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Revisiting; Camp365 - The trailer made for EV's!
513 Plays8 months ago
Welcome to the Plug In For More podcast! Mike, Tom, and Bryant are here to help you on your journey to an Electric vehicle future. Each episode we discuss current events, trends, and a specific topic of education related to EV's. We bring together a diverse experience set, and pair it with guests who are experts in the field. For even more information on EV's, check out www.EVUniverse.com.
In this episode, Mike and Tom sit down with Kevin McGregor with Camp365. Camp365 is a cutting edge camper company that specializes in lightweight towables and truck bed campers. These units are designed for aerodynamics and weight, which prove beneficial for the EV towing experience. You can learn more about Camp365 at the their website; www.camp365.com.
Also, Tom looses a level 2 home charger and has to limp through with a level 1.
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Transcript
Introduction to Camp 365 and EV-friendly Products
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the plugin for more podcasts today. We have Kevin McGregor from camp 365, which is camping company They have a tow behind camper and then they have a new camper coming out soon for the truck for truck beds This camper we found has some interesting attributes that make it I'd say more suited than a lot of campers for EVs We're going to dive into that give you some details and for those of you who are campers I think this might be something you might be interested in
00:00:26
Speaker
And before we jump into the episode, please guys, if you get a chance to get in and like and review our podcast, the reviews make a significant difference to us in the algorithms and the reach that we're going to have for the episode.
Podcast Goals: Educating on Electric Vehicles
00:00:38
Speaker
Welcome to Plug In For More, brought to you by evuniverse.com. EV Universe is your one-stop shop for all things related to the electric vehicle.
Personal Story: Challenges of Using Level One Charger
00:00:49
Speaker
Here on this podcast, our goal is to educate, inspire, and hopefully make your transition into the electric vehicle marketplace a lot less intimidating. And now, here are your hosts, Mike, Tom, and Bryant.
00:01:05
Speaker
So Mike, uh, a little bit of a hiccup last week for me. Um, my level two charger just stopped working and it was kind of weird. And like, I know we texted about it a little bit, but like my Maki had a charge station fault and I had no warning signs from the, the app or on the actual charger itself. But I tried a couple different chargers of my car. Those all work. So through process of elimination.
00:01:34
Speaker
I got to defunct level two charger in my garage. I communicated to the company. Thankfully they recognize the issue and are replacing on a warranty, but I'm still in the process of waiting for it right
EV Universe and Recurrent Collaboration
00:01:45
Speaker
now. How long are you going to be without a level two charger? Until Monday. Okay. So how many days total is this? We're going to be like seven or eight days that I will have been without a level two charger.
00:01:56
Speaker
Okay. So you've been using your level one, I'm assuming to get by for the little bit here. Yes, which honestly is cutting things way tighter than I had liked. And at one point, like I got my battery down about 50% and then had to be on the level one and I'm doing about one kilowatt an hour is what I'm getting off the charge. So, you know, you plug it in and tells you normally like your car will be done charging at 5PM. It was like 5PM two days from now. Like it's absurd.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah, which, which is definitely not, not good. Um, at least, I mean, I'm assuming you might have to go hang out at some, uh, you know, remote destination charges, that kind of thing for a little bit, um, on your daily travels, just to feel the safe side.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, once I did, I stopped at a level two and got it topped off a little bit. But otherwise I don't think I have necessarily need for it. And I can't think it, it shows that people could still get by the level one, depending on how much driving you do. I do quite a bit of driving on the days, you know, taking kids back and forth to school. So it, you know, it'll, it'll drain off 40 to 50% of my battery just in my routine travel. Yeah.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah, which, you know, for a lot of people who don't travel much at all or work from home, you know, level one might just be
Camp 365's EV-Compatible Camper Innovations
00:03:12
Speaker
fine. I mean, for, for myself, if I'm not going on, going on a trip and I only drive, you know, 50, 60 miles a week for the most part, um, depending on which kind of kid activities we're, we're doing, but you know, everyone has different, uh,
00:03:27
Speaker
different needs. Yeah, and one big announcement we have for EV Universe is we have just collaborated with Recurrent. And if you haven't seen Recurrent, they have battery and range reports, which is really cool, especially for used vehicles. If you're worried about battery degradation and you want to see exactly how much range that car should have, or at least it's a very good estimate, go to our website and on a large number of vehicles right now, you can see
00:03:54
Speaker
If it's a 2017 Tesla Model X, you can see where that range should be at based on that particular car's attributes. It's actually specific to that VIN. They're pinging the car, getting some good information out there. Again, take a look at our website. I'm really excited about this announcement because, again, if you're buying a used EV, sometimes you don't know what that range really is. You're going to see the original EPA range.
