As forward thinking as Tesla is, I'm still dumbfounded that inspite of the MX coming standard with a trailer hitch and it's a popular option on the Y, that all Superchargers don't have at least one pull through.
Wow. That's a lot better milage than I get pulling my camper. I have a 17' camper that weighs in at 2750 loaded. It's 9' tall and 6' wide. At 62 to 65 mph, I burn 850wh/m in light wind. I have to charge to 100% at almost every stop. Stops can't be over 85 miles, or I have to slow even more. A trip of 350 miles takes about 9 1/2 hours. So we are keeping our camping trips shorter. My milage on my Subaru was about 8 mpg going 62mph. But at least fillups were quicker and didn't add near as much time to the trip. I'm not too worried about it because we are only going camping a few trips a year, and the rest of the time, we get to enjoy our get tesla experience
>A suggestion for a future video: go over how you use the Tesla energy graphs app., especially the different options it presents. Your hits and misses using the app would also be interesting. >What is the app you are using to present the efficiency, speed, and charge stats.? >Pro tip for you on backing up the trailer: put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel ( 6 o'clock position) and then move your hand, and the steering wheel in the direction of your turn. The trailer will move in that direction. Move the wheel to the right to move the trailer to the right, etc. Easy peasy. >I believe on your west coast trip a few days ago you had a cracked windshield. How did you get that resolved...Tesla involvement, your insurance company support, etc., etc. I ask because several forum posters have had problems/confusion with the "who pays" and "where to get it fixed" scenarios. Your experience and reflections would be helpful. Was this the result of a rock strike or did it just appear? TIA for your feedback. Keep up these great videos.
Thank you for the Video. I'm from Saylorville & currently live in San Diego. I had an impromptu trip back home. Flights were $900+ and I'm not a stranger to driving the 1,800 miles back home. I was interested in Model 3/Y to commute over my motorcycle, so I rented a red Model Y from Hertz (cheap) to make the drive with my Son and see what the Tesla experience was like. My experience was EXACTLY like this and other Tesla road trip videos. I was very pleased. Autopilot for this distance lightened the mental drain for this trip. My time was 3 hours more than my all time best SD -> IA time in a gas car. Stopping for 15-20 mins every 2/3 hours of driving was much welcomed. Previously, driving it straight almost felt like a race, like I needed to be on the road all the time. Supercharging and going for a walk, while charging, was very pleasant and refreshing. My next car, will be a Tesla. Seeing your views & stops from IA to CO feels like my back yard. Once again, Thanks for the video!
Thanks. I will never go back to a gas car. Soooo many advantages to an EV - especially a Tesla. It does make you change how you road trip and given my age, it is welcomed. No more racing...
Great video. I especially liked how you showed the Wh/mile. Threw me for a loop for a minute with the black seats, then I realized those are your ventilated seats.
One thing that drives me crazy with my Y is how difficult it is to insert hitches, bike carriers, and so on into the hitch receiver owing to how recessed the later is into the plastic fairing. Inserting and removing cotter/retention pins for the hitch cross pin is a pain in the butt. Getting at the loops the safety chain hooks attach to is difficult too.
Thanks for a practical video on towing - the best one i found! I noticed you have a little custom display where one should have been in the first place - where did you get that? NVM - found the video.
The 3 times I towed a Uhaul behind my '21 MYLR, I avg 534Wh/mi (all round trips to the same area ~500 miles each). What I find surprising (and lucky) about your trip is that you were able to just pull into a charger w/o any real effort (empty chargers, pull-in stalls). I had to drop the empty trailer on the way up twice and jackknife the trailer in most of the rest of the times due to busy chargers. At one point, it was so tight, there was barely enough gap between the trailer and the corner of the Tesla to drop a quarter through, and the cable was stretched as tight as it would go w/o failing.
Excellent video with great narrative. You did a nice job backing up. So for the range of 833 miles, how many hours did the whole trip take, driving and charging? Looking forward to more informative videos....thanks
@29:08 no insight, yet, but one day I'll sit down and play with the numbers and do some experimental verification with my 2023 MYLR to where the minimum time function.... given the variables even when only considering trip from beginning to leaving first stop (elevation delta, wind speed and direction, initial charge, charge when leaving destination point after charging, desired charge when leaving destination, charging profile at first stop, drag function( for vehicle and roof rack and of course trailer ), battery health, more?) it'll probably have to be encapsulated into an app ... so... might just be easier to play around with ABRP to see how your trip duration changes given various speeds.... sorry... I've been wondering about the same thing.
