Hello, new here.
I am exclusively interested in the Traveler with Harvester for towing a travel trailer so we can boondock for several days at a time off grid. The limited capacity is a pretty glaring concern and will heavily influence our decision.
We tried the roof top tent thing with our Lexus GX460 that I had decked out for Overlanding. We spent a 5 days off grid at Big bend State Park and loved the experience... but my wife HATED having to climb up and down the ladder all night to pee. SO she decided the best compromise will be having a travel trailer to make it easier to commit to more time on the road together with our four boys. I was planning to purchase an MDC XT17HRT Family travel trailer for our family of 6 to make some special memories together with before they get too old and fly the coop.
View attachment 5742Its curb weight is 6,085lbs, a GVWR of 7,714lbs, and a tongue weight of 595lbs respectively. It also comes with 700W of solar, 200Ah LFP battery, and a 2000W pure sine wave inverter. Our heart was really set on pulling one of these with a Scout and we just cant afford the $120K Off Grid Extreme version of that trailer that has enough solar and batteries to not need a generation or shore power.
But there are a few factors when it comes to determining a safe towing capacity for vehicles so depending on which one it is they may be able to figure it out.
Braking, (which is usually pretty good with EVs) needs to be safely able to bring you to a stop, quickly, and not cook off when descending hills while the trailers weight is pushing you forward. Regenerative brakes do have their limitations, but I am not sure if thats a factor.
Suspension, to handle the extra weight without blinding oncoming traffic. Air ride suspension is usually great for this since it tends to keep things level.
Cooling to keep your engine/motor and battery temps in check. This could be a pretty big limiting factor.
Rear axle capacity is another big one because you dont want a housing to fail hours away from the nearest interstate. It can also be wildly dangerous depending on what youre doing when it gives.
And since it has gas over electric powertrain there are some other considerations to be navigated.
The battery needs to have a sustained discharge rate for accelerating and maintaining speeds on inclines under max load. There is a lot of juice going out and they also need to be able to capture power coming in from regen as well as the Harvester Generator. Excessive heat also kills modern batteries so you dont want them cooking away while youre ripping down the interstate after a big charge in the summer heat, shutting down the vehicle, and stranding you in the middle of nowhere.
Another big factor is the going to be the output capacity of the generator. This generator has the monumental task of through-putting enough energy to not only charge the battery as you drive, but have enough overhead to provide adequate wattage to the motors that are working harder as they drag your trailer down the road. Without taking transfer loses into consideration, we can look at the HP required generate 1kW of power which is roughly 1.34 Horsepower per 1 kW. Lets say VW for example uses the 1.5L turbo gas engine from their Jetta, it only produces 158HP which would roughly translates to 117kW.
If they use an engine designed for 100% duty cycle it will be less of an issue so it could rip all day, but outside of marine engines very few engines are designed to run continuously under load. I am going to guess that wont be the case and it will not survive long term with continuous operation at max load. Its a shame they wont offer a diesel motor since they could handle that sustained load a lot better than a gas engine and still offer great efficiency.
I digress.. I dont think people really understand that if Scout can do this right and work through those limitations this could change the RV landscape forever.
We were looking at the GX550 but they dont offer a 3rd row on the Overtrail and the space available behind a 3rd row is very limited. The Lexus LX700h Overtrail is still an option but has poor cargo space and a woeful fuel range of around 200 miles without towing anything. No room for a generator either.
We also considered the F250 since they offer a front bench seat and would offer plenty of storage, but its biggest selling point to me was the Pro Power On Board 2Kw onboard inverter. That thing is still just too unwieldy for the daily driving that it would be doing 95% of the time.
Rivians are awesome but charging one with a generator is less than ideal.
Which brings me to why I think the Terra and Traveler could change the game if they can work out the kinks.
A "Boondocking Mode" or something similar could let the trailer charge and run off of the vehicles battery via the 240V plug while youre at camp.
There will be no need to purchase a $2,000 Honda inverter generator that weighs over 150lbs and takes up prescious cargo space. Not to mention the noise since Scout claims you wont even be able to tell the Harvester Generator is running.
If you could just plug the trailer into the onboard 240V 14-50 NEMA outlet when you get to camp the Scout battery could handle peak demand during startup of a heatpump or traditional rooftop RV AC unit, run your fridge, keep the lights and plumbing on, etc and give it a little juice as it needs it... It would it an effortless experience.
When the Scout battery hits 15% the onboard generator could kick on and recharge the battery and keep the trailer running at the same time. This would revolutionize camping as we know it. Your ability to stay outdoors in comfort would only be limited by how many Jerry cans you carry along to keep AC blowing and the beers cold in the summer heat. If you can go a day or two without filling up the truck thats even better.
Another cool travel trailer feature could be a bumper mount Anderson plug that allows your travel trailers solar system to charge the Scout while youre hooked up.
Ther are so many possibilities and Scout could really put itself on the map if it can work through those initial constraints and change the camping game forever.
