No flat towing workarounds

[denis4x4]

Curios to know if the Slate can be towed on a dolly with either front wheels or rear wheels with steering locked.

 

[KevinRS]

It seems a dolly under the rear wheels should work, those are the drive wheels.

 

[paulrobsj]

The Pebble Flow trailer does exaclty what the Slate truck needs to do when being towed. Provide a small boost when being towed on flat ground, a little more boost when going up a grade, and a little regen when going down a grade or when brakes are applied. Slate needs to work a deal with Pebble to get access to their technology and integrate it into the Slate truck. I suspect all the hardware is already in place and it would just be a software upgrade.

 

[Driven5]

The Pebble Flow trailer does exaclty what the Slate truck needs to do when being towed.

Pebble Flow starts at $113.5k, with the electric assist alone adding a Slate worth ($26k) onto that. An important part of that is the motors have electric clutches that can disconnect them from the wheels when necessary.

There's really not much of a business case to be made for Slate to add that capability at first, if ever.

 

[Luxrage]

Curios to know if the Slate can be towed on a dolly with either front wheels or rear wheels with steering locked.

The front wheels should be free-wheeling so it should be the same as my Slate-esque non-flat towable truck. Four wheel drives could be flat-towed but the RWD models were a no-go.

The only thing will be how the Slate does the steering lock since it's still a proximity key type thing.

 

[paulrobsj]

This is from the Pebble web site. They do not mention a clutch

• Regenerative Braking Control: The regenerative braking system, which adds energy while driving, is managed by software, allowing it to modulate or stop charging once the battery reaches capacity.

 

[Driven5]

This is from the Pebble web site. They do not mention a clutch

• Regenerative Braking Control: The regenerative braking system, which adds energy while driving, is managed by software, allowing it to modulate or stop charging once the battery reaches capacity.

I haven't seen where they've said what type of motors Pebble is using, but for some reason I had been under the impression they are permanent magnet... Like Slate and most other EV's. That would require something like an electric clutch to disconnect the motor from the wheels under conditions where the assist/regen system is off. That would at least have some applicability to what Slate would need to do.

Alternatively, some of their statements do sound more like they may be using induction motors. Without a mechanical disconnect, that system would need to at least keep the lubrication and cooling pumps powered even in it's most depowered 'off' state. This would have zero applicability to what Slate would need to do though.