trailer towing and campground charging

This article describes how to pull off an EV roadtrip while towing a trailer, with the dramatic impact to range caused by the drag of a large trailer. Further, it details how to do this with only campground charging, since public charging is troublesome when towing a trailer.

DC Fast Charging has been getting deployed nationwide since the mid 2010’s, and by now EV roadtrips just aren’t a big deal. Highway routes are well covered by DCFC, and EVs can now absorb 150 kW or more, reducing charging stops to 30 minutes or less. But if you’re towing a trailer, it gets quite a bit more challenging, and this page will walk you through the issues and solutions, based on the experiences of multiple EV owners and multiple trailering trips.

In summary, detailed further below:

• towing slashes EV range in half, if not more
• public DCFC is awesome these days but not if you are towing, so …
• charge at campgrounds overnight instead of public charging, but …
• bring up to three different charge cords for campground charging (slow / medium / fast)
• just in case, bring a DCFC adapter to go between CCS and NACS/Tesla (whichever direction your EV needs)

towing basics

Towing a trailer requires learning some new skills and pretty serious focus on defensive driving when on the move. This page will not go into trailering basics, which you can learn elsewhere. But be aware that there are a lot of things to learn, including tow vehicle limits, trailer weight, tongue weight, bridge weight limits and height limits (e.g. gas station canopies), and just maneuvering in tight spaces in general. If you’re new to towing, consider renting a small flatbed locally for a couple hours just to try it out (e.g. go get some landscape supplies). Then move up to a small trailer and try out a camping weekend. If you’ve never been to a campground in an RV, there’s a lot to learn there too (one word: sewage). Be prepared to spend a lot of time learning (and making mistakes) the first time you try it, and perhaps less time actually relaxing and enjoying the trip. But you’ll learn and it will get better!

electric tow vehicle selection and renting

• When towing a trailer, many EVs will go only 100 miles or so between full charges, including the smaller trucks/SUVs like the Rivian models or Ford F-150.
• Only the big-battery trucks, with 200 kWh or more of energy capacity, will go farther (e.g. GMC Hummer, Chevy Silverado, Cadillac Escalade IQ, all on same GM platform).
• Unless your driving plan includes only short hops (100 miles or less) between stops where you will charge, you’ll need to look hard at getting a big-battery truck.
• look for EVs that can absorb at least 150 kW, and ideally more like 200-300 kW, and can sustain that high rate for longer; see public charging page for links to FastNed graphs
• Turo is normally a fantastic option for renting oddball cars, especially very specific EV models. However Turo’s terms of service (TOS) explicitly forbid towing, meaning any insurance coverage is mooted and you’re on the hook if anything happens. This ban on towing applies even if the EV owner says it’s fine!
• Therefore you must use a regular rental company that explicitly allows towing, and as of 2026 that exclusively means Enterprise Truck Rental (not regular Enterprise, rather Enterprise Trucks). Other rental car companies offer EVs, and some of those models may even offer towing, but their TOS also forbid towing.
• As of 2026, Enterprise offers the Chevy Silverado EV which is a big-battery pickup truck in the 3/4-ton class, and plenty capable of towing any trailer. However you have to specifically request it, over the phone with that Enterprise location’s front desk staff (not just an online reservation). If that front desk staff balks and says they don’t have it, ask them to check with their site manager or fleet manager, who will know better. They may not have it in their onsite inventory, but once you book it they’ll arrange to have it transferred in for you just before your rental period starts. It just may require the site manager to get this done.
• Ask them to check that the “charge cord” is provided with the vehicle. Failure to provide the OEM cord, or providing an inferior cord, is a common problem with rentals, but asking about it ahead of time improves the odds that you’ll get one.

trailer towing range and efficiency drop

Towing a trailer has a dramatic effect on aerodynamics — when towing a trailer, your range typically gets cut in half, or even a little worse. This is true for both fossil fuel vehicles and electric vehicles, but is more noticeable in EVs because of their more limited energy capacity (battery vs fuel tank) and more limited fueling locations. It’s therefore useful to go into this knowing some things about both your towing vehicle and the efficiency you can expect.

