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Learnings/Feedback from completed Car Camping Roadrip

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When I've planned trips where I'm charging at an RV park I've generally asked them to give me the actual NEMA specification of the outlet so I know for sure what they have and sometimes they've just sent me a picture of the power box so that's been nice.
Yea I could’ve done more planning for sure but this was a pretty impromptu trip with no planning so had to rely on RVParky. Plus I obviously didn’t do enough research on this before leaving and thought 14-50 would cover everything haha.

I think the nice thing (and the reason I only considered a Tesla) is that ultimately none of this mattered for me because even though we were in remote areas almost the entire trip, using the supercharger network made it all possible with no real planning. We didn’t have to backtrack or go out of our way and I loved that it was possible to do such a last minute trip in the car.
 
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If Tesla were to ask me which one additional UMC adapter they should offer, I'd choose TT-30.

Fortunately the TT-30 adapter from evseadapters (TT-30 Adapter for Tesla Model S/X/3/Y Gen 2 – EVSE Adapters) works well and will give about 11 mph charging speed. I've also added a 5-20 adapter to my collection because one will often find them in hotel/motel parking lots - as well as campgrounds. The 5-20 will give an extra couple mph over the 5-15.
 
I bought a 14-50 adapter before leaving to use at rv sites and charge overnight but was disappointed to find that only 1 site had the plug and it wasn't working while everywhere had TT-30 plugs- Is the EVSE TT-30 adapter the only one you can buy that actually takes advantage of the 30A from these plugs?
  • I had planned to leave these RV sites each night with a full charge and minimize my SC stops but sadly that did not work out

I used a TT-30 to 15-50 adapter, setting the charge current manually. One thing, is the weight of the adapter, the 14-50 Tesla cord, and the mobile charger box hanging off the TT-30 receptacle, caused it not to stay in the plug. I had a roll of electrical tape, and wrapped it around the post, electrical box, and TT-30 adapter to hold it all in. It worked fine. Not sure why the TT-30 prongs are so short, and the receptacle was older, which may have made it loose.

I ran a 12V cooler in the car all the time. With the car "conditioning" on (fan speed 3) and the cooler on, I got an increase of 30% charge overnight. Certainly not what I wanted, since there were no Superchargers nearby, but better than going down in charge.




How is Camp Mode different from Keep Climate On?
  • From the on screen description it seems like the difference is that climate keeper shuts everything off while camp mode keeps everything on but shuts off security alarm and sentry mode. I don't get it- i tried both and they do the same thing- screen stays on at full brightness, who would want this?!?
  • The only thing I could do is turn screen brightness all the way down and go to screen clean mode so the screen is mostly black

I used the "turn climate on" feature from the mobile app, and locked the car from the app. The screen turns off when the car is locked. I turned Sentry mode off from the app as well.

One thing, "turn climate on" kept the fan speed at 3 all night. Seems higher than necessary when I'm stuck on a low power plug.

Also, the "turn climate on" automatically shuts off after 4 hours, even when the can is plugged in. I just turned it back on.
 
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There have been a million theories about this cutout and it’s purpose ranging from bass part, trunk ventilation, cabin pressurization, etc. but since mid 2019 it has been completely closed so not sure what you’re even getting at...
So, it's been eliminated from the design? I had assumed you closed it off yourself. Without a "port" to the interior, the bass response is diminished since the sub is in the trunk.
 
Yea I closed it off myself to reduce the road noise coming from the rear. All new models since about mid 2019 no longer even have a rear deck cutout so that convinced me it's not needed for any important reason. They are now just solid metal trunk roofs. I don't notice much, if any, difference in bass response but I'm no audiophile.
 
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Camp mode also turns off the exterior lights so, if you enter it as soon as you arrive, you won’t disturb your neighbors. Adjust the fan speed and vents you want involved then throw a coat over the screen and use the app to lock your doors; you can also change climate settings to a certain degree. Unfortunately, app only works when both car and phone have cell signal so not great when camping in state and national parks.

If you have your phone tied to your profile, turn that off on the locks screen before switching to your camp profile so the driver seat doesn’t reset when you get back to your campsite after a hike or trip to the head.

I’ve got the old back seat so it’s fairly flat but, still, it helps to park a little nose low if possible. RV Parky and PlugShare worked well for me finding 14-50s but sometimes they were only 120 volt.
 
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Camp mode also turns off the exterior lights so, if you enter it as soon as you arrive, you won’t disturb your neighbors. Adjust the fan speed and vents you want involved then throw a coat over the screen and use the app to lock your doors; you can also change climate settings to a certain degree. Unfortunately, app only works when both car and phone have cell signal so not great when camping in state and national parks.
Nice, It sounds like you’ve used camp mode a fair bit and confirms there’s definitely some room for improvement there.
  • Turn rear vents on by default in camp mode(?) or at least allow climate settings to be saved with profile.
  • Enabling camp mode should be associated with driver profile (saved camp mode driver profile) so that seats move automatically to remove additional step
  • Turn screen off when enabled or turn off after set time (2:00 min timer like with updates with tap option to skip like with software update installs?)
  • Allow Bluetooth control w/ app when no service (probably need some sort of device token/mfa for security?)
 
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You can remove the head rest, check out this cool video with instructions, fast forward to 3:33

i1Tesla

I’ve seen this before but i want to remove the rear seat headrests. The rear seat backs have a zippered back which might allow this but can’t for the life of me find the end of the zipper or get it to budge. I wish they just popped out like on many other cars.
 
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Camp mode disables walk-away lock so when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night the car doesn't beep and lock.
Elon has stated that in a future version we'll be able to shut off the campfire scene.
Until then, carry something to throw over the screen.

Make a driver profile "Camping". Turn off easy entry for that profile.
And set that profile to the drivers seat all the way forward, leaned forward.


It may seem like the screen is on full brightness,
but in camp mode my screen is usually only at 10%. Still too bright.

Don't forget to turn on rear vents after enabling camp mode.
Don't know why it doesn't do that automagically.
I notice that you said: "driverS" seat.

Do you mean: the driver AND the passenger seat?

But this is confusing because ONLY the driver seat position can be saved, not the passenger.
 
Yea I've had some bugs before but going through the Hoh rainforest was an absolute massacre on that bumper.

I can imagine! Wife (then gf) and I took the very same trip about 12 years ago. Our highlight was camping on the beach at Kalaloch. How awesome it would be with a Model 3 although I'd have some anxiety about finding charge stations. I think I was driving around in a Ford Focus at that time.
 
I can imagine! Wife (then gf) and I took the very same trip about 12 years ago. Our highlight was camping on the beach at Kalaloch. How awesome it would be with a Model 3 although I'd have some anxiety about finding charge stations. I think I was driving around in a Ford Focus at that time.
Yea I had wanted to do the Olympic Peninsula Loop for a while but with chargers only in Sequim and Aberdeen it made me way too nervous but they just opened a V3 charger in Forks 1-2 months ago which made me a lot more comfortable. Accidental good timing!

We actually visited 3 different V3 chargers that had just been completed within the last couple of months on our trip! It's great that they are continuing to build out the network. I hope they focus more on building charging stations in remote national parks, ski mountains, etc. to make this car even more versatile.
 
So I was driving south on I5 in Northern California, and one of the rest stop exits had a "EV Charging"sign. But, they had also put a little sign below it that read "FAST". I didn't need to pee, but I pulled off. Turns out Chargepoint is putting EV chargers at rest stops now...... I just wish Tesla would join them.