Really enjoyed this one!! I'm in Nebraska so everything looked so familiiar. And I'm thinking about that hitch BUT I didn't get that when I bought the car last year (Model y LR).
We are having huge problems with our Tesla-installed tow package when we tow our tiny aluminum boat (the combined boat and trailer weight is 1,700 lbs). It keeps bending the trunk latch and now is pulling the bumper off. Tesla is trying to tell me this is my fault??? Has anyone else dealt with this? We can't keep the car if we can't tow our boat. My love for Tesla is going away fast :(
Great video! Just a couple comments. The car charges much faster at a low state of charge, so yes, you are better off driving faster and getting there at say 15% than going slower and having 25% left when you get there if you're looking to save time and you're ok spending a couple dollars more. That route through Brush is crap. I avoid it because I am usually going to Fort Collins and can go Cheyenne instead... But I guess if you're going to Denver it's your best option! Great to know the Wh/mile data! You were probably gaining elevation which may have had a big impact. Would be interesting to see what you would get on the way back
I often charge at the Wes Des Moines when I drive to central Iowa. It would have been a trip running into you, and I definitely would have been curious about the trailer! Also, personal observation: that leg between Des Moines and Nebraska - at least to Omaha - is asymmetric. I, for almost every drive I can remember, observe maybe a 5-10% jump in Wh/mi going back home from Des Moines than when I am heading there.
Great video, I was wondering where you got those extra graphics from for the efficiency and charging etc? they were handy. Thanks for putting it all together!
Does your Tesla have the factory trailer hitch set up, or is it aftermarket? As I understand it, the factory installed hitches come with a software update that includes trailer towing features and options. And if you use a trailer with the 7 pin / electric brakes hookup, your Teslas computer will operate your trailer brakes as needed. And I assume the computer will be able to do calculations with the trailer back there much more efficiently! We are about to order our Model Y with factory installed hitch. Even though the physical installation would be no big deal for me. I want the factory software update and am willing to pay for it. I hear it makes that much of a difference. I pull a lot of trailers , mostly with my big Dodge Diesel, but don't want to not be able to pull a motorcycle trailer behind our Tesla, just because we didn't order it with that option. Oh, and a side note! The autodrive cannot/ will not work while pulling a trailer because, as I understand it, the Tesla computer has no programming to determine the weight and accurate length of a trailer attached. So manuevering in traffic with a trailer attached will require your full attention.
@@iowatesla at the beginning of the video it looks like they are wrapped around the tongue of the trailer. But further in the video I see they are. Please criss-cross the chains as it serves as a cradle in case hitch comes off ball so trailer doesn't hit/drag on ground.
Nice video, How fast can you drive with a trailer over there? In my opinion, it goes fast enough, We have a speed limit here in Denmark of 80 km per hour. Could see you are all up and going 70 mph.
17:52 your only blocking 2 spot how do you say it correctly then put 3 when your editing the video. But the video was good thank for putting me onto ABRP
Did you have any trouble hooking up the trailer electrical and the chains to the Tesla ? I’m a little concerned on how to hook up the trailer chang to the car as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of space to run the trail changes through the loops in the car.
As a rookie with a trailer, I totally understand why you would not want to try this, but did you consider making a hard right into the stall so that trailer and the car formed somewhat of an L? There was one pull-thru stall that didn’t require that at all because it had grass next to it and nobody could drive by. But two other times, especially when you were blocking three stalls, it seems like you could’ve blocked only one or two if you’d have done that. Does that make sense?
I think I do long distance road tripping incorrectly. When on a long trip when I stop I charge to 90-95% at each stop. My stops are more like 45-50 minutes. I also drive too fast so consume more power. Probably a trade off between speed and charging time. But can't help myself :) I also try to stop at hotels with onsite charging available so when we wake up we are starting with 95-100% charge.