00:04:18
Speaker
It does degrade over time a little bit, and this gives you an idea of where that car actually sits. So take a look, evuniverse.com. Cool. And for now, enjoy the rest of the episode and our conversation with Kevin. One of the main things that most people are going to see is the change in range and to talk about today, about that today, we've got Kevin from Camp 365. He's going to talk about their product and some of the things that most people see in the camping industry, again, trailering,
00:04:48
Speaker
is a big one and big consideration for EV owners and how your product's a little bit different and what you think the future holds for electric vehicles. Because it's my understanding that your campers aren't necessarily inherently designed for electric vehicles, but otherwise smaller vehicles for limited towing capacities, right? Yeah, exactly.
00:05:09
Speaker
We engineered it and designed it with it in mind that the vehicles were going to change at the time and seeing that electric vehicles were coming into the picture right about that time. As Motor Trend pointed out that we're probably the only camper that was thought enough ahead to design it for the EV industry, which
00:05:32
Speaker
in the design and all the testing we've done with Tesla, we've seen the results of it with the range loss generally right around 25%. We think with our newer design here in the 2023 one that's coming out will be even less than that. And just the overall usability of the unit from the standpoint of an EV buyer and how they just go about on a weekend, fly by a trip to make it so they can just
00:06:01
Speaker
Easily pull it out of their garage, hook it all up to their EV, go on a nice trip, hit the Starbucks, drive through, go to McDonald's, not have to worry about taking their camper off, pull into the charging station. If they have to take the camper off, which they shouldn't have to, they can easily maneuver it around. It's not a big ordeal.
00:06:20
Speaker
and they can go out to their favorite location and then come back and recharge. We don't have it on the website. We're right in the middle of doing that, but the new Model T, which is for the truck bed of all the EV truck beds, we designed specifically for that. Same model. You've seen it. There's just no hitch post on it. The weight is generally going to be about 600, 700 pounds, but folds out, sleeps a family of four.
00:06:49
Speaker
It's a game changer for the EV industry and the truck bed market. Can you tell us more about that? Because I haven't seen it. I don't know nothing about it. Well, the unit was specifically designed to meet the demands for the EV industry for truck beds. It's lightweight. It's aerodynamic. It's got a minimal drag. So it works as kind of like you think of Ricky Bobby and
00:07:14
Speaker
you know, shake and bake and a slipstream in effect. So it drafts behind, you know, in the vehicle. So it works as a streamlined unit with your EV. That's how kind of we made all of our either our towables or the truck bed model. But the truck bed model in particular, what's sweet is it'll, you know, it detaches from your vehicle
Camper Industry Insights and Design Differences
00:07:36
Speaker
very easily. So we fix that.
00:07:38
Speaker
And also, you can store it in your garage. So it comes on and off your vehicle quickly. And then when you set it up at the campground, most of these truck bed EVs, you can have a family of four in there. And so you could sleep four adults in there. Actually, you could have two queen beds in it. And there's plenty of standing room for your whole family to stand up in.
00:08:03
Speaker
that we're engineering it to kind of work in with the actual EB so that you can eventually we're going to have it. So they will actually recharge the electric vehicle. We believe that we can with our solar capacitance and then how big it gets being able to take in the energy of the solar and then harness it back into the vehicle.
00:08:25
Speaker
Kevin, I want to take a step back and really talk about the industry as a whole for campers. And as an EV owner and somebody who likes to camp, there's some inherent drawbacks that we've seen in the industry ourselves is that a lot of the campers on the market are really big, they're heavy.
00:08:43
Speaker
The tow capacity of my Rivian is great. It's fantastic. However, what we're seeing with the Lightning and the Rivian and just EVs in general, it cuts the range quite a bit. Now, your product with Cam 365 is a little bit different. That's one of the reasons we wanted to have you on the podcast is due to the weight of this camper, the aerodynamics, and just
00:09:05
Speaker
It's a cool camper. You and I have got to know each other a little bit over the last few weeks. As we look at what your camper is and how it's different, can you walk us through how it is different, even from a weight perspective and from a drag perspective? When you're towing a Pinder EV,
00:09:27
Speaker
We designed it and engineered it to be, you know, work as like a streamline unit with your electric vehicle. Most of the campers out today, when we looked at the industry, it was these heavy, bulky designs that are based on a square box mentality.
00:09:44
Speaker
Camp 365 is more a transformer, origami-esque. It folds out as a slipstream unit behind your... So it works more of as homogenous to like, when you're towing it, it does very minimal air drag. It's a very low center of gravity.
00:10:02
Speaker
weight ranges anywhere from 1,500 to 1,900 pounds on our towable unit. The new truck bed unit will be between 600 to 700 pounds. But it's not only is the weight that you're towing, it's just how it performs when it's in the vehicle's bed or behind the vehicle and the amount of air drag that it goes when you're towing it down the unit. So we've done extensive testing with Tesla.
