EV Friendly Camper - A different approach

[CEP]

I saw this video yesterday and thought I would share it. It will be interesting to see it when/if it hits the market. I thought the approach of having a “gas powered EV charging station”, basically a range extender, was interesting. Depending on the actual charging specs, it might make more sense than the battery powered trailers that have hit the market for some use cases.

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[hammick]

Yep I'm intrigued by that trailer and watched all the videos. 60kw DCFC onboard is hard to believe. Even though it's expensive it's a lot less expensive than the Lightship or Pebble. With an automobile engine up front I can't imagine they will be able to get the tongue weight low enough to make it half ton or R1T towable. Probably why the R1T in the video wasn't towing it.

 

[justinkitswa]

It's going to be very interesting to watch the RV industry try and make sense of the shift to EV towing.

After 20 years of RVing, I've more or less tapped-out of the whole concept on account of poorly built RV's, crowded campgrounds, relentless truck traffic and beyond rude truck drivers.

 

[mkhuffman]

Yep I'm intrigued by that trailer and watched all the videos. 60kw DCFC onboard is hard to believe. Even though it's expensive it's a lot less expensive than the Lightship or Pebble. With an automobile engine up front I can't imagine they will be able to get the tongue weight low enough to make it half ton or R1T towable. Probably why the R1T in the video wasn't towing it.

He did say the GVWR is projected to be 9,900 lbs. But like you said, no tongue weight yet. For sure I won't be able to tow it with my wife's Grand Cherokee.

 

[CharonPDX]

Love the Gear Guard Gary on the bed in the trailer.

 

[risingphoenix]

Seems that if you're okay with the concept of ICE that this would be a better use case to get a Scout with Range Extender and use that to power the RV without ICE, which would be much cheaper and lighter.

 

[Jonger1150]

He did say the GVWR is projected to be 9,900 lbs. But like you said, no tongue weight yet. For sure I won't be able to tow it with my wife's Grand Cherokee.

I have a 2024 Dual motor with Large Pack.

I believe my tow rating is 11,000 lbs.

 

[Cycliste]

I am thankful cowboy camping is my favorite.

 

[Thedude]

I have a 2024 Dual motor with Large Pack.

I believe my tow rating is 11,000 lbs.

It is, but only if it’s just you by yourself in the truck.

 

[Jonger1150]

It is, but only if it’s just you by yourself in the truck.

9,000 lbs. is pushing it for any half-ton.

 

[CharonPDX]

I have a 2024 Dual motor with Large Pack.

I believe my tow rating is 11,000 lbs.

Tow rating is "total load of all optional weight in the vehicle plus the full weight of the trailer" = 11,000 lbs.

Then you have to take into account tongue weight. Which subtracts from the *vehicle* load rating. Dual-Large should have a load rating of 1,764 lbs.

Tongue weight should be 10-15% of trailer weight. So 9,900 lbs trailer weight = 990-1,485 lb tongue weight. This has the generator up front, so it's probably on the heavier side.

1,485 lb tongue weight, taken away from load rating 1,764 leaves only 279 pounds for *ALL* occupants and cargo in the truck. Everything in the frunk, bed, gear tunnel, spare tire (or gear in the well if you don't have a spare) storage areas inside the vehicle, driver, and passengers. I'm pretty sure if I was the only person in my truck, I'd be above that.

 

[mkhuffman]

Tow rating is "total load of all optional weight in the vehicle plus the full weight of the trailer" = 11,000 lbs.

Then you have to take into account tongue weight. Which subtracts from the *vehicle* load rating. Dual-Large should have a load rating of 1,764 lbs.

Tongue weight should be 10-15% of trailer weight. So 9,900 lbs trailer weight = 990-1,485 lb tongue weight. This has the generator up front, so it's probably on the heavier side.

