This article reports our experience towing our 50-year-old ‘Cub Drifter’ pop-top camper over 5,000km with our 5-year-old Tesla Model 3.
The camper weighs 730kg loaded with food, bedding and water. It is powered by a 3kWh Powertech battery pack that charges via 600W thin flexible solar panels on the camper’s rooftop, or via mains power.
There is no gas and, with the exception of tail-lights, no power connection between the car and the camper. En route, the solar panels keep the battery pack charged while it runs both a 30L fridge and 22L freezer.
With normal usage of lights and induction cooktop, we can manage 3 days completely off-grid with reasonable sunshine. With vehicle-to-load, which we don’t have, off-grid could be extended to weeks, water availability permitting.
We travelled a total of 5,693 kilometres over 33 days from our Brisbane home, along the eastern seaboard to Wilson’s Promontory before rounding Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road. We returned home via the Hume Highway to Sydney and then the east coast Pacific Highway.
Charging was largely achieved through the Tesla Supercharger (SC) network although we also used Chargefox on a few occasions and BP once. We usually charged to either 80% or 90% dependent upon the distances for the next leg of the journey.
We had some overnight trickle charging at supportive caravan park powered sites via the trailer’s external 240volt/10amp outlet. Where we considered an overnight charge useful, we asked upon check-in at the caravan park, offering recompense.
Most parks permitted charging with only one park taking our $20 offering, for the convenience. Two caravan parks, Eden Reflections Caravan Park and NRMA Umina Beach, actually had EV specific charging stations that were free to use for park residence. NRMA Shellharbour had a 22kW charger within the grounds which was activated via the Chargefox App.
The entire trip included 41 separate charging events (excluding home charging before and after the trip) and mandated the unhitching of the trailer specifically for charging on 6 occasions.
The most significant inconvenience was experienced at charge stations located in very tight and/or multilevel carparks, particularly Wangaratta, in that we had to find a suitable location on the street to leave the trailer.
The table below details charging locations, costs at each site, preceding trip efficiency (when recorded) as well as a legend to profile our ease or otherwise of charging with a trailer, at each location.
Total kilometres of 5693, had average efficiency of 23.4kWh/100km and total costs of $657.59. But within the total of 5693km, a calculated 710km was touring local areas without the trailer.
Taking these 710km into account, where efficiency is taken as 15.5kWh/100km (lifetime average for the car), the real weighted average efficiency specifically while towing was 24.5kWh/100km.
Comparing this with the car’s lifetime average efficiency to date of 15.5kWh/100km, means average efficiency and thus range is cut to 63% of normal, while towing our 730kg Cub Drifter pop-top camper.
So, ‘charge, tow, repeat’ was certainly the pattern of our longer-distance travel days (400-500km) yet coincided well with our needs for a break and refreshments. All up, a great trip and we’ll be doing more of it.
Legend indicating ease of charging with trailer
1 = drive through or pull-in bay
2 = no drive through/pull-in bay but able to park across multiple bays to charge
3 = no drive through/pull-in bay and had to unhitch to charge
4 = camper already unhitched (e.g. had set-up for overnight stay and then took car without trailer for charging)
5 = overnight charging on-site at Caravan Park
6 = chargers located in tight carpark with no trailer access
– = Not Recorded
Heavy dividing lines separate travel days