00:10:27
Speaker
And we're seeing some extremely good results, very little loss of range around a 25% margin. We know we can even get better than that with some of our new designs that are coming out here in 2023.
00:10:39
Speaker
But the industry as a whole is focused on a box and we're focused more on the kind of the same principles that the EV industry was based on in their designs. We've got over 16 patents on CAM 365 and it's various different products. They've all been commercialized in the original design of the CAM 365.
00:11:02
Speaker
And we're seeing a ton of our owners of EV vehicles that are turning to us as they find out all the benefits of towing Camp 365. I guess going back to your test with Tesla, was that a Model 3 or Model Y or an SX? What vehicle was that? We've done the Model Y was the most extensive testing that we've done. Yeah. So with that one,
00:11:30
Speaker
You know, you're saying you've got a 25% range loss versus typically, I mean, Tom, we did some extensive testing with the, um, Ford F one 50 lightning. And then same thing with the Rivian so far. And we're seeing, you know, when you load up a full size trailer, more around 40 to 50% range loss. Um, you know, it's pretty typical. So this sounds like that's, that's cutting that range loss in half. So that's quite a substantial improvement, um, from what we've seen with our own tests. Um, great.
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, we believe we can get even better than that. The new one's coming out, it's a little bit more slipstreaming. It has a little bit more design, specifically more for an EV, the weight distribution that we did and the height of the unit as it's behind the unit, so it says less air drag. True. And the truck bed model, we're expecting to see right around the 20% loss range, could be even less than that in 15.
00:12:27
Speaker
Okay. So again, for, for our listeners out there to kind of describe this thing, it's a, um, it's a camper that folds out. I mean, it really opens up quite a bit. And so what's the, what's the length when it's, when it's closed? Uh, 15 and a half feet. So, so 15 and a half feet. And then height is only, I mean, even with the trailer, it's, it's pretty, pretty short. Are we talking, I think it's about six feet or so.
00:12:54
Speaker
Because it fits in a standard garage, we're right around six, eight in the towable unit. It fits in a standard garage. But then when behind your tow vehicle, the center of the frame of the camper is only four feet wide. It's actually a half inch less than four feet. So it really is right behind your tow vehicle when it's in your drag and the air moving around your vehicle. And that's kind of the intent of it. The wheelbase is out at six feet.
00:13:24
Speaker
bottom weight, which is where the majority of our weight of our camper is, which is really down low. Yeah. So when we're talking about what it can fit in your garage, and if you go to camp 365 or our website, we're going to have an article about this as well. It's a really small unit, but it does expand quite a bit. Now, what does it expand? I mean, you say it fits four people, but in feet, how wide and how long is this thing?
00:13:51
Speaker
The tollable unit is in essence 12 by eight. It folds out from 12 by eight. It's got around 400 cubic square feet of space. It's seven foot tall ceilings. I've had it, I've had it at a show. We've had 24 people standing up inside of it. Packing them in. It can sleep six. And it can have two queen beds in there with room in the middle to move around.
00:14:20
Speaker
It's got all your modern amenities that people with EV vehicles want. We can have satellite connectability with Starlink. It's got all your lights and dimmable LEDs, plenty of room to plug in. The back cap of the camper actually works as a table inside or outside. It's got hot water.
00:14:48
Speaker
shower, the toilets, all the beds all fold out, heat AC. You know, the top as you'll see it, you'll see it as a, it's kind of a hybrid. So it's got a, you got hard walled sides mixed in with flexible material on top that's called Aquilon. There's nothing canvas, nothing in a mold mildew rod in the unit, and there's no wood
EV Camper Features: Setup and Solar Integration
00:15:09
Speaker
in the camper. So it's all made out of advanced materials.
00:15:12
Speaker
And one of the reasons why we can take this unit in the middle and go on ice fishing in Minnesota when it's 20 below out, or you can head out in the middle of a desert in Arizona, is it's got a, we have a patented air gap insulation throughout the whole top and all the hinges that allow, you have a huge amount of R value that allow it to all unfold.
00:15:33
Speaker
And that when it's all tensioned all out, you have this air gap that gives it all the R value within the camper. So then our users and the buyers of it can use the camper year round. So it's not just a seasonal unit that you're buying. Okay. And that's really cool. And just seeing the pictures and looking at it is kind of, I don't want to be dismissive, but it looks kind of a little bit like a, like a pop up in a lot of ways, what's happening, but your description of origami is fun. Like that's accurate to what we're seeing.
00:16:03
Speaker
Um, I used to have a pop-up camper years ago and, and I didn't enjoy it as much because there was a lot of draft, but what you're talking about here with those options sounds really cool. Yeah. I mean, we, we looked at everything that they had done in the pop-up industry. Uh, you know, Jayco and the bond trigger family started that out in the fifties and then the, the, the teardrops that came out in the 1930s, we looked at everything that they had done and we redesigned around it.
