Adventures in Driveway Camping with Pro Power Onboard

[ssbn740]

I’ve been getting 9.3 mpg over about 2100 miles and it was exactly that from Colorado Springs to the TX panhandle. I went the entire way in tow haul mode this time just to see what would happen to the mileage. No difference.

I’ve had no trouble pulling the Minnie with this truck. It’s about 4800lbs loaded and 530-550 is a typical tongue weight so I’ve got to be careful what I put it the truck since my payload is only 1441lbs. I’m usually about 200lbs under, maybe more this trip because we aren’t really camping and didn’t bring many extras. It pulls real easy on BLM roads with the tires and extra clearance. Thanks to a suggestion from another post, I now take the sway bars off when I get onto the unlevel BLM roads as they work better and are much easier to put on and take off on a level surface and you don’t really need them at low the speeds on dirt mountain roads.

I find this very interesting as this is the main reason we bought the PB.

I am curious how you determined the 1441 LB payload though. My calculations show about 1953 LB so I am looking at about 900 LB tongue weight trailer and focusing on about 8500 GVWR for trailer. That would leave me about 600 LB for gear (minus whatever my new bed cover weighs). I calculate 10K to be the max trailer weight to be under GCVW but now I wonder.

I know the tongue weight is subtracted from the 7350 GVW of the truck itself (and 1953).

Am I hoping for too big of a trailer

TIA

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[KDPGame02]

I find this very interesting as this is the main reason we bought the PB.

I am curious how you determined the 1441 LB payload though. My calculations show about 1953 LB so I am looking at about 900 LB tongue weight trailer and focusing on about 8500 GVWR for trailer. That would leave me about 600 LB for gear (minus whatever my new bed cover weighs). I calculate 10K to be the max trailer weight to be under GCVW but now I wonder.

I know the tongue weight is subtracted from the 7350 GVW of the truck itself (and 1953).

Am I hoping for too big of a trailer

TIA

The yellow doorjamb sticker on any truck will tell you the payload. Most PowerBoosts suffer a payload penalty due to the hybrid drivetrain, battery, etc, so depending on trim level you may see a payload of ~1,100-1,600 from what I've seen of other PBs posted on this forum. My Lariat came in at 1,614, but I intentionally left out certain options to get a higher payload. I tow a 5k dry weight trailer, and wouldn't consider much higher than ~6k lbs, but I also haul a family, a dog, bikes, etc so that cuts down on my payload, too.

Watch this video on from Keep Your Daydream. It's the best way to determine payload and what's safe to tow.

 

[GregBC]

I think the efficiency of the Propower as a generator often is overlooked and is possibly its best feature. Pure gasoline generators have an efficiency curve and are designed to be most efficient at peak load. But if you want to power a varying load for a long period of time (like a house or RV) then it has to waste fuel the entire time even during light loads. The Propower gives you the best of both worlds! Its basically the same efficiency over the entire load range because it simply duty cycles the engine for coulombs in, no matter what the rate of coulombs out is.

The other factor is tank size. A toted around genny just can't compete with a portable 30 gallon F150. Yes, you cannot use all 30 gallons because you have to drive it eventually, but you still get a massive runtime on a full tank. And gas generators are not typically designed to run more than 8-12hrs continuous.

Very good point and definitely an advantage of any hybrid system (in simple terms). For those who haven't seen it, this is a pretty typical efficiency curve for a combustion engine:

I always understood ICE vehicles to be closer to 20% efficient overall and diesel engines closer to 30% but if we go with the above value (35%), we'd get:
30 gal * 33.7 kwh/gal * .35 efficiency * 1/7.2kw = 49 hrs (obviously, this is running MAX load and using the tank from FULL to EMPTY, which is extreme, but gives you a rough feel for the max capability. If your full load is 3.5kw, then you have roughly double the endurance, etc.

 

[Supercub]

Leave the politics out of the forum.

 

[Bossharp]

Seeing this thread helps me understand the whole Power Boost concept..and how handy it could be. If Ford offered a REALLY heavy duty F-150 with a very large gas tank (40 gallons?) and just 800 lbs GVWR increase.

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