RV-ready Charging Station for EV towing

gklott

Senior Member
RV LIFE Pro
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Jan 7, 2019
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543
Location
Johnson City
On our recent trip we encountered the new Flying J truck stop heavy-duty charging station. This charging station is in Lordsburg, NM. One of the greatest complaints by RVers towing trailers with electric vehicles is the need to unhitch to get to the charging station. This Flying J configuration serves big trucks and RVs.

We see more EVs towing trailers. This recent trip we saw one Rivian R1T towing a 27 ft Airstream Flying Cloud, a Rivian R1S towing a T@B 400, and a Tesla Model Y towing a SCAMP. We also saw a Tesla towing a PolyDrop P19 trailer, as shown in the attached image. The Polydrop trailers are all electric, designed specifically for use with EV tow vehicles.

There are several Escape owners now towing with EVs.

Hopefully more RV friendly charging stations will be spreading across the nation.

73/gus
 

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one Rivian R1T towing a 27 ft Airstream Flying Cloud,
Just a few years ago that would've been hard to imagine.

But it'll be a few more years before I'd be ready for that. I still suffer range anxiety on my ebike. :)

Ron
 
Gus, you are correct that many charging stations require disconnect to use, most likely because they do not require two sided access. Drive through chargers require more real estate. With the advent of semi tractor EVs, a business like Flying J which caters to truckers, they are sort of forced to find the space. However, EVs used for towing RVs are a very small percentage of the towed RV population. As I see it, there is, at the present time, very little incentive for any business to invest in a multi-sided charging set-up to accommodate the small number of people who would use it. I personally don’t think it will happen until EVs become a great majority of the vehicles on the road and RV owners are forced to start towing with EVs. Just my perception/opinion.
 
RV-EV face the chicken and egg problem. We need a comprehensive and reliable national charging infrastructure supporting all vehicle sizes. Yet as you say, the incentive comes when more EVs require charging.
We saw several Tesla EV heavy trucks on I-80 traveling between Reno and Sacramento.
We’ve also seen a couple of RV chargers built on an island in a larger parking lot. Nice feature is that the charging station on each end supports a vehicle pulling along side the end of the island. Unfortunately, most EV charging tends to be along the outer edge of a parking lot.
RVs, towed or other, are a small percentage of the traffic serviced by the major truck stop chains. Yet Flying J has found profit in providing separate pull through “RV” fueling lanes. Flying J and GM must have recognized a new market leader opportunity to provide larger vehicle charging service.
As shown, we also saw Pilot/FlyingJ delivering compressed hydrogen gas to a truck stop. This is the first time we’ve seen compressed hydrogen gas delivered in standardized shipping containers.
Maybe we will see hybrid battery-fuel cell RVs in the near future. That would be great to provide electricity to the living space and to the drive chain.

73/gus
 

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