The future of travel trailers?

[Minivanmotoman]

Article on a motorized TT with solar

https://newatlas.com/dethleffs-electric-coco-caravan/56056/

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Interesting.  Geared toward the weekend camping crowd but it pushes the concept forward.

Here is the Dethleffs Caravan site:  https://www.dethleffs.de/caravans/coco/
Gives interior views and layout.  It's in German but one can glean some interesting interior design ideas from this and their other offerings.

 

[graylan]

pretty cool share. solar + lithium built into campers are really the future i see . Why would anyone want generators unless they had no sun? Plus with this im sure you can run a genny if you wanted to anyway.

 

[QinReno]

Pull it with a Tesla, go cross country without needing a recharge station.

Interesting concept in general. Thought experiment: How could we somehow utilize our 400-500W of free solar power to lessen the load on our conventional RV gasoline engines?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

You could, but it would be slower than a covered wagon train.  I'm guessing you could cram 800W of solar on the E.Home Coco roof to charge 80,000W of trailer battery and 85,000W of Tesla battery.  Drive to sit and charge time would be about 1:900.

1 Horsepower ~ 750W, not much added power there.

 

[Minivanmotoman]

Can remember about a decade ago a guy converted a Geo Metro to an electric motor. And he loaded up car batteries onto a harbor freight 4*8 trailer as his extended range battery pack. Very ingenious.
All in, he was ridiculously cheap when compared to a Tesla.

Yeah, low power input, batteries and charging are the problem/ limitation.
Maybe if we moved the planet a little closer to the sun?

900 to 1 ratio? It'll never fly. Lol.
Haven't they just come out with an electric copter or manned drone thingy? Saw an article about this Isreali electric plane co, Eviation, setting up in Prescott. Pioneers.
And we're just trying to run a/c or an instapot, never mind heavier than air flight.
Gotta luv technology which has gotten us this far.

 

[QinReno]

You could, but it would be slower than a covered wagon train.  I'm guessing you could cram 800W of solar on the E.Home Coco roof to charge 80,000W of trailer battery and 85,000W of Tesla battery.  Drive to sit and charge time would be about 1:900.

1 Horsepower ~ 750W, not much added power there.

Yeah, I know the HP~W thing. Got any idea how much load that turning the alternator places on your engine, and whether it lessens your mileage anywhere near 1 MPG or more? So possibly charging the auto battery via solar might get you an MPG or so more. Just a thought experiment.

Or in your case, spiff, your 500W stereo system.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Generally accepted number is it takes 1 HP to generate 25A with a car alternator (365W at my truck's alternator bulk output of 14.6V).  Milage depends on a lot of things.  My Sportsman 1.3HP generator will power my 35A battery charger for ~8 hours on a gallon of gas.  You would need a very careful measurement to document the milage change on a 400 HP motor.

500W?  You kidding!  I like rattling fillings (and windows) a mile away with my 50,000W sub-woofer system 

 

[QinReno]

Generally accepted number is it takes 1 HP to generate 25A with a car alternator (365W at my truck's alternator bulk output of 14.6V).  Milage depends on a lot of things.  My Sportsman 1.3HP generator will power my 35A battery charger for ~8 hours on a gallon of gas.  You would need a very careful measurement to document the milage change on a 400 HP motor.

500W?  You kidding!  I like rattling fillings (and windows) a mile away with my 50,000W sub-woofer system 

So you were the SOB in the truck that was camped on the other side of the Owl Canyon CG last February! Shoot, I knew I'd run into you one day! Amazing how 50,000W echos off canyon walls. They could hear you in Barstow.

I guess the thought experiment is a little too iffy, spiffy.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

If I'd known it was you I would have thrown in some brown notes just for fun 

 

[wayne49]

Designed for Euro market where vehicles tend to be smaller and have less power.

 

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

Interesting.  Geared toward the weekend camping crowd but it pushes the concept forward.

Here is the Dethleffs Caravan site:  https://www.dethleffs.de/caravans/coco/
Gives interior views and layout.  It's in German but one can glean some interesting interior design ideas from this and their other offerings.

Looks like a mobile hospital on 2 wheels.