5klbs towing cap with gas range extender?

[mattrawls93]

Watched the CEOs video with Leno and he mentioned that the towing capacity will drop from 10klbs to 5klbs with the range extender (if I understood correctly). This was extremely disappointing and seemed strange after he mentioned that the heavy duty mode will favor the engine. I hope that scout can revisit this. I changed my reservation to the pure EV because of this. Still excited for 2027!

 

[cyure]

Watched the CEOs video with Leno and he mentioned that the towing capacity will drop from 10klbs to 5klbs with the range extender (if I understood correctly). This was extremely disappointing and seemed strange after he mentioned that the heavy duty mode will favor the engine. I hope that scout can revisit this. I changed my reservation to the pure EV because of this. Still excited for 2027!

Welcome to the community! Just an FYI we aren’t locked in with our reservation to any particular model. When we place our order we can choose from either vehicle and either variation. When we place our order is when we become locked in.

That Jay Leno comment has caused quite a stir on the forum. We don’t have final numbers as of yet. I’m just sticking with my motto of faith and patience and unfortunately it’s still a waiting game for the final specs.

Welcome again!

 

[Mousehunter]

No hard reason was release for the why. We guessed a lot, but that is about it. Scout responded that specs were still subject to change.

 

[dreamweaver]

Watched the CEOs video with Leno and he mentioned that the towing capacity will drop from 10klbs to 5klbs with the range extender (if I understood correctly). This was extremely disappointing and seemed strange after he mentioned that the heavy duty mode will favor the engine. I hope that scout can revisit this. I changed my reservation to the pure EV because of this. Still excited for 2027!

Scout. “People. Connections. Community. Authenticity." Welcome to the Scout community. Enjoy the ride.
Remember the built in search on the forums is a great place to start getting answers to your many questions.

 

[BeerParty]

Watched the CEOs video with Leno and he mentioned that the towing capacity will drop from 10klbs to 5klbs with the range extender (if I understood correctly). This was extremely disappointing and seemed strange after he mentioned that the heavy duty mode will favor the engine. I hope that scout can revisit this. I changed my reservation to the pure EV because of this. Still excited for 2027!

It has been a while since I saw the video, but if I remember correctly they were talking about the Traveler, which has a 7K towing capacity. So it was the Traveler which dropped to 5K with the Harvester. If you want to take an optimistic approach, the Harvester dropped the towing capacity by 2K. That would make the Terra's towing capacity drop from 10K to 8K.

But that is pure speculation, as others have said we don't have final numbers yet. We are all waiting on final numbers, some less patiently than others.

 

[J Alynn]

Watched the CEOs video with Leno and he mentioned that the towing capacity will drop from 10klbs to 5klbs with the range extender (if I understood correctly). This was extremely disappointing and seemed strange after he mentioned that the heavy duty mode will favor the engine. I hope that scout can revisit this. I changed my reservation to the pure EV because of this. Still excited for 2027!

Welcome aboard. And until they do official sales and specs everything is open for change. Enjoy the forum!

 

[Gottesacker]

It has been a while since I saw the video, but if I remember correctly they were talking about the Traveler, which has a 7K towing capacity. So it was the Traveler which dropped to 5K with the Harvester. If you want to take an optimistic approach, the Harvester dropped the towing capacity by 2K. That would make the Terra's towing capacity drop from 10K to 8K.

But that is pure speculation, as others have said we don't have final numbers yet. We are all waiting on final numbers, some less patiently than others.

Here’s what Scott had said in that interview with Leno.

“Look, on the electric vehicle, on the truck. The Terra here, up to 10,000lbs. So, real deal, payload about 2,000lbs. On the Traveler, a little bit less, about 7,000lbs. When we get to the range extender both of them were able to do about 5,000lbs, so we’ve got authentic towing vehicles.” - Scott Keogh

So, I’m personally still not holding them to that. It’s early on, they still don’t have things dialed in. I can’t see them not doing their damndest to get that towing number up.

 

[Chavannigans]

Greetings!

that interview has caused a lot of grief and headaches for Scout Motors.

If you use the search function you’ll find many threads about this exact concern.

@Jamie@ScoutMotors has had to gently remind us several times that Scout is aware of customer’s demands and NONE OF THE FIGURES ARE SET IN STONE YET.

We are still probably a year away from them releasing finalized specs.

They don’t want a Cybertruck disaster where they overpromise and then lower the specs and hike the prices before launch.

 

[dumbdork]

I know this is an older thread and short of echoing everyone else's comments, I'll add that even if it drops officially to 5000lbs, my gut says the reason it would do so is cause Scout isnt enforcing battery management like Ramcharger REV is doing.

