I Found The Most Bizarre New Camper On Sale And It’s A 1,400 Pound $30,000 Tricycle Towing A Big Box

The world of RVs has been getting rather exciting in recent history. Both big names and startups are trying to reinvent how you adventure and it’s led to some unique designs. The newest one is this, the Grounded T1. Your eyes aren’t fooling you. This really is an electric pedal-assisted trike that’s towing a giant box. This semi-trike motorhome, which is being called the first of its kind, has a real camper on the back with enough room to stand up in and real camper stuff inside. Look, I’m just as confused as you are.

This new camper comes from the folks of Grounded RVs. We’ve covered this startup in the past and I’m happy to tell you that Grounded has achieved delivering real products to real customers. Back in October of last year, I wrote about how Grounded was turning GM BrightDrop vans into what it called the G2.

As of October of this year, Grounded has produced “double digits” of its GM vans. That’s not bad for a startup company selling vans at $200,000 a pop.

What makes Grounded a bit different is how the company builds out interiors. Engineers at the firm designed a Lego-like configurable interior so that RV buyers can have nearly infinite different interior layouts. The company is also finding out that configurable interiors are also great for people running dog grooming or delivery businesses out of vans, so now it’s selling electric work vans, too.

Grounded is also looking to punch into new RV markets. Bicycle campers aren’t really anything new. The Midget Bushtrekka below was a thing a little over a decade ago:

There’s a niche of cyclists who like to tow trailers behind their bikes either to carry kids in or as a mini camper to sleep in when they reach their destination. But bicycle campers tend to be super lightweight teardrops or tent trailers. I mean, they’re being towed by a bicycle, after all.

A Tricycle Motorhome

Grounded says its T1 is the first world’s first of its kind and honestly, I cannot find anything like it. The T1 might as well be the Prevost bus of the bicycle RV world. It’s huge, it’s expensive, and it looks about as comfortable as a bunch of medium-poly renders can make it appear.

I think I’ll start with the tow vehicle. As you’ve probably gathered from the renders by now, the T1 uses a sort of semi-tractor configuration. The “tractor” in this case comes from Civilized Cycles, another startup that grew out Michigan Central Station’s Newlab business incubator in Detroit. Civilized Cycles’ whole deal is a vehicle called the Semi-Trike. This pedal-assisted electric trike tows a trailer and is intended for urban delivery services.

This trike has a 750-watt motor capable of producing up to 390 lb-ft of torque and laying down a top speed of 15 mph. Civilized Cycles says that the trike has a solid 1-ton axle and the vehicle’s payload is 1,460 pounds. So, when the trike and trailer are loaded, it’s a seriously porky machine. It’s powered by a 15.0 kWh battery that offers “over 150 miles” of pedal-assisted range. I hope that battery never dies because I can’t imagine hauling this thing on pedal-power alone.

For the camper part, Grounded will be taking Civilized’s delivery trailer and filling it out with its modular interior parts. Here’s where things start getting really crazy. One end of the interior features a refrigerator, a sink, and an induction cooker. The other end features a dinette that converts into a bed for two. Additional features include 500 watts of roof solar, an HVAC system, Starlink Internet, and a shore power hookup. Grounded will even throw in an optional outdoor shower and a dry flush toilet.

The box is also pretty sizable, measuring four feet wide, ten feet long, and with 6.7 feet of headroom. In other words, this thing will be a complete camper, but on the back of a tricycle. All of it rides on a self-leveling air suspension, too. So far as I can tell, nobody has gone this far with a bicycle-class camping rig before.

Of course, even RV startups have to be techy nowadays, so the bicycle and camper trailer rig feature fully integrated electronics, appliances, and batteries that you can monitor and control through the Grounded+ app.

Who Is This For?

The company says you’ll get all of this for $30,000 before adding any options, of which $13,000 of that cost will be the Semi-Trike by itself. Grounded also says the T1 will be classed as a bicycle, so you won’t need a special license and you can ride your T1 anywhere a bicycle can legally go. I think the T1 is safely the most bizarre RV debut I’ve seen this year.

I do see some problems with this rig based on the renders and how Grounded has presented the vehicle thus far. It’s supposed to be able to sleep two people, but it only has one rider seat. Your partner will have to either ride inside the camper or ride a bike of their own to travel with you. I’m also not sure where you’d take this thing. The tiny wheels, single-axle drive, and heavy load make this camper seem like a questionable choice for navigating any surface rougher than smooth dirt or grass.

It seems that the T1’s greatest benefits are its micro size and bicycle classification. So, you could operate this little guy without having a driver’s license. Yet, at the same time, the $30,000 price tag makes me think of the substantially larger and better-equipped campers that cost half the price and can legally go down a highway.

So then, who is the target customer for what’s pretty much the Class A motorhome of bicycle campers? Grounded says the camper is targeted at outdoor adventurers. We’ll see if cyclists can get pumped about a trike that weighs as much as a Japanese Kei car.

If this does seem like your jam, Grounded says you can put a $100 deposit down now and, should things go to plan, Grounded will launch the thing in spring 2025. If you’re a cyclist, does this seem like a good idea to you?

While you’re thinking about that question, stay tuned for an unhinged response to this camper by Jason.

(Images: Manufacturers)