Start off with finding out what the usable energy capacity of your EV’s battery is. Energy is measured in kWh (not kW), and you can think of battery capacity as how much electrical energy can it hold — like gallons of fuel in a tank, except it’s gallons of electricity. Manufacturers will often state either the “total” battery size, or the smaller “usable” size. The usable size is slightly smaller because that’s a key way they can make these EV batteries last for a decade or more — they don’t use the full 0-100% energy charge-discharge range of the battery, rather they use say 5-95%, and don’t use the extreme ends of the battery’s range. So, for example, a Rivian R1T might have a 135 kWh battery, but only 125 kWh is usable. You’ll use that usable number here in a minute, so it’s important to find out what it is, and note that you might have to do some googling to figure it out, if the manufacturer is only stating the gross / total size.

Next, you’ll need to know what kind of efficiency you are getting.

• a conservative rule of thumb is 1.0 miles per kWh, for a big EV truck plus 25-foot / 5000 lb RV trailer
• for a smaller towing EV and RV trailer, you might get more like 1.15 or even 1.35 miles/kWh
• for a flatbed trailer (not an RV, rather just hauling stuff between places) you’ll get somewhere between those estimates above and your EV’s normal efficiency
• to get your expected range, take your towing vehicle’s battery pack size (e.g. 77 kWh, 85 kWh) and multiply by the miles/kWh factor above
• for example, a 77 kWh battery running at 1.15 miles/kWh will get you 89 miles
• speed has huge effect; there’s a big difference between 55 vs 65 MPH; the last image in the gallery at right shows a test run that demonstrated 1.10 mi/kWh efficiency at 65 MPH, 1.25 at 60, and 1.40 at 55

Less than 100 miles of range? Sounds pretty bad, right?Indeed it is, and that’s why, if you are towing a big RV trailer, you should consider renting one of the big-battery trucks as discussed in the section above. But you can also make it work with a smaller battery EV, as long as you stay aware of your energy situation, have a charging plan, and keep your speed down! There’s an old EV rule: “slow down to go far”. It started in the old days when batteries were much smaller than they are now, but with the advent of trailer towing even being possible in an EV, it’s now back.

You can use the guidelines above to estimate your expected efficiency, but the best method is to do some actual tests during the beginning of your drive. Hunt around in your EV’s screens for efficiency displays, which might be part of the trip odomoeter / trip computer feature. Worst case, watch your battery SOC percentage, and use the drop in SOC during a drive, and some math, to figure out a crude efficiency number. You can also watch the range-remaining number on your dash, which will update over time to match actual conditions. Typically it takes about 15 minutes of driving (in new conditions such as trailer hitched up or new cruise speed) to update that number, but even then it can quite inaccurate, including being too optimistic. There’s a reason EV owners call the range gauge a “GOM” or “guess-o-meter”.

public charging while towing a trailer

DC Fast Charging (DCFC) has been getting deployed nationwide since the mid 2010s and the networks get better and better every year. The public charging and roadtrips page here provides guidance on doing long drives in an EV, which by now is remarkably easy to do … the second time you do it. The first time? There’s some learning. Read the page above and get familiar with EV roadtrip basics.

While public DCFC is pretty great these days, one way it is far behind gas stations is lack of “pull through” charging. Most sites require nose-in / back-in parking, and as of 2026 it’s still rare for a charging stop to offer pull-through spots, although it’s rapidly improving. Until it becomes ubiquitous, here are some tips on getting to pull-through charging:

• get familiar with Plugshare or ABRP; see the roadtrips page for guidance on those websites and phone apps
• use the “pull-through” filter on Plugshare to find sites that your fellow EV drivers have determined will allow you to drive up alongside the charging station
• note that Plugshare also has a “trailer friendly” filter, but that is just for trailer parking somewhere on the property
• sites will often have unofficial pull-through capability, for example where you can pull alongside the last pedestal; for specific DCFC sites of interest, check Plugshare photos for station layout
• Tesla sites will sometimes have a small number of pull-through spots, perhaps just one; Pilot / Flying-J (funded by GM) is also good at providing pull-through, sometimes offering it at ALL of their pedestals at a site, and even under a canopy
• worst case, you’ll have to unhitch / rehitch, and based on your trailering experience this alone can add 30 minutes to the charging stop
• charging power becomes more critical when towing, since you’re typically charging a bigger battery (for that EV truck) and possibly making more stops due to the trailer reducing your range
• assuming your EV can absorb higher power, look for stations that deliver power to match, e.g. at least 200 kW if not 400 kW
• get experience evaluating DCFC sites via Plugshare listings (checkins and photos), learning which brands / hardware are likely to reliably deliver their stated power and which will disappoint
• have a DCFC adapter; see adapter page for two recs on CCS-car to NACS-station adapters and note that not all Tesla sites have the NACS upgrade required to support CCS, even if you have your own adapter