| Charging Location with ease of charging with trailer 1-6 | Distance Travelled since last charge | Efficiency since last charge | Price / kWh | Cost |
| Knockrow (Tesla SC) 1 | 215 | 22.7kWh/100km | 0.49 | 8.68 |
| New Italy (Tesla SC) 1 | 79 | – | 0.45 | 25.36 |
| Nambucca Heads (BP) 4 | 207 | 23.5kWh/100km | 0.66 | 25.05 |
| Thrumpster (Tesla SC) 2 | 25 | – | 0.48 | 26.20 |
| Raymond Tce (Tesla SC) 2 | 213 | 21.7kWh/100km | 0.48 | 21.77 |
| Umina Beach (O’night) 5 | 90 | – | Free | 0.00 |
| Wollongong (Tesla SC) 3 | 193 | 21.4kWh/100km | 0.52 | 20.79 |
| Shellharbour (Chargefox 22kW in NRMA Cara Park) 5 | 14 | – | 0.30 | 7.20 |
| Bateman’s Bay (Tesla SC) 2 | 181 | 24.7kWh/100km | 0.48 | 23.43 |
| Narooma (Tesla SC) 4 | 60 | – | 0.48 | 11.56 |
| Spent 3 days at Narooma in which did touring around place without trailer in tow, including a visit to Tilba but did not record our distance travelled (retrospectively calculated to be approx 60km). | ||||
| Narooma (Tesla SC) 4 | NR | – | 0.48 | 9.81 |
| Merimbula (Tesla SC) 4 | NR | 25kWh/100km | 0.49 | 15.99 |
| Merimbula (Tesla SC) 1 | NR | – | 0.49 | 7.25 |
| Eden (O’night) 5 | 28 | 23.1kWh/100km | Free | 0.00 |
| Mallacotta (Chargefox 50kW emissions-free energy) 4 | 94 | 24.4kWh/100km | 0.57 | 17.81 |
| Cann River (Tesla SC) 3 | 92 | 28.8kWh/100km | 0.43 | 17.47 |
| Marlo (O’night) 5 | 110 | 25.5kWh/100km | Flat fee for 2 nights | 20.00 |
| Bairnsdale (Tesla SC)4 | – | – | 0.43 | 17.25 |
| Spent 2 days in Bairnsdale during which travelled to Buchan Caves and return without trailer covering a distance of 160km | ||||
| Bairnsdale (Tesla SC)4 | – | – | 0.43 | 13.63 |
| Traralgon (Tesla SC)2 | – | – | 0.43 | 18.25 |
| Yanakie (Chargefox 50kW emissions-free energy) 2 | 115 | 23.5kWh/100km | 0.74 | 17.64 |
| Yanakie was closest charge point to Wilson’s Promontory National Park where we spent 6 days. During this period, we spent one wet day driving around Fish Creek, Foster and environs without the trailer, but did not record our distance travelled unfortunately (calculated post trip as approximately 140km) | ||||
| Yanakie (Chargefox 50kW emissions free-energy) 2 | – | – | 0.74 | 19.28 |
| Pakenham (Tesla SC) 3 | 174 | 28.3kWh/100km | 0.44 | 23.34 |
| Corio (Tesla SC) 1 | 123 | 23kWh/100km | 0.48 | 11.73 |
| Colac (Tesla SC) 4 | 90 | 27.7kWh/100km | 0.42 | 14.98 |
| From Colac we travelled to Apollo Bay, Cape Otway, 12 Apostles and Port Campbell and return without the trialer, a calculated distance of approximately 300km | ||||
| Port Campbell (Tesla SC) 4 | 198 | 15.1kWh/100km (drove Great Ocean Rd without Trailer) | 0.43 | 14.45 |
| Colac (O’night) 5 | – | – | – | 0.00 |
| Campbellfield (Tesla SC) 1 | 167 | 27kWh/100km | 0.49 | 25.24 |
| Wangaratta (Tesla SC) 3,6 | 230 | 23.8kWh/100km | 0.43 | 25.13 |
| Albury (Tesla SC) 4,6 | – | – | 0.48 | 18.21 |
| Holbrook (Tesla SC) 2 | – | 27.3kWh/100km | 0.48 | 15.05 |
| Coolac (Tesla SC) 2 | 135 | 30kWh/100km | 0.48 | 20.11 |
| Yass (Tesla SC) 1 | 85 | 30.9kWh/100km | 0.48 | 14.11 |
| Goulburn (Tesla SC) 2 | 92 | 29kWh/100km | 0.48 | 15.97 |
| Campbelltown (Tesla SC) 3 | 142 | 20.6kWh/100km | 0.49 | 17.86 |
| Central Coast (Tesla SC) 4,6 | 162 | 20.6kWh/100km | 0.45 | 23.85 |
| Heatherbrae (Tesla SC) 3 | – | 24kWh/100km | 0.45 | 12.55 |
| Kew (Tesla SC) 1 | 191 | 25.7kWh/100km | 0.48 | 26.35 |
| Coffs Harbour (Tesla SC) 1 | 178 | 25.4kWh/100km | 0.49 | 24.54 |
| Brooms Head (O’night) 5 | 135 | 25kWh/100km | Free | 0.00 |
| 2 days at Brooms Head during which we drove to McLean and return without trailer on a distance of 50km | ||||
| Brooms Head (O’night) 5 | 50 | – | Free | 0.00 |
| New Italy (Tesla SC) 1 | 136 | – | 0.48 | 12.81 |
| Home (Brisbane Northside) | 249 | 22kWh/100km | Free (roof top PV) | 0.00 |
| TOTALS * taken from vehicle trip meter | 5,693km* | 23.4kWh/100km* | $657.59 | |