1,485 lb tongue weight, taken away from load rating 1,764 leaves only 279 pounds for *ALL* occupants and cargo in the truck. Everything in the frunk, bed, gear tunnel, spare tire (or gear in the well if you don't have a spare) storage areas inside the vehicle, driver, and passengers. I'm pretty sure if I was the only person in my truck, I'd be above that.

Good analysis.

I hope you don't actually weigh more than 279 lbs.

 

[Harvest]

Yep I'm intrigued by that trailer and watched all the videos. 60kw DCFC onboard is hard to believe. Even though it's expensive it's a lot less expensive than the Lightship or Pebble. With an automobile engine up front I can't imagine they will be able to get the tongue weight low enough to make it half ton or R1T towable. Probably why the R1T in the video wasn't towing it.

I really wondered about the extra tongue weight of that engine in the front as well. Hopefully they figured out how to make the trailer balanced well on the axles, in which case it still might work for a half-ton like a Rivian to tow it.

I've watched several of the videos on this prototype trailer now and it is clearly closer to the Pebble than the Lightship in interior layout, though the main bed is in the front of this Evotrex as opposed to the back in the Pebble. Similar placement of bathroom and exterior design, however. It does look like from the specs it is larger overall and of course weighs quite a bit more than the Pebble. The early comments that the Pebble can perhaps be used without a weight distribution hitch is a plus. This trailer, while able to self maneuver, does not yet offer the automatic hitch alignment ability of the pebble, but if the steering is precise enough from the table it should be viable to use that to get it in position.

The pop down deck in the rear is an interesting idea, but to me not worth the extra weight, cost, or issues with screening out bugs and weather when the hatch is open (I know the hatch closes but then you can't get to the deck directly from inside and maybe not even from outside based on how railings are currently shown). I'd rather see that rear hatch have a door in it than just a window for when that deck is down, so that it would be easier to keep bugs and dust out while still allowing access to the deck. Making the rear of the vehicle having a door would be good for the non-deck version of the trailer being able to load bikes or kayaks as well.

Although I like the look of this Evotrex design overall, as someone who has towed a variety of equipment on gravel roads, I think the current design of the air intake on the front of the trailer for the gas engine (at least how it appears they designed it), is a really bad idea. There would quickly be a ton of dust accumulating in the engine housing if those vents are indeed open to the engine. Hopefully they will design it with either a louver closing system behind the vents or put the vents for air on the side of that cowling instead of (even side vents would still get dusty, though, so closable vent louvers would be helpful).

I pondered how I feel about putting a gas engine on an electric trailer. I've liked the idea of an electric RV to be quiet and non-polluting (at least in the local environment, putting aside the source of the power). While not ideal to have the weight of the engine and extra maintenance of a gas engine, it certainly opens up considerably the amount of distance the rv can be towed and the length of time it can be used for boon docking. For someone that primarily uses an rv in a boon dock setting or needs to be able to do extended boon docking, this trailer design would appear to be a good option. I will be interested to hear how many minutes the gas engine has to run to crank out a certain number of kilowatts. If you could generate a fair amount of kilowatts in say 30 minutes a day, that would be a manageable amount of noise compared to a smaller gas generator that has to run for several hours at a time. For example when boon docking, you could go take a hike while the engine is charging things up, presuming no one else is around to be bothered by the noise.

So far they have provided little information about being able to raise the rv on the trailer's air suspension to help with towing in remote areas. I'm interested to see how much additional height they can get with that when they get closer to a final product design. That could be a nice way to allow it to be used on rougher roads that have more need of ground clearance.

I played with their online tool to calculate how long you can boon dock based on various assumptions for season, number of showers, etc. That was quite interesting and something I would encourage people to check out on their website if interested in boon docking, as I am.

Anyway, it's great to see another ev-friendly rv product design out there. Hope they can make it to market near the price point they currently advertise. Tarrifs will create some headwinds since most of the component manufacturing will be in China, with final assembly it sounds like in the Los Angeles area.

 

[David_C_]

I really wondered about the extra tongue weight of that engine in the front as well. Hopefully they figured out how to make the trailer balanced well on the axles, in which case it still might work for a half-ton like a Rivian to tow it.

