Towing Mini Cooper / Electric vehicle

fsantore · 08-09-2020, 06:45 PM

I see a number of posters that are towing Mini Coopers, and am thinking this could be a good Class C marriage, possibly for the 24D we have on order. I’m wondering if there are comments/concerns relative to this choice. At the same time, I see there is an all electric Mini Cooper. I’m thinking charging should be possible from an RV park’s 50 amp service, but wonder if others have thought through this somewhat novel match up.

**ThomB** · 08-10-2020, 05:58 AM

Not sure I can help with the all-electric Mini, but we do tow a Mini Cooper Roadster S (2013). They discontinued that model a couple years ago. Tows like its not there.

I'm not sure about towing an electric car 4-down. You'd have to check that with others that have them. What would be awesome is if you towed an all-electric 4-down and it reg-charged while you werre doing it!

DavidM · 08-10-2020, 06:53 AM

The all electric mini sounds like a good solution but a few caveats:

Some electric drive vehicles keep the electric motor fully engaged with the drive train. Why have a clutch when you can just turn off the power? But towing one 4 down can quickly wreck the power train. So check.

The Mini has favorable range/charging characteristics for an RVer. The range is only 110 miles which is half or less of most electric vehicles, but what RVer goes more than 50 miles from his base? Also the Level 2 fast charging spec should work fine with 220V/50A power. That will produce 11 kW which is comfortably more than the Mini's 7.4 kW spec. It will fully charge the battery in 5 hours from dead.

The 110V plug in charging will work, but will take 50 hours to fully charge up the battery from dead. But if you only make a trip of 50 miles each day, it should work.

So check the drive train, otherwise it looks like an interesting solution.

David

**creativepart** · 08-10-2020, 07:42 AM

All Mini Owners Manuals warn against towing 4-wheels down. Only Minis with manual transmissions can be flat towed. Front wheel drive minis can be dolly towed.

At this time there are zero all electric vehicles that can be flat towed. There are a few plug-in hybrids from Ford that permit it.

An all electric vehicle would have to be trailer towed, unless some manufacturer changes this in the future.

Morich · 08-10-2020, 07:49 AM

I'm shopping for a different toad and finding it gets more difficult with each model year as the electronics are getting more and more difficult to work around. Not that it can't be done if one chooses more carefully but it does take more work if the car has things like an electronic transmission.