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Post by markrmarkr on Aug 21, 2014 10:26:25 GMT 11
Mark,
you should be aware that the Leaf isn't intended to drive a high load of lights. If you plan to do this, for instance with a trailer, you should use a driver circuit, or replace the lights with LEDs.
My trailer uses all LEDs which are OK without the driver.
cheers,
Mark
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Post by quaternary on Aug 21, 2014 13:02:09 GMT 11
Hi Mark, from the underneath of my car! Pictures 1 through 4 are taken from roughly the same place, as I lay under the back left of the car. Picture 5 is taken from the opposite side of picture 4. Pictures 6 and 7 are the equivalanet to 4 and 5, but on the back right (starboard) corner of the car. As you can see the design in not symmetrical; the car looks symmetrical, so I guess they were just using the materials they had on hand. Cheers (the other red-leaf owning) Mark |
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Post by quaternary on Aug 21, 2014 13:02:58 GMT 11
4 and 5 Attachments:
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Post by quaternary on Aug 21, 2014 13:03:33 GMT 11
6 and 7 Attachments:
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Post by quaternary on Aug 21, 2014 13:06:02 GMT 11
Mark, you should be aware that the Leaf isn't intended to drive a high load of lights. If you plan to do this, for instance with a trailer, you should use a driver circuit, or replace the lights with LEDs. My trailer uses all LEDs which are OK without the driver. cheers, Mark Good point - that's great info. Happily, I'm just using the tow bar for the bike rack. |
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Post by markrmarkr on Aug 21, 2014 15:52:31 GMT 11
Mark,
it looks like you are using the same holes as I am. That is, the left hand side (LHS) uses the two vertical holes and the RHS replaces the towpoint which uses three horizontal holes. On the LHS I had to thread the bolts onto a wire and pull them through via another hole. This was a bit painful, but still doable by mortals. If this is the case then you should still be able to remove your towbar without leaving any evidence too.
Given that you have no immediate need, have you even put wiring in at all?
Cheers,
Mark (We should start calling ourselves Red Leaf MkI and MkII)
PS Thanks for the pics.
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Post by quaternary on Aug 21, 2014 18:41:01 GMT 11
Mark, it looks like you are using the same holes as I am. That is, the left hand side (LHS) uses the two vertical holes and the RHS replaces the towpoint which uses three horizontal holes. On the LHS I had to thread the bolts onto a wire and pull them through via another hole. This was a bit painful, but still doable by mortals. If this is the case then you should still be able to remove your towbar without leaving any evidence too. Given that you have no immediate need, have you even put wiring in at all? Cheers, Mark (We should start calling ourselves Red Leaf MkI and MkII) PS Thanks for the pics. Ahh, that explains the asymetry of the side brackets. So I've sacrificed my towpoint for a tow-bar - seems a fair swap. And you're right, I'm not going to be worrying about wiring as I'm not planning on towing with it. And glad you liked the pics Cheers Mark (II) |
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Post by markrmarkr on Aug 24, 2014 21:49:11 GMT 11
here is a new pic. I had to pick up some manure from Masters. The Leaf hardly noticed the trailer or the 300Kg load it was carrying.  |
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Post by Phoebe on Aug 24, 2014 22:22:38 GMT 11
here is a new pic. I had to pick up some manure from Masters. The Leaf hardly noticed the trailer or the 300Kg load it was carrying. Surely your range was less, or did you travel such a short distance that it wasn't noticeable? |
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Post by markrmarkr on Aug 25, 2014 7:33:04 GMT 11
The trip was 9.8km so round trip was 19.6km
The trip out - No aircon, one passenger (my wife), mostly down hill, moderate traffic, mostly 50Km/h - 0.18KWh/km
The trip back - No aircon, one passenger, 300kg trailer load plus ~ 50k in car mostly up hill, moderate traffic, mostly 50Km/h - 0.25KWh/km
Round trip - average .21KWh/km
I normally get about 0.17KWh/km or so, so there is clearly some hit to range, but I can live with it. It's not as bad as I'd feared.
I can get this kind of numbers just by fanging it a bit.
The guy who sold me the kit said I should stay under 300kg load in a trailer. So I have gone as far as I'm happy with, and didn't have any problems. So I'm happy that it's done everything I was hoping for, and seriously you could barely tell the trailer was there. The Leaf is such a great car for towing.
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Post by quaternary on Sept 8, 2014 19:45:52 GMT 11
Somebody messaged me about the make and model of the towbar. So in case anyone else is interested, the tow bar was manufactured by Towbar Express Ltd here in Christchurch: www.towbarexpress.co.nz, phone +64-3-379 6363. Note that it was a custom build, where the requirement was for mounting a bike rack. But it looks pretty rugged - and I note that they did make it with a hole for a D-lock. The price is around NZ$220 (that's excluding GST which you wouldn't need to pay if it was being exported.) I asked about freight to Australia, and as an example, it would be around NZ$280 to Sydney. |
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Post by jcan on Jul 2, 2016 10:17:00 GMT 11
I'm thinking about getting a tow bar for my leaf. Any new info or insight? Is there a place that can do a towbar in Australia?
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Post by kiegkhan on Mar 18, 2017 8:09:31 GMT 11
It would be great to get an accurate response from Nissan as to what the reason is they don't recommend towing with the Leaf. It seems many people have towed without any issues, and even report that the Leaf handles the trailer very well. Ian Sampson even has a video towing another Leaf for a significant distance. Is the issue just that they don't want to sacrifice range, or is it that the battery pack could be stretched and malfunction, something drastic like that? If it is just range then really, that is something to document and then the owner can determine how that will impact them. Like many others, I just want to take a 6*4 trailer load of rubbish to the tip, less than 6km round trip. Or pickup some timber from the local timber yard, less than 30km round trip. All light loads and well within the Leaf range even if the trip took twice as much power (doubtful).
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Post by kiegkhan on Mar 18, 2017 8:11:49 GMT 11
One other point, Nissan ha autonomous Leaf towing other Leafs in their factory (http://insideevs.com/nissan-introduces-leaf-based-driverless-towing-system-at-oppama-plant-wvideo/), admittedly pretty low speed, but there are three Leafs plus trailers, so towing capacity would appear to be quite decent.
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