For example, the REV is able to make the Davis Dam grade with and without battery. However, they're saving some battery when in tow mode to make the towing experience better.

So if Scout is able to make the Davis Dam with a full battery, but not with it empty, they may have to degrade the towing numbers just for that. But for me, I'm happy to know its not structural and I'll just ensure I leave the campsite/house with a full battery every time I tow if I've got solid grades ahead of me for the trip.

I'm just hoping its not a structural thing due to where the Harvester engine is put under the bed. Though I can see that weighing a few hundred pounds and eating into the advertised 2000lb payload - which would make me sad.

 

[THil08]

Greetings!

that interview has caused a lot of grief and headaches for Scout Motors.

If you use the search function you’ll find many threads about this exact concern.

@Jamie@ScoutMotors has had to gently remind us several times that Scout is aware of customer’s demands and NONE OF THE FIGURES ARE SET IN STONE YET.

We are still probably a year away from them releasing finalized specs.

They don’t want a Cybertruck disaster where they overpromise and then lower the specs and hike the prices before launch.

Over Promise, Under Perform

Under Promise, Over Perform - thats the one we want!

 

[Hedrock]

Greetings!

that interview has caused a lot of grief and headaches for Scout Motors.

If you use the search function you’ll find many threads about this exact concern.

@Jamie@ScoutMotors has had to gently remind us several times that Scout is aware of customer’s demands and NONE OF THE FIGURES ARE SET IN STONE YET.

We are still probably a year away from them releasing finalized specs.

They don’t want a Cybertruck disaster where they overpromise and then lower the specs and hike the prices before launch.

They’ve already avoided a cybertruck disaster just by not designing a dumpster from Total Recall (the OG) on wheels.

 

[chris.alvarado]

I'm curious if the reasoning is that with battery power the truck can tow 10K lbs, but once the battery is only being fed by the harvester if the battery output actually lowers at that time and in that instance it can't pull 10K lbs.

This will be interesting to follow, because initially I wanted the Harvester version... but I need probably 6K lbs minimum towing.

 

[cyure]

I'm curious if the reasoning is that with battery power the truck can tow 10K lbs, but once the battery is only being fed by the harvester if the battery output actually lowers at that time and in that instance it can't pull 10K lbs.

This will be interesting to follow, because initially I wanted the Harvester version... but I need probably 6K lbs minimum towing.

Welcome to the community.

First point, nothing is official on the towing capacity for the Harvester. We are in a wait and see on what the final number is.

Second, you may want to look up posts and follow a member named @SpaceEVDriver. He has a Lightning and provides lots and lots of charts and math and explanations into all things towing and I’m sure he has explained that somewhere.

I don’t tow and don’t plan on it, so I appreciate his explanations and math, but don’t remember which thread that particular part of the topic was discussed in.

Another great follow is @Jamie@ScoutMotors he also has some posts about how the Harvester will work, but no final numbers as of yet.

Welcome again!

 

[Crazychicken563]

Welcome to the forums!

I believe towing capacity just has to do with the outright size of the battery. More individual cells = higher discharge rate = more power for towing.
Harvester takes up the space that's otherwise allocated for more cells in the BEV version.

That said, the harvester should be more than capable of keeping the pack topped up even under load.

Also the official towing rating is still far from confirmed! I'm hanging on to my reservation until they release concrete specs.

Edit: there's some interesting theorycrafting in the other forums: link

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

There’s a lot of heartache across the forum about this. And probably more in the engineers’ offices.
They can’t give actual numbers until they’ve run the vehicles through the SAE J2807 standards.

There are several reasons for possibly lower tow capacity in the Harvester. None of these are insurmountable, the question is always how much is someone willing to pay for the solution.

• Thermal management. The Harvester is going to be above or just aft of the rear axle where there’s no air flow. They’ll need to manage cooling of both the genset and the battery/electric motors. That’s more than twice the amount of cooling required for the BEV. This can be an engineering issue in normal use. Towing makes this more difficult.
• The location of the center of mass of the Harvester genset could be such that it lowers the available tongue weight, which has a 10-fold impact on the towing rating: putting 200 pounds just aft of the rear axle would decrease towing capacity by 2000 pounds. We don’t know exactly where the genset’s mass will be centered.
• Battery safety may be an issue. That said, the LFP batteries rumored to be planned for the Harvester can handle sustained discharge rates about 15x higher than the NMC batteries rumored to be planned for the BEV. And LFP can handle higher temperatures overall before degradation or thermal runaway.

