A new style travel trailer?

[Voyageurs]

.........and from what I've seen, you'll be stopping every 100mi or so, for Lord knows how long, to recharge, paying a yet to be determined price for the electricity.

Hard to say. This is pretty low profile. My guess is probably closer to 150 miles. There are a lot of lightning and Rivian owners towing smaller lower profile trailers with their EV trucks. Many see closer to 200 miles towing the smaller profile trailers and tear drops.

If Rivian actually builds the bigger pack they had ousted that some people have ordered and are waiting for I think it would tow something like this 200 miles without the assisted axle of the trailer and probably 300 miles with. I don’t think they are doing that till 4th quarter 2023 though.

Bigger batteries so probably 40 to 50 minute charges though. And of course the trailer traction battery would have to be charged as well. Probably in a campground.

All fast chargers have their prices clearly marked on their apps. There are no unknown prices.

 

[tdkkart]

Hard to say. This is pretty low profile. My guess is probably closer to 150 miles. There are a lot of lightning and Rivian owners towing smaller lower profile trailers with their EV trucks. Many see closer to 200 miles towing the smaller profile trailers and tear drops.

If Rivian actually builds the bigger pack they had ousted that some people have ordered and are waiting for I think it would tow something like this 200 miles without the assisted axle of the trailer and probably 300 miles with. I don’t think they are doing that till 4th quarter 2023 though.

Bigger batteries so probably 40 to 50 minute charges though. And of course the trailer traction battery would have to be charged as well. Probably in a campground.

All fast chargers have their prices clearly marked on their apps. There are no unknown prices.

The "smaller profile" trailers don't fit well in today's market from what I've seen, everyone wants something that folds and slides out into a 1500sq/ft cabin with room to sleep 8-10 people. You can't hardly find an RV on a lot right now that doesn't have a Bunkhouse floorplan.

Yes, the electric rates are clearly posted, and many of them are 3-4x as much as I pay for my electricity at home.
Would you pay $12/gallon for gasoline whenever you ventured more than 100 miles from home?
Off course we do live in America, where few are known to be any kind of fiscally responsible.

 

[Voyageurs]

The "smaller profile" trailers don't fit well in today's market from what I've seen, everyone wants something that folds and slides out into a 1500sq/ft cabin with room to sleep 8-10 people. You can't hardly find an RV on a lot right now that doesn't have a Bunkhouse floorplan.

Yes, the electric rates are clearly posted, and many of them are 3-4x as much as I pay for my electricity at home.
Would you pay $12/gallon for gasoline whenever you ventured more than 100 miles from home?
Off course we do live in America, where few are known to be any kind of fiscally responsible.

Re the size of the trailers etc. I think it depends where you live and camp. Most of our camping is in provincial parks. Anything over about 24 feet is a tough fit in many sites and really we see a lot around the 20 foot size. Many of these smaller units are a good fit for the electric pickups and people are getting good results with the lower profile units. We see more on the road all the time.

For the EV SUV’s they are better suited to the lower profile small teardrops like ours. We ran into quite a few of them last year on our Sunshine Coast trip. Including at fast chargers like this one. Kinda fun comparing notes. .

Yah. Charging away from home can be pricey. Many RV parks charging for car charging seem to just charge a flat rate. We typically see 15 bucks although the parks with SemaConnect stations charge thru the APP about 1,50 an hour and typical charge speed is 6 to 8 KW.

Our trailer is a 30 amp unit so we almost always get 30 amp sites. So far no one has charged us to charge the car although most stipulate to only plug in one thing at a time which is kind of a no brainer on a 30 amp site.

But trucks will have bigger batteries and although a 30 amp site would be okay for a top up a better solution would be a 50 amp site, or better yet take the KOA approach and provide a separate 50 amp EVSE on the site. I like their approach with their sema connect EVSE’s. Keeps it simple. Pricing is transparent and no power sharing. Still reasonably cheap although that’s dependant on the vendor I suppose.

Just my 2 bits.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Like everything else, all kinds of compromise!

If you look around without isolating yourself to majority of people here in the USA are not privileged!

What I see in this toy.

15 years panel expectancy. (My rig although reconditioned is 1983). So do I prefer carrying dead panels around after they no longer produce? Better options exist.

Storage is of a premium!

Advantages? Yes. If you camp rather than travel, that 3000w could provide a partial charge for the tow vehicle (electric).

If you planned 200 to 300 a day traveling! With stops rather than overnights Really seeing and experiencing the country, I could see a financial incentive.

Otherwise I agree with what you said @tdkkart !

 

[Voyageurs]

Like everything else, all kinds of compromise!

If you look around without isolating yourself to majority of people here in the USA are not privileged!

What I see in this toy.

15 years panel expectancy. (My rig although reconditioned is 1983). So do I prefer carrying dead panels around after they no longer produce? Better options exist.

Storage is of a premium!

Advantages? Yes. If you camp rather than travel, that 3000w could provide a partial charge for the tow vehicle (electric).

If you planned 200 to 300 a day traveling! With stops rather than overnights Really seeing and experiencing the country, I could see a financial incentive.

Otherwise I agree with what you said @tdkkart !

Solar panels will have a slightly reduced output after 15 years but will be fine. Typical solar panels lose about 12 percent after 25 years. Newer ones less.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Always?
Expected (warranted) life, are not in stone. I know what the data sheets say. Been involved in some way with solar for many years. I know conditions in a lab test don't come close to RV install conditions. My numbers are based on my observations, not what data sheets guesstimate. I stand by the opinion that integrated panels on a flexing surface without a frame are a really bad idea. I know that was not the way I said it! I was being nice.

 

[tdkkart]

Re the size of the trailers etc. I think it depends where you live and camp. Most of our camping is in provincial parks. Anything over about 24 feet is a tough fit in many sites and really we see a lot around the 20 foot size. Many of these smaller units are a good fit for the electric pickups and people are getting good results with the lower profile units. We see more on the road all the time.

Certainly can vary by region, agreed, but doesn't seem to be the case around here.

There's a very popular, and nice. county park campground less than a mile from my house, last week was their first week open for the season so I took a ride through and my observation was quite different from what you are seeing. There was an impressive number of rigs on site, and a LARGE portion of them were new, or very new looking 5th wheels, a fair number of very fresh looking bumper tow models, and none of them are small. Pretty sure I didn't see any teardrops. BTW, this campground is currently 109 sites and is in the process of building I believe 60 more this summer.

 

[Voyageurs]

Certainly can vary by region, agreed, but doesn't seem to be the case around here.

There's a very popular, and nice. county park campground less than a mile from my house, last week was their first week open for the season so I took a ride through and my observation was quite different from what you are seeing. There was an impressive number of rigs on site, and a LARGE portion of them were new, or very new looking 5th wheels, a fair number of very fresh looking bumper tow models, and none of them are small. Pretty sure I didn't see any teardrops. BTW, this campground is currently 109 sites and is in the process of building I believe 60 more this summer.

Yah we have seen that as well in certain regions. I think a lot depends on topography or the ease of cutting in camp sites into the bush in mountains. Commercial campgrounds have lots of big sites here but we don’t use them much so don’t see the big units often. We used to when we had our pusher though. There are lots of big sites out there if one needs one. Now we tend to camp in the places we used to drive by because we couldn’t fit. Just a different kind of camping. It’s all good. We see the longer 28 footers drive in but they tend to have a tough time finding spots. There are usually a limited number of sites that would accommodate them but those are the first sites to get snagged by the little rigs. Everybody wants a big site. We try to be courteous and avoid that and leave them for the bigger trailers. We are tiny and can fit anywhere.