Great video. Maybe because I'm old I think it no big deal to slow down when you have a trailer. I also think dropping the trailer and reconnecting is pretty darn easy when you have a back-up camera. (almost cheating 😅 ) I would not do it if the chargers are all empty, but if If i needed to drop the trailer I don't think it would add more than 5 minutes to the trip.
Thanks for putting this out there, I expect to have to trailer my 1100 lb lawnmower to the shop this fall and it is good to watch some trailering in action. So far at @4:00 ish. Did you turn on trailer mode?
Thanks for another very informatitive video. My key take away is: If you can't use the trailer as a business expense it is not worth it unless what you are carrying is value dense. What do you think? Also is this a new Model Y?
what is the drop/rise of the hitch that you used? would you mind telling me the height of the ball measured from the top?? I was looking at the same Uhaul trailer but my calculation tells me that i have to buy an straight hitch to be at 18 inches top of ball.. but your video seems like its pretty level
What brand 7 pin to 4 pin wiring adapter did you use to connect to Model Y to the U-haul. I read on amazon that some adapters have fitment issues with the Y. Thanks for your video!
If u get into a busy charging station with a lot of cars getting how do u move to charge when theres not enough space since ur towing something and u need to occupy 3 slots
Very nice job on the video ! The efficiency penalty is a function of wind resistance (speed, as you dramatically demonstrated), but also the weight you are towing. I looked up the weight on the trailer that you used, and it is 850 lb. (unloaded). Do you have any idea how much weight you had in there?
@@iowatesla - Thanks. I might suggest to anyone towing a trailer (with an EV or otherwise). Make sure the tire pressures on the trailer are at the specified value. The trailer will certainly not have low rolling resistance tires, and there will be even more loss if the pressures are low. I would not trust U Haul to do this, and would check it myself.
Hi I liked the video! I believe that if your battery is preconditioning before arrival, you can increase the speed to max allowed speed shortly before arrival, because the battery will draw about 3 kW for the preconditioning, so the increased consumption by driving faster will also heat the battery, which somewhat will medigate the increased consumption
I can't believe how much power towing takes. We would not have bought our vehicle had we known it loses so much power and that we have to unhook the trailer for the super-charger to get home every single time. What a pain in the ass. They should DEFINITELY warn buyers who ask for the trailer hit with purchase.
Dumb question alert!!!! Let's say you're 40 miles from Des Moines and it shows that you'll arrive there are 35%. If there is no concern that you'll make to Des Moines, why not increase the speed from 65 to 75? Hasn't it been proven that increasing your speed is worth it in additional charge time?
Yes, particurly with that sweet untampered rates ending at 35% I would want to arrive with 5-10% and have the car understand consumption at higher speeds....
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As forward thinking as Tesla is, I'm still dumbfounded that inspite of the MX coming standard with a trailer hitch and it's a popular option on the Y, that all Superchargers don't have at least one pull through.
Good video, but the background music is so loud compared to you talking, which means I am adjusting volume a lot.
Wow. That's a lot better milage than I get pulling my camper. I have a 17' camper that weighs in at 2750 loaded. It's 9' tall and 6' wide. At 62 to 65 mph, I burn 850wh/m in light wind. I have to charge to 100% at almost every stop. Stops can't be over 85 miles, or I have to slow even more. A trip of 350 miles takes about 9 1/2 hours. So we are keeping our camping trips shorter. My milage on my Subaru was about 8 mpg going 62mph. But at least fillups were quicker and didn't add near as much time to the trip. I'm not too worried about it because we are only going camping a few trips a year, and the rest of the time, we get to enjoy our get tesla experience
>A suggestion for a future video: go over how you use the Tesla energy graphs app., especially the different options it presents. Your hits and misses using the app would also be interesting.
>What is the app you are using to present the efficiency, speed, and charge stats.?
>Pro tip for you on backing up the trailer: put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel ( 6 o'clock position) and then move your hand, and the steering wheel in the direction of your turn. The trailer will move in that direction. Move the wheel to the right to move the trailer to the right, etc. Easy peasy.
>I believe on your west coast trip a few days ago you had a cracked windshield. How did you get that resolved...Tesla involvement, your insurance company support, etc., etc. I ask because several forum posters have had problems/confusion with the "who pays" and "where to get it fixed" scenarios. Your experience and reflections would be helpful. Was this the result of a rock strike or did it just appear?
