Posting from inside camper-mode enabled MS

[phaduman]

My son and I are out in Monterey to have some dad-son bonding fun while ladies are out attending wedding out of state. After surfing and dinner, the MS is plugged into a 50AMP (using Tesla supplied 14-50 NEMA adapter) in a close-by RV camp. When we were setting up the rear sleeping area, some little kids got around and were commenting: “weird silent camper” .

Set the temp to 65F, outside air circulation, AC on, camper mode on, car locked from inside using key fob, I am all set. Son (12yr old) is deep asleep, right next to me, in his own sleeping bag.

It’s been an hour. The AC is functioning well. Fan is set to Auto and I think it is at speed 3-4. The windows are just fine (no fogging), the air inside is really crisp (installed HEPA not so long ago), the two lower back side trunk ligihts are not turning off - so I have stuffed some clothes on top of them.

The room inside is just about like sleeping in a 2 person tent. I am 5-9 and son is 5-1. He is very comfortable, my feet can touch the back lid if I fully stretch, so sleeping sideways with slight curl is the perfect position. Sitting upright to use phone is ok temporarily as the head touches the glass/pano roof - so you need to slouch.

The car is drawing about 1Amp from the plug, to keep the AC on. My range hasn’t reduced in an hour. So I confirm that if plugged in, camper mode draws power from plug just like the AC pre-conditioning feature.

Right now. thoughts in my mind are:
1. What if AC stops while we are asleep? Car has all windows fully closed. Will there be any dangerous situation?
2. What if AC related malfunction causes some overheat/fire situation? Has Tesla done extensive testing of AC remaining on for several (10?) hours? Should I just keep outside circulation on, but turn off the “AC” (compressor) function?
3. Car is also going to start charging at about 3AM (I scheduled it for that time), will AC on and charging at the same time cause issues? (I reduced max charge amp to 30 even though dash showed it can do 40 for this circuit - I don’t want to put extra load on the camp site too much).
4. It would have been nice to have a bug screen that one could use and put the sunroof in vent position - to avoid the case of sudden AC malfunction issue.
5. Wish they could keep the USB ports powered, I could have charged my phone overnight.

Basically, if the car can sense issues and can alert the campers inside quickly somehow (like beeps on the mobile app or turns on lights in the car), that would be really beneficial.

For now, I am going to sleep, and hope to post all is well update in the morning .

Camper mode rocks.

 

[SMAlset]

ah cool bonding trip! love the father/son time. Interesting to get your feedback on the camper mode. Heard it was in the update. Assume it would work well for drive-in movies as well? Hope you have a good night's sleep and all is well. Happy Turkey Day!

BTW we have the pano screen. Hubby likes to leave it up all the time for a darker interior. No regrets buying it. Definitely would be a nice added benefit when camping out and wanting some fresh air.

 

[KyleDay]

I know none of the answers to your questions but am anxious to hear your results tomorrow morning.

 

[Ande]

Lots of those units have been running on roads for a lot more than 10 hours, working harder in higher temperature.
AC itself does not have a lot of things that can burn. But why not have a smoke alarm with you ?

 

[DriveMe]

5. I thought the front USB ports are always on. Are they not?

 

[DriveMe]

3. I am pretty sure you can run the AC and charge at the same time without any issues. You should’ve started charging right away, instead of delaying it to 3AM: you would’ve had your answer

Enjoy your camping trip!

 

[whitex]

5. I thought the front USB ports are always on. Are they not?

12V plug shuts off as well in camper mode as soon as the big screen goes off. If using it a lot, it would probably be worth while to either do the fuse/relay trick to make 12V always on, or (better IMO) install a second, always on 12V jack.

 

[BerTX]

Cars are usually pretty well ventilated, at least enough to provide sufficient oxygen. Water vapor buildup might be an issue, but certainly not life threatening.

I think I'd maybe try charging at a lower rate all night rather than starting the higher rate charge during the night. The charging might be enough additional noise to wake you. Also, you know you will have some charging -- if you time it to start later and the power goes out, you won't know until the morning, when maybe it's too late.

 

[phaduman]

Reporting back happy and rested. Happy turkey day to all. Son broke sleeping records - 11hrs -rated one of his best ever. He was surprised he could sleep so well in the trunk of a car. Lol.

