Today’s RV review is of the Pebble Flow, a forthcoming towable RV that promises a lot of technology while simultaneously offering simple solutions. How is this possible? It’s simple. And complicated.

Pebble Flow

The Pebble Flow is a forthcoming travel trailer from a new company, Pebble. Instead of repackaging a lot of the technology and thinking that have built RVs for the past few decades, the Pebble Flow is new in a lot of ways.

A lot of the press it’s already gotten centers around the high-capacity battery system and the option to have a powered drive system but there’s significantly more to the Pebble Flow than just that. The interior configuration, the styling and the engineering behind the trailer represent a fresh way of looking at RVs and for good reason.

Pebble - the company

Like so many of us, Pebble’s founder, Bingrui Yang had his first RVing experience during the pandemic. The former Apple systems engineer wanted to get out of the house and thought that renting an RV would be the way to go.

What he found was all the pain points and frustrations that are inherent with the RV life. The complexity of hitching, the challenges of learning the systems and the poor quality of many of the components and overall build. Rather than complaining on Facebook like so many of us do, he decided to take a leap and start a company that addresses these pain points.

Pain points

So many of the experiences that we RVers share are common experiences because so many of the decision makers at RV companies never go RVing. If they do, they aren’t typically enthusiasts - just occasional users. Clearly this isn’t everybody, but it’s not uncommon.

One of the principal pain points of towing an RV is hitching that RV. Anyone who’s ever watched two people yelling at each other while one tries to back a tow vehicle and align it with a hitch ball knows this all to well. So the first place where Pebble differs is called Magic Hitch

Magic Hitch

Magic Hitch is a system where the Pebble Flow uses its own technological smarts to solve the pain of hitching an RV. Essentially you get the Pebble and whatever will be towing it close together and set off a command via the Pebble app. From there the trailer approaches the tow vehicle and lowers itself onto the tow ball. It then latches the hitch. Just like that.

You do have to hook-up the safety chains and the seven-pin connector but that’s easy.

Another thing you don’t have to do is fiddle with weight distribution or sway bars.

The Pebble Flow has technology built into it much like the technology likely built into your vehicle such that it can handle things like sway by adapting the drive and braking of the trailer to accommodate that. Your vehicle is doing this too and it’s seamless and, honestly, it’s so game changing that you probably wouldn’t buy a vehicle without it any more.

But this is the first towable RV announced that has these features. The RV industry is still stuck somewhere in 1967.

Just as the Pebble Flow can hitch itself it can also reverse the process. Further, you can use the app to back the thing into a camp site or your parking space when you, unfortunately, have to return to home base.

One of the neat things about this is that, if you prefer the front of the trailer to face a great view but you have a back-in site, no worries. You can use the app to turn the trailer around and buzz itself into the site.

It’s electric

The reason the Pebble Flow can do this kind of magic is that it’s essentially a towable electric vehicle. Well, one version is.

Should you choose the version that incorporates electric drive the Pebble Flow uses its 45 kWh on board battery to actually mitigate the inefficiencies of towing. With two drive motors plus a tremendous amount of solar on the roof the Pebble Flow can actually use these motors to eliminate the inefficiencies of towing a trailer.

That means that hooking up a trailer won’t tank your fuel mileage. But, should you be towing with an electric vehicle, it also won’t tank your range.

We’re seeing more and more interest in this sort of technology including in things like the Airstream eStream as well as in the Lippert Edison chassis.

Like any other EV the Pebble Flow charges using existing EV charging technologies. However most of these are back-in sites so what does this mean? Considering how easy it is to hook and unhook as well as back the Pebble Flow, you can have it unhooked and backed into charging site in just a few moments.

Another thing the Pebble Flow offers is the ability to tap into that electric power and charge up your tow vehicle or provide back-up power to your home if there’s a power outage. And, because of that, there may be tax credits that the Pebble Flow is eligible for since it can be a back-up power source for your home. Or for your EV.

Everything in the Pebble Flow is electric from cooking via an induction cooktop like this Duxtop that I reviewed to the convection/air fryer microwave.

The climate control, too, is all-electric including heat. While this might be concerning, know that modern HVAC systems can be remarkably efficient. Think of how much better something like a mini split is than a traditional climate control in your home or business. Pebble uses a heat pump system which is about as efficient and quiet as it gets.

“We have a good heater and it also has to be silent. We are well aware of RV heaters coming on in the middle of the night and waking you up,” said Pebble’s Chief Technology Officer Stefan Solyom in a video interview. “I think you’ll find the Pebble Flow is very capable when it comes to winter camping,”

“This coming winter we plan to do a lot more testing,” echoed Bingrui Yang whose first RV trip was during winter.

You don’t have to have a lousy, rattly, inefficient roof-top AC unit. And that’s more of the Pebble story.

Aerodynamics

While technology is part of the story when it comes to not needing anti-sway bars, so are aerodynamics. Let’s face it, every RV maker talks a good aerodynamic story and delivers squat. Pebble is different here, too.

