Awesome Rusty! Thanks for the video, meanwhile I'm still humping it into work waiting to get my rig and retire, keep the camping video's coming if you enjoy torturing me 😭😡😅

Did you ever bring it in to have them check the power base issue?

 

Sorry for the torture. It was a good trip. The truck is a game changer. GM came through with this truck.
I have not taken it in yet. I am scared to after RJ4WT had his Power Base disabled with a software update.

 

Very nice review with your camping experience with the SEV and using the power base. I am looking forward to our first dry camping experience next spring with our SEV. BTW I have already used the power base with power tools and nothing tripped using a radial saw and a leaf blower at a remote work site. I guess it was a sneak peak of the variety of uses off grid.

 

Fair point about the update. Yeah I've been making trad campers (traditional ICE campers) mad the past few years by saying that the Silverado - and only that - will be a game changer as a camping tow vehicle. Better in every way, glad to hear it confirmed.

 

I may have missed it, but what cables are you using to power up the camper. I don't think they came with the truck, but trying to verify. Also, this video makes me want to go camping with my family. My daughter just asked about it, and given what you just shared, I'm strongly considering. Thanks for sharing!

 

$19 from Amazon

 

We camped two weekends ago at Bledsoe Creek State Park in TN. I was able to pull the camper there without stopping to charge (170 miles). We got there with 10% SOC. Coming home, we went 20 miles out of the way to eat lunch and it was raining and windy. We stopped to charge for about 30 minutes.

We had a 50 amp plug at the campsite. I used my portable charger to charge at 32 amps. It charged fine overnight, but tripped in the morning. The 50 amp circuit breaker was warm to the touch. I let it cool about an hour and charged some more. I repeated this three times at which point I changed my charge adapter to charge at 24 amps. No more circuit breaker trips after this. We arrived Friday night about 8:00. I finished charging to 100% at 7:00 Sunday morning. I used just over 200 kWh.

The truck pulled great. I love this truck!

 

Thank you for sharing this. Have my first camping trip next weekend pulling 24' TT. Budgeting ~1mi/kWh @ ~65-70mph supposed to be in the low 60s. It's 70 miles one way and planning not to charge the whole weekend and hoping to use PowerBase for microwave etc. Will report. "It'll be fine."

 

There is no competition to SEV.

 

I'm late in asking, but in the video at 12:12 there is a box plugged into the Power Base. What is the purpose of that box? Thanks.

 

It is a Watchdog power condition monitor. I use it at campgrounds with my camper. It monitors frequency, voltage, current and neutral continuity. It also delays restart when the power blinks.

I left out - it also has Bluetooth and a good meter function.

 

Figured that I’d chime in here. Last week we went winter camping about 170km from home. Pretty much a solid elevation gain the whole way there. No real wind to speak of, roads were mainly clear. Trailer is a 20’ wide body so quite the sail. I haven’t gotten a chance to weigh the trailer yet but I’d guess it was 5-7k lbs.

Started the trip at 100% charge and arrived with 39%. The truck pulled all the hills and the passes like nothing, equal to or better than my duramax. There was some snow on the biggest pass which had a few tight curves so I dropped the speed from 110km to 80km to be safe but I’m sure the truck would have kept the speed up.

On the way home there was lots of snow, slush, ice on the road and I used 1% more battery. I have found the snow and slush really kill the range, even when empty.

I’ve done this route many times empty and figured loaded that I would use 70% battery but maybe as much as 80% if we hit wind. Empty, I use 37% going there and 33% return because of the elevation for comparison.

The campground had 50a outlets so charging was easy. I brought my Grizzl-E mini charger because it has a 25’ cord vs the 20’ factory cord. It will also do 40a and I can dial it back if needed.

 

I grew up in the tropics and think you are nuts . At least the campsites weren't crowded.

 

Wow! That looks cold. Proof you can enjoy nature whatever the weather.

 

Hooked up the 24’ TT today for the first time. Probably 5k lbs-ish pretty dry. Two AGMs & two big propanes makes a pretty heavy tongue though. Squatted the 4WT 1 1/4” so not too bad. You can definitely feel the camper, but the SEV handles it just as well if not better than the F-350 dually 7.3l I’m used to towing with. Regen is game changing when towing. First trip next weekend. ~140mi round trip. 50s temps. No charging opportunities at all. Unimproved wash board forest service type roads most of the way into the boonies of northern Montana. Starting small as I learn the ropes of SEV towing. Will report.

EDIT: this trip changed to a different location because another family got sick and canceled the original trip. See below for report of modified trip

 

The truck has stock sized 18”, currently has the blizzak winters on the hummer rims. Might switch back to the summer tires on the Easter weekend. Running 61psi or whatever the spec is.

 

Quick weekend trip to break the seal on SEV "summer" towing season with family of 5. Fully loaded TT (24' butt to ball, but really 20' camper) with 2x AGMs/2x 60lb propanes (or 30lbs? I never know... they're the tall ones) on the tongue & 50 gal H2O tank full etc.. Pushing 6.5k-lb I'm sure. No WDH... just regular hitch... no issues/sway at all. SEV sagged about an inch and a half. Need to raise ball a few inches I think for visuals/balance, but no issues. 45 degrees so fairly cold, windy as hell on the way there and 65-70mph secondary highways most of the way there and back. Avg .9mi/kWh... but like .7 there and probably 1.1 way back or whatever to get to .9. Left 100% charge got home with 63% about 81mi round trip. No surprises and inline with my estimates for "average" conditions etc. No PowerBase as wasn't needed (no AC etc.). Overall very happy. Tows almost too easy. WAAAAY less stressful than my old dually diesel. 7 year old when we got there, "oh... yeah... forgot we had the camper with us". Haha. So... yeah. Have a 125mi one way weekend trip coming up through mountains etc. with only a single Lvl 2 available at destination (which better work or I'm f-ed lol). That'll be... interesting. Might tow empty tanks just to help. Notorius for insane headwinds also. Ugh. Will report.

