If you think that’s strange, Ford has filed a patent for towing a train of EVs on the highway behind a big truck to recharge them all with regenerative braking. I’ve appended the image to the bottom of the article.
Apparently you can disconnect it from your tow vehicle and use it to back your trailer into a camping spot. But I don’t know about backing up while hooked to your TV. I’ll be asking GM about this.
Greetings! I enjoyed your preliminary take on that strange GM patent. It was hard to not see that as an April Fools joke. I can’t imagine GM would take on the liabilities involved with that device. In effect they’re telling people “go ahead and exceed your car’s tow rating, and we’ll sell you a device to make that happen.” It’s hard enough for them to get some people to engineer and implement a safe and effective hitchup with a tow rig and trailer rated for the load, let along adding in another piece of technology with even more moving parts.
We see devices like this come to market, or at least being announced by the designers, every few years. Always expensive, always announcing great possibilities, then the product disappears without a further trace. GM may have applied for the patent to help deter shadetree mechanics from selling their own such devices. Will be fun to see what becomes of this.
All very interesting but how do you overcome the fact that it will be considered a trailer and thus the tow vehicle will be pulling two trailers? If allowed at all one will probably need a special, possibly commercial truck drivers, license.
If I could tow a 4 ton RV with my Chevy Malibu, maybe it would make sense. However, if I have to remove this tow dolly and go to a direct hookup to back in, that's a problem. That car is not going to like either the tongue weight or pushing the camper through the soft ground and onto the leveling blocks.
This could also change your turning radius by an appreciable degree, and your significant other may not want to ever take the wheel.
Years ago another inventor designed a drop hitch that greatly enhanced the towing capabilities of both suv's and light trucks. All or most of the functions were mechanical only and needed very few electric inputs for it do do it's job. My inclination is to be very wary of an overly complicated towing device that relies on many electrical components to work in concert 100% of the time..
I saw a design for a self-propelled towing dolly that wasn’t physically connected to the TV. It was supposed to follow your car a foot away from the rear bumper. Now that was scary!
Hello Mike! Perhaps this is a parallel topic for a future column. Regenerative braking systems are becoming more common in the automotive industry. Couldn't there be a system that takes a bit of work out of other wheels at highway speed to generate then store power similar to hydroelectric dams? I wonder what those trade studies look like for weight vs. additional mileage capability vs. cost to develop.
my new Ford F-150 has the tow assist package. The issue is setting that system up. I am getting my new rig next week so will be setting up the trailer (with help from a friend) and learning how to use it. Excited to keep learning. Love your posts. Got my Champion Dual Fuel 2500 generators and parallel kit - now to learn how to set those up as well. What a learning curve this whole RVing thing is.
If you think that’s strange, Ford has filed a patent for towing a train of EVs on the highway behind a big truck to recharge them all with regenerative braking. I’ve appended the image to the bottom of the article.
I’ll ask for a test drive as soon as one is available, but it could be a few years until there’s a roadworthy prototype.
Does it "lock" to anything for reverse? I can see where this would be a nightmare going in reverse!
Apparently you can disconnect it from your tow vehicle and use it to back your trailer into a camping spot. But I don’t know about backing up while hooked to your TV. I’ll be asking GM about this.
Greetings! I enjoyed your preliminary take on that strange GM patent. It was hard to not see that as an April Fools joke. I can’t imagine GM would take on the liabilities involved with that device. In effect they’re telling people “go ahead and exceed your car’s tow rating, and we’ll sell you a device to make that happen.” It’s hard enough for them to get some people to engineer and implement a safe and effective hitchup with a tow rig and trailer rated for the load, let along adding in another piece of technology with even more moving parts.
We see devices like this come to market, or at least being announced by the designers, every few years. Always expensive, always announcing great possibilities, then the product disappears without a further trace. GM may have applied for the patent to help deter shadetree mechanics from selling their own such devices. Will be fun to see what becomes of this.
All very interesting but how do you overcome the fact that it will be considered a trailer and thus the tow vehicle will be pulling two trailers? If allowed at all one will probably need a special, possibly commercial truck drivers, license.
If I could tow a 4 ton RV with my Chevy Malibu, maybe it would make sense. However, if I have to remove this tow dolly and go to a direct hookup to back in, that's a problem. That car is not going to like either the tongue weight or pushing the camper through the soft ground and onto the leveling blocks.
This could also change your turning radius by an appreciable degree, and your significant other may not want to ever take the wheel.
Mike,
Years ago another inventor designed a drop hitch that greatly enhanced the towing capabilities of both suv's and light trucks. All or most of the functions were mechanical only and needed very few electric inputs for it do do it's job. My inclination is to be very wary of an overly complicated towing device that relies on many electrical components to work in concert 100% of the time..
https://fifthwheelst.com/automated-safety-hitch-system.html
they have lost there minds. rube goldburg would be proud.
Dont even think about backing up with this device.
This looks dangerous to me. Just sayin'.
I saw a design for a self-propelled towing dolly that wasn’t physically connected to the TV. It was supposed to follow your car a foot away from the rear bumper. Now that was scary!
Hello Mike! Perhaps this is a parallel topic for a future column. Regenerative braking systems are becoming more common in the automotive industry. Couldn't there be a system that takes a bit of work out of other wheels at highway speed to generate then store power similar to hydroelectric dams? I wonder what those trade studies look like for weight vs. additional mileage capability vs. cost to develop.
Interesting. Commercial applications for large trucks in the future?
my new Ford F-150 has the tow assist package. The issue is setting that system up. I am getting my new rig next week so will be setting up the trailer (with help from a friend) and learning how to use it. Excited to keep learning. Love your posts. Got my Champion Dual Fuel 2500 generators and parallel kit - now to learn how to set those up as well. What a learning curve this whole RVing thing is.