TIA for your feedback. Keep up these great videos.
Thank you for the Video.
I'm from Saylorville & currently live in San Diego. I had an impromptu trip back home. Flights were $900+ and I'm not a stranger to driving the 1,800 miles back home.
I was interested in Model 3/Y to commute over my motorcycle, so I rented a red Model Y from Hertz (cheap) to make the drive with my Son and see what the Tesla experience was like.
My experience was EXACTLY like this and other Tesla road trip videos. I was very pleased. Autopilot for this distance lightened the mental drain for this trip. My time was 3 hours more than my all time best SD -> IA time in a gas car. Stopping for 15-20 mins every 2/3 hours of driving was much welcomed. Previously, driving it straight almost felt like a race, like I needed to be on the road all the time. Supercharging and going for a walk, while charging, was very pleasant and refreshing.
My next car, will be a Tesla. Seeing your views & stops from IA to CO feels like my back yard.
Once again, Thanks for the video!
Thanks. I will never go back to a gas car. Soooo many advantages to an EV - especially a Tesla. It does make you change how you road trip and given my age, it is welcomed. No more racing...
Thank You Everybody for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste
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Great video. I especially liked how you showed the Wh/mile. Threw me for a loop for a minute with the black seats, then I realized those are your ventilated seats.
Yes. We were also in my wife’s Model Y. It has black seats.
One thing that drives me crazy with my Y is how difficult it is to insert hitches, bike carriers, and so on into the hitch receiver owing to how recessed the later is into the plastic fairing. Inserting and removing cotter/retention pins for the hitch cross pin is a pain in the butt. Getting at the loops the safety chain hooks attach to is difficult too.
This is just what I was looking for, thank you sir
Glad to see the pull throughs. I didn’t think you would get that many.
Worked out better than I expected.
Thanks for a practical video on towing - the best one i found! I noticed you have a little custom display where one should have been in the first place - where did you get that? NVM - found the video.
The 3 times I towed a Uhaul behind my '21 MYLR, I avg 534Wh/mi (all round trips to the same area ~500 miles each). What I find surprising (and lucky) about your trip is that you were able to just pull into a charger w/o any real effort (empty chargers, pull-in stalls). I had to drop the empty trailer on the way up twice and jackknife the trailer in most of the rest of the times due to busy chargers. At one point, it was so tight, there was barely enough gap between the trailer and the corner of the Tesla to drop a quarter through, and the cable was stretched as tight as it would go w/o failing.
Wish it had that Ford feature where you could TELL it what your configuration is.
Excellent video with great narrative. You did a nice job backing up. So for the range of 833 miles, how many hours did the whole trip take, driving and charging? Looking forward to more informative videos....thanks
@29:08 no insight, yet, but one day I'll sit down and play with the numbers and do some experimental verification with my 2023 MYLR to where the minimum time function.... given the variables even when only considering trip from beginning to leaving first stop (elevation delta, wind speed and direction, initial charge, charge when leaving destination point after charging, desired charge when leaving destination, charging profile at first stop, drag function( for vehicle and roof rack and of course trailer ), battery health, more?) it'll probably have to be encapsulated into an app ... so... might just be easier to play around with ABRP to see how your trip duration changes given various speeds.... sorry... I've been wondering about the same thing.
Really enjoyed this one!! I'm in Nebraska so everything looked so familiiar. And I'm thinking about that hitch BUT I didn't get that when I bought the car last year (Model y LR).
So glad you covered this, we just got our Model Y with tow hitch and excited for some summer adventures!
Great video. Sorry if I missed it in the video or comments but do you know what the total weight of your loaded UHaul trailer was?