 

[cyure]

There’s a lot of heartache across the forum about this. And probably more in the engineers’ offices.
They can’t give actual numbers until they’ve run the vehicles through the SAE J2807 standards.

There are several reasons for possibly lower tow capacity in the Harvester. None of these are insurmountable, the question is always how much is someone willing to pay for the solution.

• Thermal management. The Harvester is going to be above or just aft of the rear axle where there’s no air flow. They’ll need to manage cooling of both the genset and the battery/electric motors. That’s more than twice the amount of cooling required for the BEV. This can be an engineering issue in normal use. Towing makes this more difficult.
• The location of the center of mass of the Harvester genset could be such that it lowers the available tongue weight, which has a 10-fold impact on the towing rating: putting 200 pounds just aft of the rear axle would decrease towing capacity by 2000 pounds. We don’t know exactly where the genset’s mass will be centered.
• Battery safety may be an issue. That said, the LFP batteries rumored to be planned for the Harvester can handle sustained discharge rates about 15x higher than the NMC batteries rumored to be planned for the BEV. And LFP can handle higher temperatures overall before degradation or thermal runaway.

I knew you would have lots to say on this topic. Thanks!

 

[J Alynn]

I'm curious if the reasoning is that with battery power the truck can tow 10K lbs, but once the battery is only being fed by the harvester if the battery output actually lowers at that time and in that instance it can't pull 10K lbs.

This will be interesting to follow, because initially I wanted the Harvester version... but I need probably 6K lbs minimum towing.

Welcome to the forum. There is a lot of info on here regarding theories on this. Our resident scientist - @SpaceEVDriver is a great follow. And if you are scienc-y, challenge him. We all like a good debate on this forum . Enjoy your time

 

[chris.alvarado]

Everyone here seems so nice and helpful.

I don't plan on towing a ton. But when I do I'd like to be able to tow one of my cars (1800lbs - 3200lbs depending on vehicle) and a car trailer (2000lbs) to a track day without a ton of worry. Given that I live in Missouri and a reliable charger could be 200 miles away, my hope was that I could pull this off in a Harvester model. A fully electric might have me a little worried on tow range in some of the more rural areas, I'd just have to look into it more.

Given that use case would you go Harvester or Fully electric?

I know some will suggest to just get what fits your normal daily activity, and then get a used truck specific for hauling, but I think if I start adding even more vehicles my wife may get upset.

 

[Crazychicken563]

Everyone here seems so nice and helpful.

I don't plan on towing a ton. But when I do I'd like to be able to tow one of my cars (1800lbs - 3200lbs depending on vehicle) and a car trailer (2000lbs) to a track day without a ton of worry. Given that I live in Missouri and a reliable charger could be 200 miles away, my hope was that I could pull this off in a Harvester model. A fully electric might have me a little worried on tow range in some of the more rural areas, I'd just have to look into it more.

Given that use case would you go Harvester or Fully electric?

I know some will suggest to just get what fits your normal daily activity, and then get a used truck specific for hauling, but I think if I start adding even more vehicles my wife may get upset.

I am in exactly the same camp and I have a reservation for the Terra EREV. Here's my post about this: link

You're making your voice heard by posting here, and Scout employees are absolutely keeping up with forums.

 

[THil08]

Everyone here seems so nice and helpful.

I don't plan on towing a ton. But when I do I'd like to be able to tow one of my cars (1800lbs - 3200lbs depending on vehicle) and a car trailer (2000lbs) to a track day without a ton of worry. Given that I live in Missouri and a reliable charger could be 200 miles away, my hope was that I could pull this off in a Harvester model. A fully electric might have me a little worried on tow range in some of the more rural areas, I'd just have to look into it more.

Given that use case would you go Harvester or Fully electric?

I know some will suggest to just get what fits your normal daily activity, and then get a used truck specific for hauling, but I think if I start adding even more vehicles my wife may get upset.

5k tow capacity was thrown out as a baseline from Scott. But it was mentioned by Jamie, that they are trying to make EV and Harvester has similar towing numbers if I’m recalling correctly. The 5k number is most likely due to weight distribution which was talked about on here recently that they have switched the battery to be in the front and the gas tank in the rear to make the weight more even, due to the battery weighing more that the gas tank full of fuel. Allowing for more tow capacity. But nothing is set in stone yet. But for your requirements at this time I would say EV is better for towing. But if Scout gets that number to match, then I would say go with EREV considering your charging infrastructure.

Post in thread 'Initial Production Release'
https://community.scoutmotors.com/threads/initial-production-release.2882/post-57696