Can You Tow A Tesla Behind A Motorhome? Safely?
If you are going on a vacation with your motorhome, you may be asking yourself, can you tow a Tesla behind a motorhome? Can you tow a Tesla behind a motorhome? Can flat-towing a Tesla behind a motorhome cause damage? How can you safely tow a Tesla with a motorhome?
Table of Contents
- Can you tow a Tesla behind a motorhome?
- The Right Way to Tow a Tesla
- Alternatives to Towing a Telsa
- Wrapping It Up
Can you tow a Tesla behind a motorhome?
You can tow a Tesla behind a motorhome, as long as you don’t flat-tow it. Flat-towing a Tesla behind a motorhome can cause serious damage to various components in the car and void the warranty. Instead, you should use alternatives like tow dollies or a trailer.
When it comes to flat-towing a car, the most commonly used procedure is putting the car in neutral and then flat-towing them. Once the vehicle is in neutral, its electric parking brake is inactivated, meaning its wheels won’t be locked. Therefore, you can easily tow them.
However, this procedure can only work seamlessly in manual cars. In a manual car, if you put it into neutral, you will have separated the transmission from the driveshaft. As a result, you will have eliminated any possibility of the car suffering from serious wear and tear while being towed.
But in an electric vehicle like a Tesla, the situation is quite different. Teslas and other electric cars don’t come with a transmission system. As a result, their motors are connected to their wheels directly.
Therefore, even after putting the car in neutral, you won’t completely disengage the wheels from the motor. And as you pull the car behind the motorhome, the spinning wheels will continue generating electricity.
Unfortunately, all the car’s components that consume electricity are off, meaning there’s nothing to regulate and manage this electricity. If you continue flat-towing the vehicle, this massive surge of electricity may end up frying the vehicle’s electronics.
Furthermore, the Tesla is off. Therefore, the cooling system is not working. And when the cooling system is not running, several vital parts and components of the Tesla can overheat as you drag it along the road. And, fixing these components can be costly, thus pushing your vacation budget through the roof.
Simply put, if you tow a Tesla behind a motorhome, the spinning wheels will continue generating electricity. And the sudden surge of uncontrolled and unregulated electricity may fry some of the vehicle’s parts.
Second, as the car rolls along the road, massive amounts of heat will be generated through friction. And since the vehicle is off, the cooling system is also off. As a result, there will be overheating, which may damage vital parts of the car, which may be expensive to repair or replace.
Third, Tesla advises against flat-towing its vehicles, regardless of the model. And if you go ahead and do it, you may end up voiding the warranty. Therefore, you will have to incur out-of-pocket costs for the repairs.
If you own a Tesla and you are planning to go on an RV camping trip, you may be probably wondering whether you can tow it behind the motorhome. Well, this article will explore this topic further.
The Right Way to Tow a Tesla
Flat-towing a Tesla can lead to costly damage. And this begs the question, if you can’t flat-tow your Tesla, how then can you bring it along if you are going on an RV trip? Well, you can bring along your Tesla using a flatbed.
By using a flatbed, you won’t tow the Tesla with its wheels, meaning it will not incur the damages identified above. At the same time, the vehicle will remain under its original warranty. And Tesla laid down the steps that you should follow for this procedure. And here they are:
First, you will need to disable all the self-leveling features that your Tesla may have. The self-leveling features your Tesla will have will depend on the model. Such features may include air suspension, among others.
To disable these features, you will need to navigate through the vehicle’s control menus. Once you access the control menus, you will then need to set the Tesla to the highest ride-height level possible. After doing that, you will then need to select the “Jack” option.
Selecting this option will automatically turn off the vehicle’s active-suspension system, thus allowing it to be moved freely while eliminating the risk of damaging its suspension components.
Second, you will need to put your vehicle in “Tow Mode.” The majority of Tesla models will shift the car into park mode automatically once you’ve exited. And this can be problematic, especially when you are towing the vehicle. So, by putting the vehicle in “Tow Mode” you will have bypassed the park mode after exiting the car.
Third, hoist the vehicle onto the trailer. To do so, you will first need to attach tow chains to the vehicle. Your Tesla’s manual has indicated where you should attach the tow chains. So, ensure you follow these instructions to prevent damage to other components.
After attaching the tow chains, you should also place a 2-inch by 4-inch piece of wood between the underbody and the tow chains, to protect the underbody from damage. And from there, you can now pull the vehicle onto the trailer. Once you’ve done that, you should then secure its wheels onto the flatbed using tie-down straps and chocks. And, you are good to go.
Alternatives to Towing a Telsa
Towing a Tesla using a flatbed is the recommended method. It’s safe, meaning you won’t damage your vehicle. Besides, you won’t void your warranty, if your Tesla is still under warranty. So, if you intend to be bringing your Tesla along on your road trips regularly, then you should consider purchasing one.
Wrapping It Up
Towing your Tesla behind your motorhome can look like a convenient means of carrying it along when going on an RV trip. But as you can see, the drawbacks of using this method outweigh the cons by far. So, if leaving your Tesla behind is not an option when going on a vacation with your motorhome, then you should simply hire a flatbed trailer.