4 ms·

I Went Camping in the Trunk of a $145k Tesla

10 points by iamchmod 10y ago

mikestew 10y ago
Fine, I'll be the first to piss on the parade: the Tesla Model S is not the first car to have enough room in the back to sleep. Let me check the list of vehicles I've slept in with plenty of room: 1. 1978 Chevy full-sized van (sleeping ain't the only thing to do in that baby, amirite?) 2. 1982 Honda Accord - plenty of room once the back seats are down. No hump, either. Love-making-capable, if you're young and flexible. 3. 2003 Jaguar S-Type - your feet will be in the trunk, but it's long enough with the seats down. No love-making attempted on the leather seats. 4. 2005 Scion xB - a little short for this six-footer, but plenty of width. So this person isn't even close to being the first to sleep in their care like a homeless person, it's only novel because "Tesla". No one would click on a story about how I slept in even my old Jaguar on a road trip, because so what? Besides, it's not like people will view a Tesla as the new VW Westfalia. Because lemmee tell ya, even an actual Westfalia gets a little cozy for two people after a while.
- chillacy 10y ago
  I think the main sell was that you could run your AC/heating all night without leaving your engine on and disturbing other people at the campsite. > But Tesla camping promised something different. The sapphire blue Model S I was driving for the week has a 90 kilowatt hour battery—the largest you can find in a car on the road today. In theory, it should be able to handle a night of climate control and HEPA-level air filtration without much limiting of the vehicle’s range. Also, electric cars are virtually silent and release no tailpipe emissions (they don’t have tailpipes) so they won’t suffocate the camper or disturb the local fauna. As for the Model S’s panoramic glass roof, well, no tent can compete with that.
dsfyu404ed 10y ago
If you listed vehicle platforms not originally outfitted for camping (so no motorhomes or semi trucks with sleepers) that are most commonly slept in you could probably buy the entire top 20, take them on a trip and blog about it for under $145k. I'm thinking E-series, GMT400 Suburbans, Ranger based Explorers and 1st gen Subaru Legacys would be the first few blog entries. The panther platform would probably make this list too just because the number in service means a lot of people lived out of them. As far as pickups go, once you've camped in one the camping part is about the same for all of them.
_ph_ 10y ago
Nice report. I hope, Tesla spends a little time for some software add-on for the camper mode. Shouldn't require many changes to make it a selectable option. The front seats could also move to their maximum front stops to create more space, especially in the Model3. In the long term, they should revisit the options for the second row in the Model X, so that some flat space could be reached. This would then be the king sized camper mode :).

10 points by iamchmod 10y ago

Fine, I'll be the first to piss on the parade: the Tesla Model S is not the first car to have enough room in the back to sleep. Let me check the list of vehicles I've slept in with plenty of room: 1. 1978 Chevy full-sized van (sleeping ain't the only thing to do in that baby, amirite?) 2. 1982 Honda Accord - plenty of room once the back seats are down. No hump, either. Love-making-capable, if you're young and flexible. 3. 2003 Jaguar S-Type - your feet will be in the trunk, but it's long enough with the seats down. No love-making attempted on the leather seats. 4. 2005 Scion xB - a little short for this six-footer, but plenty of width. So this person isn't even close to being the first to sleep in their care like a homeless person, it's only novel because "Tesla". No one would click on a story about how I slept in even my old Jaguar on a road trip, because so what? Besides, it's not like people will view a Tesla as the new VW Westfalia. Because lemmee tell ya, even an actual Westfalia gets a little cozy for two people after a while.

chillacy 10y ago
I think the main sell was that you could run your AC/heating all night without leaving your engine on and disturbing other people at the campsite. > But Tesla camping promised something different. The sapphire blue Model S I was driving for the week has a 90 kilowatt hour battery—the largest you can find in a car on the road today. In theory, it should be able to handle a night of climate control and HEPA-level air filtration without much limiting of the vehicle’s range. Also, electric cars are virtually silent and release no tailpipe emissions (they don’t have tailpipes) so they won’t suffocate the camper or disturb the local fauna. As for the Model S’s panoramic glass roof, well, no tent can compete with that.

dsfyu404ed 10y ago

If you listed vehicle platforms not originally outfitted for camping (so no motorhomes or semi trucks with sleepers) that are most commonly slept in you could probably buy the entire top 20, take them on a trip and blog about it for under $145k. I'm thinking E-series, GMT400 Suburbans, Ranger based Explorers and 1st gen Subaru Legacys would be the first few blog entries. The panther platform would probably make this list too just because the number in service means a lot of people lived out of them. As far as pickups go, once you've camped in one the camping part is about the same for all of them.

_ph_ 10y ago

Nice report. I hope, Tesla spends a little time for some software add-on for the camper mode. Shouldn't require many changes to make it a selectable option. The front seats could also move to their maximum front stops to create more space, especially in the Model3. In the long term, they should revisit the options for the second row in the Model X, so that some flat space could be reached. This would then be the king sized camper mode :).