OH YES! IT IS!Wow! It’s really going to happen
OH YES! IT IS!Wow! It’s really going to happen
Big thanks to @nolen for catching so many details I missed, not only in photos but in person. There was so much to observe and digest.Sorry for the bulk drop! I just finally had time to go through the tour pics and saw a good spot to insert them
Controlling that much rear unsprung weight is going to a challenge regardless. Assuming a ~300lb-350lb genset on the Harvester, I don't know that the sprung weight will be too different than the EV model, but with that weight in radically different locations, I expect the stability control and such will need to be programmed very differently. The Harvester Traveler might be a handful without electronic nannies on gravel roads with a lot of unsprung weight and so much weight hanging off the rear. Hopefully she's fun to drift without snap oversteer!Yeah, that’s the Traveler with the Harvester button clicked.
The following is all speculation…
That fully-boxed frame is going to be a monster. My bet is that the suspension is also going to be massive. Just look at the relative size of the strut mounts.
With a suspension that robust, the extra weight of the Harvester genset aft of the rear axle may not cause much deflection in the front suspension, which means it may not impact tongue weight enough to greatly change overall towing capacity. But I bet it’ll feel more like driving an F-250 or F-350 than a Lexus SUV, especially when there’s no load. This makes me wonder if the BEV models will have slightly softer spring rates on the coilovers in the rear. If not, BEV rear passengers could be in for a bumpy ride.
The fully-boxed frame rails at the rear suggest less upfitter flexibility than I had hoped. We’ll see if that will be true of the Terra as well. It would be nice to have the rails under the bed be open C-channel, at least for the Terra.
Controlling that much rear unsprung weight is going to a challenge regardless. Assuming a ~300lb-350lb genset on the Harvester, I don't know that the sprung weight will be too different than the EV model, but with that weight in radically different locations, I expect the stability control and such will need to be programmed very differently. The Harvester Traveler might be a handful without electronic nannies on gravel roads with a lot of unsprung weight and so much weight hanging off the rear. Hopefully she's fun to drift without snap oversteer!
Unrelated, but there appears to be an empty tray or space between the rear axle and Harvester. With the gas tank between the rear axle and the battery, I'm curious what's going in this space. Inverter/battery control? Cooling/radiator?
I'm mostly concerned with the weight of the motor, gears, etc integrated into the solid rear axle. A Ford 9"/Dana 60 isn't light by any means, and motors have come a long way in recent years, so hopefully I'll be surprised.Most of the weight we see here will be sprung. I think you understand this, but just so other readers get it too: The frame and everything directly bolted to the frame (including the body, etc) is sprung weight. It’s the struts, solid axles, wheels, tires, etc. that are unsprung. Unsprung weight contributes to ride harshness, difficulty in controlling the vehicle, and etc. Usually sprung weight isn’t a major contributor to those kinds of issues, but with the Harvester genset aft of the rear axle, this adds a lot of extra weight outside of the usual center of gravity, so the stability control software will need to be specially programmed to manage that extra weight. Think of the tail wagging the dog kind of analogy.
I agree, with the radically different weight distribution, it definitely will require different traction/stability control algorithms. The “unsafe at any speed” report from decades ago was about a scenario similar to this (rear drive with most of the weight in the rear). The Scouts will be benefitting from decades of science and engineering improvements.
This one is easy: 43 minutes(using the timestamps on some of my photos)
There were about 8 demonstration stations and each about 5 minutes long (OK someone is doing the math already and that is only 40 minutes...but we did have travel time between stations and some wait periods between)
Not the best photos, but it may give some idea of the tour.
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Typically each station would have employees demonstrating the learning activities.
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Looks Beefy that's a real SUV. not this monocoque/unibodies.Pretty sure that's the Traveler, nothing else has a setup like this. I stole this from you, but I'm really hoping I don't get rear-ended with the Harvester. Also, those rear frame rails look really beefy, so hopefully the towing rating has improved.
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If I remember correctly that booth there is the driving simulator and they recorded the sound of driving around their track and made notes of all the sounds they would expect the tech to hear when doing the test drive and they’re scored on how many are identified
Hopefully they don't wrap it in a tinfoil body that gets dented by a squirrel farting nearby.Looks Beefy that's a real SUV. not this monocoque/unibodies.
It’s all overwhelming and on top of the vehicles you guys had the whole tour to manage as wellBig thanks to @nolen for catching so many details I missed, not only in photos but in person. There was so much to observe and digest.
This is the way my husband described it watching me at Nats. “You were like a ball in a pinball machine bouncing all over the place, you couldn’t decide where to go first.”It’s all overwhelming and on top of the vehicles you guys had the whole tour to manage as well
With all the batteries they're going to have to find a way to get weight down, I would certainly expect aluminum panels, but maybe we can get steel quarters to protect us from squirrel fartsHopefully they don't wrap it in a tinfoil body that gets dented by a squirrel farting nearby.
The American Axle and Manufacturing (now Dauch) claim is that their ebeam solid axle is 25% less massive than whatever they consider the competition…I'm mostly concerned with the weight of the motor, gears, etc integrated into the solid rear axle. A Ford 9"/Dana 60 isn't light by any means, and motors have come a long way in recent years, so hopefully I'll be surprised.
Any chance you've got a link? I haven't seen that and can't find it in relation to their beam axle.The American Axle and Manufacturing (now Dauch) claim is that their ebeam solid axle is 25% less massive than whatever they consider the competition…
I don’t know what that means.
Their website is a disaster.Any chance you've got a link? I haven't seen that and can't find it in relation to their beam axle.
This station had a demonstration of a working robotic arm. I didn't capture a photo of that because at a distance we were trying to determine if the PLCs were Siemens. So many distractions...Ahhh PLCs, now you’re talking my language!
This station had a demonstration of a working robotic arm. I didn't capture a photo of that because at a distance we were trying to determine if the PLCs were Siemens. So many distractions...