Flat Towing Aftermarket Kit

[BigB]

This has been discussed at length and now that the vehicle is in production, I would like to make an aftermarket kit to make it flat towable behind a Motorhome and Possibly Regenerative Charging while Towing.

It would be an EV First. Never Been Done.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

While flat towing sounds interesting, the regenerative charging part has always struck me as contradictory. Wouldn't it cause a significant increase of load on the towing vehicle? How would the charging be controlled, especially once the battery is fully charged? And wouldn't it be cheaper to use a charging station?

But hey, if you can figure it out, I'm sure there would be a market for the innovation.

 

[DinoLord]

Ok

 

[ElectricShitbox]

You'll need different CV shafts and hub assemblies with lockers. You might be able to repurpose something from the front end of a 4wd truck that has manual disconnects, but definitely some custom fabrication involved.

 

[swami37]

Just get a trailer.

 

[1yeliab_sufur1]

Basically need to figure out a way to disconnect the drive wheels from the motor how that's done idk

 

[EV Trek]

Slate says not to flat tow because it can overcharge the battery and damage the drivetrain.
Only way that would work I think is if you could put electric operated locking hubs that would automatically disconnect the axels when the battery approached 100% when in dingy mode.

 

[Luxrage]

They do sell free-wheeling hub kits for modern four wheel drives to improve fuel economy and bypassing some of the more failure prone automatic systems, I wonder if some pioneering individual would attempt to slap a set on the Slate? I'm sure the hub design is probably proprietary to the Slate, but one can dream.

https://www.dynatrac.com/collections/dodge-truck-free-spin™-kits

The biggest issue I could think of is, at least on the older 4WD systems I came across, it usually involved locking/unlocking the hubs and then moving the truck a bit to finish the engage/disengagement. I guess you could do that AFTER hooking up to the RV.

 

[Ere]

This has been discussed at length and now that the vehicle is in production, I would like to make an aftermarket kit to make it flat towable behind a Motorhome and Possibly Regenerative Charging while Towing.

It would be an EV First. Never Been Done.

So darn funny.

 

[BigB]

They do sell free-wheeling hub kits for modern four wheel drives to improve fuel economy and bypassing some of the more failure prone automatic systems, I wonder if some pioneering individual would attempt to slap a set on the Slate? I'm sure the hub design is probably proprietary to the Slate, but one can dream.

https://www.dynatrac.com/collections/dodge-truck-free-spin™-kits

The biggest issue I could think of is, at least on the older 4WD systems I came across, it usually involved locking/unlocking the hubs and then moving the truck a bit to finish the engage/disengagement. I guess you could do that AFTER hooking up to the RV.

That is my exact thought. I contacted Blue Ox who is the company I use to flat toe my Nissan truck and the Patriot 3 braking system. If the rear wheels had a disconnect on the Slate it would be an easy add on/modification

 

[Cubicle23]

Flat tow charging the Slate, once fully charged start charging the RV deep cycles. Then start pushing the RV with the slate, then when at 75% Slate SOC, rinse lather repeat. This is just using the RV as a rolling genset, nothing to be gained here , in fact process losses will quickly make this silly.

 

[BigB]

Excellent!!! Yes.. there is a trailer that does that currently on the market

 

[Ronnie]

This has been discussed at length and now that the vehicle is in production, I would like to make an aftermarket kit to make it flat towable behind a Motorhome and Possibly Regenerative Charging while Towing.

It would be an EV First. Never Been Done.

Just to be clear are you suggesting just regenerative braking? Or actually full charging while pulling it?

Locking hubs might just be the solution. Have to pull one apart and see how they built it. I do think there is a strong market for a towable ev.

 

[KevinRS]

Just to be clear are you suggesting just regenerative braking? Or actually full charging while pulling it?

Locking hubs might just be the solution. Have to pull one apart and see how they built it. I do think there is a strong market for a towable ev.

While a complete customization for it may be possible, the design may make it difficult. The De Dion rear suspension and half shafts mean you'd probably need new half shafts at the very least that would be compatible with your locking hubs. If they need to be custom parts, costs climb.