Dual fuel

[jimsouth]

Since we don’t really have any info about the Harvester set up and can only assume it will be an air cooled version of a Volkswagen platform, wouldn’t it be cool if we could have it set up as a dual fuel engine. I’m just thinking how convenient propane would be for a lot of people. As someone who lives in Florida I am well acquainted with what happens when a storm rolls through and gas is tough to find. A couple propane tanks though you could store with out it turning to ethanol varnish and have an alternative. Any thoughts?

 

[Chuckles]

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Harvester will be air-cooled. Harvester setup seems to be the most widely speculated thing on the forums. Most think a 3 or 4-cylinder version of a VW car engine, which seems plausible. Who knows? My dream engine is a 2.5 turbo VR6, which has been sold in China. The VR6 is compact and sounds great (but I'm not holding my breath).

 

[jimsouth]

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Harvester will be air-cooled. Harvester setup seems to be the most widely speculated thing on the forums. Most think a 3 or 4-cylinder version of a VW car engine, which seems plausible. Who knows? My dream engine is a 2.5 turbo VR6, which has been sold in China. The VR6 is compact and sounds great (but I'm not holding my breath).

I’m actually hoping it’s as quiet as possible. If I’m in the woods, I don’t want to hear it when I use it to charge at night

 

[Mr._Bill]

It's going to be a generator to charge the battery pack. Look at what they are putting on motor homes. It will likely be small, efficient, and air-cooled.

 

[jimsouth]

It's going to be a generator to charge the battery pack. Look at what they are putting on motor homes. It will likely be small, efficient, and air-cooled.

Exactly my same thoughts. A trickle charger on steroids. Adds charge to the battery but slower than its pulled out. And as I said earlier that way when you are camping or whatever you can charge your battery without a lot of noise

 

[timmyhil]

i have always have been a firm believer in Rubbing Alcohol as a fuel. One its burning time is about the same as Gas. A normal car engine can run off of it with very little change. But it’s way more expensive than gasoline.

 

[Scooby24]

It's going to be a generator to charge the battery pack. Look at what they are putting on motor homes. It will likely be small, efficient, and air-cooled.

Motor homes consume much, much less electricity than is going to be needed for these vehicles.

 

[TwoJacks]

I don’t think it’s going to be as small as everyone thinks. It has to produce enough power to keep the battery from depleting even under relatively heavy load or you’ll run out of electric before the gas tank is even empty. With the Ram Charger they have a tow mode where the harvester kicks in earlier than in regular mode since the harvester will barely be able to keep up with towing load and that’s a big 6. For the Scout I don’t see any way a 3 cylinder would ever work. Going to have to be a decently powered 4, maybe turbo.

 

[timmyhil]

The 21st century Comanche?? With a turbo??

 

[TwoJacks]

Maybe. Honestly, since the Ram Charger full EV has a range of 500, and the Rivian Max is already at 420, the range of the Harvester Scout doesn’t seem worth it. Main benefit is shorter refueling times charging on long trips, and more places to refuel. But it’s still a polluting poor mpg beast no matter how you cut it. I actually would like to remove tailpipe emissions from my carbon footprint entirely, and the Harvester just seems like a cop out.

 

[JohnT]

I don’t think it’s going to be as small as everyone thinks. It has to produce enough power to keep the battery from depleting even under relatively heavy load or you’ll run out of electric before the gas tank is even empty. With the Ram Charger they have a tow mode where the harvester kicks in earlier than in regular mode since the harvester will barely be able to keep up with towing load and that’s a big 6. For the Scout I don’t see any way a 3 cylinder would ever work. Going to have to be a decently powered 4, maybe turbo.

I agree, with it towing it is going to go through the battery pretty fast. Need to have enough power to keep up with the demand. I also am out in the mountains for a week at a time with temps well below zero, need something reliable.

 

[Chuckles]

I don’t think it’s going to be as small as everyone thinks. It has to produce enough power to keep the battery from depleting even under relatively heavy load or you’ll run out of electric before the gas tank is even empty. With the Ram Charger they have a tow mode where the harvester kicks in earlier than in regular mode since the harvester will barely be able to keep up with towing load and that’s a big 6. For the Scout I don’t see any way a 3 cylinder would ever work. Going to have to be a decently powered 4, maybe turbo.

I read a comment recently from a Ram representative about the Ramcharger. He said when heavy towing or with wide open throttle, The motors draw electricity from both the generator and the batteries.

 

[TwoJacks]

I read a comment recently from a Ram representative about the Ramcharger. He said when heavy towing or with wide open throttle, The motors draw electricity from both the generator and the batteries.

Yes I’ve seen that. That’s why the generator kicks in earlier in the battery depletion cycle when it towing mode. So when it won’t run out of gas before using up the battery. Otherwise it would never get full range out of the gas tank. Still needs to be a sizable engine either way.

 

[justinjas]

I’m shopping between a Ramcharger and the harvester. I would definitely prefer the Scout but I need more detail on the engine and what it would mean for towing a small camper. The consensus here is all over the place so some kind of details from Scout directly would be appreciated. Does anyone know if they have said when they would release more info or are we going to have to wait till 2027?

 

[RC616]

I have seen the discussions here that the smaller harvester battery will give estimate of 150 mile range and then the generator will get you 500 total (so 350 mile additional estimate). Either the original battery estimate is incorrect or the generator has to be very efficient to recharge the battery more than twice the original charge while driving. Will be interesting to see what information comes out from Scout in the next year.