free wheeling - Towing

I was considering a Leaf but it was available 200 miles from home.

The Dealer said I could not tow the car home without voiding the warranty.

Now there is one video on youtube that shows a Leaf undertow by a truck.


What do you think?

Nichols
Rochester, NY

Find the manual online. It shows various safe towing options, as well as ways not to tow.

Or, make an adventure of driving it home?

But if this dealer is that uninformed, do you really want to buy there?

NNichols said:

I was considering a Leaf but it was available 200 miles from home.

The Dealer said I could not tow the car home without voiding the warranty.

Nichols
Rochester, NY

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Cant imagine having to go 200 miles to a dealer?

You can tow a Leaf, you just need to do it right.
As the other poster said, read the book.
Front wheels up works.
You can obviously flatbed it.

These guys have a Black one in stock (which is the best color :roll: )

DORSCHEL NISSAN
3817 W HENRIETTA RD
ROCHESTER, NY 14623
585-334-9440

Hey, rent a u-haul car trailer; I'm only 300 miles away down 81/476.
I'll take the day off, and we will get you a Leaf!!
Exton Nissan can get you anything you want.
They have 6 in stock right now.

If you want one, don't let this slow you down.

how about a U-haul trailer or a flat bed?
when I took delivery of my LEAF the dealer put it on a U-Haul trailer and drove it the 90 miles to my home.

To tow on 4 wheels, you need the LEAF turned On, Ready to drive,
and in "N", with the Parking Brake Off. Even then, the motor
continues to turn, since there is no true "neutral" where the front
wheels are disconnected from the motor. This is usually only used
for moving the car a few feet, or in emergency situations where
the car must be moved "now", and there are no other alternatives.

With no keys to the car, and the parking brake on, one can only
drag the car with all 4 tires skidding, which tends to create
a flat spot on the tires. But, just because it might be done
in a repossession video, does not mean that you should
do that to your own vehicle. Similar to... better to use the
RFID fob to get into the car, instead of the "jaws of life...
and destruction".

A front wheel towing dolly, or a car trailer are much better
alternatives. Have you investigated these?

Gary is right, tow truck drivers and especially repo agents aren't necessarily concerned with being gentle to your car. The latter especially don't have to deal with the repercussions of their actions, and are only paid when the bank gets their car back. Plus considering they are doing this work against the will of the owner, they need to work quickly or risk being confronted by a weapon-wielding owner.

Basically, the car cannot be towed front wheels down on the ground. Period. Rear wheels down are OK, but make sure the car is lifted by the front wheels, or using a dolly meant for FWD cars, and not an old-fashioned style tow truck that lifts by the front bumper. Of course a flat bed truck or trailer is best.

Has the dealer offered delivery by car carrier? I'm surprised if it was not offered. After all, that's how all cars get to the dealers nowadays.

You could (not really recommended) drive at 45 mph carefully
for perhaps 105 miles, and then call Nissan for a flatbed transport
to your home, or some in-between charging point, if any.

But, more seriously, charging during the trip might be possible,
but might take some investigation, and maybe even use a
modified EVSE to make the charging time more tolerable. :shock:

Or, as suggested above, there are more-helpful dealers.

If this is a 2013 model with the faster "4-hour" charging time,
it would seem like driving and charging would be a reasonable
solution, since there appear (on PlugShare) to be many charging
stations located around Rochester, and 100 miles away.

Where are the two end points, within a mile or so, of this
200 mile journey?

Most likely, you could drive for about 4 hours instead of towing
for four hours, and charge for perhaps 3 hours two times
and have a nice first EV driving experience?

Are you interested in turning shame into fame? :lol:

The dealer will not deliver the vehicle 200 miles? How about meet him at 120 with a full battery.
Although 200 miles in a day should be possible if you can find some L2 or L3 charging.
Service will be a PITN.