We are having huge problems with our Tesla-installed tow package when we tow our tiny aluminum boat (the combined boat and trailer weight is 1,700 lbs). It keeps bending the trunk latch and now is pulling the bumper off. Tesla is trying to tell me this is my fault??? Has anyone else dealt with this? We can't keep the car if we can't tow our boat. My love for Tesla is going away fast :(
Great video! Just a couple comments. The car charges much faster at a low state of charge, so yes, you are better off driving faster and getting there at say 15% than going slower and having 25% left when you get there if you're looking to save time and you're ok spending a couple dollars more. That route through Brush is crap. I avoid it because I am usually going to Fort Collins and can go Cheyenne instead... But I guess if you're going to Denver it's your best option! Great to know the Wh/mile data! You were probably gaining elevation which may have had a big impact. Would be interesting to see what you would get on the way back
I often charge at the Wes Des Moines when I drive to central Iowa. It would have been a trip running into you, and I definitely would have been curious about the trailer! Also, personal observation: that leg between Des Moines and Nebraska - at least to Omaha - is asymmetric. I, for almost every drive I can remember, observe maybe a 5-10% jump in Wh/mi going back home from Des Moines than when I am heading there.
Great video, I was wondering where you got those extra graphics from for the efficiency and charging etc? they were handy. Thanks for putting it all together!
From the TezLab app.
Your channel is awesome! Thank you for your content!
I noticed your wheels aren’t set. That will effect the accuracy of your predictions
Does your Tesla have the factory trailer hitch set up, or is it aftermarket? As I understand it, the factory installed hitches come with a software update that includes trailer towing features and options. And if you use a trailer with the 7 pin / electric brakes hookup, your Teslas computer will operate your trailer brakes as needed. And I assume the computer will be able to do calculations with the trailer back there much more efficiently! We are about to order our Model Y with factory installed hitch. Even though the physical installation would be no big deal for me. I want the factory software update and am willing to pay for it. I hear it makes that much of a difference. I pull a lot of trailers , mostly with my big Dodge Diesel, but don't want to not be able to pull a motorcycle trailer behind our Tesla, just because we didn't order it with that option.
Oh, and a side note! The autodrive cannot/ will not work while pulling a trailer because, as I understand it, the Tesla computer has no programming to determine the weight and accurate length of a trailer attached. So manuevering in traffic with a trailer attached will require your full attention.
17:00 huge consumption for +5mph
Did you not hook up the chains!!!??? GREAT VIDS!
The chains were hooked up at all times. What gave you the impression it wasn’t hooked up?
@@iowatesla at the beginning of the video it looks like they are wrapped around the tongue of the trailer. But further in the video I see they are.
Please criss-cross the chains as it serves as a cradle in case hitch comes off ball so trailer doesn't hit/drag on ground.
Did you do this with a Tesla tow hitch? Or just a 3rd party hitch?
Nice video, How fast can you drive with a trailer over there?
In my opinion, it goes fast enough, We have a speed limit here in Denmark of 80 km per hour.
Could see you are all up and going 70 mph.
17:52 your only blocking 2 spot how do you say it correctly then put 3 when your editing the video. But the video was good thank for putting me onto ABRP
Loved the video, thank you. Does the Tesla hitch come standard with wiring (for brake lights on the trailer)?
Yes. It comes with a 7 pin RV plug. I need to buy a conversion plug to work with the 4-pin u-haul.
@@iowatesla thank you for the quick reply, glad I found your channel
Did you have any trouble hooking up the trailer electrical and the chains to the Tesla ? I’m a little concerned on how to hook up the trailer chang to the car as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of space to run the trail changes through the loops in the car.
As a rookie with a trailer, I totally understand why you would not want to try this, but did you consider making a hard right into the stall so that trailer and the car formed somewhat of an L? There was one pull-thru stall that didn’t require that at all because it had grass next to it and nobody could drive by. But two other times, especially when you were blocking three stalls, it seems like you could’ve blocked only one or two if you’d have done that. Does that make sense?
You can't quite do a hard right when towing; you run the risk of jack-knifing or having the trailer sticking out at an angle!
I think I do long distance road tripping incorrectly. When on a long trip when I stop I charge to 90-95% at each stop. My stops are more like 45-50 minutes. I also drive too fast so consume more power. Probably a trade off between speed and charging time. But can't help myself :) I also try to stop at hotels with onsite charging available so when we wake up we are starting with 95-100% charge.
12:00 looks like you figured out backing up pretty well.
Great video. Maybe because I'm old I think it no big deal to slow down when you have a trailer. I also think dropping the trailer and reconnecting is pretty darn easy when you have a back-up camera. (almost cheating 😅 ) I would not do it if the chargers are all empty, but if If i needed to drop the trailer I don't think it would add more than 5 minutes to the trip.
