Really Towing With the Chevy Bolt
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2024
- bit.ly/osetj-12
Test Run With a Uhaul Trailer
We are excited to report that we completed a test tow with our 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV!
For the test, we rented a 4x8 Uhaul trailer weighing 850 pounds. We visited Ikea and quickly found 407 pounds of boxes reportedly containing furniture and loaded it in the trailer.
The total weight of 1,257 pounds exceeds the dry weight of the Aliner Scout Lite popup trailer we hope to buy. Notably, it is a similar shape and size. In other words, this was a pretty good practice run.
All went well. We had no issues stopping or starting.
Notably, the Uhaul trailer has no brakes. Most trailers do, of course. The implication isn’t all bad. Without conventional brakes on the trailer, the electric motors get the full weight of the rig, pushing it forward on the stops, allowing the car to regenerate more electricity on the stops. We used the brake pedal on the Bolt once or twice, but the vehicle may not have engaged the disc brakes. The car only does so when the motors are generating their maximum electric capacity, and the driver pushes even harder on the brake pedal.
Data Dump for Nerds
We tracked a trip of 36.1 miles, the first 4.6 of which were without the trailer. The car tracks some data between every full charge, so we started the tracking at home; thus, it includes the trip to Uhaul. As a result, 88 percent of the distance reflected having a trailer in tow.
During the trip, we used 8.4 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity, averaging 4.3 miles per kwh (mpk). Given that our long-term average is 4.1 mpk, the load was not overwhelming.
The car scores every trip on four criteria, all on a -5 to 5 scale:
Technique: 3.5. That score is excellent. I always try to get above zero, but above three is rarified air indeed. A trip at freeway speeds will often drop below zero.
Terrain: -3.3. This score is terrible. Of course, cruising around level-everywhere Florida, the score reflects the trailer’s weight, not the topography.
Climate Settings: 0. We didn’t turn on the air conditioner. The temperature was in the low 80s to begin and cooled to the mid-70s when we returned the trailer early in the evening. The climate system uses a remarkable amount of juice, especially in stop-and-go traffic.
Outside Temperature: 2.8. The car loves hot weather. Around 100 degrees, the vehicle begins to cool the battery, but we think that is a safety measure more than a performance one. The battery likes hot weather. Of course, when it is warmer than yesterday, we’d have to turn on the A/C, which uses more juice. As a result, 75-degree weather is just about perfect.
The car calculates the average mpk every five miles. The bar on the far right reflects the current calculation. The displayed estimate of 6+ mpk is fluky and may represent a short stretch of the trip. Ignore it.
The first six bars counting backward from right to left reflect the 30 or so miles we towed the trailer. Although it is inexact, you can see we averaged about 4 mpk while towing. That compares to 5+ mpk over the 20 miles or so before we hooked up the trailer. The difference is at least 20 percent.
If we use 25 percent as the difference, that is fantastic news! At freeway speeds in pleasant weather, the Bolt has a range of about 200 miles. Losing a quarter of that would leave us at 150 miles. We could potentially travel 250 miles in a day with just one charging stop. We’re excited.
There is a lot to see within 250 miles. If the trailer tows that distance well, we could be convinced to try a two-day travel trip, expanding our travel range to 500 miles. That’s a lot of territory to explore.
That range includes Biloxi, Missippi; Mobile, Alabama; Plains, Georgia; Key West, Florida; Wilmington, North Carolina; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and even Chattanooga, Tennessee!
Check back with us next week when we give you a complete rundown of the trailers we considered and why we’ve tentatively chosen the little Aliner Scout Lite.
These video's are so helpful for real conditions
Thank you so much!
Thank you
No! Thank YOU! We hope this was helpful!
I've been driving Bolts for the last 5 plus years but haven't put a trailer on one yet. I believe that GM doesn't advise a trailer because of chassis stresses, remember the battery is about 28% of the frames rigidity, I'm not sure the chassis is designed to cope with trailer stresses. It may work for awhile but you may see problems down the road, things like stress cracks on door frames. The Bolt is a front wheel drive car, that means it is essentially pulling the rear of the car so the rear does not have to be designed to handle pulling stress, even braking is done mostly with the front wheels, which create compression stresses so the back of the car is basically pushing everything forward not being pulled away from the car moving forward. When you add a trailer this all changes, now the rear of the car is being pulled away from the car and the aluminum substructure has to cope with something is wasn't designed to do.
That's a great observation. Thanks for joining the conversation. I hope other viewers will read your comments.
@@oursolartrailer Thanks, love my Bolt too!
Thanks for thr video!
Our pleasure!
Great proof of concept!
A first step, indeed!
