How about an electric assist trailer? A potentiometer on hitch measures drag and kicks in electric assist on trailer to "push" it along when needed. Electric assist could be powered from various sources - solar, battery, on board generator, dilithium crystals or Honda 2000 in back of TV.

Back to my BBQ sauce.

fred

I am still waiting for the day when someone writes in for advice on pulling their RPdod with an Electra Glide.  It's coming, I can sense it.     It can be done with a Harley, no doubt,  but it will significantly cut the fuel mileage and pulling hills will take first gear and some time/hours.   

Wyoming, btw, has two supercharger stations, one is on I80 in Cheyenne, the other one, which was the first one in the state, is installed in the smallest county - population wise - and is on a rural state low traffic highway.  In the small Cowtown deluxe, Lusk, Wy.   

Doubt there is a Tesla in Lusk or within a few hundred or more hundreds of miles. 

Lusk is  ~350 miles east of Yellowstone/Grand Teton on the eastern Wy prairie.  It is a good heartland place. 

They aren't into electric cars there even with the plug ins available, and they don't make electric pickup trucks, which is what most ranchers and locals there drive. 

The charger plug-in's there are probably full of dust or spider houses due to lack of use.      I digress......  

Kinda strange and goofy marketing is what everyone thought when Tesla put the station in there --- right after they all said "what the hell is a Tesla and why does it need to be plugged in"? 

Maybe the Tesla's  have a lot of torque like a train engine and are entry level towing machines?  

fred

Yeah true ,

West Yellowstone has a charge station, Billings, Bozeman, Idaho Falls etc. so there are some around YNP.  It will be like a sled dog race and feeding the sled dogs.  

I don't dislike electric, I have a lot of great rechargeable tools, razor, and an electric fence around my horse pasture, and this computer ain't solar powered.  

All of the trains that run around here are diesel over electric.  Most folks don't know that.  Lots of torque with the electric train motors.

Plug in vehicles just are not suited for now in western rural areas for vehicles, if ever.  And then throw in the cold and happy camping.

The huge megawatt electric generating plants here in Wy that produce the power that you plug your Tesla into to recharge it all burn low-sulpher coal.  How about that carbon footprint when you plug in here in Wy and nearby states? 

I think the Tesla electric car folks are mostly gasaphobic.  Or Petrophobic.  Need to come up with a good term....I don't care what you drive, drive them until they drop, recharge, go forward. 

What I don't like are people who try to tow trailers with vehicles that are way too underpowered or too lightweight to handle emergency stops and the weight of the vehicle they are pulling.  

Undersized and underpowered tow rigs s can and do kill other people, and the drivers.

I live just outside Yellowstone so I see it all.  

Still waiting for the Electra Glide tow rig, perhaps even an electric Electra Glide one.

You might want to consider a Casita.  http://casitatraveltrailers.com/

Cool,

Send me a pvt.  reply future-wise if you get in YNP country and perhaps we can sit around a campfire.  

Several responses in one post here...

Someone suggested mounting a generator as an assist.  Not nearly enough electrons to do any good compared to the power needs of an electric car.

cmt489 - welcome.  On top of my knowledge of home-made electric vehicles I've also designed my own home solar system, several times over.  Never could pull the pin on building it with kids to put through college and family vacations before the kids fly away.  I was an advocate for the Volt years before it went to production.  Can't wait for a viable mainstream truck for towing since you get full torque from a dead stop.  So that puts into context what I'm going to say:  as has been said already, you don't want to tow with the range your vehicle has unless it is within 100 miles and you charge for the trip home while you are in-camp.  No way cross-country.  Too many places you will almost run out of gas let alone try to find a charging station.  Also as been said, you don't want to tow a full-height camper if you do.  Aerodynamic drag has a far larger affect on mpgs (range) than weight.  Real-world example, I used to tow a large popup with a Sienna.  That camper was heavier than a 171 pod but of course half the height of a pod when being towed.  The Sienna got 23 mpg during daily driving, 16 mpg pulling the heavier popup, and later 10-12 pulling the pod.  Figure a 1/3 loss in range pulling a popup but over 50% loss in range pulling a pod (thus my suggestion to keep within 100 miles of home).  You know this from pulling a horse trailer.

Hey,

Thanks to my reply to your reply I see am no longer a "Groupie" and I am now a "Senior Member".   Cheers!

Hint:  It looks like you have to hit 100 posts to move to senior member. 

Thanks also go to Elon Musk for this honor. 

(And there are even "Grand Exaalted Leaders" on this web site.  God only knows what that takes to achieve that level) 

That being said, I am also interested in how it turns out to pull an rpod with a model X, and would love to rent one northern california to just try it out, for impact on range as much as for how my family likes this style of vacation. We have done camping plenty and getting older I now sometimes would prefer a real mattress ;)

Are there any good affordable places for renting rpods / airstreams / etc? 

I am especially interested in the Forest River R-Pod RP-172 as mentioned on http://topratedtraveltrailers.com/4-lightweight-travel-trailers-3500-lbs/