Outdoors

Tesla Cybertruck survivalist camper is the e-RV that makes water

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The Cybertrailer makes its first (non) appearance at Overland Expo West 2024
CC Weiss/New Atlas
The Cybertrailer makes its first (non) appearance at Overland Expo West 2024
CC Weiss/New Atlas
It looks like another Cybertruck pickup camper here, but it's actually a Cybertruck-styled camping trailer
Living Vehicle
Living Vehicle prepares to introduce a Cybertruck-matching camping trailer with off-grid capabilities
Living Vehicle
A dynamic duo of the future
Living Vehicle
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Living Vehicle makes some of the most self-sustaining RVs on planet earth, so much so that it strived to carve out a new category - the LV, a fully equipped cabin in the woods that's ready to tow from private to public land and back again. Now the company turns its attention to Tesla's headline-making Cybertruck. The LV CyberTrailer looks as ...uh, unique ... as the truck it rolls behind and works with the Tesla to create an all-electric off-grid escape combo that can develop its own energy and potable water indefinitely.

RV builders were sketching and mocking up Cybertruck-specific RVs since long before the production Cybertruck debuted. And they really didn't have much of a choice but to go at it from scratch, given the truck's very specific set of dimensions designed to fit no existing pickup-bed products.

It's really quite surprising that we haven't seen much in the way of Cyber-trailers. Sure, a trailer isn't as vehicle-specific as a Cybertruck-based pickup camper, but when you're throwing out everything from an accordion-like high-rise to an amphibious camper truck, you'd figure at least one or two Cybertruck-inspired trailers would make the mix. A sketch of a weird wedge makeover and a giant battery in the proposed spec sheet, and mission accomplished.

No problem, though, Living Vehicle is stepping in where others have balked, hyping up the first Cybertruck-specific trailer we've seen. It's not ready to start riding to campgrounds or tracking down remote primitive sites just yet, but it has an ambitious plan that promises to make the Cybertruck a much more capable adventure machine.

Living Vehicle prepares to introduce a Cybertruck-matching camping trailer with off-grid capabilities
Living Vehicle

First off, the looks ... if you'd have told us a couple months ago someone was designing a trailer closely inspired by the Cybertruck, we probably wouldn't even have gotten out a full "Why?!" before turning away in disgust and defeat. But the angular lines and flat raw-metal panels work for a trailer in a way they never have worked for a pickup truck, especially since they don't appear to impede the utility of the vehicle the way the angled bed walls complicate things for the Cybertruck owner.

The Cybertrailer still looks a bit overwrought and movie prop-like, but since it's basically competing with huge, personality-less white boxes, it's not such an odd man out in the marketplace.

It looks like another Cybertruck pickup camper here, but it's actually a Cybertruck-styled camping trailer
Living Vehicle

Living Vehicle is following Tesla's lead in revealing the Cybertrailer long before it's actually ready. Its Overland Expo exhibit was little more than a lonely Cybertruck and a big Cybertrailer sign that repeats the same points it published earlier last week on its website - not even a new rendering or model for those of us who made the trek over to its booth.

As far as that launch date, it's saying 2025 for now, but if it's really following Musk's playbook, it'll be more like 2028.

With that in mind, hard specs are non-existent, and the Cybertrailer is more a basic blueprint at present. It does fit the mold of previous Living Vehicles, though, so there's no claim that's too outrageous to believe.

The Cybertrailer will essentially work as a fully off-grid travel trailer or even homestead. While it'll look most at home behind the Cybertruck, we don't imagine Living Vehicle will require proof of Cybertruck ownership for reservation. In fact, its teaser webpage mentions the Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightning as other solid alternatives and takes care to note that gas and diesel vehicles will work just fine, too.

The caravan's real promise lies in delivering fully autonomous levels of electrical power and water. Living Vehicle says that it will be 100 percent solar-powered, and while that's a tall claim, the company already offers a massive battery bank and flare-out rooftop solar package. It's designed that electrical hardware to provide indefinite off-grid power, though one needs to bear in mind the company's location in warm, sunny, sunny Southern California.

A dynamic duo of the future
Living Vehicle

Living Vehicle says the Cybertrailer will even be able to charge the Cybertruck, but we'd guess that'll be more of an "emergency trip-back-to-mains" level of charge, less a "traveling endlessly on sunlight" level. Even if it has that same 72-kWh battery as linked above, which seems unlikely given the respective price points of the two trailers, that's still well short of the Cybertruck's 123-kWh capacity.

Other carryovers from Living Vehicle's current lineup include a fold-out patio, this time doubling as a gear-hauling ramp for motorcycles and the like, and "unlimited" water supply from air procurement and recycling.

Since MY2023, Living Vehicle has offered a Watergen water-making unit designed to pull up to 19 liters of water out of ambient humidity, so it sounds like that will carry over to its latest product. We know some Musk fanboys think all things Tesla can already make water out of thin air - and Musk himself has some thoughts - but the Cybertrailer's actual capabilities will prove a big help in staying off-grid longer to indefinitely.

The water recycling sounds like a recirculation system similar to the one Remote Vans is doing.

That's about all Living Vehicle is saying for now, though it's not too proud to not offer preorders in the meantime. It plans to sell the Cybertrailer for a base price of $175,000, which actually makes it the cheapest Living Vehicle we've covered since 2017.

Source: Living Vehicle

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2 comments
Cerethus
Oh nice, so it can generate its own rusting fluid! Awesome!
BlueOak
Where’s the meat? What actually exists? And what are its (non-existent) attributes, even dreamed or planned?