Charging station power matters. The power you get from the charging station becomes more critical when towing, since you’re typically charging a bigger battery (for that EV truck), and probably making more stops due to the trailer reducing your range. A 300 kW station (and an EV that can take it) is literally twice as good as a 150 kW station. Of course, you’ll only be able to take advantage of that higher power if your EV can absorb it; see the towing vehicle selection section above for more on this, including a link to the charging curves.

The independent charge planning apps can help! It’s useful to get experience evaluating DCFC sites via Plugshare listings (checkins and photos), learning which brands / hardware are likely to reliably deliver their stated power and which will disappoint. Similarly, ABRP (A Better Route Planner) is an excellent route planner (better than Plugshare’s, for sure), with the ability to take in the efficiency number that you’ve determined and use that for charging stop planning. You take the miles-per-kWh number that you determined at the beginning of the trip and enter it into the settings. Note that if it asks for “watt-hours per mile”, that number is just one math step away (1000 ÷ miles/kWh); so for example a 1.15 mile/kWh number is precisely the same as 870 Wh/mile.

Finally, for any roadtrip in a CCS-plug vehicle where you want to maximize your public charging options, you should have a DCFC adapter. See the adapter page here for two recs on CCS-car to NACS-station adapters and note that not all Tesla sites have the NACS upgrade required to support CCS, even if you have your own adapter.

campground charging

EV owners know that by far the easiest way to charge is to just plug in at home. The equivalent to that on a camping roadtrip is to charge at the campground! By filling up overnight at the campground, in theory you are avoiding all the drama and hassle (detailed above) of trying to make use of public charging stops, but you’re replacing it with . In this final section we will walk you through how to charge at the campground, overnight, using an EVSE cordset.

On that note, the terms “EVSE”, “cordset” and “charging cord” are used interchangeably here. The official industry term is EVSE (Electric Vehicle Servicing Equipment), and is simply the corded device, with a block of safety electronics in the middle, that connects your EV to the power receptacle.