The trailer has been designed to be slippery through the wind. The shape is square but also rounded off.

There are no big things protruding through the roof like air conditioners or other wind dams. The top is almost completely flat, yet slightly curved, and is almost totally covered with solar panels. There’s a ridge down the middle where Pebble has run all the cables for the solar panels.

Further, there is a nose that looks like it would have propane bottle in it but it doesn’t. Instead, it’s a feature to help with aerodynamics and it actually raises and lowers depending on if the Pebble Flow is in camp mode or tow mode. The nose piece helps to make the Pebble more efficient cutting through the wind.

It also conceals that heat pump climate system.

Camp mode

On the subject of camp mode, there’s a system called Insta Camp. I had already shared the Magic Hitch functionality where the trailer unhooks itself and you can put it where you want with the app.

Insta Camp takes over from there so that, once you’re where you want to be, the trailer then locks the wheels and levels itself with four corner stabilizers. Once that operation is done it then deploys the steps and you’re ready to camp. That’s it.

There is a provision to take over if these automated systems let you down in the app’s “More Mode” but the process seems rather seamless. And no more wheel chocks. Or swearing. Hooray.

More modes

I haven’t even gotten to the basic camping features yet but this 25 foot trailer is well designed for actual camping.

One of the things you might notice is that there are no blinds over the windows in the trailer. Instead, using either the app or switches in the trailer, you can instantly turn the glass from transparent to opaque. Who needs curtains?

This is true of the glass surrounding the bathroom as well. Sure, you could be in there putting on a show for your friends but, should that one creepy friend come over, touch the button and the glass becomes opaque. Magic.

Camping basics

Something I like is the layout of the interior with huge windows on the camp side where they belong.

In the back is a Murphy bed but one that, by day, offers a desk with a large, white wall behind it. The desk spans the full length of the queen-sized bed so it could work for two people. But you can close-off your laptop confuser and simply pull the bed down. It will accommodate the thickness of your computer easily.

Now this is not a walk-around queen so you will find yourself either schootching or sliding your way into bed.

There’s another bed at the front of the trailer that forms when you drop the table in the U-shaped dinette. This is much like the inTech Terra Magnolia in layout and function.

Something I also noticed - the cabinet door latches were positive, mechanical latches as they were in vintage trailers. I have zero idea who thought it was good to eliminate those as this is a vehicle. Kudos to Pebble for these kinds of latches. It’s little stuff like this that will actually work well over time.

Interesting bathroom

The bathroom on the Pebble Flow is another place they’ve done some interesting things. The toilet has good space around it and is a porcelain unit. But it’s more - it’s also a macerating toilet which means it takes what you have made and turns it into a mush, essentially.

One of the good things about a macerating toilet is that it can actually pump the contents of the black tank up hill if needed and, typically, uses a smaller hose than the traditional stinky slinky we’re all accustomed to.

I’ve already mentioned how the glass around the bathroom can turn opaque at the touch of a button.

Lastly the shower is also spacious and has a seat in it as you might find in some fifth wheels.

By the numbers

The black tank in this trailer is combined with the gray tank so you won’t have the concern about not enough water in the black tank. But the combined tank size is just 50 gallons and you’ll have to dump your black tank every time you dump the gray which can be less convenient than two separate tanks. We dump our gray into something like the Thetford Titan Tote and can stretch our black tank for up to ten days.

There’s also a 37 gallon fresh water tank and I didn’t see a provision for something like the shower miser so I could see going through this in 2-3 days easily. I think you’d want these Wolverine water bags if you had this trailer.

The whole trailer is just 25 feet long, 7’ 6” wide and a scant 8’ 8” tall with a dry weight of 6,200 pounds. There is also no slide room. Hooray.

As for numbers the base price of one of these is $109,000 but, if you want the Magic Pack which is the system that powers the wheels that unit will run you $125,000. All that Magic stuff is worth the price - if you’re going in, go all the way in.

Conclusions

I think a lot of people are going to focus on the electric drive system and get lost in the whole EV side of this trailer. But, just from the standpoint of eliminating pain points in an RV and building things differently, I think the Pebble is on to something here. From this prototype it seems that Pebble is on track to build a vastly superior product to what we have now.

Think of all the things we all complain about - lack of windows, poor design, lousy towing, poor build quality. If Pebble just solves these problems alone then you have something very special here. Then you add the smart bits and it’s over the top.

With the good aerodynamics alone Pebble is revolutionary, especially considering that there isn’t an AC unit like a tumorous growth on the roof of this thing.

Something that’s much like EV is that the Pebble can receive over-the-air updates so what it has now might be even better tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to following the path Pebble takes to see where it goes. I’d really like to take one out for a weekend and share that experience with you. But, in the mean time, this is a pretty exciting concept. Oh, and the price is not much different than an Airstream yet is head and shoulders above any other travel trailer on the market in terms of innovation.

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