10 Tips for Camping with your Tesla!

one of the less obvious benefits of driving a fully electric vehicle like a tesla is that you can run the hvac system all the time without having to also run a gas or diesel engine to power it you're not pumping fumes outside or even inside your vehicle that could actually kill you in your sleep you've got no noise associated with it to either disturb you or the people around you that's part of what makes tesla's such great vehicles to take camping of course you could camp with your tesla like you would with any gas powered car for example where you set up a tent outside and you sleep in nature and there are a lot of times where the weather is great or the place is so beautiful you're going to want to do that anyway but you can also camp in your tesla with a lot of the comforts that people will spend six figures on an rv to get as fun as that already sounds there are a few things you can do to get the most out of camping either in or with your tesla the absolute biggest tip i can give you for camping with a tesla is to get a site with electric hookups instead of waking up with range lost from running the hvac all night you can wake up to a full charge in north carolina state parks rv sites with 50 amp hookups are usually only 10 dollars more than 10 sites and the parking spot is usually level for a better night's sleep tent sites don't always have level parking and you usually can't drive your car onto the area level 4 10. because you don't have to worry about using range as you can you can pre-condition your tesla to be exactly the temperature you want before you get in you can have a warm bed and blankets in the winter and a cool pillow and sheets in the summer waiting for you rv sites at private campgrounds can be quite pricey however and they can feel more like camping in a parking lot than in a park some can be absolutely worth every penny though with access to lap pools playgrounds for the kids outdoor movies whether you're staying at a national or state park or at a private campground you really need to do your research and check out the photos of the available sites before making your reservation so you don't pull into an unpleasant surprise make sure you have the right adapters for your mobile connector and of course make sure you don't forget them at home in the us that means having a nema 1450 for the 240 volt 50 amp outlets plus a tt30p adapter for the 120 volt 30 amp outlets commonly found at rv camp sites note that having these adapters with you on any road trip turns rv sights into emergency sources of charging so i think it's prudent for every tesla owner to have these on hand whether or not you're actually thinking of camping this is what a typical 50 amp power box looks like at an rv site it has a nema 1450 on the left a tt-30p in the middle and a nema 520 on the right this means you could plug your tesla in and still have standard 120 volt outlets available to run other things like lights or electric cookware 30 amp rv sites typically look like this with only a tt30p outlet and nema 520 outlets you'll get double the charge rate from the tt30p outlet over using the 120 volt plug that's included with all tesla mobile connectors and that's why i have this adapter and it would go in just like that and then i'd plug in my nema 1450 cord in there and as you can see it says please manually set your tesla charging limit to 24 amps you want to make sure that you get an adapter that is specific to evs because the ground is wired differently in the tesla specific one compared to the one you see for other rvs for some strange reason tesla does not offer a tt30p adapter specifically for their mobile connector so you need to buy third-party minus from ac works probably the top name not only in rv connectors but also oddball adapters specifically made for evs there are two types of nema 1450 to tt30p adapters so be sure to get the one that specifically says it's for teslas like you see here you'll find a link to this one in the video description but i'm gonna use the 1450 straight up to power my model three and it's a simple matter plugging it in you can see i've got green light so i've got power everything's gold and i'm going to plug in my tesla and that's not a bad setup you get a lot of room with the mobile connector you don't have to park super close of course it may look like i'm going to trip over that cord but i'm not really going to be walking through this side this is the business side of the car and i like this kind of setup because any rv parking spot is going to kind of lean one way or another and because the back seat when it folds down into model 3 isn't perfectly perfectly flat i like to park nose down and it kind of makes it like a hammock almost where where you're mostly flat your head might be up a little bit your feet might be up a little bit but it's certainly flatter than a hammock and so that's why i'm nose in and i didn't back in and it's on the and the charge port is on this side of the parking spot and you can see i've got 236 volts 32 amps which is the most amps that i'm going to get with the mobile connector that's good for about 25 miles per hour of charging even with camp mode on so i wouldn't have any problems topping off even before i go to bed with most of my camp trips and i'm going to charge