Thanks to all the comments. Here are a few findings:
- front USB ports do work after I locked the car. May be because the car was plugged in? Back USBs don’t work.
- once car is locked, I cannot turn on the big screen to make any changes until I unlock and open the door. So make all tweaks on screen before locking. After that, only change is AC temp from the phone. I kept it st 65 all night and last 30mins, increased to 68. Was fun!!
- absolutely no fogging up inside.
- Fan was spinning the whole time. Not sure if compressor was also on or not. Was a good faint white noise. With the car fully closed, the quiet car. + faint white noise allowed that extra bit of sleep in the morning even when the birds had started on their noisy morning group social breakfast feast.
- the next-gen seats are fatter, so folded they are 1.5inch higher than the trunk. Unless you are well cushioned, you will feel that diff (and a small slope). I remember pulling my son up twice during night as he had slid down a bit and curled up more than the allowed camper-mode legal leg-curl-space .
- great idea @Ande on getting a smoke detector for sleep-ins. Will throw that into the list of must-haves.
- @SMAlset , good idea on the pano screen. Will likely get one. With the AC set on outside air circulation, I felt quite good that the air was fresh, minus any pollen, or other smokes (sometimes RVs turn on their generators or BBQs and AC/HEPA filters help.
- @BerTX , good idea to charge low/early. I was awake a few times (first time I guess trying to be cautious) and charging wasn’t noisy at all. Sometimes during supercharging the external fans blow hard, but with 30/50AMP camping charge - I think car/battery was pretty happy/stress free.

We r into biking around Monterey Coast this morning....

Will do this again - good experience over all. Will post pics after I am back.

 

[phaduman]

Sharing the long promised photos....


One additional input is, if you are a side-sleeper, then bring well-cushioned bedding, the back of the backseats is quite hard and will give you decent soreness on your shoulders in the morning.

 

[jplasmd]

When camping with my 12 year old, or just napping in the back of my P85 while charging, I plug in a mouse to the USB port. A left mouse button click will turn the monitor on when it goes dark. And the mouse will let you control all the functions on the monitor from the back of the car, including locking and unlocking the doors.

 

[phaduman]

When camping with my 12 year old, or just napping in the back of my P85 while charging, I plug in a mouse to the USB port. A left mouse button click will turn the monitor on when it goes dark. And the mouse will let you control all the functions on the monitor from the back of the car, including locking and unlocking the doors.

That is a very cool discovery - thanks for sharing.

 

[geometro]

Where do you put your stuff (bikes, boards) when you are sleeping?

 

[phaduman]

Where do you put your stuff (bikes, boards) when you are sleeping?

what I did this time:
* we slept at a RV park, so it was fairly secure area. We kept the bikes cable-locked to our site's picnic table.
What I want to do next time onwards:
* let the bikes remain attached to the bike carrier (we have the EcoHitch). While sleeping in the car, it would be fairly obvious to feel any vibration should anyone try to steal the bikes from the bike carrier (cable locked). Based on research, I am eyeing the Quick Rack Mach-2 (currently on wait list for march delivery - and we thought only Teslas were hard to get...)

 

[BigNick]

Was that a TT-30 socket you were plugged into like the open one directly to the right of your UMC plug?

 

[phaduman]

Was that a TT-30 socket you were plugged into like the open one directly to the right of your UMC plug?

The one I had plugged into is the 50A NEMA 14-50 plug, just like the ones we have in our garage. The middle one is the 30A plug. RV park owners don't really understand 14-50 or NEMA, but their 50A is the same as the NEMA 14-50 plugs that Tesla owners look for.

 

[tander]

Cool trip sounds like fun. +1 on the bike idea.

Anybody ever do this at less secure area like the side of the road or remote state or national park? I'd be a little worried about the expensive car drawing extra attention (had things stolen from my car last week during the day in a heavily trafficked area so I'm probably a bit gun shy).

 

[childcarepro]

Based on research, I am eyeing the Quick Rack Mach-2 (currently on wait list for march delivery - and we thought only Teslas were hard to get...)

I don’t know if you looked at the Kuat racks, but I have the Eco Hitch and the Kuat NV with the add-on for 4 bike capacity and it’s amazingly simple to use; our friends used it once and replaced their rack with the NV 2.0. If you don’t need 4 bikes the Kuat Sherpa is lighter weight, cheaper, and just as easy to load/unload (I believe).

 

[Dithermaster]

I tried a mouse last summer on my 2013 P85+ and it didn't do anything. I wonder why it works on some cars and not others?

 

[Hometheatremaven]

I have a 2013 S85. I plugged in a standard USB mouse and the pointer and left click button worked.