2026 Lightship vs Pebble Flow All Electric Trailers

[SpaceEVDriver]

The top spec lightship comes with a WDH.

It sounds like some people aren’t using it…

Pebble says you don’t need a WDH, some people are using one anyway.

Pebble is wrong unless they’ve found some magical way of reducing tongue weight (hint: they haven’t). They have a tongue weight of 680 pounds, 136% overload of any SD vehicle with a 5000 pound capacity without a WDH.

No information on the Evotrex and a WDH

Lightship and Pebble both say that the trailer’s propulsion system can control sway.

Sway isn’t the reason for a WDH.

Many WDHs have optional sway control. Those wouldn’t be needed if there’s another system that controls sway.

All of them say that the tow vehicle must be able to to tow the full weight per regulations, no gimme because of the propulsion system of the trailer.

Personally I’d want a 3/4 ton. I don’t feel the rivian is up to it, maybe the Ramcharger, definitely not the Scout.

I don’t like to regularly tow more than about 75% of my truck’s towing capacity on public roads.
It’s not about power, it’s about safety.

 

[Latrant]

I am also very curious about the Evotrex-PG5 and how that shapes up

I've looked all these over on Youtube and I think the Evotrex is the most affordable and versatile.

 

[oldgeeksguide]

So, as someone who knows nothing practical about towing, but has a basic understanding of physics/statics, it seems like the tongue weight is independent of the trailer weight, ie you could distribute the weight on the trailer to give a negative tongue weight, not that that would be a good idea. Am I misunderstanding something?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

So, as someone who knows nothing practical about towing, but has a basic understanding of physics/statics, it seems like the tongue weight is independent of the trailer weight, ie you could distribute the weight on the trailer to give a negative tongue weight, not that that would be a good idea. Am I misunderstanding something?

It’s more complicated. The weight on the trailer needs to be distributed well and to be an appropriate ratio to the tow vehicle to begin with. If it’s well distributed, the general rule of thumb is that the tongue weight will be about 10% of the total weight of the trailer. If it’s poorly distributed, it creates an incredibly dangerous situation.

Here’s a video describing the various ways things can go wrong with badly-distributed weight.

 

[Mousehunter]

Most trailers kind of balance on the axle(s) - allowing for non-articulating axles. Tongue weight generally helps prevent sway. A few trailers carry their entire weight on their axles - but those tend to have an articulating front axle. I don't know if any of those are designed for highway speeds. The ones I know of are ag trailers designed to be towed by a tractor. The major benefit is they can be unhitched easily (no jack needed) even when loaded. I don't know if they track better, but they might especially at low speeds. They don't need to scrub tires to turn.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Most trailers kind of balance on the axle(s) - allowing for non-articulating axles. Tongue weight generally helps prevent sway. A few trailers carry their entire weight on their axles - but those tend to have an articulating front axle. I don't know if any of those are designed for highway speeds. The ones I know of are ag trailers designed to be towed by a tractor. The major benefit is they can be unhitched easily (no jack needed) even when loaded. I don't know if they track better, but they might especially at low speeds. They don't need to scrub tires to turn.

I’m not super experienced with wagons (called dog trailer in other parts of the world) (front articulating axle with a rear fixed axle), so I can’t say there aren’t any that are intended or rated for freeway speeds, but I don’t know of any off-hand, and I don’t know of any that would be fit for the purpose of taking camping off-road. Wagons create an entirely different towing dynamic. As do fifth wheel trailers. And goosenecks.

 

[Mousehunter]

5th wheels and goosenecks put the attachment point over the rear axle rather than significantly behind it - so yes, very different dynamic - trailer sway does not try to wag the vehicle as much (less leverage). Thank you for the term wagon - it was not on the tip of my tongue when I posted before. I would not think of wagons, other than I tow one about 40 days a year - but always at very low speeds. I am almost 60, and I bet those corn wagons are older than me. Low speed is the only thing that makes them even semi-safe. I have had tires come off, axles shear, etc... But only so much consequence when you are going under 5mph.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My first memories of going into town were on a horse-drawn wagon. We went perhaps a bit faster than 5 mph, but not much. They work well for low-speeds, when the loads can’t be centered over the axles, or when you can’t or don’t want to deal with a large load on the tongue. But they’re out of favor for a lot of reasons. I suppose if someone wanted to go camping off-road with a beast of burden as their power supply, a wagon would be an okay option, if they had the time.