to 90 percent overnight and then as soon as i wake up i'm gonna move this to a hundred percent and have it top off while i'm eating breakfast and packing up that way i don't have the battery sitting at 100 charge for a very long time before i hop in and drive away you might have already noticed that i have my trunk mat sticking out from under one of the rear passenger doors you'll be more comfortable sleeping in your tesla if you remove your trunk mat if you have one and i can't recommend having one enough place your trunk mat at the door you plan to use as your entrance so you can take your footwear on and off without getting dirt all over your socks and feet you aren't going to hurt any quality trunk mat by stepping on it even if there is sharp gravel underneath just know that if it rains this could turn into a puddle pretty quickly if you don't have it under a canopy sliding it completely underneath the car when you're not standing on it can help with that though set a driver profile as camping and then you can set the steering wheel and the driver's seat up out of the way to give you more room behind it for lowering the seat and putting your bed in place the one thing you need to keep in mind is that every time you open a driver's door it might go to your easy entry setting if you have that set up but the easy work around is just get in and out of the front of your car through the passenger door and you don't have to worry about that another minor convenience if you will of having a camping seat profile is that it will remember your preferred temperature for when you're camping which might be different than driving around it's not a big deal to change the temperature to whatever you want at any time but it is something that's going to be remembered with the seat profile with the seat position as well get a twin sized camping pad i'm using a test mat which was originally designed for the model 3 but they now offer versions for other tesla models as well i have a full video detailing the test mat and how i'm using it and i do think it's worth the added expense over just using an air mattress it's way more comfortable than a thin camping mattress alone and it gives you a lot more room under the model 3's trunk shelf than a fat cheap inflatable mattress will take your own pillows along for most comfort and keep them in a non-scented garbage bag so you can stuff them anywhere when packing without worrying about getting them dirty in addition to this great mattress test mat also makes this privacy screen which i recommend whether or not you get their mattress it attaches via suction cups in the back you actually tuck it into the trim on the sides and then i just put my gear in that little pouch and that holds everything on the shelf of the trunk and then you can see in the front there it clips onto the visors and it gives you perfect privacy while still allowing you to see out the glass roof now you might be thinking oh it's going to be wonderful seeing the stars and everything at night but no the tint is so strong that you don't really see the stars at night but it's still pretty cool because you get all the privacy that you need you can't see inside from outside while still getting some ambient light as well i'm not done setting up but i needed to get this on video i'm not but 30 minutes from my house this isn't a road trip this is just a camping trip to kind of reset myself to break the routine and i think that's the majority of people who come out here probably live within half hour of here this is jordan lake state campground and look at this this is my own private waterfront right here for thirty dollars a night thirty dollars a night gets me 50 amp electric gets me water and gets me this view this sunset and that's my spot right up there still got work to do but you don't have to take a giant road trip to have an excuse to camp in your tesla they are so much fun just to spend a night in to get out of your house and do something different and that is what i'm doing tonight if you can fit it in your tesla get yourself an easy up canopy for the model 3 that means folding one of the rear seats down though you will probably have better luck fitting it in any of the other tesla models without having to do that everybody has these at campgrounds because they are so great for keeping your table and other stuff dry should a bit of rain come along they're also great for shade as some rv sites might lack it tree cover is something you might have to give up in exchange for electricity unfortunately as i did at this campsite easy up brand is not the cheapest canopy you can find but after buying two cheaper canopies that didn't last the extra money for the easy up is worth it for the quality and ease of use canopies are also great for hanging led lights and my favorite is the 10 foot luminoodle led rope light you want some sort of proper lighting for your campsite so you aren't shining flashlights in everybody's faces and the luminoodle rope light provides plenty of light without being obnoxious either to you or your neighbors plus they have built-in magnetic sliders specifically so you can quickly string these in your easy up these run off any usb power source and i just use one of my own mini power banks they will of course also run off your tesla's usb ports with camp mode