00:16:31
Speaker
and made it better. So we didn't want to season, we wanted a year round, as the name implies, Camp 365, camper, that a whole family can enjoy. It's got to be simple and easy for the user to take out, to move around in the garage.
00:16:46
Speaker
We like to say that it's grandma certified. So grandma by herself can go out on a trip and take and use and set the camper up all by herself. We want to make it easy and simple. And then at the end of your trip, you want to be able to put it away in your garage.
00:17:03
Speaker
You want to drive the thing out again, you know, and also the camper can set up on completely unlevel terrain, which is completely novel and unique to the industry because generally you got to be the idea camping, you know, from Elkhart Indiana is you got to be on, you know, class five gravel or cement parking lot at Walmart. Well,
00:17:25
Speaker
You know, campers nowadays want to be away from people and they don't want to necessarily be tethered to a traditional campground where they got to pay campground fees. So the campers kind of for the on the go family that, you know, at the last second wants to take a good long weekend trip, but can want to stay anywhere in their favorite beach, you know, in favorite mountainside.
00:17:45
Speaker
anywhere where there's completely unlevel terrain the camper just sets up mechanically. Yeah, which to me, I think it's really cool because I mean, when we're looking at some of the new EVs out there, especially with the air suspension on these trucks, my Rivian has air suspension, you can set it up for uneven ground. And so the truck can be evened out. And so if we're talking about the same thing for the camper, you know, that's a pretty cool addition there.
00:18:10
Speaker
You know, um, where you can make sure that you're not sleeping facing down a hill. Um, that might be a benefit for some people. I don't necessarily like rolling down downhill as I'm, as I'm trying to take a nap, but, um, Yeah, it doesn't take much ground to make something on level and it's a nightmare to get them balanced. I had a pop up at a 26 foot toe behind like trailer or, um, tongue mount.
00:18:37
Speaker
And how much, Tom, how much wood did you bring with you when you went on a trip? Oh, at least a few bundles, yeah. That's very typical. Yeah, so the camper, it will level out on sand, mud, dirt, snow, rocks. That's cool. On incline, we have a tool in there. I haven't used, in five years, have not used a tool to set it up, but if you're on completely
00:19:04
Speaker
really, really, really ungrade on a hill. It will still set up, but we've got a tool in there that helps articulate our leveling system up, up down on the downhill side. Other than that, it's very easy and simple. For a family, there's nothing in its category that's
00:19:22
Speaker
fits its size and how big it gets from so small.
00:19:48
Speaker
Well, all of our campers are solar ready. The new one that would be coming out on some of our more so on the new truck bed model that'll be coming out here. We're going to be releasing here very soon. I've been talking to Mike about that one because it gets so large and so big. It's way bigger in the truck. When it folds out, it will allow to harness the energy. We believe the amount of watts that we need to bring in that we'll be able to kind of not only that regenerate the camper, but regenerate the vehicle.
00:20:18
Speaker
vehicle at the campsite. That's where we're planning to get to. So then you don't have to go to a charging station. You just have to get to your site, recharge the unit.
Where to Learn More About Camp 365
00:20:29
Speaker
We have enough of the ability right now with our solar charging units that can recharge the camper and provide that and provide a little bit of a charge to the vehicle. What kind of battery is in the campers now?
00:20:43
Speaker
Um, you can do, uh, dual lithium ions if you'd like, um, come standard with a lead acid. Um, but you know, we have a lot of our, we see a lot more of our customers, uh, stepping it up to a couple of lithium ion batteries in there. We, we, we partnered with a leading, uh, like a solar appliance manufacturer called GoSun and.
00:21:05
Speaker
We have a model called the Go Sun Can 365, which is kind of our off the grid unit that has an additional solar power bank on it. I think it's 2000 IU, but it can only use that, but we can add two other batteries in there besides that. And that one also has a solar cooking stove, and it's got a bunch of different amenities that kind of apply to the
00:21:34
Speaker
you know, to the off the grid camper, so to speak. So that's the Go Sun Cam 365 model. Well, Kevin, thanks for joining us today. I know we've got a couple things in the works regarding the use of your camper, showcasing some of the capabilities, especially for EVs. There's more to come on our website and our YouTube channel. So if you haven't checked those out, please make sure to do so. Kevin, where can people find more about your camper?
00:21:59
Speaker
Well, first you can go to our website at camp365.com. You can also go out to our YouTube channel and our Facebook site, camp365. Awesome. Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate the time today.
00:22:15
Speaker
Thanks, take care. Thank you for listening to plug in for more. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. In the meantime, check out the one stop EV Marketplace, evuniverse.com until next time.