• campgrounds typically offer three kinds of electric receptacles at each campsite
• the first two are both 120V: a) the regular 120V wall outlets (NEMA 5-15 or NEMA 5-20), and b) the high-current 120V outlets aka the “travel trailer” plug (NEMA TT-30); the latter is what most RV trailers expect to plug into, and the former is just for incidental use (e.g. for outside gear) but may be a key fallback option later
• the third plug type is the NEMA 14-50, which is a big fat plug with 240 Volt 50 Amp power; it’s intended for very large RVs, but it’s perfect for charging an EV, and indeed is what EV owners often have in their garage
• see annotated photo at right showing the three different kinds of receptacles
• see the chart of NEMA plug types for a visual overview of all of the different kinds of plugs
• the overall concept is that you plug the trailer into the NEMA TT-30, and your EV into the NEMA 14-50
• the primary problem is that campgrounds are notorious for poor quality receptacles and circuits; NEMA 14-50 is supposed to offer 50 Amps but rarely does so reliably at campgrounds, and if you draw anywhere close to 50 Amps you will trip the breaker
• the problem is that electricians do imperfect work when wiring up these outlets, especially in campgrounds, because for RVs that imperfect work is good enough; for EVs though it needs to be closer to perfect, with really tight wiring connections, otherwise those connections overheat
• the simplest solution is to simply dial down your current draw (power) to 35 Amps or lower; better to get something than nothing
• jargon: EVSE = EV Servicing Equipment, the fancy industry name for the charge cord / wall charger that interfaces the wall outlet to your EV; this can be the compact portable unit that came with the EV, or a bigger unit that you mount on the wall, or even an enormous DC Fast Charging station; here though we are referring to the portable unit (big or small) that you’ll use at the campground to interface the electric power receptacle to your EV
• an EVSE rated for a 40 Amp circuit (e.g. Clipper Creek HCS-40) will draw 32 Amps (due to standard 80% derate), and that is actually perfect; you can just plug that 40-Amp EVSE into the NEMA 14-50 outlet, it’ll draw 32 Amps, and you should be fine all night because it’s less than 35 Amps and shouldn’t trip the breaker
• an EVSE rated for a 60 Amp circuit (e.g. Clipper Creek HCS-60) will deliver 48 Amps to the EV, and is actually worse because it very likely will trip the breaker; 48 is less than 50 but not enough for the breaker to stay happy
• typical failure is that charging starts fine, but trips in middle of night due to campground wiring or breaker overheating
• Before turning in for night, check vehicle for any charging alarm settings and turn them off, unless you want to be that guy who wakes up the entire campground at 3am with your car alarm going off.
• If breaker is still tripping despite the reduced (32 Amp) current draw, dial down that current draw to something even lower, and the circuit will probably hold.
• The challenge is that dialing that power down can be difficult, but you have several methods available to reduce your power draw.
• First, some EVs allow you to set this in-car, either as granular control of the actual amps (e.g. Tesla) or a coarse “reduced power” mode (e.g. BMW, early GMs). But many don’t offer this control at all (e.g. newer GMs) so you’ll need to resort to the EVSE method, next.
• Second, the EV charge cordset itself (aka EVSE) may have a low power mode, however this is rare in a Level 2 cordset. Somehow you tell it to offer less power to the car, which means less power drawn from the plug. Depending on the EVSE, this could be a single button on the face, or a DIP switch inside the unit, or a menu on the face, or a setting in the app. In the last case, you’ll probably want to change that setting to the lower number before you leave home, while everything is talking on your home network, otherwise you’ll be dealing with communications hassles at the campground. The ideal case is a menu on the face, like old OpenEVSE or JuiceBox units.
• Finally, you can get a lower-power Level 2 EV charge cordset (EVSE). While 32 Amps (6-7 kW) Level 2 charging is typical for home use, there are a lot of cheaper 16 Amp (3-4 kW) cordsets out there, including many models that do both Level 1 and Level 2 via an adapter. However, note that those lower power EVSEs, while Level 2 and 240V capable, often come with a 240V plug that is NOT a NEMA 14-50, such as a NEMA 6-20. In that case you’ll want to reterminate it with a 14-50 plug, bought at a hardware store or camping supply store, or buy an adapter. (again see the chart of NEMA plug types)
• Have a Level 1 cord as your last-resort backup. This will give you only 1.4 kW, but even that will at least give you 15-20 kWh during an overnight charge. If you are empty, that little bit could be enough range for you to at least make it to a public charging site within 30-40 miles the next morning — or get to a full charge after several days of camping and charging.
• Even if charging on full speed Level 2 (6-7 kW), you’re NOT going to be fully charged overnight if you’ve got a truck with a big battery. But as long as you’re not towing 100+ miles every day, you’ll get back up to full charge after 2-3 nights.

Ideally, you head into the campground armed to the teeth with EVSE solutions: a high-power (32 Amp) Level 2 EVSE, a medium-power (16 Amp) Level 2 EVSE (or you can adjust the high-power unit down), and a low-power (12A x 120V = 1.4 kW) Level 1 EVSE. Between the three of them you should get enough juice overnight so that you can execute your driving segments without ever having to stop at public charging.

Finally, note that this article focuses on towing with and campground charging of a pure electric tow vehicle. There are already lots of PHEV models out there that can simply burn gas as needed. Further, though, there are more EREV / REEV models coming soon, what the NYT calls “super-hybrids”, that neutralize any charging concerns by also burning gas. That flexibility would essentially make this entire article moot, but at the expense of driving on fossil fuels while towing. The whole point of this website is to electrify as much as possible, and get you off fossil fuels, so we will focus on the pure EV case. Note also that we have seen EREV / REEV models come to market in the past (Chevy Volt, BMW i3), but these were greeted with yawns and never really caught on, partially because they were confused with the inferior PHEV models. So it remains to be seen what really happens with these new EREV / REEV models.

Special thanks to Merlyn Hough of Eugene Oregon’s Emerald Valley EV club, who loaned me the Clipper Creek HCS-40.

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