weekend, middle of June) with my 2021 Outlander PHEV.

I towed a pop-up trailer up into the Sawtooth Valley, over two passes (Horseshoe Bend, which is about a 1600ft elevation gain, and Banner Summit, not sure about the gain, but it is at 7500ft). About my trailer, I’ll just say that I was not maxed out considering the rest of the world’s Outlander tow limit, but I was over the US limit (though well under the GVWR).

On the highway getting to the first pass, I drove about 55mph and kept the car in “charge” most of the time so that by the time I came to the first pass the car had at least 70% SOC, and I kept the car at 50mph up the pass. The battery drained to about 50% by the time I hit the summit. Going down into the valley, I gained back a considerable amount of battery through regen. For the next 50 miles or so there was a constant up and down, and the max posted speed limit is between 40 and 60mph, so I kept between 40 and 55. But from the town of Lowman we climbed from 3500ft to 7500ft, over the course of 20 miles, up and down, then a long, long climb. On the final climb, the car began with about 75% soc, and I kept the speed to 50mph. It was so long (should have kept track of the miles), with very few “pauses” in the climb during which the car could actually charge (mostly the engine drove the front wheels and the battery drove the rear), that I was pretty sure I would hit run out of battery and get the “turtle” I’ve read so much about, but we made it to the summit with probably 10% showing on the battery meter. Made it! It was a warm morning, but most of the time we had windows cracked and the fan on, but no AC. The fuel average for this part of the trip was 21mpg.

We returned home on the same route, and we averaged 34mpg. It was a really pleasure to watch the battery fill up going downhill for so long! So our average mpg for the trip was 27, and I’m quite happy with that. My Nissan Frontier (which I traded in for the Outlander) averaged about 22mpg for the same trip with the same pop up.

This was literally the toughest route I’ll ever do with this vehicle and trailer, so all is good. I have no problem going 50 or 60 (and I don’t think anyone should be going faster than that with trailers, but we Americans think we have to have gas-guzzlers for everything!)

I think the most difficult thing about driving with the Outlander and a travel trailer in Idaho is the very curvy roads on which 25-35MM is the maximum speed. The vehicle does best with the trailer when it can power the front wheels with the ICE and add power with the back. That’s the only way to get the 220HP. If you’re stuck pulling a trailer on a hill and have to keep the speed under 35MM, then max horsepower is 170 or less. My next route will test this.

However, net time I will have a different travel trailer: roughly the same rate, but a large “teardrop,” rather than a pop-up, so there will be wind resistance to deal with. But at 50-60mph, perhaps that won’t be so bad.

Thank you to all who have written so many informative posts on this forum!
 
What happens if we tow like 5,000 lb and north of it?
I am interested in towing a large boat to a lake 40 minutes away without damaging the drive train or shear off the hitch.
I am concerned whether the hitch can withstand the load during pulling a boat out of the water, and drivetrain damage during the trip itself - although I assume drivetrain warranty would cover that as Mitsubishi would never be able to prove I towed exceeding the max limit.

I did tow with my current 2019 Hyundai Kona 2L gas which has no towing rating, using small class 1 receiver - towing a 2500+ pounds camper but just barely in manual mode and 4th gear, so I am hoping that the Outlander PHEV can manage 5-6 k pounds, given that there are no gears that could break in the transmission, wouldn't that just mean constant high revs to replenish the battery and/or provide more current into the engines to pull the 6k pounds?
You are joking, aren't you?
A dealer in New Zealand told me in 2017/8 the chassis can tow 2000kg (4400lbs) because the deisel is rated for that and it's the same on the PHEV. Drive train though is completely different. They are rated to 1500kg with trailer brakes or 750kg without, although for unexplained reasons the manual says 750/750 for NZ but 1500/750 for Australia. It's the SAME MANUAL AND THE SAME DAMNED CAR. So why the difference?

Anyway, feel free to tow your 6000 pound anchor (2727 kg or 82% overload) on your "no gears to break" PHEV until it breaks because "Mitsubishi wont know". Yeah Right! They'll know alright from the stripped reduction gears between the electric motors and their respective differentials. Or did you think they don't have those.

Oh, nearly forgot, "More current into the engines". First; it has limits imposed by the designers (Engineers, I'm guessing you're not one of those), and more current means more heat and more heat means oil failure, and guess what that means. So yeah 3 tons, why not? After all if you can afford the big boat and the car, then you can afford another car, right.
 
I was inspired by your post to further try googling, I found this:
https://mechanics.stackexchange.com...xceeds-towing-capacity-of-an-electric-vehicle
I think the next move, is to get confirmation from MMC engineering as to whether the Outlander has such overheating protections in place.
Any ideas how to do so?

My other idea is to just test drive one, and try to pull a heavy boat like that somewhere, assuming someone would agree to let me test on their boat.. might not though.
I was inspired by your post to further try googling, I found this:
https://mechanics.stackexchange.com...xceeds-towing-capacity-of-an-electric-vehicle
I think the next move, is to get confirmation from MMC engineering as to whether the Outlander has such overheating protections in place.
Any ideas how to do so?

My other idea is to just test drive one, and try to pull a heavy boat like that somewhere, assuming someone would agree to let me test on their boat.. might not though.
They wouldn't be worried about the boat being towed, as much as the car doing the towing. You get the car and then tow the big boat, risk is on you.
 
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