RV Show Season Is Here, & Manufacturers Are Thinking About EVs

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If you’ve followed my towing adventures here at CleanTechnica, you know that hauling a load with an EV (especially a budget-friendly one like my Chevy Bolt EUV) is a physics bootcamp. You quickly learn the hard way that while torque is great, aerodynamics and weight are the real kings of the road. On a bad day in a headwind, range can practically vanish, leaving drivers to limp between chargers. It’s why I’m always on the lookout for manufacturers who actually understand the vital importance of efficiency (even if my obsession with this gets me crossways with some of my colleagues, LOL).

I recently caught a great floor report from the team over at RV Miles that gives us some small rays of sunshine in this area. Jason and Abby Epperson have been some of the most consistent voices in the camping world, and their latest deep dive into the Florida RV SuperShow (a show that marks the beginning of “RV show season”) suggests the “big box” mentality of the RV industry is finally starting to shift toward the efficiency we desperately need.

Featherweights That Challenge Heavyweight Physics

In the video (at 28:42), they showed us all about Liv, a manufacturer ditching the traditional “wood and staples” construction for a 100% composite design. No wood means no rot, which is great for longevity, but for EV drivers, it means a massive reduction in “dead weight.” When you’re towing with a vehicle where every kilowatt-hour counts, shaving a few hundred pounds off the trailer is the difference between making it up that long mountain hillclimb and calling for a tow truck that can take you and the trailer to the next charger

Aerodynamics Can Beat Powered Trailers

There’s been a lot of hype lately about “powered axles” that use a separate battery and motor to push a trailer along. However, as the video discusses during the Bowlus segment (44:07), that might be overcomplicating the solution. A Bowlus trailer is streamlined, shiny, and—most importantly—slips through the air.

At around 4,000 lbs, it’s a “Goldilocks” weight for something like a Rivian R1T or an F-150 Lightning. In my experience with the Bolt, a smaller, more aerodynamic shape does more for your range than a giant battery pack ever could. We don’t necessarily need trailers with their own motors; we need trailers that don’t drag giant vacuum zones behind them, acting like a parachute.

Towing With EVs Requires Skill, Especially With Today’s Deficient Charging Network

One interesting takeaway came when they discussed the Ford Towing Boot Camp. It’s easy to forget that a whole generation of drivers is getting into towing specifically because they bought an electric truck. These owners don’t always have decades of experience backing up a trailer or managing tongue weight.

Among the many thoughtless things Elon Musk did early in the EV transition was try to make EV charging pointlessly different. While there are good arguments for back-in parking of sedans and small SUVs, there are exactly zero gas stations I’ve ever seen where you back up to the pump. While we love to make fun of gas stations for dispensing fuel to inefficient vehicles that will waste most of the energy, we also have to remember that gas stations are a product of 100 years of market evolution, and are built the way they are for good reasons.

Now that electric trucks are on the market and people are towing with them, back-in stations are a special hell. When there aren’t pull-thru stalls, you’re stuck with having to do creative maneuvers to get your charge port close enough to the charger or you’ll need to unhook the trailer and pull into stalls designed for smaller cars.

While Ford’s Towing Boot Camp wasn’t aimed at EV drivers, the skills taught in such workshops are vital to new electric trucks owners looking to travel the country with a travel trailer.

Final Thoughts

Joseph Stalin or Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly said that “Quantity has a quality all its own.” While the phrase actually originated from a US defense consultant in the 1970s, we can see how past military leaders (especially the ineffective ones) applied this idea. When you can’t get the details right and do more with less, you can just throw lots and lots of bodies from impoverished families carrying cheap military hardware at problems to still compete in geopolitics.

We’re seeing a similar thing happen in the RV industry right now. Instead of thoughtful design to do more with less, many trailer manufacturers want to throw a triple-axel trailer at buyers who will think that space equals luxury. This emphasis on size over quality leads to bigger and bigger trucks, with half ton trucks (like the F-150 or Silverado/Sierra 1500) towering over copies built just 15-20 years ago. It’s common now to see people RVing with medium and heavy duty trucks (like the Ford F-450 and 550, and even semi-trucks). Even “small” trucks like the Chevy Colorado or Ford Ranger are outgrowing half ton trucks from 20-30 years ago!

There are simply not enough battery cells in the world to supply every RVer with that kind of energy with enough range to satisfy their wants and needs. To succeed, electric trucks will need better trailers to tow and better charging infrastructure.

As the RV Miles crew points out, we are seeing a shift where craftsmanship and thoughtful design are starting to replace that sort of “quality.” The future of EV towing isn’t just about sticking bigger batteries in hulking trucks! The real wins come from better engineering in our trailers and charging stations.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just curious about how your next EV will handle the family camper, I highly recommend watching the full video. It’s a great deep dive into whether the industry is actually ready for us.

Seeing aerodynamically efficient models like the Bowlus, light but strong trailers like the Liv, and better training for new owners shows us that the RV and automotive industries CAN get this right. Some charging providers are showing us that they can get this right, too (even if we’re not seeing this enough yet).

Now, it’s up to us. If we want the industry to perform for us, we need to support the players who are doing it right.

Featured image by Chevrolet.