I'm really glad you did this. I just drove 30.9 miles in Texas (78° outside), highway driving at 75mph, used A/C and I got about 8.6kwh. So I feel like if you did drive with average technique ( and A/C, it would have probably had a much larger change to your numbers. However, as long as you aren't going cross country, you should be fine. I'd say it probably make it more like 175 mile range instead of the 230 but still, that's not bad just to go to a state park and back home. Good thing about RV/State parks, they often have 220v plugs so you can just bring your 220v charger with you and charge a full charge over night .
That's a great point. We look forward to charging our Bolt in the RV parks.
@@oursolartrailer What was the out the door price from the dealership for the car.
@@levonet33 We bought ours used in 2020 for about $23,000. The dealer just offered us about $12,500 for it. Chevy is almost giving the new ones away with starting prices now below $30k! We've heard used 2017 Chevy Bolts sell retail for about $25,000k but you can get a new one for that!
I found this interesting: I'm considering purchase of an EV6....it does spec towing at 2300 lbs.
Excellent! It feels so powerful to have that hitch. It would feel even better knowing it was designed for it!
I'm surprised by the energy efficiency you saw while pulling the trailer. I tow a small aluminum boat with 25HP outboard behind my Bolt. I would guess my boat & trailer weigh about the same as your U-Haul. I normally see around 4 M/kWH when driving around town without the boat, but when I'm pulling the boat, I get around 2.7 M/kWH. I am usually making longer trips with my boat and driving on state highways at 55-65 MPH. I think you should expect to see a substantial efficiency hit (25-35%) if you pull a small camping trailer with your Bolt on a long-distance trip.
Yep. I think you are exactly right. We've now done about 400-500 miles with the trailer, including some freeway driving, and we're seeing about a 1/3 drop in mileage.
your finding is consistent with other reported EV towing experiences
@@6.5x55 good to hear.
really cool do you have any videos on your hitch set up? my bolt came with a tiny hitch already.
i thought about pulling a jet ski with mine.
Great question. Here's a link to the video about having our hitch installed. ua-cam.com/video/LAKrFjE0Sew/v-deo.html. You can read more about that here: superpowers4good.com. Let me know if you have more questions. Most often, Bolt owners install hitches without wiring for trailers because they use them for bike racks and such. The wiring is a bit tricky, the guys said. Still, your hitch shouldn't have any problem with a Jet Ski. That sounds like so much fun!
Any issues with reversing? Specifically too close emergency breaking?
Did you have the ability to check the temp of the motor , transaxle , batteries?
Buy a small teardrop camper!
We looked at many. Today we shared what we did buy here: bit.ly/osetj-14.
I installed the Eco Hitch, looking at some utility trailers. But, how to wire up the trailer lights? Or what kit to buy to do so. Or where can do it if I don't want to.
Great questions! I was afraid to do it myself. Kudos to you! I admire you. The guys that did it for me had trouble with the wiring harness. I was glad it was on them to make it work. On the Ecohitch website I found a list of authorized installers.
@@oursolartrailer Thanks I will check that list. Dealer says no, won't do it unless there is a factory authorized kit.
@@Rhetoscut Here's the link to find an authorized installer: torkliftcentral.com/locator.
how did you get your trailer light hookup done
Great question! The company that makes the Ecohitch we chose makes an accompanying wiring harness. The guys who installed the hitch did the wiring. The connector attaches with a little loop to the hitch receiver. The wiring harness has a four-way connector that just handles lights. That worked great for the U-Haul in this video, It turns out, the trailer we bought has a seven-way connector. Getting an adapter to work was tricky!
Newbie Qs, sounds silly but gotta try. Trying keep camper closest to its dry weight , gears/water/belongings and transfer them to bolt's trunk, (single occupant), this increasing vehicle payload... would it help towing capacity situation since vehicle still need to haul the same Total combined weight?
Great question! For all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter whether the weight is in the car or the trailer. We're focusing on traveling light!
Hello to you both, I am French Canadian and express myself badly in English but I understand it well, which model of hitch you bought, Thanks , merci !
It's an Ecohitch. See our video about it here: ua-cam.com/video/LAKrFjE0Sew/v-deo.html
All this is fine, does the Bolt have a manufacturer's tow rating?
No. And Chevy says in the new owners manual not to tow.
@@oursolartrailer Good luck...given that the Bolts brakes are sized with the added effect of regen and therefore are not likely over built, I would suggest that you should pay VERY close attention to the GVW rating limits of the vehicle (so weight of vehicle+interior contents+ people+trailed total weight).
@@6.5x55 We are very careful. We've towed our trailer over 1,000 miles over the last six months without a problem.