I've watched several of the videos on this prototype trailer now and it is clearly closer to the Pebble than the Lightship in interior layout, though the main bed is in the front of this Evotrex as opposed to the back in the Pebble. Similar placement of bathroom and exterior design, however. It does look like from the specs it is larger overall and of course weighs quite a bit more than the Pebble. The early comments that the Pebble can perhaps be used without a weight distribution hitch is a plus. This trailer, while able to self maneuver, does not yet offer the automatic hitch alignment ability of the pebble, but if the steering is precise enough from the table it should be viable to use that to get it in position.

The pop down deck in the rear is an interesting idea, but to me not worth the extra weight, cost, or issues with screening out bugs and weather when the hatch is open (I know the hatch closes but then you can't get to the deck directly from inside and maybe not even from outside based on how railings are currently shown). I'd rather see that rear hatch have a door in it than just a window for when that deck is down, so that it would be easier to keep bugs and dust out while still allowing access to the deck. Making the rear of the vehicle having a door would be good for the non-deck version of the trailer being able to load bikes or kayaks as well.

Although I like the look of this Evotrex design overall, as someone who has towed a variety of equipment on gravel roads, I think the current design of the air intake on the front of the trailer for the gas engine (at least how it appears they designed it), is a really bad idea. There would quickly be a ton of dust accumulating in the engine housing if those vents are indeed open to the engine. Hopefully they will design it with either a louver closing system behind the vents or put the vents for air on the side of that cowling instead of (even side vents would still get dusty, though, so closable vent louvers would be helpful).

I pondered how I feel about putting a gas engine on an electric trailer. I've liked the idea of an electric RV to be quiet and non-polluting (at least in the local environment, putting aside the source of the power). While not ideal to have the weight of the engine and extra maintenance of a gas engine, it certainly opens up considerably the amount of distance the rv can be towed and the length of time it can be used for boon docking. For someone that primarily uses an rv in a boon dock setting or needs to be able to do extended boon docking, this trailer design would appear to be a good option. I will be interested to hear how many minutes the gas engine has to run to crank out a certain number of kilowatts. If you could generate a fair amount of kilowatts in say 30 minutes a day, that would be a manageable amount of noise compared to a smaller gas generator that has to run for several hours at a time. For example when boon docking, you could go take a hike while the engine is charging things up, presuming no one else is around to be bothered by the noise.

So far they have provided little information about being able to raise the rv on the trailer's air suspension to help with towing in remote areas. I'm interested to see how much additional height they can get with that when they get closer to a final product design. That could be a nice way to allow it to be used on rougher roads that have more need of ground clearance.

I played with their online tool to calculate how long you can boon dock based on various assumptions for season, number of showers, etc. That was quite interesting and something I would encourage people to check out on their website if interested in boon docking, as I am.

Anyway, it's great to see another ev-friendly rv product design out there. Hope they can make it to market near the price point they currently advertise. Tarrifs will create some headwinds since most of the component manufacturing will be in China, with final assembly it sounds like in the Los Angeles area.

Appreciate the analysis. Very insightful!

 

[mkhuffman]

The pop down deck in the rear is an interesting idea, but to me not worth the extra weight, cost, or issues with screening out bugs and weather when the hatch is open (I know the hatch closes but then you can't get to the deck directly from inside and maybe not even from outside based on how railings are currently shown). I'd rather see that rear hatch have a door in it than just a window for when that deck is down, so that it would be easier to keep bugs and dust out while still allowing access to the deck. Making the rear of the vehicle having a door would be good for the non-deck version of the trailer being able to load bikes or kayaks as well.

I love the pop down deck, but agree with your concerns. I also thought about how they could put a door on the hatch, so the deck can be accessed without letting bugs into the living space. A screen door option would be cool as well. I bet an aftermarket entrepreneur could make a pop in screen with door. Or maybe I could make one...

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