No, I had multiple problems with my model X vehicles, and that kept me from dealing with this because I never knew whether I was going to get one that actually was going to be my long-term car.
And another reason is I got my model x down to such a science that my new slightly smaller girlfriend with a bigger bladder, isn’t really interested in getting the camper as much as I am. However, now that I’ve got more cash I’m still considering a camper.
I like the shell of the light ship.
Actually, I was kind of impressed by the light ship L1, in fact I wouldn’t at all be surprised if they’ve read this thread already and incorporated some of these ideas.
We also have the airstream trailer that’s come out that’s fully electric and can be driven by an app. No word on that going into production. And then there’s the new airstream trade wind, but has more battery power and more solar than traditional airstream campers.
The issue is with model X the light ship camper is just too heavy however, Andy over at Can/AM Airstream in Canada has demonstrated quite successfully that he can tow a 27 foot Tommy Bahama front bed airstream with a model three. Now he’s upgraded to the new model S long range and neither of these cars are designed for heavy, towing with heavy tongue weights, however he’s modified the hitch significantly and experts have driven the cars while towing the trailer and say the handling is exceptionally good
Which makes me wonder if I could have them design a custom hitch for the light ship.
Initially the main draw with model X was my unlimited lifetime free super charging that meant I could travel the country or even the world for free well at least it meant North America
However, working with Tesla has been extremely frustrating, they delivered my first model X about two years late and with damage. They replaced that car with yet another damaged model X and the damage to that car was unrepairable in the front driver door and so that car had to become a lemon law car, which was horrible because I lost my unlimited free super charging
That was supposed to be replaced immediately with a model X Long Range Plus 2020 but they delivered the car in the wrong color and said they would replace it but shut down the production line which cost me another two years and about $40,000 between the price increase and mileage deduction on my vehicle. I’ve just been seriously abused as a customer. If they delivered me a decent car without damage in the first place my car would be completely paid off and I’d have unlimited free super charging for life.
Charging rates here in California during the daytime can be as high as $.56 per kilowatt. And between Colorado they tend to run about $.39 per kilowatt or more the Rivian pick up truck which could pull the light ship or the Rivian SUV, the R1 S goes about 2 mi./kW, that’s about the equivalent of 24 miles per gallon figuring on gas being six dollars a gallon.
With towing I’d expect that to drop to about 1 mi./kW and if that point I’m probably better off with a gas vehicle
In order to make this really work it’s got to be a model X the refresh seems to get about 3.2 to 3.4 mi./kW
However, the HVAC system in the new refresh is absolutely horrible, and if you operate the HVAC system at close to ambient temperatures, the unit switches to re-circulate, and my girlfriend and I end up gasping for oxygen. Seriously the car is just about killed us and we’re left feeling like we’re brain damage for a day or two,
So the new Tesla’s are just not an option. Plus they’ve lost that nice big Bioweapon defense mode filter-which is actually saved my ass previously when I’ve been caught in Forest fires in the wilderness. There’s just a smaller filter there and to top it off. The car seems to off gas nasty chemicals compared to the old car.
So I’m gonna have to hunt for used 2016 or 2017 that was ordered during 2016 with unlimited free transferable super charging for life. That itself is kind of annoying because I’d much rather have a 2019 with raven suspension and free, super charging for life that isn’t transferable, but Tesla‘s incompetence made me miss that window.
Well, I like the new light ship, but they have a few design issues which would be difficult for me to live with long-term. For instance, almost all of the storage is low, which means you’re constantly stooping over – that’s great if you’re a 20 year old with a Great Back, but after a while, that’s going to get really old, they also have a height adjustable standing desk, which will definitely fail if someone is sitting on the edge of the bed and constantly working against that mechanism.
The bathroom is large but they’ve squandered a lot of space there. It is possible to make a collapsible bathroom I’ve seen them in certain B vans and they make a lot of sense.
These Tesla engineers at light ship seem to be pretty new to camping so they’re gonna go through the same bunch of mistakes that I went through and I avoided quite a few mistakes. For instance, the main limitation to camping is the amount of water that you can carry and they definitely should be using gray water to flush the toilets and have a composting toilet option. The air conditioning system should be recovering water from the air and using that for toilets, the LCD dimmable windows should offer different heights of black out so you can still light light in, but no one can see , anything below your neck so that people can change and still have natural light.
There should be some use of solar water heating that’s a lot more efficient than using your battery and if you’re designing an RV that’s going to allow you to be out in the wilderness for a long time you’re gonna have to design much more comfortable and ergonomic for the back seating. There’s also not enough table seating or counter space in there to be used for desktop space. There’s no provision for a television or real workspace.
The one thing that I do agree with is that there should be collapsible folding boxes , similar to the ones that you can get at the container store that fit into the spaces so it makes it easier to pack and provision and re-pack the light ship. I also agree that the dishwasher is a major necessity unless you love eating off of paper plates .
I’ve tried using induction cooktops for camping. I bought a two burner Duxtop and I have another large single burner one in my friends, Revel sprinter van these are great for reheating soup and for boiling water but with only 1800 W it’s pretty hard to get a sear on a steak With just the power of a hairdryer. If these were commercial residential grade 240 V units with thousands of watts of power that would be a lot better but you flatten your battery pretty quickly making a roast.
The light ship is a three season camper and I don’t think any of the windows are double pane glass is a result you’re gonna lose a tremendous amount of heat from those windows, you’re also going to absorb a lot of heat with those windows you can reduce the amount of heat absorbed by adding a tint coating that reduces IR. But if you do that you’re not gonna get much heat in the winter. Plus there’s going to be leaking from the gap that goes all the way around the RV not to mention a huge potential for ant intrusion, and in Florida fire ant intrusion which would be really nasty. Plus you could have no seeums getting past that, possibly mosquitoes and you would also suffer. Wind leaks in Highwinds. They would really have to work on that seal
Driving down a dusty Road with the chassis, flexing somewhat, would allow for a tremendous amount of dirt to get into that cabin, no one wants to arrive at a campsite with everything covered in dust inside your RV.
If I were to work there, I would totally implement inflatable out aircraft Seals like they use in the aircraft doors Newell RVs uses them for their slide outs,. Doing so would go a long way to making it more of a Four season camper, and keeping dust and pests out and making it overall a lot more quiet.
While they’re at it, they may as well have hot water on demand with the water recirculating until it gets hot and adding pre filters to prevent scale and deposit buildup.
They’ve also got to seal off the whole bottom of the camper because they’re just asking for stuff to get snagged on the bottom and rip out critical components.
There should also be some sort of alarm system attached to the lithium packs because they probably do not have advanced heating and cooling systems like the Tesla battery packs and they’re probably not as well protected against thermal Runaway – and you certainly don’t want to be in a house With a Hidden inferno underneath you. In breezy weather, you might not even notice that your RV is on fire until it’s really too late.
There should also be an option to funnel more regenerative braking into the light ship so that you can get your campsite, park and then charge your car while you’re off Provisioning that way you don’t get your site with a half filled or nearly empty light ship.
As for the collapsible kitchen, that’s really easy particularly if you’re using induction burners. The burners could even be slid in like drawers that go underneath or behind a steel water tank. So if your water heater were to fail, you’d have a back up. and water heating mode the fan noise from the induction would just vent to the outside.
laircamper.com
) appears to be trying to pick up the pieces of the defunct company and improve on details of the features and design, make the trailer a bit lighter and hopefully would dramatically improve the build quality.