on though a usb extension cable helps you keep the lights where they'll do the most good get a coleman camp chair this is probably the best value in camp chairs on amazon which is why we bought one for each of us they're sturdy they're comfy and they're about 35 each even though most campsites will have a picnic table of some kind you want a more comfortable chair for relaxing especially one that you can move by the fire pit if you're already thinking about camping with your tesla then you're probably already familiar with camp mode you'll find it in your hvac settings but it does a lot more than just keep your hvac on whether or not it senses someone in the vehicle it disables auto lock so you can get in and out more easily it disables sentry mode so you aren't triggering it constantly walking around your campsite and it keeps all of your usb ports powered so you can run and charge your mobile devices as you sleep you don't really need to be plugged into power to use it how much range you lose will depend upon the difference in air temp and your set temp along with whatever sunlight is hitting your tesla but plan on worst case 30 range loss if you're not plugged in this times out pretty fast i got to keep turning it back on whether i'm cooling or heating my model 3 i set the vents to the floor in the front and i turn on the back seat vents the floor vents won't get blocked by the privacy screen that i use though that does mean i lose the passenger floorboard as a place to keep gear the rear seat vents blow nicely into the sleeping area what you want to do while you're pre-conditioning the car before you go to bed i leave them on all night but i like air moving around my face when i sleep it's easy enough to turn them back off if you can't find a vent position in the back seat that you're happy with use your app to control the settings in your car now you can't turn camp mode on using that but you can turn it off of course you can change the temperature to what you want and most importantly you can lock the doors using the app that's one of the things about camp mode that a lot of people forget it's a handy feature that camp mode disables auto lock when you walk away or when you get in the vehicle so if you want to have security when you're inside the vehicle you need to lock the vehicle manually which also means you need to unlock it if you want to let somebody get in from outside but also if you have it in camp mode when you walk away you need to make sure you manually lock your tesla otherwise somebody who wanted to could get into it now most campgrounds are actually pretty safe places but it's a smart thing to have all your valuables and your vehicle locked up when you walk away from it nonetheless it is important to note that sentry mode does not work in camp mode you can't turn it on so if you're going to be away from your vehicle for a considerable amount of time and you want sentry mode active you are going to have to disable camp mode although if you're not in the car you don't need the camp mode you could actually keep the hvac running but not have it in camp mode it's still you still have the option of having hvac keep your air at whatever you want it set to while you're away from your vehicle without it being in camp mode but you do need to keep that in mind soft coolers are all the rage because you can jam them around your other stuff but evie annex actually makes one that fits exactly in your front it's a budget friendly cooler that works pretty well and it's my preference for short trips but it's not as efficient as higher end soft coolers like the one you can get from tasmanian this one will fit in the front of every tesla but the model 3 went full but it otherwise fits perfectly in the sub trunk which cooler is best for you depends on your budget and your needs and i actually have a full video comparing the two it's linked in the video description below by getting a cooler for your frunk you can keep your food locked up from critters without taking up room that you need to sleep or use to keep your other stuff out of the rain like i said you don't need to go on a road trip to have an excuse to spend the night in your tesla it's super easy to do i don't care where you are in the country you probably could find a place that's an easy drive from you to be able to do something like what i'm doing here it gets you away from whatever your routine is it can be done away from all other people plenty of distance between you and everybody else and you're leveraging the fact that your car runs on a battery and not by burning fossil fuels if you don't already have a tesla but want to get one of your own so you can experience things like this be sure to use my tesla owner's referral link when you place your order it'll get you free super charging if you do full details of the tesla owners referral program can be found at the link itself be sure to subscribe so you can see my next videos on things like camping with your tesla i really appreciate you watching the tech of tech and hope to see you next time [Applause] bye

Channel: The Tech of Tech

Views: 281,647

Keywords: tesla, camping, tesla camping, car camping, model 3 camping, model y camping, temanian cooler, evannex cooler, tesmat

Id: PViZz17vklE

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 26 2020