What was the total cost in supercharger use?
Agree, below 100kw you are paying for kWh's with a lot of minutes.
Outstanding video. Thanks for showing us Mrs. IA Tesla. 😆
Thanks for putting this out there, I expect to have to trailer my 1100 lb lawnmower to the shop this fall and it is good to watch some trailering in action. So far at @4:00 ish. Did you turn on trailer mode?
Never mind @16:37 question answered. :)
Thanks for watching!
Shouldn't you put the wheel chucks on the trailer before you unhinge it?
Probably. It was a very flat surface.
Doesn’t the trailer hitch equipped Y have a trailer mode? 9:38
Yes. There is tow mode. It disables Autopilot.
@@iowatesla interesting. I would have thought it would expect changed range.
I’m assuming you used a harness adapter to convert the Tesla 7-pin to the trailer 4-flat? Did you document which one you used?
Thanks for another very informatitive video. My key take away is: If you can't use the trailer as a business expense it is not worth it unless what you are carrying is value dense. What do you think? Also is this a new Model Y?
What is the hitch ball height that u used? Is it pretty level?
Love your honesty. Backing a trailer can be tough to learn
TH-cam was my friend.
what is the drop/rise of the hitch that you used? would you mind telling me the height of the ball measured from the top?? I was looking at the same Uhaul trailer but my calculation tells me that i have to buy an straight hitch to be at 18 inches top of ball.. but your video seems like its pretty level
What brand 7 pin to 4 pin wiring adapter did you use to connect to Model Y to the U-haul. I read on amazon that some adapters have fitment issues with the Y. Thanks for your video!
You need to seek out V3 charges. Des Moines has three charges - one of them is V3.
Agreed and I prefer to use that one. However, it doesn't have a pull in spot and that was my main driver for picking chargers on this trip.
@@iowateslaActually, it has a pull in station. But it would be tough to use with a trailer.
If u get into a busy charging station with a lot of cars getting how do u move to charge when theres not enough space since ur towing something and u need to occupy 3 slots
Is your Model Y is Awd?
Very nice job on the video !
The efficiency penalty is a function of wind resistance (speed, as you dramatically demonstrated), but also the weight you are towing. I looked up the weight on the trailer that you used, and it is 850 lb. (unloaded). Do you have any idea how much weight you had in there?
I’m guessing somewhere around 500 pounds
@@iowatesla - Thanks. I might suggest to anyone towing a trailer (with an EV or otherwise). Make sure the tire pressures on the trailer are at the specified value. The trailer will certainly not have low rolling resistance tires, and there will be even more loss if the pressures are low. I would not trust U Haul to do this, and would check it myself.
id love to see this same trip in a model 3
I would think it would be similar.
450 is about what I got carrying bikes.
Hi I liked the video! I believe that if your battery is preconditioning before arrival, you can increase the speed to max allowed speed shortly before arrival, because the battery will draw about 3 kW for the preconditioning, so the increased consumption by driving faster will also heat the battery, which somewhat will medigate the increased consumption
I can't believe how much power towing takes. We would not have bought our vehicle had we known it loses so much power and that we have to unhook the trailer for the super-charger to get home every single time. What a pain in the ass. They should DEFINITELY warn buyers who ask for the trailer hit with purchase.
I won't have this problem since I'm doing it the right way by having Tesla install my hitch with the software update
Then you can't tow in auto or fsd from what I'm reading. If you install the tesla software.
Uhaul trailers are HEAVY empty! They are built like tanks probably because some people overload/abuse them.
Dumb question alert!!!! Let's say you're 40 miles from Des Moines and it shows that you'll arrive there are 35%. If there is no concern that you'll make to Des Moines, why not increase the speed from 65 to 75? Hasn't it been proven that increasing your speed is worth it in additional charge time?
Yes, particurly with that sweet untampered rates ending at 35%
I would want to arrive with 5-10% and have the car understand consumption at higher speeds....
I think the only trailer I would come through a hole with my model Y would be a trailer of batteries
An impossible trip just a couple years ago!
💯
👍
🍿 😅❤
I see the wife has the climate on manual . :/
Teslas are for moms and tech nerds not trailers 😂
Good video but waay too long
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