Externally mounted Harvester - Ridiculous?

[Miranda]

We've all seen this photo, but I find it inspiring. My fantasy configuration would be a custom inverter generator shaped like a suitcase. It lives in your garage most of the year, but when it is time for that cross country vacay, the Harvester slides into the tailgate spare tire mount looking all Scoutey. (The spare can go in the frunk or the cargo area)

No need to reduce batteries and electric range to make room for the motor and gas tank, the Harvester is self contained, removable and trickle charges your batteries for the first 350 miles of EV range. Adds about as much extra weight as picking up a hitchhiker. Too far fetched?

https://www.scoutevforum.com/forum/attachments/img_9170-jpeg.36894/

 

[Yamapro]

Or just put a diesel engine in the truck and get better range, good mileage, good torque and not have to worry about the EV problems

 

[mcm4ss]

Or just put a diesel engine in the truck and get better range, good mileage, good torque and not have to worry about the EV problems

EV have less problems by far. Just range everyone worries about. As if they all sit behind the wheel for 8 hrs straight. Like truckers. Never move. And there is no electricity anywhere.

 

[colinnwn]

To get a decent amount of energy to be worth it, it needs to be nearly double that size and weigh closer to 300 lbs. Then you have to deal with flexible releasable fuel lines that are idiot proof and don't risk a future lawsuit, and meeting emissions requirements unless they could figure out a workaround for an OEM vehicle manufacturer.

To get close to the size and weigh needed to be practical they'd need to look into a new engine technology like LiquidPiston.

It's a cool idea, but impractical for a new vehicle manufacturer trying to derisk their launch by 2027.

 

[Yamapro]

I’m on my 4th Ford 6.7 diesel and over 1 million miles driven between those 4 trucks. Not one of them ever needed to go to a shop. I also don’t spend multiple hours refueling. If a diesel was offered it would outsell the EV 2 to 1……

 

[colinnwn]

I’m on my 4th Ford 6.7 diesel and over 1 million miles driven between those 4 trucks. Not one of them ever needed to go to a shop. I also don’t spend multiple hours refueling. If a diesel was offered it would outsell the EV 2 to 1……

I surprised about how many people really seemed to have thought there was any chance of Scout offering a diesel. Scout is entirely funded by VW who just got past the Dieselgate fiasco, and is trying to focus on electric and hybrid and gas as long as it's still a big seller.

Companies are moving away from diesel in half ton and smaller vehicles, being that historically they've been more expensive to develop, get through emissions cert, purchase, and more maintenance and warranty cost.

I wouldn't have been interested without the serial hybrid option for sure. But with the extra expense of diesel repairs and the maintenance of the DEF system, if it was diesel powered it would have been a hard nope for me.

 

[Yamapro]

I can assure you that just as many people are a hard nope because of the EV. I honestly have zero desire for a EV but I’m holding a reservation just in case I change my mind. I am someone that does spend 8 hours or more in a vehicle fairly regularly and a EV is pretty much useless to me because I don’t have extra days to spend waiting on the vehicle to charge. Everyone has their own needs but to me the reliability, power and mileage of the diesel would have been a much better option.

 

[colinnwn]

I can assure you that just as many people are a hard nope because of the EV. I honestly have zero desire for a EV but I’m holding a reservation just in case I change my mind. I am someone that does spend 8 hours or more in a vehicle fairly regularly and a EV is pretty much useless to me because I don’t have extra days to spend waiting on the vehicle to charge. Everyone has their own needs but to me the reliability, power and mileage of the diesel would have been a much better option.

I also vacation regularly taking 8 hour driving days sometimes towing my camper, and wouldn't want to spend time charging, or anxiety looking for chargers, hoping they are functional, able to pull in and not ICEd. That's not what I want to pay $60k for. I'd keep my old F150 till it rusts around me.

As much as I'd like to drive a Scout again and support VW for investing in them, if the Scout was all electric it would be a hard no for me too. I just hope the range extender makes at least 80kw so I should be able to tow indefinitely at highway speeds with a small camper on only gasoline. If it's less than that, I will probably decline my reservation.

But I knew from 2 years ago when I first heard about the effort to resurrect them with VW as the investor, that it would be a never diesel vehicle unless they made a 3/4 ton variant more oriented to Navistar customers.