 

Beautiful photo, the snow is almost gone here, now it's just muddy..

When towing a dump trailer loaded one way then empty back, I have found the "mileage" doesn't change much after it's empty. It has tall sides and is taller than the truck. From what I can tell, the wind resistance towing a box hurts the mileage more than the weight. I do notice going up the hills that the kW meter rises higher when loaded but at the end of the trip it is a bit of a wash. I don't regen as much with the trailer going down hills due to wind. I really found that when towing my cargo trailer.

Bring your travel charger to be safe!

 

Quick weekend getaway to enjoy local lake life and catch some trout with the kiddos. 48mi round trip. 65 degrees. Some highway, mostly forest service washboards & secondary roads @ 25-45mph, up and down dusty mountain roads (with some snow/mud/ice ruts to boot!) etc. What a difference temps/no winds & slow speeds makes. 1.2mi/kWh average. Pretty good. Got home with 83% SOC lol. Camper loaded to the gills again with full 50gal water, gear/food for family of 5. 3 kayaks and 3 bikes in the bed. Anyways... gearing up for some real range tests in the coming weeks and even though I've been driving EVs for almost 10 years at this point I'm still really nervous as the SEV seems precariously susceptible to environmental conditions, which are, of course, totally unpredictable.

 

PS - Worth noting that every single time I tow with my 4WT I get multiple alerts about the trailer connection being interrupted and to service the connection etc. etc., but it always seems to correct itself and since I have an older, sketchy camper I'm banking it's just a ground short or something on the trailer so not worried about it. I also just rely on regen mostly for braking because... it's glorious with all that mass. I've seen over 150kW regen so far. 200 horsepower of regen braking... crazy cool.

 

I get the same error message occasionally about losing connection to the trailer—and I have a new RV trailer. It also usually corrects itself, although I have stopped a couple times to unplug/replug the connector.

 

First one way of significant distance. 132.3mi. 135.74kWh. 34.68% SOC on arrival. .9mi/kW. 65-70 degrees. Lots of elevation gain/loss. Speeds from 35-80mph. Big winds. 6,500lb bread box camper. Left water empty this time to save weight (500lbs) filled up at arrival. 1 charger at destination. Clipper Creek 240v/48a getting about 9kW. Phew. Going to charge up all night back to 100%… about 16hrs. This would probably never work in a July (Glacier Park). Anyways, awesome and my faith in SEV towing is restored. Effortless stress free towing.

 

Return trip numbers consistent. Confident now, with my setup at least, that SEV could get 200mi if I really needed to in “average” conditions. There’s only one word I can think of towing with SEV: effortless. I did spend 20hrs in total on a level 2 charger to get home, which is… lucky I suppose for being in the middle of charging wasteland. 12 hours of Power Base AC kept the family of 5 sane… what a blessing Power Base is camping

.

 

I was wondering if anyone has found a Aftermarket rear suspension helper like below that fits SEV WT ?

https://www.etrailer.com/Vehicle-Suspension/SuperSprings-Intl/SS45FR.html

 

Curious your application? These progressive rate coils seemed tuned SO well under load I can’t imagine why a helper would be needed. I feel like I’m driving a Cadillac when towing. So smooth & floaty and just… stress free.

 

This is what the rear suspension looks like. As you can see, it is a coil over style with no jounce stop, so the type of product you referenced isn't included and wouldn't fit. Interestingly, the ZR2 race truck had hydraulic jounce stops, so there must be a way to fit them in.

 

This is what the rear suspension looks like. As you can see, it is a coil over style with no jounce stop, so the type of product you referenced isn't included and wouldn't fit.

It's a generic model as it doesn't have the massive SEV wishbone (or whatever it's called), but how close is that to the SEV, does the one you show support rear steer? I'm curious how all that works.

 

These pictures are from 8WT with clam shell style rear wishbone very striking similarities to RST without the AirBags & rear steering mechanism you can see in Munro’s video about RST.

 

This is encouraging for me. Shocks not within the coil springs mean an airbag helper is feasible. Also, room for the DSSV shocks.

Don't see a jounce damper but there could be one. It looks like the upper A-arm has a pad on the end that might be where one contacts.

 

Head lights with max payload could be the issue when rear end squats 1.5" and hence helper are to help to level the traditional truck rear axels , if frequently hauling stuff.

 

Sure, but don't you think the GM engineers would have accounted for that during design, vetting, testing etc...

...wait... don't answer that. Haha.

 

Here's the TFL video. The squat was 1.25". See it at about 34:20 into the video

 

Auto-leveling head lights When Hauling, would have been nice to have or optional two positions to chose from to avoid blinding oncoming traffic - One good thing about SEV headlight is that there is a dip where oncoming traffic drivers are that should prevent blinding effect - A Matrix headlight is a well thought feature and well implemented in Polstars also a feature that most Ford engineers missed on majority of Ford vehicles to my experience -