Can someone explain the dangers associated with towing a vehicle with all 4 wheels on the ground (as far as what damage can be done to the vehicle)? If the car is in ready to drive mode and in "N", wouldn't the water pump be running required to cool the motor? At this point, what would the difference be between this and coasting down a mountain in "N"?

kubel said:

Can someone explain the dangers associated with towing a vehicle with all 4 wheels on the ground (as far as what damage can be done to the vehicle)? If the car is in ready to drive mode and in "N", wouldn't the water pump be running required to cool the motor? At this point, what would the difference be between this and coasting down a mountain in "N"?

Click to expand...

You know, that is an interesting point. I frequently slip into neutral, in both the LEAF and Tesla, and I believe it is rather common practice among LEAF drivers. I don't recall anyone saying neutral coasting was 'bad' for the car. As I understand it, all neutral does is make the motor neither a motor nor a generator - just a rotating chunk of metal.

Dear KillaWhat,

I could not find the Leaf on the Exton Nissan Website. They don't show a search key of model for Leaf?

Dorschel Nissan only has the 2013 model. Thought they list a 2012 at 18,000 its been sold weeks ago..


Nichols

"dealer offered delivery " the Albany Dealer offered to have the Dealers deliver the car to Rochester..."after all there are Nissan dealer recharge stations across the state"


I advised the naive online "sweetie" it was less than an hundred miles a drive and 6-12 hours recharge. Who would pay the young adult for the three or four overnights needed to get from Albany to Rochester(Buffalo...16 miles on the Erie Towpath...).

Clearly the people selling these cars are not paying attention or the Dealers are outsourcing the online work.

Thank you all for the responses and reflections,

Nichols

Rochester

Dear KillaWhat,

I could not find the Leaf on the Exton Nissan Website. They don't show a search key of model for Leaf?

Click to expand...

Try this link:
http://www.extonnissan.com/nissan-leaf/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

kubel said:

Can someone explain the dangers associated with towing a vehicle with all 4 wheels on the ground (as far as what damage can be done to the vehicle)? If the car is in ready to drive mode and in "N", wouldn't the water pump be running required to cool the motor? At this point, what would the difference be between this and coasting down a mountain in "N"?

Click to expand...

Probably about 195 miles.

You do make a point, but I'm not convinced that coasting in 'N' is totally without bad side effects. I don't think you will find anything in the manual that recommends or even condones it. You can probably get away with it for a few minutes without much if any harm, but I for one would never try it for three or four hours straight.

Ray

For point of comparison, Renault say that their vehicles MUST NOT be towed using a dolly. Flat bed only.

However, the exception is when the battery goes flat, in which case the car can be towed but ONLY with all 4 wheels on the ground. :?

I have no explanation for Renault's conditions, but this is what the driver's manual says.

As far as I can see, if there is nothing wrong with an EV and it can be driven normally (i.e. the motor rotates freely with no faults) then why should it not be towable in any configuration at all?

It's also possible to tow an EV and leave it in drive, which then charges up the battery by forcing regeneration at 30kW. No idea if that is A Bad Idea, but I can't see why it'd be any worse than fast charging.

NNichols said:

I advised the naive online "sweetie" it was less than an hundred miles a drive and 6-12 hours recharge. Who would pay the young adult for the three or four overnights needed to get from Albany to Rochester

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Albany to Rochester would take about 12 hours with a 6KW charger (2013 S+charge package, SV, or SL), or 18 hours with a 3KW charger (base 2013 S, 2011 or 2012).

Charging options are a little thin between Albany and Utica, but after that it should be a breeze. I was considering this trip recently, but I needed to take the minivan due to passenger count.

We are waiting for someone to flat tow a LEAF behind an RV cross country in drive and neutral and give a full report.
Maybe you could be the first?

Otherwise the manual says NO.

The prohibition against towing may well be a holdover from ICE cars with 'slushbox' automatic transmissions. Those often lack a rear (which term itself goes back to RWD configurations) fluid pump, and towing can in those cases result in component failure from lack of lubrication and excessive heat. If the Leaf can safely coast in 'Neutral' then failing some weird parameter we haven't seen explained, it can be towed in N. This isn't professional advice, mind you.

If you Google "Towing a LEAF to charge it" you get an awful lot stories on people doing it.

Like regen going downhill.